"Good enough. We'll have people in the crowd on general principles. Do you want me to notify WNN?" "Fine with me. We'll give them ten minutes or less to get over here. Good?" "Good. Anything else, Ed?" "Nope. I'm gonna find some dinner and get the hell away from all these people for a while." "Later, then." "Over and out and stuff like that." Cade made it as far as the second-level escalators before Mandi stepped out of a phone alcove and said, "Hi, there." "Hi, yourself, milady. Superpeople changing in phone booths isn't exactly an original concept, y'know." "Then it's a good thing it doesn't have to be, isn't it? How'd the rest of the visit go?" "Good. You'll go on stage around midnight. Paul's gonna give me about fifteen minutes to set things up. You'll be the last part of the show." Mandi nodded. "Sounds fine. What about the car?" Leading the way to the parking area, Cade said, "That's where we're going now. I've got the keys to one of John's agency rentals. It's got about an eighth of a tank, so we'll siphon it dry and give it a wash before we take it inside." "A wash? At this hour? Where?" "Around back at the loading docks. That's where they wash the hotel vans. Manuel said he'd meet us there at eight and spiff it up inside and out for twenty bucks." "Manuel?" "He's a hotel employee. He gets to keep the gas, too; all but enough to get the car moving again later. How's your stage makeup holding together?" "You tell me. The cheek implants felt odd and they kept shifting. I was afraid to talk for fear of spitting on Paul." Grinning, Cade asked, "Want me to find you some, uh... super glue?" Giving him a droll look, Mandi said, "Very funny." Pointing at a nearly-new white Crown Victoria in a line of similar cars, Cade chuckled and said, "Just like Pearl Harbor. All lined up in neat rows. That's the one we want." He opened the door for Mandi and handed her into the car, then got in and drove the car to the loading docks. Manuel hopped down from the dock and pulled a red plastic five-gallon gas can and some hose from behind some boxes. A few minutes later the car's gas tank was more or less empty and Manuel had produced cleaning equipment. By eight-thirty the Crown Vic had been washed, vacuumed, waxed, and was ready for indoor use as a prop. While Manuel put things away, Cade dampened one of the hotel towels, put it into one of the hotel's plastic trashcan-liner baggies, and set the baggie on the passenger-side floor. He then hosed the driveway all the way to an empty parking slot and hosed out the slot itself. Moving the car to the slot, he parked it and locked it, then returned to Mandi. Manuel looked a bit puzzled when he saw where Cade had put the car. As he rolled up the hose, Manuel said, "Man, you lookin' for trouble parkin' in those spaces." "I'll fix it with the boss. Here's thirty bucks.