they're thus momentarily paralyzed with schadenfreude, you get to walk away unmolested.
All they needed now was a task to focus their scattered attention. 'You'd better get your friend to a hospital,' I suggested evenly, knowing that would help. I touched Delilah's elbow and we moved off.
We changed cabs twice on the way to the hotel. No sense making it easy for anyone to inquire about who we were or where we might have been going. We just kept our heads down and our mouths shut.
Back at La Florida, I let us into the room and locked the door behind us. The bed had been neatly turned down, the lights lowered, and the serene atmosphere was slightly surreal after what had just happened in the street. Delilah pulled off her shoes and examined them. One of them must have had blood on it, because she took it into the bathroom. I heard water run, then stop. A moment later she returned and put the shoes down together by the window. Then she sat on the bed and looked at me, her cheeks still hot and flushed.
'Sorry about that,' she said.
I shrugged. 'Makes me glad that time in Phuket was at least half-consensual. I guess I'd be limping right now if it hadn't been.'
We both laughed at that, harder than the comment really warranted, and I realized we were still giddy. The aftermath of violence is usually like that. I wondered if she recognized the signs, as I did.
When our laughter subsided, I said, 'I wouldn't have stopped to engage them, though. I would have just gone right through them, before they had a chance to get themselves worked up.'
She nodded. 'I realized afterward that's what you were thinking. But I don't have your upper-body strength. I have to play it differently. Plus, you have to admit, I can bring a certain element of surprise to the equation that you can't.'
'That's true. I guess we'll have to get used to each other.' I wasn't sure about the way that sounded, so I added, 'To the way we do things.' No, that wasn't right either. 'So we can... handle situations like that better.'
Her eyes softened and she smiled just slightly, and I felt she was seeing right through me. 'You think we should get used to each other?' she asked, ignoring my stupid qualifications.
I looked at her. I didn't know what to say.
'I don't think it's a bad idea,' she said, still smiling gently. 'I've been thinking about it myself.'
'You have?'
'Sure. Haven't you?'
I sat down on the bed next to her. My heart started kicking harder.
'Yeah, I've been thinking about it.'
She put her hand on my thigh and squeezed. 'Good.'
I had to tell her. And if I didn't tell her now, later it would seem like deceit.
'But just recently, right after the last time we talked, I got some… news.'
The pressure from her hand lessened. 'Yes?'
'Remember when we were talking at the Peninsula in Hong Kong?' I asked. My words were coming out fast, but I couldn't slow them down. 'The night you told me about Dov. I told you there was a woman, a civilian I'd screwed things up with.'
'I remember.'
'Well, it looks like, the last time I was with her, which was before I met you, we didn't… we weren't that careful. So it seems…'
'Oh,
'So it seems there's a child. A boy.'
There was a long pause. I sat there, my heart still kicking, wondering which way this was going to go.
Delilah said, 'She contacted you?'
I shook my head. 'I have a friend in Japanese intelligence. He got hold of some surveillance photos of the woman and the child, taken by my enemies. These people don't know how to find me, so they're hoping I'll reappear in the woman's life. They're watching her for that.'
'Is she in danger?'
'No. I don't think so.'
'What's her name?'
I paused, but I didn't want it to seem as if I was holding anything back. 'Midori.'
'Pretty name.'
'Yeah.'
'These people… they're hoping you'll hear about the child? And that hearing will make you go to Midori?'
'It looks like that, yes.'
'What are you going to do?'
'I don't know.'
'I think you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't have brought it up.'
I rubbed my temples and thought. 'I'm not even sure the child is mine. But I have to know. You can understand
