Lucas looked at Lily, who nodded and flashed her N YPD case. Lucas handed over his ID. "Okay," said the advance man, still courteous. "Could you point out the other plain-clothes people inside…?"

It was quick and professional. In five minutes, the room was secure. When Clay arrived, he got out of his car alone, but two more advance men blocked either end of the car. The mayor came out and met Clay at the car, and they walked, chatting as casual friends, into City Hall. If any of the newsies noticed that the two men were walking through an invisible corridor of professional security, none of them said anything.

Clay and Daniel did the press conference together, the mayor beaming from the wings. Anderson and an FBI functionary passed out photos of the Crows.

"An hour from now, the Crows won't be able to go on the streets," Lucas said as the conference ended.

"We've had Shadow Love's face out there, and that hasn't gotten anywhere…" Lily said, when he got in the car beside her.

"We're tightening down. It'll work, with a little time."

"Maybe. I just hope they don't pull some shit first. We better get down to Daniel s office for this meeting with Clay."

Sloan, Lucas, Lily, Anderson, Del and a half-dozen other cops had been waiting ten minutes when Daniel and Clay arrived, trailed by the mayor, two of Clay's bodyguards and a half-dozen FBI agents.

"Your show, Larry," Daniel said.

Clay nodded, stepped behind Daniel's desk and gazed around the crowded office. He looked like an athlete gone to fat, Lucas thought. You wouldn't call him porky, but you could get away with "heavyset."

"I always like to talk to local police officers, especially in serious situations like this where everything depends on cooperation. I spent several years on the streets as a patrolman-got to the rank of sergeant, in fact…" Clay began, and he nodded at a uniform sergeant standing in the corner of the room. He was a solid speaker, picking out each local cop in turn, fixing him with his eyes, soliciting agreement and cooperation. Lily glanced up at Lucas after Clay had given them the treatment, and cracked a smite.

"Good technique," she whispered.

Lucas shrugged.

"… wide experience with Indians, and I will tell you this. Indian rules are not our rules, are not the rules of a rational, progressive society. That statement-I'd prefer to keep it in this room-is not a matter of prejudice, although it can be twisted to sound that way. But it's a solid fact; and most Indians themselves recognize it. But we don't have two sets of rules in America. We have law, and it applies to everybody…"

Heil Hitler," Lucas muttered.

When they finished, Clay whipped out of the building in his cloud of bodyguards.

"Let's go look at his hotel," Lucas suggested.

"All right," Lily said. "Though I'm starting to have my doubts. His guys are pretty good."

Clay's chief of security was a nondescript, pale-eyed man who looked like a desk clerk until he moved. Then he looked like a viper.

"We've got it nailed down," he said after Lucas and Lily identified themselves. "But if you think you might see something, I'd be happy to walk you through."

"Why?" asked Lucas.

"Why what?"

"Why are you happy to walk us through, if it's all nailed down?"

"I never figured myself to be the smartest guy in the world," the security man said. "I can always learn something."

Lucas looked at him for a minute, then turned to Lily. "You're right. They're good," he said.

They took the tour anyway. Clay was on the fourteenth floor. There were higher buildings around, but none closer than a half-mile.

"Couldn't take him through a window," the security man said.

"How about something set up in advance? Clay's stayed at this hotel before, right?"

"Like what?"

Lucas shrugged. "A bomb in an elevator?"

"We sniffed the place out. Routine," the security man said.

"How about a suicide run? The Crows are crazy…"

"We've checked the staff, of course. No Indians at all, nobody with the kind of background that we'd worry about.

Most of them are career people, been here a while. A few new people on the desk and kitchen staff, but we screen them out when the boss comes and goes… And when he does come and go, we check the lobby and the street first. He's in and out in a hurry, with no warning. So it wouldn't be anybody on the street."

"Hmmph," said Lucas.

They were headed back down in the elevator and Lucas asked, "Is there any way to get up on top of the elevator from the basement or the roof, ride up that way?"

The security man allowed himself a small grin. "I'm not going to talk about that," he said, glancing at Lucas. "But in a word, no."

"You've got the elevators wired," said Lily. kThe security man shrugged as the elevator stopped at the ird floor. An elderly woman wearing a fur wrap got on, peered nearsightedly at the lighted buttons and finally pushed the button for the second floor. A room-service waiter pushed a dinner cart past the elevators just as the doors were closing.

"How about a disguise?" Lucas asked after the old lady had gotten off. "What if somebody came in disguised as an old lady…"

"Metal detectors would pick up the gun."

"… and had a gun stashed on the third floor. Rode up to the third floor, picked it up and then went up to fourteen…"

The security man shrugged again. "That's a fantasy. And when they got up there, they'd have to shoot their way past three trained agents. And the boss is armed, and he knows how to use it."

Lucas nodded. "All right. But I got a bad feeling," he said.

He and Lily left the security man in the lobby and headed for the doors. Just as they were about to go out, Lucas said, "Wait a minute," and turned back.

"Hey," he called to the security man. "How did that room-service food get up on three?"

The security man looked at Lucas, then at Lily, then at the elevators. "Let's go ask," he said.

"In a dumbwaiter," a cook told them. He pointed to an alcove, where they could see the opening for the chain-driven lift.

The security man looked from the dumbwaiter to the cook to Lucas. "Could a man ride up in that?" he asked the cook.

"Well… I guess a couple guys have. Sometimes," the cook said, his eyes shifting nervously.

"What do you mean, 'sometimes'?"

"Well, when it's busy, you know, the boss doesn't want a lot of waiters riding up in the elevators with the customers. The waiters are supposed to take the stairs. But sometimes, I mean, if it's on the tenth floor…"

"How often do guys ride up?" the security man asked.

"Look, I don't want to get anybody in trouble…"

"Nobody'11 hear a word from us," Lily promised.

The cook wiped his hands on his apron, then lowered his voice and said, "Every day."

"Shit," said the security man.

The security man laid it out: "A suicide run. Four guys. They come down the alley to the service dock. They push the bell. One of the staff opens the door to see who it is. The Crows stick a gun in his stomach. One guy stays in the kitchen while the other three ride up in the dumbwaiter, one at a time. They come out in the service area on fourteen. They've got automatic weapons or shotguns. They check the hall, somehow… maybe just peek, or they use a dental mirror… they come out and take the two agents in the hall. That leaves one guy with the chief. They knock the door out with a shotgun, and then it's three on two, maybe three machine guns or shotguns against two pistols…"

"It's a possibility," said Lily.

Now it was Lucas' turn to shake his head. "You know, when you lay it out like that, it sounds pretty unlikely…"

"The Crows are pretty unlikely," the security man said.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do. We'll freeze the kitchen. Stick a monitor somewhere. If they come in, we'll snap them up."