Giselle went into the living room and stood in front of Qaphsiel. “How do I look?” she said. “Like a professional? Like someone ready for work?”

Qaphsiel nodded. “Yes. You look very nice. Like the office women downtown.”

“Perfect. Thanks,” she said. Heading for the door, she pointed at Coop, saying, “Call me later. We have to figure out this Woolrich/Salzman thing.”

“There’s nothing to figure out. I’m working for the DOPS again. Whatever Salzman’s done, I’m going to have to steal the box. Again.”

“Why don’t you come by at one for lunch? We can work out a strategy then.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.” Coop shook his head. “Morty isn’t going to be happy. Spiders excepted, the job the other night went pretty well. Having to do it again is bad luck.”

“Hang on to that thought. I’ll see you later.” She slammed the door and Coop could hear her running down the front steps. He looked at Qaphsiel.

“What would you do in my position? Go to work for people you don’t like or go back to jail? You’d be away from the crazy kind of heavy danger that bad people want to drop on your head, but you’d be locked up for a long time . . . and surrounded by bad people who might want to drop heavy things on your head.”

Qaphsiel only had to think about it for a few seconds. “I’ve been on this planet for four thousand years. To you, Earth looks like the world. You go where you please and do what you want. For me, Earth is a prison. No matter how far I go or what I accomplish, I’m still locked away far from home. And it hurts.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Coop looked at him. “Are all angels as cheery as you in the morning?”

“I hear Lucifer can be a bit grumpy.”

“Well, you try sleeping on a pointy tail,” said Coop. “You’re saying I should take the job.”

“I’m saying that you already know what you’re going to do. You just have to admit it to yourself.”

“Thank you, Buddha. I know exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to get some coffee and see if there’s any pizza left. You want some?”

Qaphsiel stood up. “No. Thank you,” he said. “I know this is upsetting for you, but, in a way, it’s good news for me. If this Salzman has stolen the box, then it’s out of the impregnable vault you talked about, and that means I can start looking for it again.”

“How are you going to do that?”

Qaphsiel held up his map.

“That’s a rag,” said Coop.

“To mortal eyes. To me, it’s a map of the Earth and the cosmos. I found you with the map and I’ll find Salzman.”