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smoothed
     the dark brown hair away from it. “We’re better
     friends than that, aren’t we?”
    She smiled at him but took a step back. “Friends?
     Certainly,” she said. But there were layers of tone
     in her voice that indicated that whatever she thought about
     him, “friends” did not sum it up all that
     neatly.

    Henri had not yet gone to bed either. He had spent the
     night tearing his lab apart looking for the file on the
     bandages, with no luck. It was gone.
    It seemed that other papers were disturbed as well, as
     though someone had been looking through them and not put
     things away very neatly, but he wasn’t sure whether
     that was just paranoia. He wasn’t always Mr. Clean
     himself.
    He sat at his desk and put his hands flat on the wood,
     pressing them down hard, all his frustration pushing
     through his fingers. He was exhausted, and could tell by
     the gentle light coming through the screens he had designed
     to filter the sunlight to an acceptable intensity, that it
     was long past time to be in bed.
    But how was he going to sleep, thinking about who might
     have stolen that file, and how the hell had he gotten into
     the lab?
    Wondering how he had failed to think of it before, he
     snatched up his cell and tapped in the number for the Paris
     office, the place that was handling the marketing and
     distribution of Hemo-Yum. PolyLabs was a company entirely
     staffed by vampires. Henri sometimes hated dealing with
     them because they were oh-so-snobby about being
Parisian
vampires, looking down on him because he
     lived in the provinces, deep in the countryside.
    Well, for their information, the countryside suited him
     just fine, thought Henri, arguing in his head as he waited
     for someone to answer the phone. Who needs their swanky
     parties? I don’t mind getting into full opera
     gear–cape, tuxedo, and top hat!–once a year,
     but night after night? No thank you! I don’t care how
     many different cheeses you can buy at the place on the
     corner.
    Henri had a habit of conducting arguments in his head like
     this, but when he actually talked to whomever it was he had
     been arguing with, he was smooth as silk, all business,
     polite and pleasant down to his toenails. Exquisitely
     self-controlled, that was Henri.
    Finally, a woman answered. “Yes, hello, this is
     Polylabs, Claudine speaking.”
    “Hello, Claudine, this is Henri de la Motte. How are
     you this morning?”
    “Ready for bed, Monsieur, it has been a long night,
     as usual. How can I help you?”
    “Please, Claudine, call me Henri.” He was not
     displeased to be a Marquis, but he disliked the social
     distance it sometimes provoked. He thought the title tended
     to make people less forthcoming with him than he wanted
     them to be.
    Henri was reluctant to tell anyone about the break-in and
     the lost file, but he had met Claudine several times and
     liked her well enough, plus he wasn’t sure he had a
     choice. It’s not like he could call up Durant at the
     local
gendarmerie
and tell him what had happened,
     at least not without inviting a lot of poking around he did
     not at all want.
    Claudine expressed her surprise and sorrow. “All I
     can suggest,” she said, “is that perhaps word
     has gotten out about Hemo-Yum, or any of the other things
     you are working on, including the bandages. The American
     vampires–they are heedless of the old codes, Henri.
     They use spies, thugs, bribery, anything to get what they
     want. When it comes to business, they are absolutely
     vicious. It’s all about the money for them.”
    “Hmm,” said Henri, not sure what he could do
     with this information. “Do you have suggestions of
     which American companies might be capable of something like
     this? Where would I start?”
    “I’m afraid I do not know. Right now, there is
     not much importing or exporting of vampire products, so my
     understanding of the Americans and their businesses is not
     very deep. I’m giving