"I knew him. After last night there's no one I know better." Her throat was dry, parched. She reached for her water goblet. "And he knew me. At least, he knew of me. Toward the end he was talking to Molino about me, trying to convince him I was no threat to him. I didn't understand what he was talking about. I didn't know why he would think Edmund knew anything about me."

"The Ledger. He probably thought information about you would be in the Ledger."

"I don't know. By that time he was practically incoherent. But I believe he was trying to protect me." Her hand was shaking and she had to put the goblet back down on the table. "I was a stranger to him, but he was still trying to keep me from being hurt. And all the while Molino was hurting him horribly."

Grady's gaze was narrowed on her face. "Tell me what he and Molino said."

She shook her head. "I can't remember. There's too much. It was all a horrible blur. I need to think about it." She drew a deep breath and sat up straighter in her chair. "But not now. There's nothing I need to do more than find that Ledger. I'm not going to let Molino get his hands on it. I'll see him in hell first." Her lips tightened. "That should please you. Isn't that why you brought me here?"

"If the voices were cooperative, I hoped you might be able to point me in the right direction."

"Oh, they were very cooperative. What a clever man you are, Grady."

"You have a right to be bitter," he said wearily. "I don't blame you. I made a choice. I did what I thought was best, but it wasn't best for you."

She opened her lips to agree with him and then closed them again. It was evident he hadn't wanted to subject her to that punishment. What decision would she have made if she had known Molino might be able to find and try to destroy so many innocent people? "I know why the Ledger was important to Edmund, but why are you obsessing about it? You said you weren't a Devanez."

"Self-preservation. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that the majority of people fear what they don't understand and their instinct is to strike out and crush it. The Inquisition was a lesson we should heed. It's much safer for us to move in and out of the shadows than be in a spotlight. Molino isn't rational and there's no telling what he'll do if he gets his hands on the Ledger." He paused. "Or what the family will do in retaliation."

"Retaliation?"

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about a bunch of X-men. I'd bet most of them are bewildered victims of their talent like your mother. It's just that I don't want those victims pushed into a corner by Molino." His lips tightened. "I know what I'd do."

Fight back. And Megan would do the same thing. "You could have warned me what to expect in that trailer."

"I didn't know what to expect. I told you that our knowledge of Listener capabilities is limited. I only knew it would be nasty. I tried to tell you that much."

Yes, he had. "Well, now you know more than—"

Grady's cell phone rang.

He glanced down at the ID. "Harley." He accessed the call and listened for a moment. "Okay, we're on our way. We'll meet you at the airport." He hung up and pushed back his chair. "Sorry, no time for dessert. We have to get out of here. Molino's informant at the circus made a phone call ten minutes ago. Molino will have someone on their way here by now."

She stood up and headed for her bedroom. "I'll go get my suitcases. It will only take me a few minutes. But it's not going to give you much time to get us entry documents."

He frowned. "We can use the same ones to get back into the U.S. that we used leaving."

"But we're not going to go back to the U.S. Not yet."

His gaze narrowed on her face. "And where are going?"

"Munich, Germany."

"Why?"

"Because that's where the Ledger is." She stopped at the door. "At least, I hope it's still there. Edmund didn't get a chance to warn her."

"Who?"

"Renata Wilger. He gave the Ledger to her for safekeeping on his last trip with the circus through Munich. He was uneasy and he'd learned to obey his instincts." You re certain:

"Oh, yes." She smiled mirthlessly. "I couldn't be mistaken. He didn't tell Molino anything, but all his emotion was focused on her before he cut his throat. He was praying for her."

"Do you know anything else about where—"

"Nothing," she interrupted. "Over to you, Grady."

"Right." He was already dialing a number on his cell phone as she closed the bedroom door.

HARLEY MET THEM WHEN THEY dropped off the rental car. "You made good time. I just finished arranging for the charter." He made a face. "It wasn't easy to do since I wouldn't give them the destination. I think they suspect me of being a terrorist or something. It's only because I'm loaded with boyish appeal that I was able to pull it off." He turned to Megan. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you. Did it ever occur to you that it would be a lot healthier if you stayed away from Grady?"

She smiled. "It occurred to me."

"Where's the plane?" Grady asked. "And did you call your contact, Biel, and arrange for him to meet us in Munich with the documents?"

"Hangar fourteen." He started toward the tarmac. "And Biel will be there waiting when we get off the plane. Megan's now Ella Steinberg. I'm Henry Higworth." He smiled. "I was that close to changing it to Higgins but I was afraid that someone would catch the Pygmalion connection and might cause us a headache or two."

"This is no game, Harley."

"Sad. I always try to lighten the burden." He gestured to a Lear jet parked outside the hangar. "There she is. Nice, huh?"

"Beautiful," Megan murmured. "Do you have him working on tracking down Renata Wilger?"

"Yes, but he probably won't have anything but preliminary findings when we get there." He stepped aside for Megan to precede him up the steps to the plane. "You didn't give us much notice, Megan."

"I wasn't sure that I'd give you any notice at all. I was wondering if it wouldn't be safer for both me and Renata if I tried to find her by myself."

"Independence raises its pesky head again," Grady said. "Don't wonder any longer. It wouldn't be safer."

"How can you be certain? You and Molino have been playing cat and mouse for years. He probably knows your methods and patterns as well as you know his."

"Good point. But I've tried to periodically alter my movements so that they didn't form a pattern." He followed her up the steps and settled her in a seat and fastened her seat belt. "And evidently you did decide that we could be of some slight service to you or you wouldn't be here."

"You seem to be able to hop over borders with no trouble and you still know things that I don't."

"And once you have no use for me and you've wrung me of all needed information, then you'll cast me aside?"

"Why not?" she asked lightly. Then her smile faded. She wasn't being entirely honest and she was done with deception. "I would never leave you if you needed me. I'm too close to you. I don't like it but it's there. But that doesn't mean that I won't walk my own path."

"That goes without question." He sat down beside her. "But it's reassuring that you don't regard me as totally discardable."