A cheap hotel room, a miserable night, and the first poor cup of coffee I’ve had in this São Paulo:

A face stares out at me from the morning newspaper: a smiling boy, perhaps a school photograph, posted under a grim headline

Casualties are mounting in the aftermath of the explosion…

My eyes follow the text, but as I reach the end of the column, I realise I don’t know what it said…

Rodrigo… The hotel boy who served my breakfast each morning. So helpful to the nice cavalheiro inglês who sometimes tipped him, as much for the smile as for good service. He couldn’t have been more than fourteen.

And now dead because some vengeful little bitch missed her target.

I had to grow up quick at that age…

He never will…

Did she miss her target?

Or was it all part of some plan to implicate me?

Lawrence Klempner… Trafficker, murderer, and guilty of a thousand sins, now wanted for terrorism…

?

Who knows? I’m getting beyond guessing how much mayhem Juliana is willing to unleash in her crusade against me.

How did she find me?

She knows I’m here…

She knew where I was…

So… why take so long about showing her hand?

How did she find me?

And when?

As I entered the country?

Three weeks ago…

Juliana likes

her a sense

playing cat

maybe? Who recognised

It’s possible.

up any warning signals, ‘the system’ would have taken me

me back to the bar

Maybe they all do.

the

That seems more likely.

me. She knew I’d turn up at

all makes much

I think…

the surface, I’m picking at

Does it add up?

Really?

What’s missing?

she fit into a gang of

Brazil…

‘Traditional’ values…

the kind of place you’d expect to find

that matter, how often do you ever

Find the man at the top and get control of him. That would tie in with what she’s done before; her

Femme fatale…

Wonder who he is?

Poor bastard…

life-expectancy down

I am… If Juliana has

my visit to Juliana’s apartment. The coffee’s

How many were there?

certainly. And an uncertain number

But smiling, accusing eyes still stare out at me. After a moment, I turn the paper over, photo

What now?

Fade into the background?

Disappear?

How?

him to

that fucking

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