‘It was a great chance that I took when I asked this favor, but if what Miss Hope said is true, I’ll try it. Even the possibility of the truth.’

    The room is lit only by candles. Norman has gone to bed, long since. The clock reads eleven thirty, and the dinner dishes are clean, dry, and have been replaced in the cabinet. It is Tuesday evening, and the master of the house sits with its mechanical mistress. They are seated on the floor, and dark garments enfold them.

    “Dorothy, what exactly is this supposed to prove?” Roger asks her quietly as she lays the cards from the carefully opened box on the floor.

    “It is to determine your involvement in the project, Roger Smith, and mine.”

    Roger glances sharply up at Dorothy. “What do you mean, yours?”

    “Hope said it was no coincidence that I came into her studio today.” She lays another card. “That Mr. Rosewater said I would be coming,” and another. “It was only a matter of time.”

    Roger’s eyes narrow slightly. He recalls the dreams he had just before his encounter with R*D. “Dorothy…”

    Dorothy places the last of the cards on the floor in the pattern her hands had been twitching to place them in since she touched the box that Hope handed her in the studio and she looks up at Roger. “Yes, Roger Smith?”

***