"No, but this is going to be the first one I ever met. Does he go out?"

"Oh, yeah, he likes women, all right, if that’s what you mean. Used to go out with this girl in Heidelberg, Janet Feller, but…I don’t know, like I said, I think he’s still in love with his wife."

"What’s he like?" Julie asked with undisguised interest. "Is he good-looking?"

"I wouldn’t say he’s handsome," John said with a shrug, "but what do I know? He’s about my size, maybe a little shorter: six-one, six-two. Seems to be in pretty good shape. From what I can tell, the gals seem to like him."

Julie finished her sandwich and crumpled up the waxed paper and threw it into a wastepaper basket near the desk. She took the lid off her Styrofoam cup of coffee and drank. "It’s funny, you discuss someone’s theories and ideas for ten weeks almost as if you were arguing with him personally, but you never wonder what he looks like, or think of him as human."

John laughed. "Oh, he’s human, all right. On the quirky side, in fact."

John Lau’s laugh was the kind that made other people join in, and Julie laughed, too. "How so?"

"Well, he might seem a little prickly at first, and he talks like a professor most of the time, and his head’s usually in the clouds somewhere. One time I watched him spend twenty minutes looking for a notebook that was tucked under his arm." He laughed again, tilted his head back, and tapped the last crumbs of potato chip into his mouth. "He’s a funny guy, kind of a quick temper, but at the same time he’s, I don’t know, gentle. You’ll see."

"He sounds fascinating."

"Yes," John said, nodding, thinking back to other times. "He’s the kind of guy who’s liable to go bonkers at little things, but in a crisis, when the chips are really down, there’s no one I’d rather have around. And I know what I’m talking about."

Julie sipped her coffee quietly, smiling at the faraway look in the agent’s eyes. "It sounds like you like him a lot," she said softly.