Juri sneezed and wrinkled his nose, still more than half asleep, annoyed at the tickling hairs. Damn Kerstin and her cuddling, he sighed, then opened one eye and frowned as he saw yellow instead of deep brown. Shit, I'm still asleep to think of her... but Tsao's hair is not that blond either?

His eyes snapped fully open when the whole situation registered with a bang. Salvador was still huddled in his arms, head under his chin, slumbering peacefully. Juri relaxed with an effort, tightened his hold of the clone and stared into the ceiling, brain awake and ready for action. Methodically he began to go through his mental check list for the morning in preparation of the real thing.

The data, well secured and hidden – check. Remove the bug from Calvin's and Salvador's suite and make the necessary arrangements – check. Take apart your own equipment, so that it'd take a real conjurer to figure out what exactly he'd been up to – check. Keep Salvador secure – big check. Talk to Salvador during the night – enormous check.

Now he still needed to try and make sure, or as sure as he could, that Salvador would be able to keep his end of the agreement. There was a big question mark. The clone was clearly unstable, and Juri could only hope that he'd hold together long enough. He was hatching a number of plans for the next few days, but a cooperative, functional Salvador was an essential part in each of them, and there was only so much Juri could do to ensure that.

Considering the circumstances he'd managed well so far. Apparently the clone had remained mostly unconscious while he'd been busy on the other side of the wall separating their rooms, but even his stealthy entry through the terrace door had startled Salvador awake. The next couple of minutes he'd had his hands full of a panicking T-clone before the fact that he was not Calvin had penetrated through the haze of fatigue and confusion. That'd given Juri a welcome opportunity to explain the necessary parts of his quickly drafted plan to Salvador, to push him into the shower and then to bed.

And when he'd tentatively snaked a reassuring arm around the blond beauty, he'd got a pretty good idea of how much Salvador's uncertainty and downright fear of Calvin had affected the clone's well-being. At the simple gesture of caring he'd nearly melted, instantly snuggled closer and slept soundly ever since.

Juri was very glad that he'd been clever enough to pack pajama pants in his suitcase, even though he usually slept in the nude. At least there now was a thin barrier of cloth between him and Salvador's warmth as the clone slept, entire body spooned against his. Juri gently but firmly steered his thoughts elsewhere and soon found a sufficiently morbid topic to dwell on.

That was Calvin's body, or rather, what'd by now be left of it. That dose of Silver Mist contained in Salvador's suicide capsule had really been an unexpected but absolutely superb stroke of good luck. Now there was a compound that was both insanely expensive and hard to come by. It was also extremely dangerous, only attacked organic matter, reacted quickly, and decomposed with equal speed once exposed to light. It'd really been too easy to strip the dead man naked, haul him into the bathtub, fill it with water and drop the capsule in. After that unpleasant operation Juri had quickly switched off the lights and waited long enough to hear the ominous sizzling sound signalling that the protective shell around the substance had melted in the water and released its lethal contents. He didn't especially want to hang around and watch how Silver Mist worked its magic. He was going get an eyeful of it soon enough.

He'd then packed enough of Calvin's things to make it look like the man had left in a hurry, and taken care of them in one of the trash mills in the corridors. He wasn't too concerned about the stuff, and even if something was found, hopefully it'd just deepen the mystery around the situation. It bothered him that he didn't know what exactly would be found inside Orcagna's suite, once somebody finally missed the man enough to go and check, but venturing in to investigate was a risk he couldn't afford to take. His own skin, and Salvador's, were the highest priorities right now.

He nudged the clone cautiously and was rewarded by a quiet sigh but nothing more.

"Hey, Salvador... do you think you could wake up already?"

The clone wiggled a little, then dark lashes fluttered up. He blinked sleepily at Juri, looking delectably kissable. Juri squashed the idea with a firm mental swat.

"Where am I?"

"My room. Remember?"

"Oh yes." The clone actually rubbed his eyes with a hand, then began to look frightened. "Juri... there was..."

"No no no, calm down, relax!" Juri hugged him tighter. "I promised you everything's going to be all right, remember? And it will, believe me. Now we'll take it easy, I'll order some breakfast here and we get dressed. Okay?"

Juri sighed when Salvador nodded a little uncertainly and offered him a weak smile. "That's better. I'll help you all along."

"You will help me find Troy?"

"Yes. I will help you find Troy. But first, before we can do that, there's something else we need to do."

After some hours of sleep, a quick shower and breakfast, and with clothes firmly on, Salvador was obviously feeling a lot better. His sky-blue eyes didn't waver as he listened attentively to Juri's instructions, and he nodded slowly.

"I will be telling things that are not true," he sighed finally. "But I will do it. I... I have felt like telling untrue things before. As if... as if I had dreamed quite a few of the things I should have known, I mean really known."

He shook his head, then fixed Juri with questioning eyes. "Do I really know Claus Orcagna?"

"I can't say," Juri admitted. "You might know him, but I don't say for sure. It doesn't matter any more, though. You don't have to think about him now."

Salvador nodded again, deep in thought. Juri touched his shoulder.

"We should go now. Do you think you can do this?"

"I will do my best," the clone said gravely. "You have helped me. I want to help you."

Yeah, help me and just maybe I'll be able to do something for you, too, Juri thought a little guiltily and stepped out of his suite, the blond young man in tow.

About two hours later he slumped into a chair and closed his eyes for a second. For once, everything had gone without a hitch, exactly according to plan. They'd entered the suite together, and he'd made Salvador wait on the terrace while he'd rinsed what was left of Calvin off the bathtub and down the drain, fighting against nearly overwhelming nausea. They'd then alerted the reception to the fact that the man had ostensibly disappeared, leaving his young companion alone in the Laguna.

When questioned, Salvador had helpfully supplied some more pertinent information: Calvin had wanted to meet a man who'd arrived a couple of days earlier, and this had somehow resulted in a quarrel between them. Calvin had practically thrown him out of the apartment and into the corridor, and there he'd sulking until Juri from the neighboring suite had seen him and been kind enough to ask him in for a drink. Embarrassingly, he'd ended up falling asleep on Juri's bed. No, Salvador had no idea of what'd happened to the man. They'd been intending to stay for at least a few days more – what did it say in the reservation? Calvin had taken care of those, anyway.

The gentleman whom Calvin had been about to meet was soon identified, his apartment called and, when no answer was forthcoming, intruded. Juri was careful not to show too much interest in being on the spot. The personnel who'd gone to the room, ready to pour forth a flood of apologies, hadn't expected to find an apparent suicide case, and the police had been called in a flash. It was all very low-key, of course – the local police were no more eager than the hotel staff to alert the clientele – but definitely efficient.

A search was going on in the two rooms, they'd both been interrogated, and Juri was thoroughly drained. He pressed hands on his eyes and thought wearily what a good thing it was that TerraFour was a neutral planet, carefully not associated or allied with any major player in the field of politics, and especially not with Ziroshel Union. Thus there was at least some hope that Salvador's true nature wouldn't be immediately and glaringly obvious to the first official-looking guy who happened to look at the blond.

Juri hadn't seen Salvador for more than an hour, and he was getting worried. How was the clone holding it together? He'd told the police that he felt responsible for the young man, and dropped a few dark hints at mental problems and even possible abuse in Calvin's hands. Of course the hotel staff could testify to his having been ill, and then there'd been that one instance in the restaurant. The police could accuse Juri of drawing hasty conclusions as much as they wanted, but at least he'd planted a seed of suspicion in their minds. Maybe it wouldn't help them in any way, but it shouldn't harm their case either.

The door opened and Salvador was walked in. Juri sprang on his feet and went to meet him, ignoring the scowl of the police officer standing guard by the door. Salvador accepted the hug and followed him willingly enough to the sofa, slumping against him with a sigh.

"What happened?" Juri inquired, not sparing a glance at the officer. This was a natural enough question to ask of a young man with whom he'd been so unexpectedly thrown together. "How are you feeling?"

"My head's aching a little," Salvador mumbled indistinctly. "I told them what happened last night and this morning. They wanted to know about our relationship... I mean, me and Calvin. They asked if I slept with you last night, and I said we just slept."

"What about you and – him? I have to say I'm still a bit hazy about it," Juri asked. He needed to know, and besides, this was a perfectly legitimate topic even within hearing distance of the officer. "You weren't exactly eager to talk about that last night."

"I... we... I was just traveling with him," Salvador said. "But he did want to have sex with me every now and then."

Juri felt a cold stab of rage when it dawned upon him that the clone was probably telling the exact truth. Very clearly the bastard had seen a T-clone as just another thing to use as he pleased. Somehow Juri couldn't imagine that the man had been a real guardian, in the sense of the word that the information from Jainah had meant. Such conduct smacked too unprofessional to him, too coarse and direct. And I had the pleasure of killing him, he thought with morbid satisfaction.

He let Salvador lean against him, rocked the blond gently. "I'm not going to leave you," he hummed. "Not leaving you in trouble, Sal. You'll see that things will turn out right."

He wasn't sure how much time passed before they were again ushered into another room and asked to sit down. Juri nodded meekly, helped Salvador into one chair and sank into the other. The police officers, a tall man and a tiny woman in identical uniforms, eyed him sternly and he raised an eyebrow.

"Might I ask how long we still have to spend here today?" he asked before either of the officials had time to open their mouths. He leveled a meaningful look at the clone who was absently rubbing his neck, eyes unfocused. "Today hasn't been exactly easy on either of us, and –"

"Not long, let me assure you," the woman said in a crisp, no-nonsense voice. "And perhaps we might even let Mr. Marquina go already. Right now we mainly wish to speak to you, Mr. Lombard."

Salvador lifted his head and looked at them in mute incomprehension for a few seconds, then nodded slowly and turned to Juri.

"Could I stay with you?" he asked uncertainly. "Please. I don't want to be alone."

"Of course you can," Juri said and reached to pat his arm. "I told you, didn't I? I won't leave you alone at a time like this."

Salvador looked relieved and stood up. "I may go now?"

"Yes," the male officer nodded. "We understand that you haven't been quite well recently, and badly need rest after such a day as this has been. I'm sure we can still reach you if necessary."

"Of course," Salvador said automatically. "Juri... how do I get into your room?"

"Damn," Juri muttered, internally triumphing. Unti now he'd completely forgotten about that particular detail, and what a good thing it was, too, that he had. It might've seemed a bit premeditated if Salvador had already had free access to the room. "Please, officers, let me give the reception a call so that they can transfer his access rights to my suite?"

That request was granted, and the clone trotted off. Juri shot a sympathetic glance after him, then turned once more to face the officers and steeled himself. I just hope I'm not in bigger trouble than I calculated, he thought in resignation. It all depends on how well Salvador has managed to hold up his end of the rope, and that's something I don't know anything about. Yet.

"Now, Mr. Lombard." The man sat carelessly on the edge of a table. "Shall we go this over once more, just to check some things?"

"Certainly," Juri nodded. "What do you want to know?"

"You told us that you saw Mr. Marquina in the corridor outside your rooms around half past nine."

"Did I mention any times?" Juri frowned. "I can't be too sure about them. I'm on holiday and didn't have a date agreed, so I haven't been too particular about the clock."

"All right. But it was evening anyway? Dark already?" The woman looked at him evenly.

"Yes. Of that I am sure."

The full story, as it emerged during the questioning, contained many details that Juri knew he hadn't supplied. Some of those he denied, about some he was suitably vague, all the time searching the interrogators' faces for any signs of how the story was holding together, even though he knew it to be futile. These were no rookies, they were experienced professionals with impregnable poker faces. Rookies were not put to investigate unnatural deaths in luxury hotels.

Finally the duo nodded to each other and relaxed minutely from their slightly intimidating stances. Juri relaxed too in his chair, but inside he was far warier than his posture let on. He knew that his background story and credentials were solid enough, and if his room and his luggage had been searched before Salvador had been let go, well, he'd be frankly astonished if the police had managed to find anything to catch their interest. He'd been careful. He hadn't even tried to hide his gun, it was a popular model and with the appropriate licenses and permits. Nothing too odd about it. And yet he knew that he could never be too careful. This could very well be just another trick, making it seem as if they'd already got everything they wanted, just to put him off guard.

"Oh, one more question before you go," the man said lightly. Juri, who'd been standing up from his chair, tensed imperceptibly. The oldest trick in the book, supposedly catching him unawares...

"Yes?" he said with equal airiness.

"Would it mean anything to you to hear that Mr. Calvin was apparently working for the Union?"

Juri blinked in an effort to quickly decide what would be an appropriate reaction.

"Union?" he echoed. "You mean... Ziroshel Union?"

"Yes," the female officer nodded.

"Oh," Juri said with a small frown. "I was not aware of that. Do you then think that he, and Mr. Marquina, weren't here for... uh... purely for the entertainment?"

"We cannot rule out that possibility," the man said.

"Well..." Juri crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "Wouldn't that then mean that the Union might be eager to get Sal– Mr. Marquina back?"

"Possible. And yet he didn't mention anything about that. We find the fact rather intriguing."

"It does sound strange," Juri admitted. "Somehow, though, he doesn't strike me as an – agent, or anything like that. I mean, my idea of what a Union agent would be like is something, well, not at all like him."

The officers looked at him in askance and Juri decided to press the point a little.

"From what we chatted last night, he appeared to be just another young man traveling with a companion who, to me, sounded somewhat odd. And I have to say that I didn't get much information about the relationship between them." He ventured to offer some more incentive. "To me it seemed at times that he was more than a little intimidated by Mr. Calvin. Made me feel uncomfortable, you know."

"Come on, Mr. Lombard," the woman said amiably, "would you please elaborate on that point?"

"If you insist." Juri was careful not to sound too eager. "If you're right, and Mr. Calvin indeed was a Union agent or something of the kind, then my guess would be that if Mr. Marquina knew anything about it, he wasn't a too willing accomplice to whatever the man was doing. Or possibly he was unaware of his role as some kind of cover."

The man nodded encouragingly to Juri. "So that is your theory?"

"Oh, I think you're asking a little too much if you expect me to have any great theories!" Juri laughed a little. "But you're right, I was wondering about what exactly there was between them. My impression was that Mr. Marquina wasn't too happy to be with Mr. Calvin. That he was scared of the man. And..." he hesitated for a moment, both for the sake of appearances and out of real need to think about his words, "although I can't claim to know anything about mentalics, I think that Salvador's being 'not too well' recently had quite a lot to do with Mr. Calvin."

"That's an intriguing claim," the man said looking at him intensely. Juri didn't flinch.

"Maybe," he retorted. "I just find it strange that he first complains about really bad headaches and says he's had trouble sleeping, and then he ends up for a night in the same room with a complete stranger and sleeps like a happy baby. If that doesn't mean that being away from Mr. Calvin equals to him relief from major stress, then what does it mean?"

"I agree with you, it sounds credible enough," the female officer said. "Of course there might be other explanations as well. Such as your having known him already before you met here?"

"Yes," the male officer nodded without missing a beat. "Maybe it even was his task to get rid of Mr. Calvin, and you were supposed to meet him here and help him afterwards. Could that be the reason why you're suddenly so close?"

Juri's eyebrows jumped to his hairline. Now this was an idea that in all truth hadn't even occurred to him, and suddenly the situation took a rather sinister hue. How sloppy of him, not coming to think about such a twist at all...

"Oh no," he spluttered in genuine astonishment. "I can't believe it... I really can't see him doing anything like that. It sounds so – calculated. Too calculated."

"So the two of you didn't know each other beforehand?"

"No. No we didn't." Juri stayed firm. "The first time I met him was yesterday. Of course I'd seen him a few times before with Mr. Calvin, but last night was the first time we ever spoke to each other."

"Yet he seems to have such extreme confidence in you." The male officer looked condescending. "I find that particularly interesting, considering that you supposedly met only yesterday."

Goddamn it, Juri swore furiously to himself, now how do I explain this? When I myself don't even understand how and why he trusts me so! He saw me kill Calvin in cold blood and yet he latches on me as if he knew that I'm only trying to protect him and – hold on, man. As if he knew... what if he does know? T as in telepathic... Juri Lombard, how many times do you need to be told that you're an idiot before you finally believe it?

"Well, haven't you as police officers seen such things before?" he challenged. "That people thrown together by traumatic events might be surprisingly quick to form alliances with anyone who seems in any way inclined to help?"

"Of course we have. But in a case like this, one must also take into account other possibilities. Such as potential prior acquaintances that are for some reason kept secret." The tiny woman looked at Juri evenly. "In any case, Mr. Lombard, you really seem very determined to deflect any suspicions away from Mr. Marquina. So determined that I can't help thinking you're trying to protect him."

"Determined, well, hell yes! Because I can't believe he could've done anything like that!" Juri paused suddenly and looked from one officer to the other. "Now wait a moment. How did we end up here? You have a man whom Calvin presumably met last night and who shot himself, if I understood correctly what I overheard from the personnel earlier. Then there's Calvin himself who's disappeared without a trace. How come we are here discussing whether or not Salvador might have killed Calvin? As far as I know, he's just vanished!"

"Who was talking about killing Mr. Calvin?" The man looked smug.

"Sir, sorry if I drew the wrong conclusion, but you suggested yourself that Salvador might have – uh – got rid of him, or something to that effect!" Juri stuffed his hands into pockets and squared his shoulders. "And next you suggest I'm protecting him. Protecting him from what? I'm feeling sorry for him, he wasn't quite all right even before this and he's certainly not going to be any better now! Is it wrong to be concerned?"

"I think this will be all, Mr. Lombard." The female officer stood up and turned to look at her palm-size computer. "We will probably need to talk to you later, but I dare say it won't be before tomorrow. Thank you for your cooperation."

Juri nodded stiffly and walked out, still seething. As he walked to his room he kept mulling the conversation in his head, more and more puzzled after each replay. And the truly upsetting thing is that our rooms are probably bugged, he realized. Goddamn it, they'll hear us even when we're taking a leak. That means no talking. Better hope that Salvador stays quiet.

He glanced around the dimly lit room and closed the door. It was very silent, and he went around the suite on light feet, looking for surveillance equipment. He found three, and grimaced to himself. He couldn't even disable them all, that'd arouse too much suspicion...

Salvador was curled up in the middle of the bed, fully clothed but shoes kicked to one corner. Juri stepped closer and couldn't hold back a rueful smile. For a while at least he wouldn't have to worry about the clone saying anything too incriminating.

He settled carefully next to Salvador on the bed, turned on his back and closed his eyes. He wished fervently that he could borrow the clone's supposed telepathic abilities for a moment, to take a peek into what was going on in the heads of the police officers. 'Cause I sure as hell haven't got a clue.