Chapter 10 Summary

Paul feels less vulnerable being alone. The Ngos will have to catch him in the open to kill him, which he does not think will happen. He parks his car to get it towed safely into police custody and catches the train to Milan, amused at how closely his methods match Klimenko's. From Milan he backtracks to Rome for a meeting with Alvaro Urpi, a 40-year veteran of the Vatican Library and an expert in all dialects of Chinese. Paul hands Urpi Yu's strips, which Urpi proclaims fine and poetic, in a rare idiom. He will do his best to render them into Latin within three days.

Paul returns to Milan, buys climbing and photographic equipment, rents a car, and heads to Zurich. He fixes the Dolder und Co. architecture in his mind before visiting Dieter Dimpel. Paul lays out his proposal as...