[Quinn 01] - The Cleaner

She walked quickly away from the table and soon returned with two menus. She handed one to each of them. Quinn opened his and was surprised to find the descriptions were in English. It didn't always get the language right, but it was close enough. The names of the dishes, though, were in Vietnamese.

'Your clothes are beautiful,' Nate said. Quinn groaned inwardly, but tried to keep his annoyance from showing. She glanced down at her tunic. 'This is an ao dai,' she said, pronouncing it 'ow zeye.' 'It is traditional.'

'Well, it's very beautiful.'

'Thank you.'

Reluctantly, Nate looked down at the menu. Quinn ordered something called bun thit nuong, hoping he'd like it. Nate went with the com chien thap cam.

'If you need anything else,' she said, 'my name is Anh. Just ask any of the waitresses, and they will get me.'

'Thanks,' Nate said, his eyes lingering on her as she walked away.

'Rein it in,' Quinn said.

'What are you talking about?'

'On a different day, in a different life, maybe.'

'What?'

'Right now you need to concentrate on staying alive.' Quinn glanced toward the bar area where Anh was talking to another waitress. 'Your new little friend there? She's a distraction.'

''And distractions get you killed,'' Nate recited from memory. 'The way you think, just breathing will get you killed.'

'Sometimes,' Quinn said.

Nate frowned. 'I was just being polite.'

'That's how it starts.' Quinn returned his attention to the bracelet. 'Let me know when she comes back.'

It took a little bit of work, but the metal was surprisingly soft and soon he was able to widen the gap. He'd been right, it was some sort of plating, or maybe even a cover. He continued working the chopstick into the opening, parting the top layer of metal from the square below. He found he was able to work his way around all four edges of the square, creating flaps, until all he had to do was loosen the few spots where the two metals were still bonded together.

'What the hell?' Nate asked, peering over at him. 'Eyes on the room. Not on what I'm doing,' Quinn snapped. Quinn set the bracelet on the table, making sure the square he was working on was lying flat. He

took in a breath, then let it out halfway. Hands steady, he used one to hold the bracelet in place and the other to guide the chopstick as he used it to separate the lid from the square. With only a little pressure, it peeled off and flipped onto the table.

As he suspected, the square wasn't solid. It was a container. Inside was what appeared to be a piece of glass embedded in some sort of clear rubbery substance. Quinn's first guess was that the substance was there to protect the glass, only it didn't seem to have done its job. The glass was still intact, but fractured. Oddly, though, the protective rubber looked undamaged. The heat from the fire, Quinn thought. That's what must have caused the break.

He leaned down to get a better look and quickly realized it wasn't just one piece of glass, but two thin pieces, each of which couldn't have been more than a sixteenth of an inch thick. They looked like a glass sandwich.

Or a microscope slide, he thought.

Reluctantly, he eyed the glass more closely, looking for signs of a smear or a stain caught between the two panes. But the fractured top layer made it impossible to tell.

A stillness settled over Quinn as he placed the metal top back over the capsule. It wasn't going to stay there on its own once he tried to move it, but covering the contents allowed him to start breathing again. He had no idea what was on the slide, but his instincts told him the rubber barrier was more than just a stabilizer for the slide. It was also there to prevent exposure.

'What is it?' Nate asked. 'I'm not sure,' Quinn said. What the hell have we stumbled into? he thought. Quinn's immediate instinct was to go so far

underground that no matter how hard anyone looked, no one would ever be able to find them. They could just keep out of sight until the whole thing blew over.

He glanced down at the bracelet again.

If the whole thing blows over.

The bill for lunch was surprisingly small: 150,000 dong, about five dollars each for the food and beers. Quinn left double the total on the table, then got up to leave. Nate did the same.

Anh rushed across the room to open the door

for them. 'Are you here long?' she asked. 'I'm not sure,' Nate said. He glanced at Quinn. 'Not too long, I imagine,' Quinn said. Another smile. 'We hope you come back before

you leave.' 'Not to worry,' Nate said. 'We'll be back.'

Chapter 10