"You said you'd call me when we got into town," she was gushing, "but we were out all day and I never trust hotel 250 switchboards to get messages straight and nobody down at the desk speaks English anyway so I called the Pentagon, I remembered you said you worked at the Pentagon, and asked them to look you up. All I remembered was that you were in the Air Force and you had been an astronaut. I even forgot your rank, but they found your number for me anyway!"
"I'm glad they did, Jinny," he said. The old oil. You do it automatically, don't you?
They met at a Japanese restaurant on Connecticut Ave- nue. Marcot's not the only one who'll nibble on sushi tonight. They had no trouble getting a tatami room for themselves, where they took off their shoes and sat on the floor. The restaurant was nearly empty. Even in the best parts of the city business disappeared once the sun went down.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to call you earlier," Kinsman said as they sipped sake. "It's been a wild week for me."
"Me, too," Jinny said, looking at him over the rim of her tiny porcelain cup. Her hair was carefully done, her makeup properly in place. She wore a sleeveless frock with a neckline low enough to be inviting, yet still within the bounds of decorum.
Does she or doesn't she? Kinsman asked himself. As if it matters.
When they left the restaurant Jinny wound her arm around Kinsman's and said, "I'm so tired . . . they had us on the go all day long. Do you mind if we just go back to my hotel room and have a drink there?"
Like the cobra and mongoose. But which is which? Kinsman wondered.
Her hotel was a cut above standard government issue. The bed was a double, the furnishings fairly new and in reasonably good condition. The room was clean without smelling of disinfectant. Kinsman put money in the automatic liquor dispenser and bought a scotch for himself and a vodka tonic for Jinny. He poured the liquor and soda into plastic glasses, and found that the Styrofoam ice bucket was already filled with half-melted cubes.
"I've just got to get out of this dress," Jinny said, picking up her pink travel kit and heading for the bathroom. "I'll only be a minute."
Kinsman took the room's only chair and shook his head. 251
This game's pretty silly, you know. A voice inside him answered, Don't be scared; you're doing fine.
On an impulse he went to the phone and, sitting on the edge of the bed, tapped out the number for Walter Reed Hospital. The hospital's information display glowed on the phone screen:
MAY WE HELP YOU?
"Yes," Kinsman said. Speaking as clearly as he could for the computer, he asked, "The condition of Mr. Frederick Durban."
SPELLING OF LAST NAME?
"D-u-r-b-a-n. Frederick."
ARE YOU A FAMILY MEMBER?
"His son," he lied.
DURBAN, FREDERICK. DECEASED 1623 HRS TODAY. FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE BEING HANDLED BY ...
