INCENSE NIGHTCLUB, MAYFAIR, LONDON

FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2013, 2:27 A.M. BST

Jimmy Yan never ceased to amaze Zach Berman. Berman was barely able to keep his eyes open while Jimmy sat in the VIP area of this expensive nightclub in Mayfair, deep in conversation with a stunningly beautiful Chinese woman who was at least six inches taller than he. The other woman, who had sat down next to Berman when they arrived, had lost interest and wandered off a half hour previously. The club throbbed with beat-heavy music and was thronged with young, attractive men and women. Try as he might to join in, Berman just wanted to go to bed.

“You are not enjoying yourself?” asked Jimmy, shouting to be heard above the noise.

“I can hardly hear you,” said Berman, cupping a hand to his ear.

“But you like places like this. We went to places much like this in Milan.”

“I know. But it’s late, and I’m tired.”

What Berman truly wanted was to have Pia there by his side. Try as he might he couldn’t get her out of his mind, knowing she was back at the vicarage wasting away. He had fully expected to have heard through the Chinese doctor that she wanted to see him, but it hadn’t happened. Berman had asked the doctor directly, but he had insisted that Pia had not said anything of the kind. It was, in Berman’s mind, a kind of Mexican standoff, both accustomed to getting their way. He cursed her doggedness while recognizing it was part of her allure.

Berman yawned, and he covered his mouth to try to conceal it. There was no doubt he was tired. He and Jimmy had been on the go all day. The difference was that Jimmy still looked as bright as he had that morning. They had driven in an official car from the vicarage in Chenies to the Olympic site in east London where the international championships were taking place, a journey of forty miles that should have taken an hour but took three in nightmarish traffic, which was bad by local standards.

Jimmy Yan took Berman to the apartment where the marathoner Yao Hong-Xiau was staying. Berman had been pestering Jimmy relentlessly to be allowed to see the man who carried his future on the soles of his size-eight shoes. Lying on the bed in his small apartment room, Yao seemed calm and well prepared. He didn’t go out much, he told Zachary and Jimmy, there were too many distractions, and he was sticking to his light training schedule and resting.