He slipped a business card into it, wrote Miss Rajid's address on it. "If you could deliver that at some point today?" A few moments of courtesy could end up saving him endless years of excruciating pain.
    "I'll take care of it right now, sir!" Jules could recognize an escape route when one was offered; he disappeared.
    The visitors took their bags up to the suite--via the stairs, as the last thing they wanted was to break the elevator. Astro-Man assumed his Uranus aspect and began to listen in on conversations as they passed.
    "How much longer are we going to have to stay up here?" someone asked.
    "Well, as I understand it, in a few short days up here won't be nearly as offensive as it is right now."
    "More to our liking, as it were?"
    "Yes, exactly."
    He also heard growling inside one of the rooms that adjoined their own suite. "Will you stop that?" someone snapped.
    "I still hurt, brother," the growl said.
    "We managed to get away."
    "Yes, but the indignity. His cufflinks!"
    When they reached the suite, he shared what he had heard. "Did you wound any werewolves with your cufflinks?" It appeared not. "I wonder what they were referring to. Maybe the reaction to silver is an allergic reaction, caused by the disease."
    
    "Mistress?" Terry said.
    "Yes?" Argus replied.
    "There are three new arrivals in the town."
    "Ah. More of the crowd we've been watching come in?"
    "No, they seem to be entirely different. Mr. Roberts, Mr. Prime, and Mr. Butler."
    She didn't often manage to penetrate the PAA's elaborate security, but knew the former two had been involved in the Millinocket affair before. She had no knowledge of Claude Butler. "Fascinating. That does suggest that we are in the right place at the right time."
    "Otherwise, it looks as if the hotel still contains seven people from Boston, six people from New York, eight people from Philadelphia, two people from Baltimore, and four people from somewhere in the Appalachians, I haven't been able to nail down specifically, who do not seem to fit with the regular set, but judging from the lineage information I've been able to compile, are probably distant members of the Jenkins family clan."
    "Spread far and wide."
    "The other ones do not seem to be any relation to the Jenkins, leads me to believe that these are members of the same cultist sect that you had previously driven from Boston, mistress."
    Very diplomatic, she grinned, given that she'd run and had them disappear.
    "There's a messenger going out, should we follow?" her Eye reported.
    "Yes, please do."
    
    Adam went wandering; Bernard went down the lounge to read the newspapers and eavesdrop. Kane retired until sundown, having had more than his fill of summer daylight, and found himself listening in on the growling from the next room. It seemed someone was penned up in his room because he was healing from something that had left him locked in a half-lupine form. Of course, no one so animalistic could pass as human.
    Meanwhile, out on the street, Adam had a heartening encounter with the waitress and her husband, whom they had rescued from drowning (twice) during their previous adventure.
    "I never did get a chance to thank you for pulling me out of the water that night."
    It was nothing; what any good citizen would do, Adam demurred.
    "Are you still considering investing in?"
    We're looking into it. We're not the decision-makers, but we like the town.
    "Given how much I owe you, my wife owes you, I think--this has nothing to do with any sort of decision that you make regarding the town--I think that you, and Mr. Roberts, and whoever else you have with you, your--his wife if she's here--should come over to our place and have pie," he announced.
    Pie? That would be wonderful, Adam replied, delighted. He liked pie.
    "Right, honey?"
    She nodded, although a bit dubiously looking at Adam's size, as if wondering how the furniture would manage.
    "Tonight. Come by around seven o'clock."
    I'll tell my friends, he promised.
    "Great. Glad to hear it." They strolled off, arm in arm.
    He had other brief conversations. The mill was going three shifts, the theater was doing well, and the general mood was upbeat. Many townspeople had moved back to Ambajejus since old man Jenkins vanished and Wolfgang took over the family's business dealings. Most of the townsfolk assumed that the outsiders in the hotel were potential investors into a revitalized Ambajejus, and emotions seemed split; a sister town doing well would be nice, but on the other hand, why not invest in Millinocket?
    In the hotel lounge, Bernard learned a great deal about whom they were dealing with. The hotel was still somewhat understaffed, and given the size of the place it was easy for people to engage in whispered conversations that could not normally have been overheard. None of the residents seemed concerned about the prospect, at any rate. They appeared to be preparing for something, which they expected within the next couple of days.
    A server came by with a couple of drinks; upon her departure one cultist murmured, "She looks like she'll be a tasty morsel for our friends."
    "Not until we've made use of her exceptional spirit," another replied.
    He gathered that many of these people had not known one another beforehand, and had come together from many far-flung communities. There were normal conversations about politics, art, news, and marriages, spiced with the occasional, "Once we rule the world, we can get rid of Roosevelt, since he's obviously ruining the country." There were frequent mentions of a baby, but without enough context to suggest what import the infant or infants might possess.
    Evening fell; Adam returned and passed on the pie invitation to his comrades. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was as usual; Adam stole everyone's salad, and Kane pushed food around. Bernard ate a normal meal. The full menu was available this time, including the "Adam Special," a large salad with a fruit salad on the side. Werewolf and cultist conversation alike was considerably more conventional during dinner.
    "This may be one of the few rooms we've ever been in where we don't stand out," Kane remarked quietly.
    "I swear, I have seen him before," someone was saying at a nearby table.
    "Seen who?"
    "The one sitting next to the big guy. I've seen him before. Where?" she mused.
    Bernard realized she was talking about him.
    "What are they doing up here?"
    "Apparently they're planning on investing in the town."
    "Well that's almost a joke...."
    "Sh. Quiet."
    He glanced over a while later, casually. He had seen her before, a dinner he'd been dragged to at the university in San Francisco two years before. They had chatted for a brief while; he could not remember her name. Sotto voce he passed on news of this development to the other two.
    "That would mean you're high on the list of people to go get pie soon," Kane suggested.
    "I should leave as possible, yes."
    "I'm not going to be going with you. It's much harder to hide not eating pie in a room full of people when there's only three of them."
    
    Having considered the situation, Argus decided to make contact with the PAA folk. She disguised herself somewhat and headed over to the hotel to see if she could find them there, choosing the after-dinner hour when many of the hotel guests would be in the bar, socializing. Her quarry was just getting up from their table when she arrived. The big man and one of the others, who had a certain professorial air, looked as if they were leaving. That left one to talk to; excellent. She meandered in his direction.
    

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