But I’m not taking any chances, either. I get out of there as quickly as I can and keep an eye on the rearview mirror as I make my way back to the city.

It’s late by the time I return to Leo’s apartment. He’s sleeping elsewhere with Whisper for the time being, so I’m alone. I barely have time to remove my shoes and turn up the thermostat, when there’s a knock on the door. It’s only been five minutes since I walked through it. I don’t answer it.

Lynn’s directive rings in my ears. Take care of it, she said.

I’m about to dial 9-1-1.

Then my phone rings. It’s Brazuca, calling to see why I’m not answering the door even though he has seen me enter the building.

I let him inside.

“Where’ve you been?” he asks.

“Where have you been?”

He hesitates, wondering if this is a loaded question, which, of course, it is. But before he can speak, I tell him about the video and the apartment being watched by the man and woman I’d followed back to a biker bar.

He looks away. His face is bathed in the neon pink light from the Szechuan place. “So we’re just going to sit and wait for Dao to show up?”

“He knows we’re here. Well, that I am, anyway.”

“Fuck. Why go to that bar and bait him?”

“It’s time to finish this.”

“I gather Simone is helping to spread this snuff video?” Brazuca asks.

“Like the helpful global citizen she is. She tells me she’s even moved to let the Canadian authorities know that this fugitive might be in Vancouver. Out of the goodness of her heart.”

He smiles, and the meanness goes out of me.

For a while, we talk about other things. He tells me about his telescope and gets lost in various constellations. I hear how his mother had taken him once to the Canary Islands and he’d seen the night sky in a way he’d never seen it before. He wants to go to Alberta and see a new purple-colored ribbon of light in the aurora borealis that scientists are calling Steve. Even though it’s now known that Steve is actually a twenty-five-kilometer-wide concentration of hot gasses, he still thinks it’s worth a trip to Alberta, which is insanity. Nothing is worth going to Alberta.

Contemplating all this helps to pass the time. We’re getting to the end of all this talking about every topic except for the thing that’s on both our minds.

Brazuca yawns.