"I don't know." Her eyes began to glisten again. "I don't know! And I'm worried about him!"

"Maybe he just changed his mind."

She shook her head. Violently. "No! Never!"

"Okay, okay. Don't get excited."

Got up and walked to the viddow behind my desk. Wished I could have looked out a real window instead of at this transmission from the outer wall, but I could barely keep up the rent on an inner cubicle let alone afford one on the perimeter. Kept turning the gold coin over and over in my right hand while the greencard lay cool and still in my left. Something wrong here. Something crazy.

"Can I have my card back?"

Turned and gave it to her. Real important to her, that card.

A cockroach — a big one — ran across my shoe then. Squashed it with a satisfying crunch when it got back to the floor. Ignatz was going to have to make another sweep of the place.

"All right. Let's find out what you know about this guy."

Turned out she didn't know all that much.

Was what you call a whirlwind romance. Kyle Bodine worked for an import-export firm. Had contracts in the outworlds who’d welcome him and his new wife. Anti-clone laws were big out there, but no one would have to know she was one. She said she'd last seen him in Dydeetown on Friday morning. He had a medium-size compartment in one of the high-rent districts in Manhattan. The door was keyed to her. She'd already been there after many unanswered calls. No Kyle. No sign of foul play.

That's where I'd start.

"Okay," I said. "The fee is 200 a day plus expenses."

"Filamentous with me," she said, nodding.

Held up the gold coin. "This thing's worth more than a week in advance."

"If you find him before that — even if it's tonight — it's all yours."

She really wanted this guy back.

Told her I had some errands to run and would meet her at Bodine's compartment in a tenth.