Angel was less comfortable than Louis in foreign climes. Before the two men formed their personal and professional partnership, Angel had regarded even certain parts of New Jersey as dangerously exotic, and anywhere without sidewalks as essentially barbarous. Now here he was, traversing the continent of Europe, arranging an approximation of a kidnapping in one country and aiding the planning of multiple assassinations in others, all without the benefit of any communication skills beyond American English, a little Spanish, and a few words of Greek learned from a restaurant owner on West Seventy-fourth Street, most of them grievously insulting.

While he still remained uneasy far from home, and had yet to encounter anywhere preferable to the Upper West Side, he had to admit that Vienna looked exactly the way one might have expected Old Europe to look, and therefore was not a disappointment. Also, as with the Netherlands, everyone appeared to speak better English than he, which didn’t seem fair. Frankly, Angel blamed the American education system, even allowing for his own limited participation in it.

Hendricksen was not in his room when Angel arrived at the hotel, and neither was he answering his phone. Angel was not unduly worried; although he trusted Hendricksen, he was not yet familiar with the man’s routines, and was aware that tracking Frend had already necessitated one unanticipated side trip to Belgrade. He had to trust that, wherever he was, Hendricksen knew what he was doing.

Angel freshened up before eating dinner alone at Ilona Stüberl on Bräunerstrasse, which had been recommended to him by the hotel concierge. It was a small Hungarian restaurant with a white, wood-beamed ceiling, and china plates on the walls, resembling less a big city establishment than a village inn. The waitress fussed over him, delivering a helping of goulash and pasta that could have fed a small family, and chided him gently for not finishing it. He wanted to tell her that it was the largest portion of food he’d tackled since his diagnosis, but decided this was more information than she required. He wondered how Louis was faring, but did not contact him. Where Louis was concerned, no news tended to be good news. If there was an issue, Angel would find out about it in due course.