Later, Berman told Jimmy that Yao was right about the distractions. London was in full summer mode. Jimmy had abandoned the car with its driver in Stratford, where the championships were taking place, and had taken Berman on the Underground—the London subway, something Berman hadn’t done since he was an undergraduate at Yale on the grand tour—back into the center of the city. The small subway cars were packed with people. Berman heard a multitude of tongues, and two-thirds of the occupants appeared to be tourists. A busker started singing a Sinatra song, badly, and was shouted down by a gaggle of Australians clutching beer cans.

The narrow sidewalks of central London were bursting with tourists and Londoners. Groups of armed police stood on major intersections, and local cops tried to keep the pedestrians out of the street. Rock music blared from storefronts, and the aromas of a hundred cuisines filled the air. It was a hot and sunny day, and Berman wondered what had happened to the famously bad English weather.

“Jimmy, what are we doing here?”

“This is Leicester Square, in the middle of London. It is fun, no?”

“No. I’ve never seen more people in my life.”

“I am Chinese, at home I see more people every day. Come on.”

Jimmy grabbed Berman’s arm and steered him through narrow side streets to a doorway. A small sign, in Chinese, hung above the door and Jimmy pushed Berman through.

“We are in Chinatown. Best Chinese food in Europe right here. These people are from my province.”

Jimmy obviously knew the proprietor, who bowed three or four times. The food, when it came, was incredibly spicy, and unlike any Chinese food Berman had tasted.

“Is it too hot? I asked them to tone it down, for a Westerner.”

“It’s good,” said Berman, chewing a piece of fiery meat. “But it is spicy.”

“I want to take your mind off that woman. She is not going to come around, you know.”

Why did Jimmy think that? The rooms at the vicarage were probably bugged, Berman realized, and Jimmy probably knew of Pia’s response to his entreaties.

“She will come around,” Berman said. “She has to. Look, Jimmy, I appreciate your being discreet about her, with your bosses.”

“Who says I haven’t told them?”

“I trust you haven’t. Nothing has happened to this point to jeopardize our enterprise. The only fallout from snatching her out of Boulder is a couple of guys who went to the Boulder police and asked a couple of questions. They are not getting anywhere. In fact, they’re the ones who may be in trouble, not us. As far as anyone knows, Pia’s in the wind.”