We got back into the limousines to return to the Club at Angel Fire. The Texans slumped on the sofa, the middle one asleep. The others poured themselves tumblers of Scotch and stared into them.

I did my best to interview Maxime, who sat across from me, jotting notes on a pad, a cigarette stuck to his lower lip.

“I’m interested in what you were asking,” I said.

He looked out the window, then jotted something else on the pad.

“I’ve gone over the report as well,” I went on. “Specifically, what do your associates think is missing?”

Maxime plucked the cigarette from his lips and ashed it in the armrest.

I drew breath for another question, but he cut me off. “I have no comment for you,” he stressed. “I was sent here for one purpose only.”

“What’s that?”

He sighed, took a deep drag, and peered at me as the smoke seethed out. “In Paris,” he said, “I will be called into a room, where I sit before some men and answer a simple question, yes or no, that’s all.”

“And what will be your answer?”

Maxime crossed his arms and closed his eyes, cigarette burning in his hand, and before the edge of flame met the filter, we’d arrived back at the club.

3.

Drinks were served on Wigwam Deck. It was nearing twilight. The line of mountains broke the violet sky. I saw Dr. Kriss talking to some of the military officers and couldn’t snag her eye, but I did get an interview with Kenneth Sample, pinning him alone by the tigerwood rail.

“I took out a subscription to the Bystander when I heard about your interest in Rubicon,” he said. “It’s not always to my taste, and I think you’ve got a lot of things upside down, but I can tell you’re serious, and that’s what matters.”

I asked about his working relationship with Dr. Kriss.

“Believe it or not,” he told me, “I’ve had to go to war for Eva. A lot of influential people think she’s too young. You might say there’s some chauvinism in that. But Jeff Sloan brought me on board and told me to shoot for the moon—you can imagine what a thrill it is to hear the CEO of Inland Medical tell you that—and that’s where Eva comes in. I spent a long time in Silicon Valley, Whitney, and my mantra is trust the youth, follow the youth, empower the youth. That’s what I’ve done with Eva.”

He said that when he first met Dr. Kriss, and she told him the story of her father, of the sense of mission his death instilled in her, he realized he had to do everything in his power to help her vision come true.