onger than ever. No
one on the ground or in nearby windows, he amended. Cade glanced up and around
and saw Mandi hovering twenty feet or so above him.
"If you want your clothes back," said Cade, "You'll promise not to sneak up
on me like that again."
"It didn't work, anyway," said Mandi, descending beside him. "I can't
believe you found a way to disappear halfway up a flight of steps. I had to go
to infrared to spot you. How'd you know I was up there?"
Stepping out of the shadows, Cade said, "Just did."
"Well?" asked Mandi. "How do you think it went?"
"Well enough. We got away without having to deal intimately with the public
or the news hounds."
Lifting a cardboard box from what appeared to be a trash pile in the shadows
to one side of the doorway, Cade handed Mandi a baggie containing her blue
dress, purse, and shoes.
"Your luggage, milady."
Mandi chuckled and took the baggie, then turned into a blur that seemed to
change colors rapidly. A couple of seconds later the blur ceased and Mandi wore
her blue outfit as she appeared to compress a wad of red between her hands.
Her red cape, Cade realized. The rest of her uniform must be inside it. He
watched as she mashed it to the size of a packet of tissues and dropped it into
her purse.
"All set," she said, snapping the purse shut.
"Damn," said Cade. "Wish I could do that. Don't know why I'd need to,
exactly, but that was a helluva trick, ma'am. What about the prosthetics?"
Patting her purse, Mandi grinningly said, "They went in separately. I didn't
think they'd compress well."
Nodding, Cade opened the door for her. They took the freight elevator to the
tenth floor, then rode down to the fourth floor in one of the regular elevators.
John met them near Cade's room and accompanied them inside without comment
until Cade shut the door.
"Well?" asked John. "How do you think it went?"
"That's exactly what I asked him," said Mandi.
"Well enough," said Cade, reusing his answer to Mandi. "We got away without
having to deal intimately with the public or the news hounds."
"Great," said John. "I talked with Paul Money. He's setting up a lookalike
contest for tomorrow evening." Focusing on Mandi, he asked, "You're going to be
in this room tonight?"
"Yes," said Mandi. "We'll move my things in an hour or so, once everything's
settled down."
"Good enough." Turning to Cade, John asked, "Yo