After Sharron answered, Klein asked a few more questions. Alice racked her brain but couldn't see how they were connected, so she propped up her chin and listened to him.
To Alice's disappointment, Klein offered no analysis. Once he had established that he was in charge, he simply said:
"I'll tell you exactly what to do when we get there."
"?" Alice glared at Klein for keeping them in suspense. She was still glaring when Sharron and Maric agreed.
Klein turned to her and said:
"Children should go to bed early and get up early."
Alice gritted her teeth, shot him one last glare, and went home to sleep.
After Alice disappeared, Klein turned back to say goodbye to Sharron, but she suddenly asked:
"Why didn't she ask you for money?"
"What?" Klein froze.
Maric was startled too. Beyonders of the Fate pathway rarely worked closely with others, and neither he nor Sharron had a close acquaintance from that pathway. But they had met and even traded with a few.
Rumors were unclear about Miss Fortune's Sequence. They could only be certain she was an Angel, but no one disputed that she belonged to the Fate pathway.
And Alice's demand for a gold coin had made one thing clear: she needed an "exchange."
Most Beyonders who had dealt with the Fate pathway knew about "equivalent exchange." Sharron and Maric knew a little more than those who had only encountered its members in passing: what counted as "equivalent" could be remarkably arbitrary.
But however arbitrary it was, she couldn't give something for nothing. Even a blade of grass plucked from the roadside would count as payment.
Yet Sherlock Moriarty... didn't seem to have given her anything.
Maric and Sharron looked at Klein together. Maric frowned and asked:
"When she helps you,