The Sound of Wind

  **

  It was Monday afternoon and there was still no sign of Clem.

  Hugo stared at his phone, trying to figure out what to say. He stared at the phone for a long time. He did need to update the Gideon Enterprises' database with what he’d found on Sunday. No, he needed to find out if Edvard intended on going after Madeline again and he didn’t want to just kill him, it would be difficult. He had asked Maggie to find the duplicator, but her vision had jumped around. She would think about his name and she would see him in Tokyo, and then it would switch to Johannesburg, Berlin, Moscow and a number of other places.

  It didn’t help that if Edvard wasn’t going after Madeline again, the attack on the duplicator would destroy their tenuous relationship with the Russian Mob. Hugo drew in a deep breath and dialed the number he had gotten from the database on Sunday, it went to voicemail.

  Hugo spoke in Russian, “Hello, Edvard, my name is Hugo. I….wanted to talk to you about what happened to Gregori, if you could give me a call back, that would be great. Uh. Thanks,” Hugo hung up before he had a chance to sound any stupider.

  Several hours later, while Hugo was trying to update the database with the files he'd memorized from the warehouse, he jumped when his phone rang. It was Edvard. He took several slow, deep breaths before answering, “Hello?”

  “Is this Hugo?”

  “Yes it is, Edvard,” Hugo took in a deep breath as quietly as possible.

  “You’re right, we should talk. I will be in Seattle tomorrow, where should we meet?”

  Hugo suggested a coffee shop not too far from the office, Edvard agreed to the location at 2 pm and then hung up. Hugo stared at the disconnected phone. That had been a lot easier than he thought it was going to be. It would be a shame if Clem wasn’t back before the meeting with the duplicator, but Hugo thought he might at least be able to tell if the guy was lying; he was getting kinda decent at figuring that out.