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the counter and sat back down on the bed. “I think she wanted me to have a bottle of wine. Why’s she trying to contact me?”
    “That’s what we’d like to know. Based on what I’ve seen, she appears to have developed a profound interest in you. The running theory in the Bureau is that she wants to approach you for financing, which makes some sense.”
    “Because I’m rich?” I offered.
    “Aren’t you?”
    “The hotel is full of rich people. Why me?”
    “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
    “Not exactly an answer there, Mike.”
    “Yeah, well I don’t know the answer. Hence the problem. You traveled here on cash?”
    “I did.”
    “And what was your thinking there? It’s harder to get things done without plastic. You must know that.”
    “Maybe I didn’t want any government agency sticking its nose into my business by tracking my credit card activity.”
    He grinned. “Yeah. Saw that in a movie, did you? Look, you’ve got about $87,000 in that suitcase under the bed.”
    “I thought you didn’t know where the money was hidden.”
    He shrugged. “I lied. And I had some time to kill while waiting for you to wake up. Let me explain how folks in my line of work think. There are only three types of people who travel with that much cash specifically because they think it can’t be tracked: crooks, tax evaders, terrorists, or financers of terrorist activities.”
    “Gamblers?” I offered.
    “Card-counters, maybe. You count cards?”
    I shook my head. “How about people who just like looking at big piles of money?”
    “Statistically, very unlikely,” he said. “Right now, the house money is on terrorism. And you meeting up with Ariadne Papos just about sealed it.”
    “So supposedly I’m already financing her, is that what you’re saying?”
    “That’s what the thinking is. Not that it makes a ton of sense. She knows you’re under surveillance, or she should, so the way you two made contact doesn’t fit. Too clumsy. But nobody seems to be listening to me when I point that out.”
    Now I was pacing. It’s a little tough discovering exactly how transparent your activities have been when you spend so much time trying to prevent exactly that.
    “I’m confused,” I admitted. “Are FBI agents in the practice of waking up suspected terrorists in their hotel rooms and telling them they think they’re a terrorist?”
    “Habitually no, not unless there’s torture involved, and again, that’s usually not in our charter. We have the CIA for that.”
    “That’s a joke, right?”
    “Sort of. I’m not here in an entirely official capacity.”
    “You want to translate that for me?”
    “They don’t know we’re talking,” he clarified.
    “That’s fantastic.”
    Mike lit another cigarette, and continued. “We’ve had someone on you since you left the Queen Charlottes. The idea was to monitor your activities and see who you contacted, that sort of thing. None of which I was a part of. Ariadne is my problem. But when she turned up next to you on a barstool, the cases dovetailed. Since they think you’re the bigger fish, their investigation ate mine and I ended up part of a team. I’m not fond of teams.”
    “You picked a funny profession then,” I said.
    “I guess. But every pack can tolerate one or two lone wolves.”
    With all the talk of wolves, fish, and investigations being eaten, I suddenly realized how hungry I was.
    “Anyway,” he said, “I am of the minority opinion that Ariadne is the one we should be worrying about, not you. So rather than bang my head against a wall, I handed over my case files and took a vacation. They think I’m in Maui.”
    “Maybe you should be. It’s nice there.” I picked up the phone to order some food.
    “I’m more of a hiker type. Who are you calling?”
    “Room service. I’m starved.”
    “Please don’t,” he said, somewhat urgently.
    “Why not?” I asked, half-expecting him to put his hand on his gun.
    “Because the guy who