Zero History Part 21

Milgrim's was salmon, and very good. The waitress had let him order from an English translation of the menu. He looked around, trying to spot Rausch again, but didn't see him. A s.h.i.+ft in clientele was still under way as people who'd actually only been there, he guessed, for Bram's exit, signaled for their bills and departed, some leaving untouched food. Tables were being quickly cleared, reset, and reseated. The noise level was going up.

"I wouldn't want either of you to think I'll be any less willing to help you with Inchmale," said Hollis, "regardless of what you may or may not be able to tell me about Hounds."

Milgrim saw George glance quickly at Meredith. "We appreciate that," George said, though Milgrim wasn't sure that Meredith did. Perhaps George was using the band "we."

"All you really need with Inchmale is someone to tell you where you are in his process," Hollis said. "And that's all I can do, anyway. You can't change the process, and if you try hard enough, long enough, he'll leave. So far, you're right on track."

None of this meaning anything to Milgrim, who was enjoying the salmon, in some light chilled sauce.

"I'm sorry," Meredith said, "but you're going to have to tell us who you're working for."

"If I were better at this sort of thing," said Hollis, "I'd start by telling you about my book. It's about locative art."

"I don't know the term," Meredith said.

"It's what they're calling augmented reality now," said Hollis, "but art. It's been around since before the iPhone started to become the default platform. That was when I wrote about it. But I meant that if I were going to lie to you, I'd tell you about that, then tell you that I was writing another, on esoteric denim, or mad marketing strategies. But I won't. I'm working for Hubertus Bigend."

The last bite of salmon caught in Milgrim's throat. He drank water, coughed into his napkin.

"Are you choking?" asked George, who looked as though he could perform a really optimal Heimlich maneuver.

"No, thanks," said Milgrim.

"Blue Ant?" asked Meredith.

"No," said Hollis. "We're freelance. Bigend wants to know who's behind Gabriel Hounds."

"Why?" Meredith had put down her fork.

"Possibly because he thinks someone's outdoing him at something he considers to have been his own game. Or so he suggested. Do you know him?"

"Only by reputation," said Meredith.

"Is Blue Ant doing your band's publicity?" Milgrim asked George, after some more water.

"Not that I know of," said George. "Too small a world already."

"I'm not a Blue Ant employee," said Hollis. "Bigend's hired me to look into Gabriel Hounds. He wants to know who designs it, how their antimarketing scheme works. I'm only prepared to go so far. I'm not prepared to lie to you about it."

"How about you?" Meredith asked Milgrim.

"I don't have a badge," Milgrim said.

"What do you mean?"

"To open the door," Milgrim said. "At Blue Ant. Employees have those badges. I'm not on salary."

First-course dishes were removed. Second courses arrived. Milgrim's was pork tenderloin, stacked like a corpulent chess piece, a rook of pork. It toppled as he began to eat it.

"How badly does Bigend want to know?" Meredith's knife and fork were poised.

"He wants to know everything everything, basically," said Hollis, "all the time. Right now, he wants to know this quite badly. Next month? Maybe not so much."

"He must have a lot of resources. For information." Meredith cut into her roundel of beef.

"Prides himself on it," Hollis said.

"I mentioned that I believe most of my last season of shoes are in a warehouse in Seattle. Tacoma, possibly."

"Yes?"

"I don't know where. Can't find them. The lawyers say they could make a very convincing case for my owners.h.i.+p, if we could locate them. We're fairly certain they haven't been sold off, otherwise at least a few would have surfaced on eBay. None have. Could Bigend find them for me?"

"I don't know," said Hollis. "But if he couldn't, I don't know who could."

"I don't know what I could find out for you," said Meredith, "but a.s.suming I found something, I'd consider an exchange. Otherwise, not."

Milgrim looked from Meredith to Hollis, back.

"I'm not authorized to make that sort of deal," said Hollis, "but I can certainly take him the proposal."

This reminded Milgrim of the closing rhythm of certain very backstage drug deals, the kind in which one party may know of someone with an Aerostar van, full of some precursor chemical, while another is aware of the approximate whereabouts of a really efficient pill-pressing machine.

"Please do," said Meredith, smiling, then taking a first sip of her wine.

"That was very good," Milgrim said to Hollis, after saying good night to Meredith and George outside the restaurant. "The timing. When you told them about Bigend."

"What choice did I have? If I'd told them otherwise, I'd already have been lying to them. The hotel's this way."

"I was never good at that sort of timing," said Milgrim, then remembered the penguin, and glanced up.

"What was that about UFOs, when you first walked in?"

"I don't know," said Milgrim. "I thought I'd seen something. It's been a long day. I have your computer. Would you mind if I kept it overnight? I have to check something."

"It doesn't matter," said Hollis. "I only have it for a book I haven't started writing. I have my iPhone. What did you think you saw?"

"It looked like a penguin."

Hollis stopped. "A penguin? Where?"

"In the street. That way." He pointed.

"In the street?"

"Flying."

"They can't fly, Milgrim."

"Swimming. Through the air. Level with the second-story windows. Using its flippers to propel itself. But it looked more like a penguin-shaped blob of mercury. It reflected the lights. Distorted them. It may have been a hallucination."

"Do you get those?"

"P-A-W-S," said Milgrim, spelling it out.

"Paws?"

"Post-acute withdrawal syndrome." He shrugged, started for the hotel again, Hollis following. "They were worried about that."

"Who were?"

"The doctors. In the clinic. In Basel."

"What about the man at the Salon? The one in the pants? The one you thought you'd seen in Selfridges? Did he follow you?"

"Yes. Sleight was telling him where I was."

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"I left the Neo with someone else. He followed them." He needed to clean his teeth. There was pear galette between his upper rear molars. It still tasted good.

"It's been a long day," said Hollis as they reached what he took to be their hotel. "I spoke with Hubertus. He wants you to call him. Sleight thinks you've run away."

"I feel like I have." He held the door for her.

"Thank you," she said.

"Monsieur Milgrim?" A man, behind a vaguely pulpit-like counter.

"Mister Milgrim's room is on my card," said Hollis.

"Yes," said the clerk, "but he must still register." He produced a printed white card and a pen. "Your pa.s.sport, please."

Milgrim brought out his Faraday pouch, then his pa.s.sport.

"I'll call you in the morning, in time for breakfast here, then the train," said Hollis. "Good night." And she was gone, around a corner.

"I will photocopy this," said the clerk, "and return it to you when you are finished in the lobby." He gestured with his head, to Milgrim's right.

"The lobby?"

"Where the young lady is waiting."

"Young lady?"

But the clerk had vanished, through a narrow doorway behind the counter.

The lights were out in the small lobby. Folding wooden panels partially screened it from the reception area. Streetlight reflected on china, set out for breakfast service. And on the yellow curve of the helmet, from the low oval of a gla.s.s coffee table. A small figure rose smoothly to its feet, in a complex rustle of waterproof membranes and cycle-armor. "I'm Fiona," she said sternly, her jawline delicate above the stiff buckled collar. She stuck out her hand. Milgrim shook it automatically. It was small, warm, strong, and callused.

"Milgrim."

"I know that." She didn't sound British.

"Are you American?"

"Technically. You too. We both work for Bigend."

"He told Hollis he wasn't sending anybody."

"Blue Ant didn't send anybody. I work for him. So do you."

"How do I know you really work for Bigend?"

She tapped the face of a phone like Hollis's, listened, handed it to him.

"h.e.l.lo?" said Bigend. "Milgrim?"

"Yes?"

"How are you?"

Milgrim considered. "It's been a long day."

"Run it past Fiona after we've spoken. She'll relay it to me."

"Did you have Sleight tracking me with the Neo?"

"It's part of what he does. He called from Toronto, said you'd left Paris."

"I slipped someone the phone."

"Sleight's wrong," Bigend said.

"Not about the phone leaving Paris."

"That's not what I mean. He's wrong."

"Okay," said Milgrim. "Who's right?"

"Pamela," said Bigend. "Fiona, whom you've just met. We'll be keeping it at that until the situation sorts itself out."

"Is Hollis?"