“Jacky, aren’t you hot? It’s boiling in here. Let me open a window, get some air in.”
“No, no! They’re going to listen in!”
“I’l cal them and ask them not to listen for the next ten minutes, okay? I know someone, I have connections.”
“Oh, al right,” Jacky said. “Anyone seen my glasses, by the way? I used to have a hearing aid, but they took it away during the interrogation.”
I opened the window. It didn’t stay up on its own but I had given Jacky a stick to hold it up. I looked around for the stick, and nal y found it under the sofa.
“Jacky, do you have any more poison lying around?”
“No, I used up the box. But I do have some Band-Aids.”
“If you poison any more mice, tel us.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Jacky said, smiling to himself.
“Jacky, can I get you anything? Do you have food?”
“I’m not that naive!” Jacky said. He unzipped his fly. “I have to air my penis,” he said.
“The treats that await us!” Tanya said. I looked around in alarm to see whether Marik was stil there; he’d think our entire building was populated by deviants. But luckily he’d vanished.
“Wel , we’d best be going,” I said. “Take care, Jacky. And cal me if there are more mice.”
I left the flat and shut the door behind me. “Why am I familiar with the penises of two of the three men in this building?” I asked.
Tanya smiled. “Poor Volvo. I heard he was the life of the party before his legs went. Do you think we should nd some woman for him—
you know, pay someone? I stil have some friends in the business, I could get a good deal.”
“He says he doesn’t want sex. But when I help him bathe that’s not the impression I get.” We both began giggling like schoolgirls. “‘A bit more soap,’” I imitated Volvo, keeping my voice down in case he came back just then.
Tanya returned to her flat and I went to the hotel to thank Coby.
Coby was in the lobby, giving instructions about chairs to Hussein, a bony, nervous man of indeterminate age who worked at the hotel.
The lobby was l ed with wel -dressed religious guests; they were honoring some leader or other, and maybe also raising funds for their political party.
“Situation under control?” he asked me when he’d finished explaining seating arrangements to Hussein.
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“Anytime you need something, just ask.”
“Thank you. Do you know Rafi wel ?”
“Of course,” he said. “We were in the same unit. Come, let’s have cof ee. Have you had supper?”
“No, but I can’t eat so soon after seeing those mice.”
“Poor Jacky. Remember him from before?”
“Of course. Who doesn’t?”
“It’s the drugs that did it.” I fol owed him to the dining room. We sat by the window, next to the table I’d shared with Ra four days ago.
Coby told the waiter to bring us cof ee.
“Once you start mixing them together, anything can happen,” he said, stil on the subject of Jacky’s history. “Once you lose a sense of boundaries … once you stop saying, this yes, but this no, you’ve had it. With drugs, that is. Maybe with anything …”
“How’s business?”
“Wel , lousy of course. The war … If you ever need a room, let me know. If you and Rafi ever need a room, just say the word.”
“Why would we need a room? I have my own room.”
“Wel , you know, room service, a hotel, everyone likes hotels for a change.”
“Anyhow, I’m married. So is Rafi.”
“Rafi’s been through a lot.”
“He’s lucky. He has a wife, a steady income, a wel -behaved daughter, a penthouse apartment. I don’t feel sorry for him.”
Coby raised his eyebrows and gave me a deeply skeptical look. He didn’t believe I meant what I said, but he let it drop.
“Coby, do you know anyone in Intel igence?”
“In Intel igence? Why?”
