"Thank you, Hiram. You've been very kind."
Hiram folded his hands and bowed low. "May the Curtain rise for you, Miss Spring."
She nodded politely as he backed out the door.
As soon as she was alone, she seized the phone. She had punched in the first two digits of Nick's private line before she realized what she was doing.
"Five hells." She slammed the receiver down. She had no intention of calling Nick. She had planned to call a cab.
Then she thought about the footsteps in the fog. Someone had definitely followed her, and it was quite possible that whoever it was knew that she was searching for information related to the death of Morris Fenwick. That meant that this evening's events were linked to the Chastain journal.
Anything that involved the journal, involved Nick.
"Five hells," she said again. With a groan, she picked up the phone and punched in the number.
Nick answered on the first ring.
A dangerous combination of anger and relief simmered within him as he climbed out of the Synchron in front of the floodlit temple. Beneath both equally intense sensations, he was aware of a cold chill in his gut. Protecting Zinnia had become the most important element in the matrix but he was not doing a good job of it. Then again, she was not making it easy for him.
The dissonant notes of a horn-harp greeted Nick as he started up the broad steps that led to the temple's massive front doors. There was no one standing around outside, he noticed. Apparently the evening service had begun.
The day was not going well, he thought as he stalked into the dim entry hall. Thus far he had exposed Zinnia to the humiliation of a front-page photo in Synsation, gotten himself punched in the mouth, discovered more evidence that his uncle was involved in the conspiracy surrounding the Chastain journal, and had Zinnia slam the phone down in his ear.
Now this.
The matrix of his life had been considerably less complex before Zinnia Spring had become a factor in it, he reflected.
A deep sonorous voice issued forth from behind heavy blue velvet curtains.
"Welcome, Seekers. Welcome to all those who seek to purify themselves so that they may be fit to return to the world from whence the Founders came. The Curtain calls and those of you in this chamber tonight have answered. Earth awaits her children."
The horn-harp music swelled. Nick winced.
"Mr. Chastain?" A figure in a green robe detached itself from the shadows near a hallway. "I am Hiram. I presume you are here to assist Miss Spring?"
"Where is she?"
"This way." Hiram's robes swirled gently as he turned to start down the corridor. "We invited her to attend the last Curtain Call of the evening but she declined."
"Can't imagine why."
"Some people take longer than others to answer the Call." Hiram opened a door. "Mr. Chastain is here, Miss Spring."
"Nick." Zinnia leaped up from a chair and started toward him.
For a few hopeful seconds he thought that she would throw herself into his arms. But the expression of bright relief that had leaped in her eyes when she saw him in the doorway vanished quickly. She came to an abrupt halt a short distance away.
He stifled a small sigh of regret. What had he expected, he wondered. The fact that she had called him tonight when she was in trouble did not mean that she was not still furious.
"Are you all right?" he asked brusquely.
"Yes, of course." Zinnia's smile was composed and polite. "Hiram has been very kind."
"Good. Let's get out of here."
"Right." She started toward the door and then stopped. "Uh, Nick?"
"What is it?" He frowned when he saw that Hiram was standing squarely in the opening. There was a large metal collection plate in the monk's hand. "I probably should have seen this coming." He reached for his wallet.
"We who seek to Return to the mother world strive to be generous," Hiram said smoothly. "But we do have certain expenses."
"Yeah." Nick tossed fifty dollars into the plate. "Picking up real estate all over town at bargain rates takes capital, doesn't it?"
Hiram pocketed the fifty, unperturbed. "The Children of Earth must invest in the future."
"Why bother investing here on St. Helens if you're all going back to Earth?" Nick asked.
Zinnia gave him a reproachful look. "Now, Nick, Hiram has been very hospitable."
"I was most happy to help you in your hour of need, Miss Spring," Hiram stepped aside. "You are welcome to join us in our Return to Earth. All it requires is a pure heart and a mind that is open to the truth."
"I'm sure Earth would be a very nice place to visit," Zinnia said politely.
"Yeah, but who'd want to live there?" Nick said as he took her arm.
He could feel the gaze of the green-robed monk on his back as he hauled Zinnia swiftly down the corridor to the entry hall.
"What about my car?" Zinnia said.
"I'll send Feather to take care of it." He glanced at her as they went through the imposing entrance and out onto the front steps. "Now tell me what in five hells happened tonight? Where were you, anyway? And what went wrong with the car?"
"I don't know what happened to the car." She angled her chin. "And as for where I was, I had a focus assignment."
"You didn't mention it earlier. What did you do? Call up your boss at Psynergy, Inc. and tell her you were suddenly free for the evening?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I did. As it happened, she'd just had a client call to ask for a prism who could work with a matrix."
"Sure she did."
"It's the truth." Zinnia smiled grimly. "And I was available."
"Only because you broke our date."
"We didn't have a date."
"You knew damn well I planned to see you this evening."
"Did I? How strange. Apparently I forgot to note the appointment on my calendar. I don't recall you mentioning a dinner engagement except in passing this afternoon after I found out that you'd gone sneaking off to find the forger."
"I did not sneak off to see Wilkes. I had your brother with me. Look, I didn't come here to argue with you."
"Could have fooled me. Oh, no." Zinnia halted abruptly halfway down the steps. "It's him."
"Who?" Nick glanced at the foot of the steps and saw a familiar figure. "Damn."
A camera flash exploded in the darkness.
"Great shot," Cedric Dexter called cheerfully. He whirled and raced off into the night. His footsteps echoed loudly on the sidewalk.
"I swear, I'm going to have that twerp's job in the morning," Nick vowed.
"Well, I think that answers the evening's most pressing question." Zinnia sounded chagrined.
"What's that?"
"It must have been Dexter's footsteps I heard earlier in the fog. He was the one who followed me here to the temple. If only I'd realized who it was. I would have told him exactly what I think of him and his lousy photography."
"It wouldn't have done any good. Anyone who works for Synsation has the delicate sensibilities of a rhino-phant." Nick tightened his grip on her arm and steered her down the remaining steps.
"Actually, it's a relief to find out that it was Dexter. At least we know what he's after."
"True." Nick opened the Synchron's door and bundled Zinnia inside. "And tomorrow he's going to be after a new job."
"Now, Nick, he's only doing what he's paid to do. You can't go around intimidating people."
He closed the door very deliberately before she could finish the lecture. He would take care of the twerp in the morning. Tonight he had other things to discuss with Zinnia.
He got in behind the steering bar and activated the engine. He pulled away from the curb and did a U-turn in the middle of the street.
"That's sort of illegal, Nick."
"So make a citizen's arrest."
She slanted him a speaking glance.
Nick wondered again how he had stumbled into this crazy unpredictable matrix where Zinnia seemed to establish most of the rules.