@@@@@Suddenly, he was alarmed; in a shadowed 245
@@@@@Suddenly, he was alarmed; in a shadowed doorway on his right was the figure of a man
Unobtrusively Alex reached under his jacket for his Beretta automaticThere was nothing in the
strategy that called for someone to be in a doorway on this section of the street! Then, as suddenly
as he had been alarmed, he relaxed, feeling equal parts of guilt and relief at what he understood
The figure in shadows was an indigent, an old man in worn-out clothes, one of the homeless in a
land of so much plentyAlex kept going; he reached the corner and heard the low, single click of
two fingers snapped apartHe crossed the avenue and proceeded down the pavement, passing an
alleywayanother old man in disheveled clothing moving slowly
out into the street and then back into the alleyAnother derelict protecting his concrete caveAt any
other time Conklin might have approached the unfortunate and given him a few dollars, but not
nowHe had a long way to go and a schedule to keep
Morris Panov approached the intersection still bothered by the curious telephone conversation
he had had ten minutes ago, still trying to recall each segment of the plan he was to follow, afraid to
look at his watch to see if he had reached a specific place within a specific time span?he had been
told not to look at his watch in the street and why couldn?t they say ?at approximately such and
such? rather than the somewhat unnerving term ?time span,? as if a military invasion of
Washington were imminentRegardless, he kept walking, crossing the streets he was told to cross,
hoping some unseen clock kept him relatively in tune with the goddamned ?time spans? that had
been determined by his striding back and forth between two pegs on some lawn behind a garden
apartment in Vienna, VirginiaHe would do anything for David Webb?good Christ,
anything!?but this was insaneYet, of course, it wasn?tThey would not ask him to do what he
was doing if it were
What was that? A face in shadows peering at him, just like the other two! This one hunched over
on a curb, raising wine-soaked eyes up at himOld men?weather-beaten, old, old men who could
barely move?staring at him! Now he was allowing his imagination to run away with him-the
cities were filled with the homeless, with perfectly harmless people whose psychoses or poverty
drove them into the streetsAs much as he would like to help them, there was nothing he could do
but professionally badger an unresponsive WashingtonThere was another! In an indented space
between two storefronts barricaded by iron gates-he, too, was watching himStop it! You?re being
irrationalOr was he? Of course, he wasGo on, keep to the schedule, that?s what you?re
supposed to doGood God! There?s anotherKeep going!
The vast moonlit grounds of the Smithsonian dwarfed the two figures as they converged from
intersecting paths, joining each other and proceeding to a b
