“Right.” Paulette nodded. “Now tell me. How much money is there on that platinum card?”

Pause. “About one point nine million dollars left.”

“Miriam?”

“Yes, Paulie?”

“As your legal advisor I am telling you to shut the fuck up and get a good night’s sleep. You can sort out whether you’re going to write the article tomorrow—but I’d advise you to drop it. Say you’ve got stomach flu or something. Then you can take an extra day over your preparations for the journey. Got it?”

“Yes, Paulie.”

“And another thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Drink your wine and shut your mouth, dear, you look like a fish.”

The next day, Miriam pulled out her notebook computer—which was now acquiring a few scratches—and settled down to pound the keyboard while Paulette took Brill shopping. It wasn’t hard work, and she already knew what she was going to write, and besides, it saved her having to think too hard about her future. The main headache was not having access to her Mac, or a broadband connection. Paulie, despite her brief foray into dot-com management, had never seen the point of spending money to receive spam at home. Finally she pulled out her mobile and dialed The Herald’s front desk. “Steve Blau, please,” she said, and waited.

“Steve. Who’s this?”

“Steve? It’s Miriam.” She took a deep breath. “About that feature.”

“Deadline’s this Thursday,” he rumbled. “You needing an extension?”

She breathed out abruptly, nearly coughing into the phone. “No, no, I’m ready to e-mail you a provisional draft, see if it fits what you were expecting. Uh, I’ve had a bit of an exciting life lately, got a new phone number for you.”

“Really?” She could almost hear his eyebrows rising.

“Yeah. Domestic incident, big-time.” She extemporized hastily. “I’m having to look after my mother. She’s had an incident. Broken hip. You want my new details?”

“Sure. Hang on a moment. Okay, fire away.”

Miriam gave him her new e-mail and phone numbers. “Listen, I’ll mail in the copy in about an hour’s time. Is there anything else you’re looking for?”

“Not right now.” He sounded amused. “They sprang a major reorg on us right after our last talk, followed by a guerilla page-plan redesign; looks like that slot for a new columnist I mentioned earlier is probably going to happen. Weekly, op-ed piece on medical/biotech investment and the VC scene, your sort of thing. Can I pencil you in for it?”