He had no more spades; he drew from the deck. Alicia was gazing out the window again.

“Stop it, will you?” he said. “You’re making me nervous.”

Alicia said nothing. It took Peter four draws to match the suit; his hands were now hopelessly full of cards. He played a deuce and watched while Alicia played out the two of hearts, rolling the suit, and ran with four cards in a row, flipping on a queen to bring him back to spades.

He drew again. She was long in spades, he could feel it, but there was nothing he could do. She had him completely boxed. He played a six and watched while she dealt out a sequence of cards, flipping to diamonds on a nine, and emptied the rest of her hand.

“You always do that, you know,” she said, as she was scooping up the cards. “Play out your weakest suit first.”

Peter was still looking at his hand, as if there was something left to play. “I didn’t know that.”

“Always.”

First Bell was moments away. How strange it would be, Peter thought, not to spend this night on the catwalk.

“What will you do if Sam comes back?” Peter asked.

“I really don’t know. Try to talk him out of it, I guess.”

“And what if you can’t?”

She tipped a shoulder, frowning. “Then I’ll deal with it.”

They heard First Bell.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Alicia said.

He wanted to say: Neither do you. But he knew this wasn’t so.

“Trust me,” Alicia said, “nothing’s going to happen after Second Bell. After last night, everybody’s probably hiding in their houses. You should go look in on Sara. The Circuit, too. See if he’s found anything.”

“What do you think she is?”

Alicia shrugged. “As far as I can see, she’s just a frightened kid. That doesn’t explain that thing in her neck, or how she survived out there. Maybe we’ll never figure it out. Let’s see what Michael comes up with.”

“But you believe me? About what she did at the mall.”

“Of course I believe you, Peter.” Alicia was frowning at him. “Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

“It’s a pretty crazy story.”

“If you say that’s what happened, then that’s what happened. I’ve never doubted you before, and I’m not going to start now.” She examined him closely for a moment. “But that’s not what you were asking about, is it?”

He let a silence pass. Then: “When you look at her, what do you see?”

“I don’t know, Peter. What should I see?”

Second Bell began to ring. Alicia was still studying him, waiting for his reply. But he had no words for what he felt, at least none that he trusted.