“Aornis. Open the security gates. now!”
She scurried off, and I looked around. Aornis couldn’t instantly delete herself from my memory, and I still had twenty seconds left. I could feel my concentration lapsing as I tried to focus on what I was meant to be doing, the same way as when battling fatigue and fighting off sleep. The house was too large to search in the time available, so I looked around in desperation. And then I saw it. The pull cord from the curtains across the large bay windows was rocking. It would be doing that only if someone had recently touched it, and the only way that might have happened was if someone was hiding behind the sofa.
I glanced around for a weapon, while outside I could see the security gates swing slowly open. I wondered why this was so and cursed myself for being distracted as my mind struggled to keep my concentration on the task at hand. There was someone behind the sofa, and it was someone dangerous, who they shouldn’t be there. I limped across as quietly as I could with my stick raised, but in my recently enfeebled state I knocked against the bureau and the figure behind the sofa jumped up like a jack-in-the-box. It was Aornis Hades.
“Aornis!” I exclaimed, for I hadn’t seen her since her trial and enloopment. “What in hell’s name are you doing in my front room?”
She was still under forty and was an attractive woman, well dressed and with a misleadingly affable demeanor. I knew vaguely of her powers of memory manipulation but had never considered for one moment that she might have tried any of it on me—or indeed was still doing it to anyone. Which made it even stranger that she was in my front room.
“I was looking for my contact lenses,” she said in a friendly tone. “Would you have a look? Your eyesight’s better than mine.”
“Sure,” I said, then stopped and frowned. “What were you doing in here?”
She leaned closer. “I need to talk to you about my elder sister, Phlegethon,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “She’s completely out of control. Remember that incident this morning, when someone tried to kidnap Jenny?”
“When?’
“You remember . . . this morning.”
“I . . . no, yes, wait—that was her in the blue car?”
“She wants vengeance because you killed her brother. You saw her face clearly, didn’t you?”
I stared at her, my temples throbbing.
“Didn’t you?” she asked, this time louder.
“Yes, I saw her face clearly,” I said slowly. “I’d know her anywhere. But why would she wait eighteen years for revenge?”
“She dithers. It used to drive Mum nuts. But the thing is, she’s dangerous. Really dangerous. So dangerous you might have to shoot her dead on sight.”
“I thought Phlegethon was your brother?”
“He changes sex as the mood takes her. But you remember what she said she’d do to Jenny? Can you really let someone like that live?”
“Are you sure it was this morning?” I asked, trying to recall the events. For a fleeting moment, the attempted kidnap had been clear, but now I was having trouble figuring out even where it happened, and it might have been a black car, not a blue one. My doubt had a visible effect on Aornis, who suddenly looked worried, stopped, and glanced around.
“Where’s Landen?”
“Conducting a recallathon.”
“A what?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “The word just popped into my head.”
We heard the front door open and Tuesday say,“Can I help you?”
“Remember,” said Aornis, “Phlegethon is dangerous. You can’t let him live.”
“Her.”
“What?”
“Her. You said Phlegethon was a woman at the moment.”
“Silly me,” she said. “See how confusing it can be? But she’s dangerous, and you know what she looks like, and she should be shot on sight. Now I must find my contact lens.”
And with a cheery smile, she d