'I knew something was amiss,' Laurent corrected. 'I didn't know what or who until I watched the door from the stairwell, at which time I called John. I wish I had known it would be a woman with knives,' he added, sounding almost wistful. He would have enjoyed that fight.

'Contain your disappointment,' said Laurent, 'For at no time was I involved in a plot to kill you.' There was a sound at the door, nearly as quiet as Dutch had been, and Laurent stepped back so that John could enter. 'I'm unharmed,' he told him. 'Damen is cut and bruised, the worst of his injuries I presume to be to his ego. Is there a salve for that?'