then faded slowly away, and as it did, the butler returned.
'The count will see you now.'
Pendergast rose and followed him down a long, broad corridor, lined with books, to a studio beyond.
The count stood in all his corpulent majesty in a capacious studio, one end with floor-to-ceiling glass, his back turned, looking out on a small balcony framed with rosebushes, sinking into twilight. He was wearing slacks and a crisp white shirt, open at the collar. Beside him was an immaculate worktable. At least a hundred tools were lined up on the table in geometric precision: tiny screwdrivers, pinpoint soldering irons, tiny jeweler's saws, watchmaker's vises and files. Laid out next to them was an array of exquisitely small gears, ratchets, springs, levers, and other finely machined metal parts, along with chips, small circuit boards, bundles of fiber-optic cabling, LEDs, bits of rubber and plastic, and other electronic objects of mysterious function.
In the center of the worktable stood a wooden T-bar stand, and on the stand stood a strange object that at first glance looked like a Triton cockatoo, brilliant white with a lemon-colored crest, but which on closer inspection proved to be a mechanical device: a robotic bird.
The butler indicated politely for Pendergast to seat himself on a nearby stool. As if by magic, his half-drunken glass of amontillado appeared; then the butler vanished like a ghost.
Pendergast watched the count. With his free hand, he plucked a casuarina nut from a tray, placed it between his fat lips, then protruded it. With a whistle of excitement, the robot cockatoo climbed to Fosco's shoulder, then to his ear, and-leaning forward with a whirring of gears-plucked the seed from the projecting lips, cracked it with its mechanical bill, and made every appearance of eating it.
'Ah! My pretty, playtime is over!' cooed the count. 'Back to your perch.' He gave his gloved hand a little wave. The cockatoo gave a screech of displeasure and flared his mechanical crest, but made no further movement.
'Ah, stubborn today, I see.' The count spoke louder, more firmly. 'Back to your perch, my pretty, or you will be eating millet instead of nuts the rest of the day.'
With another screech, the cockatoo hopped off his shoulder onto the table, waddled over to the stand, climbed it with metal claws, and resumed its place, casting its beady LED eyes on Pendergast.
And now at last, the count turned with a smile and bow, offering Pendergast his hand. 'I am so sorry to keep you waiting. My friend-as you see-requires his exercise.'
'Most interesting,' said Pendergast dryly.
'No doubt it is! It is true, I cut a ridiculous figure with my pets.'
'Pets?'
'Yes. And you see how they love me! My cockatoo and-' He inclined his suety head toward the other side of the room, where what looked like a pack of mice were disporting themselves within an elaborate wire pagoda with various clicks and whirs and digital squeaks. 'And my dear little white mice! But, of course, of all my pretties, Bucephalus here is my pride and joy.' And Fosco turned toward the cockatoo. 'Are you not, my pretty?'
The bird's only response was to bury its massive black bill within a fluff of fake beak feathers, as if rendered timid by the compliment.
'You must forgive Bucephalus!' Fosco said, tut-tutting. 'He is not partial to strangers. He is slow to make friends and screams when displeased-ah, my friend, such screams as you would not believe! I have been forced to take the two apartments adjoining this and keep them unoccupied, at great personal expense. Mere walls, you see, are no defense against the lungs of this magnificent creature!'
The robotic cockatoo gave no acknowledgment of this panegyric, continuing to eye Pendergast motionlessly.
'But they are all quite fond of opera. As Congreve said, music hath charms et cetera. Perhaps you heard my poor singing. Did you recognize the piece?'
Pendergast nodded. 'Pollione's aria from Norma , 'Abbandonarmi cosi potresti.''
'Ah! Then you liked it.'
'I said I recognized it. Tell me, Count, did you build these robots yourself?'
'Yes. I am a lover of animals and gadgets. Would you like to see my canaries? The real ones, I mean: I rarely distinguish between my own children and those of nature.'
'Thank you, no.'
'I should have been born an American, a Thomas Edison, where my inventiveness would have been encouraged. But instead I was born into the stifling, decaying Florentine aristocracy, where skills such as mine are useless. Where I come from, counts are supposed to keep both feet firmly in the eighteenth century, if not earlier.'
Pendergast stirred. 'May I trouble you with some questions, Count Fosco?'
The count waved his hand. 'Let us do away with this 'Count' business. We are in America, and here I am Isidor. May I call you Aloysius?'
There was a short silence before Pendergast spoke again, voice cool. 'If it's all the same to you, Count, I would prefer to keep this interview on a formal level.'
'As you like. I see the good Pinketts supplied you with refreshment. He's a treasure, don't you think? The English lorded it over the Italians for so many centuries that it gives me pleasure to have at least one Englishman under my thumb. You're not English, are you?'
'No.'
'Well then, we can speak freely of the English. Bah! Imagine, the only composer of note they ever produced was a man named Byrd.' The count settled himself into a wing chair opposite, and as he did so, Pendergast noted again how lightly and easily the enormous man seemed to move, how delicately he seated himself.
'My first question, Count Fosco, involves the dinner party. When did you arrive?'
