"I am Sybil," she said in lush contralto. A tall, tanned redhead, poised and beautiful. Her dress was one of those spun diamond creations that were so popular, glinting and shining with an albedo like a searchlight. A woman had to have a perfect figure to wear something so outrageous and skintight. She had it.

The twins turned at the sound of her voice—looked at her in appreciative silence. I appreciated that as well, but appreciated her arrival even more.

"I'm Jim diGriz. These are my sons, Bolivar and James. Have you been briefed?"

"Completely."

"Good. What you don't know is that Slakey is here, in that church across the road."

"And he has a new right hand," Bolivar said. "We're glad you're here." "I'll need to get inside the building as soon as possible. I am sure that you have already found out about the church members while I was on my way here. Which of them have you selected as the best possible contacts?" "There are three strong possibilities," James said, taking the photos and identification from the stack and handing them to her. "All rich, young, or young—looking after rejuvenation, all very social, attending plenty of parties and receptions, so they will be easy to meet,"

"I'll do that now. I'll contact you again after I have become one of the Seekers of the Way."

The door closed behind her and we were all silent for long moments. "Pretty sure of herself," Bolivar finally said. It was a compliment and not a negative observation. "The best agent he ever had—isn't that what Inskipp said?"

I nodded. "May he be right—just this once."

Apparently he was, because three hours later we saw her walk through the carved marble entrance to the church, arm in arm with Maudi Lesplanes. The first name on the list that we bad given her. Almost two hours passed before she emerged from the church. This time we were all staring at the door when it opened and she came in. She looked at us and smiled.