The Tower

"I'm sorry," she said, still not turning to look at him. Then she laughed her sad laugh, and Jade realized how accustomed to it he had grown. He wondered how often she had laughed like that before she'd met him.

"It feels like I'm doing that all the time now," she said. "Apologizing. More than I ever have." She finally turned to look at Jade. "Believe it or not, I usually have a difficult time with it."

"I can empathize," Jade said.

"I can imagine." She laughed and he joined her.

The garden was small, but extremely well cultivated. Two rosebushes flanked the smaller plants like monoliths, one on each side of the bed of rich soil. Jade slowly became aware of a loud buzzing sound.

"What's that noise?" he asked.

Darby pointed to a tube hanging from the larger of the two rosebushes. About the size of a tennis-ball can, the tube appeared to have an inverted funnel at its base. Through the clear plastic, Jade noticed at least a dozen bees flying nearly in place, trapped inside the device. The buzz of their wings vibrated inside the tube, giving off an eerie hum.

"Thomas is allergic to bees, and this keeps them out of the backyard. There's a nectar scent that attracts them," Darby said. "They fly up through the funnel at the bottom and can't figure out how to fly down out of it."

They watched the bees fight against the plastic for a few moments, their buzzing amplified by the container. Though it was not easy for him, Jade raised his hand and placed it on Darby's shoulder. She swayed a bit toward him, but didn't turn her head.

"I will protect you," he said. The words came with such conviction that his uneasiness departed. "On my life, I will protect you."

His hand rose with her shoulder as she breathed deeply. Darby squeezed his hand briefly before lifting it off. "Well, I've had my wounded moment," she said. "Let the planning commence."

She walked back to the house without waiting to see if Jade was following. She was not wearing shoes, and Jade found something distressing and wonderful about watching her bare feet on the grass.

Placing one shoe delicately between two rows of pansies, Jade moved closer to the rosebush and looked down into the bee trap. A piece of yellow plastic plugged the tube around the funnel, and Jade noticed the dead bees that it ordinarily hid from view, their shell-like bodies forming a grotesque bottom layer. As he watched, a bumblebee that had been struggling against the clear plastic fell to the pile, exhausted, fanning its wings in ineffective short bursts. Jade watched until the wings no longer blurred, then headed back toward the house.

Chapter 52

S I N G S P I E L ' S Restaurant was in a stylish converted brewery located across the street and up the block from the symphony hall on Van Ness. The entrance was narrow, like a hallway, but the building widened into a dining area with about thirty tables in the back, positioned around a large vat left over from the brewery.

An elegant bar where customers bought drinks to take to the tables in the back ran along the corridor of the restaurant. Mirrors covered the wall behind the bottles, reflecting the space's brass-and-marble design. The bar ended just where the bottleneck of the entrance opened up to the table area. A stack of kegs marked the start of the restaurant proper, lining the edge of the bar, just beside the wooden Dutch door of the coat-check closet.

It was to be a very early dinner, since it was to be followed by a concert at the symphony hall. The Atlasias were to arrive at 5:05.

Jade sat inconspicuously at a table largely blocked from view by the brewing vat. He, however, had excellent visibility of the entire seating area, and he could also lean slightly and look straight down the length of the bar.

Jade felt more keyed up than usual, the increased tension brought on by growing pressure for him to end the terror that had begun to spread through the city. If he couldn't lure Allander in tonight, he wasn't sure he ever could. It was doubtful that another opportunity this promising would come along. Jade relaxed in his chair and tried to calm himself. There was a high probability that Allander would show up. After all, the fund-raising dinner was something of a family tradition.

Jade had pulled back all the agents assigned to the Atlasias so that Allander wouldn't be scared off. The couple would be dropped off by a cab (with an agent disguised as the cabdriver) right at the front door. Jade and Travers would cover the restaurant. He was using only one other agent, the woman he had disguised as the ticket vendor at the movie theater. She would be working the coat check tonight, which placed her in position between the table area and the front door. Jade had instructed her not to involve herself at all unless he signaled. Despite all efforts, undercover agents tended to stand out at high-society affairs, and Jade just didn't want to run the risk of frightening Allander away. He barely trusted Travers to play her part.