“Absolutely right. I can take care of the documents before we leave New Orleans. Now, we can’t get to Caracas before the ship leaves at five o’clock. No. We’ll have to board her in Grenada tomorrow. We’ll have until five p.m. Very likely there are cabins available. There are always last-minute cancellations, sometimes even deaths. In fact, on a ship as expensive as the QE2 there are always deaths. Undoubtedly James knows this. He can feed anytime he wishes if he takes the proper care.”

“But why? Why deaths on the QE2?”

“Elderly passengers,” David said. “It’s a fact of cruise life. The QE2 has a large hospital for emergencies. This is a floating world, a ship of this size. But no matter. Our investigators will clarify everything. I’ll get them on it at once. We can easily make Grenada from New Orleans, and we have time to prepare for what we must do.

“Now, Lestat, let’s consider this in detail. Suppose we confront this fiend right before sunup. And suppose we send him right straight back into this mortal body, and cannot control him after that. We need a hiding place for you … a third cabin, booked under a name which is in no way connected with either one of us.”

“Yes, something deep in the center of the ship, on one of the lower decks. Not the very lowest. That would be too obvious. Something in the middle, I should think.”

“But how fast can you travel? Can you make it within seconds to a lower deck?”

“Without question. Don’t even worry about such a thing. An inside cabin, that’s important, and one large enough to include a trunk. Well, the trunk isn’t really essential, not if I’ve fitted a lock to the door beforehand, but the trunk would be a fine idea.”

“Ah, I see it. I see it all. I see now what we must do. You rest, drink your coffee, take a shower, do whatever you wish. I’m going in the next room and make the calls I must make. This is Talamasca, and you must leave me alone.”

“You’re not serious,” I said. “I want to hear what you’re—”

“You’ll do as I say. Oh, and find someone to care for that beautiful canine. We can’t take him with us! That’s patently absurd. And a dog of such character mustn’t be neglected.”

Off he hurried, closing me out of the bedroom, so that he might make all these exciting little calls alone.

“And just when I was beginning to enjoy this,” I said.

I sped off to find Mojo, who was sleeping in the cold wet roof garden as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I took him down with me to the old woman on the first floor. Of all my tenants she was the most agreeable, and could certainly use a couple of hundred dollars for boarding a gentle dog.

At the mere suggestion, she was beside herself with joy. Mojo could use the courtyard behind the building, and she needed the money and the company, and wasn’t I a nice young man? Just as nice as my cousin, Monsieur de Lioncourt, who was like a guardian angel to her, never bothering to cash the checks she gave him for her rent.