The River of No Return

loud when it seemed certain that she would notice them. But she didn’t, and they successfully trailed her all the way to the women’s restroom. She disappeared inside.
    “I’m going in,” Meg said.
    “Don’t. It’s ridiculous. Let’s get back.” Leo jangled the car keys in his pocket. “I want to get some of the driving done in daylight.”
    But Meg was already pushing the door open, turning as she did so and putting a finger over her lips.
    The two men waited outside for ten minutes. Women entered and left again, but there was no sign of either Meg or the Alderwoman.
    “Do you think one of us should go in after her?”
    Nick frowned. “They must be talking in there.”
    A minute later Alice Gacoki emerged. She saw them immediately. “Hello,” she said, coming forward. Her business suit was perfectly tailored to her slight form. She was Kikuyu, with close-cut white hair. She wore a ring with a pale yellow stone on one of her long, elegant hands, which moved balletically as she talked. She had jumped forward three centuries in her thirteenth year and had been the Alderwoman for decades now. “It’s Nick, isn’t it? Nick Davenant.”
    “It’s good to see you again,” Nick said, and bowed.
    “Be careful with that bow,” she said, and held out her hand. Nick flushed and shook it. Her skin was cool, but her ring on her finger was warm.
    She turned to Leo. “And you’re . . .” She paused, looking up into his face. He waited for her to remember him. And she did. “Leo Quonquont.”
    Nick was impressed. How many thousands of names and faces did she have logged in her mind? The Alderwoman stood back now and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you fellows doing here?”
    Leo pointed with his chin at the bathroom door. “We’re waiting for our friend Meg.”
    “Ah. The hungry one. I’m in a rush to get up to the compound, so please say hello to her for me. See you back at the ranch.” She nodded to them both and walked away into the crowd.
    Meg popped out a moment later. Her mouth was a tiny, tight line, her eyes wide and frightened.
    “What happened?” Leo touched her shoulder.
    She looked from one to the other of them. “Did you see her?”
    “Yes.” Nick had never seen his friend so perturbed. “She said to say hi. She was in a rush. What the hell happened in there?”
    “I’ll tell you in the car.”
    But when they reached the convertible Meg had second thoughts about getting in. “I shouldn’t tell you in there. It’s probably rigged with some sort of recording device.”
    “Bugged,” Leo said. “That’s the word for it.”
    “I doubt very much whether—” Nick reached for the door handle.
    “Whatever.” Meg was looking up and down the street. “Just come on.”
    With her arms tucked into theirs, the two men had to bend over Meg to hear her whisper as she trotted them along at a furious pace. “I slipped into the stall next to her,” she said. “I popped right up on the toilet and looked over the divider.”
    “You didn’t!” Nick laughed, horrified.
    “Sure I did. Why not? Well. There she stood, holding her cell phone. I thought for certain she’d look up and see me. Then the phone vibrated, and she answered it.” Meg looked up at her companions, first Leo, then Nick. “I could barely hear her. But she said, ‘She has disappeared. Ignatz has fled. The Brazilian resistance is fractured for the moment. Whenever they regroup, we have to be ready.’”
    The two men stopped and stared down at her.
    “I’m not telling you a lie. God strike me dead if I tell a lie.”
    Whether the car was bugged or not, they argued about it all the way home. Meg fought loudly, Leo calmly, Nick with a disbelieving contempt for his friends’ opinions. Meg and Leo said this proved what they had suspected. The Guild was corrupt. They were killing people. Somewhere out there—in Brazil—there was a resistance movement.
    “I don’t believe it.” Nick folded his arms and stared at his reflection in the car window. The sun had set; they had been around this argument three or four times already. “Every member of the Guild is made a millionaire, no strings attached. Why would anyone resist that?”
    “No strings? No strings?” Meg’s voice filled the car. “You don’t have the sense that God gave a billy goat!”
    “It’s good that you’re content, Nick,” Leo said, calmly glancing over his shoulder and then turning the wheel to change lanes. “But you