rubbing me out. But I did seek another
haven. If they knew me that well, I'd never be safe where I had stashed
my suitcase.

There was a 'copter squatting at the Sky Hi's ramp. I jumped for it and
had him drop me toward the outskirts of the town of Lake Tahoe, and then
walked a few blocks, mostly in circles to see if I were being followed,
before darting into a fairly seedy motel a couple blocks off the main
drag.

My room was on the third floor of the flea-bag. Part of the place was
only two stories high. The door at the end of my corridor opened out
onto the roof. When I had calmed down, I stepped through the door into
the cool of the desert night.

* * * * *

The gravel on the built-up roof crunched in the darkness under my feet
as I walked cautiously to the parapet and looked over its edge to the
hunk of desert that stretched away toward Reno, out behind the motel.
The third story, behind me, cut off the neon glare from the Strip and
left the place in inky darkness. There was silence and invisibility out
behind the motel.

Feeling a little creaky about falling a couple stories to the ground, I
lay down on my back on the narrow parapet, with my hands behind my head
to soften the concrete a little, and looked straight up into the night
sky. A dawdling August Perseid scratched a thin mark of light across the
blackness. I heard a coyote howl. This was desert. This was peace. The
dice and chuck-a-luck seemed ten thousand miles away.

I heard a sound. Gravel crunched dimly under another foot. Somebody had
stepped invisibly onto the roof. It scared the daylights out of me, more
so because I was flat on my back. Cautiously I turned my head toward the
door I had come through. I could see the fuzzy redness of a cigarette in
the dark. It brightened as the smoker took a drag. Then I heard the
sniffle, and knew who it was.

She stood there, apparently leaning against the wall behind her,
silently, invisible but for the glow of her cigarette, and not moving
her feet. "Hello," I said at last.

"Wasn't sure you wanted to talk," she said out of the dark. It shook me
up. She certainly couldn't _see_ me.

"How'd you know I was here?" I asked her.

"I don't know how. But I knew you would be." That wasn't what I had
asked, exactly. She sniffled, and I could almost see the back of her
hand swipe at the bead of moisture that kept forming at the tip of her
skinny nose. Made me think. Psi powers