Until then, I could only take a deep breath, a sip of beer, and pretend to enjoy the lovely view. Practice that winning smile, Dexter.

How many teeth can we show? Very good; now without teeth, just the lips. How far up can you make the corners of your mouth go before it looks like you are in very great internal pain?

“Hey, you all right, buddy?” Chutsky called. Apparently I had let my face stretch past Happy Smile and into Rictus.

“I'm fine” I told him. “Just, ah —fine, really”

“Uh-huh” he said, though he didn't look convinced. “Well, maybe we better get you back to the hotel.” He drained his glass and stood up, and so did Ivan. They shook hands, and then Ivan sat back down and Chutsky grabbed his briefcase and we headed for the elevator.

I looked back to see Ivan ordering another drink, and I raised an eyebrow at Chutsky.

“Oh” he said. “We don't want to leave together. You know, at the same time.”

Well, I suppose that made as much sense as anything else, since we were now apparently living in a spy movie, so I watched everyone else carefully, all the way down in the elevator, to make sure they weren't agents of some evil cartel. Apparently they weren't since we made it safely all the way down and into the street. But as we crossed the street to find a taxi we passed a horse and buggy waiting there, something I really should have noticed and avoided, because animals don't like me, and this horse reared up —even though he was old and tired and had been placidly chewing something in a nose bag. It was not a very impressive maneuver, hardly a John Wayne moment, but he did get both front feet off the ground and make a noise of extreme displeasure at me, which startled his driver nearly as much as it did me. But I hurried on by and we managed to get into a taxi without any clouds of bats swarming out to attack me.

We rode back to the hotel in silence. Chutsky sat with his briefcase on his lap and looked out the window, and I tried not to listen to that fat overwhelming moon. But that didn't work very well; it was there in every postcard view of Havana we drove through, always bright and leering and calling out wonderful ideas, and why couldn't I come out to play? But I could not. I could only smile back and say, Soon. It will be soon.

Just as soon as I could find Weiss.

WE GOT BACK TO OUR ROOM WITHOUT INCIDENT AND with no more than a dozen words between the two of us. Chutsky's lack of wordiness was proving to be a really charming personality trait, since the less he talked the less I had to pretend I was interested, and it saved wear on my facial muscles. And in fact, the few words he did say were so pleasant and winning that I was almost ready to like him. “Lemme put this in the room” he said, holding up the briefcase. “Then we'll think about dinner.” Wise and welcome words; since I would not be out in the wonderful dark light of the moon tonight, dinner would be a very acceptable substitute.

We took the elevator up and strolled down the hall to the room, and when we got inside, Chutsky put the briefcase carefully on the bed and sat beside it, and it occurred to me that he had brought it with us to the rooftop bar for no reason I could see, and was now being rather careful of it. Since curiosity is one of my few flaws, I decided to indulge it and find out why.

“What's so important about the maracas?” I asked him.

He smiled. “Nothing” he said. “Not a single damn thing.”

“Then why are you carrying them all over Havana?” He held the briefcase down with his hook and opened it with his hand. “Because” he said, “they're not maracas anymore.” And sliding his hand into the briefcase, he pulled out a very serious looking automatic pistol. “Hey presto” he said.

I thought of Chutsky lugging the briefcase all over town to meet Ee-bangh, who then came in with an identical briefcase —both of which were shoved under the table while we all sat and listened to “Guantanamera'.

“You arranged to switch briefcases with your friend” I said.

“Bingo.”

It does not rank among the smartest things I ever said, but I was surprised, and what came out of my mouth was, “But what's it for?”

Chutsky gave me such a warm, tolerant, patronizing smile that I would gladly have turned the pistol on him and pulled the trigger.

“It's a pistol, buddy” he said. “What do you think it's for?”

“Um, self-defense?” I said.

“You do remember why we came here, right?” he said.

“To find Brandon Weiss” I said.

“Find him?” Chutsky demanded. “Is that what you're telling yourself?

We're going to find him?” He shook his head. “We're here to kill him, buddy. You need to get that straight in your head. We can't just find him, we have to put him down. We've got to kill him. What'd you think we were going to do? Bring him home with us and give him to the zoo?”

I guess I thought that sort of thing was frowned on here” I said. I mean, this isn't Miami, you know.”

“It isn't Disneyland, either” he said, unnecessarily, I thought.

“This isn't a picnic, buddy. We're here to kill this guy, and the sooner you get used to that idea the better.”

“Yes, I know, but—”

“There ain't no but,” he said. “We're gonna kill him. I can see you have a problem with that.”

“Not at all” I said.

He apparently didn't hear me —either that or he was already launched into a pre-existing lecture and couldn't stop himself. “You can't be squeamish about a little blood” he went on. “It's perfectly natural. We all grow up hearing that killing is wrong.” It kind of depends on who, I thought, but did not say.

“But the rules are made by people who couldn't win without “em. And anyway, killing isn't always wrong, buddy” he said, and oddly enough he winked. “Sometimes it's something you have to do. And sometimes, it's somebody who deserves it. Because either a whole lot of other people will die if you don't do it, or maybe it's get him before he gets you. And in this case —it's both, right?” And although it was very odd to hear this rough version of my life-long creed from my sister's boyfriend, sitting on the bed in a hotel room in Havana, it once again made me appreciate Harry, both for being ahead of his time and also for being able to say all this in a way that didn't make me feel like I was cheating at Solitaire. But I still couldn't warm to the idea of using a gun. It just seemed wrong, like washing your socks in the baptismal font at church.

But Chutsky was apparently very pleased with himself. “Walther, nine millimeter. Very nice weapons.” He nodded and reached into the briefcase again and pulled out a second pistol. “One for each of us” he said. He flipped one of the guns to me and I caught it reflexively. “Think you can pull the trigger?” I do know which end of a pistol to hold onto, whatever Chutsky might think. After all, I grew up in a cop's house, and I worked with cops every day. I just didn't like the things —they are so impersonal, and they lack real elegance. But he had thrown it at me as something of a challenge, and on top of everything else that had happened, I was not about to ignore it. So I ejected the clip, worked the action one time, and held it out in the firing position, just like Harry had taught me. “Very nice” I said. “Would you like me to shoot the television?”

“Save it for the bad guy” Chutsky said. “If you think you can do it.” I tossed the gun on the bed beside him. “Is that really your plan?” I asked him. “We wait for Weiss to check into the hotel and then play OK Corral with him? In the lobby, or at breakfast?” Chutsky shook his head sadly, as if he had tried and failed to teach me how to tie my shoes. “Buddy, we don't know when this guy is going to turn up, and we don't know what he's going to do.

He may even spot us first.” He raised both eyebrows at me, as if to say, “Ha —didn't think of that, did you?”