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were busy, the clamor in her head eased a little.
It eased, but it didn't go away. The same questions kept gnawing at her. Why had Curious Notions lied
about her father? Where did the shop get the gadgets it sold? Why were the Germans so interested in it?
And, above those, the one that really mattered: what would the Feldgendarmerie do with do to Father?
Three
Curious Notions stayed open on Sundays. It did a lot of its business then. People who were too busy the
rest of the week came in to spend their money. Paul wondered if he would have enough game sets and
portable stereo players to last till the next shipment from the home timeline came in.
Not everybody who walked through the door could afford to buy. Merchandise stayed in cases or firmly
fastened to walls till customers showed cash. Things got stolen every now and again even so. That annoyed
Paul, but less than it would have had the store been his personal source of income. As things were, theft
was Crosstime Traffic's worry, not his.
An Asian girl not far from his own age walked up and down the aisles. She paused now here, now there.
Her clothes were neat but shabby. Paul didn't think she could afford to get anything, but she didn't seem to
want to leave. She kept looking around at the other customers. He began to wonder if she was there to pick
pockets, not to look at fancy electronics. But she didn't get near anybody else. In fact, she shied away from
other people.
After a while, Paul discovered she was watching them hoping they would go away. That took some time.
Finally, though, she was the only person in the place besides him. Even then, she needed a moment to get
up the nerve to come to the counter.
Maybe she wanted to buy something after all. "What can I help you with today?" Paul asked in his
smoothest tones.
The answer he got was not what he expected. The Asian girl glared at him as if she'd just found him on the
bottom of her shoe. In a fierce whisper, she said, "What have you done to my father?"
Paul blinked. Was she nuts? Did she think he was somebody else? "Miss, I haven't done anything to your
father," he said carefully. "Why do you think I have? No offense, but I don't even know who he is."
"He's Charlie Woo, that's who," she said, as if he ought to know who Charlie Woo was. His expression
must have shown he didn't. That only made her angrier. She pointed a forefinger. "Don't try to pretend you
don't know about him, either. You can't fool me. When the Feldgendarmerie arrested him, they said you
people said you got your stuff from him. That's a lie, and you know it!" She was quivering with fury.
And then the name did ring a bell. He'd had his lunch across from Charlie Woo's little shop. Yes, Woo was
one of the men Dad had fingered for Inspector Weidenreich. He'd been nothing but a name in the phone
book to Paul. But names in the phone book didn't have angry teenage daughters. Charlie Woo, on the other
hand . . .
"You do know something!" the girl exclaimed. "Don't try to tell me different, either. I can see it in your
face."
Paul had never been a very good poker player. "I " he began, and stopped. He didn't know where to go
from there.
"Why did you do it? Why?" Charlie Woo's daughter demanded. "The Germans have him in jail, and they
won't let him go. What are we going to do? I've got a little brother. How are we supposed to make ends
meet without Father? What can we do?" She looked ready to burst into tears either that or take a gun
from her purse and start shooting.
And the strange thing was, he didn't see how he could blame her. Right before his eyes, she stopped being
somebody from an alternate, somebody who mattered to him no more than a character in a video game, and
turned into a human being. He still understood why his father had done what he did. Now, though, he also
understood what that had done to Charlie Woo's family. Till this girl came in, he hadn't cared. Curious
Notions' troubles with the Germans had counted for more. Things suddenly looked different.
"I'll do what I can," Paul said. "I don't know how much that will be, but we'll find out."
Now she stared at him as if she couldn't believe her ears. "You will?" She sounded astonished, too.
"I said so, didn't I?" Paul answered, and wondered how much trouble he'd just let himself in for. "Uh, I'm
Paul. What's your name?"
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