Atdtda34: An old rogue's dream, 972-975 #3

[Paul Nightingale]

Then, Umeki appears (walking into the scene as Yashmeen did earlier,
discovering Halfcourt, seated) where Halfcourt's 'intuitive powers' have
been demonstrated for the second time, which links her to the fatedness of
the father/daughter meeting, an echo of Halfcourt's meeting, as described
here, with Kit: 'Ran into him last year in Constantinople ...' etc. There
follows a flashback to Umeki's meeting with Kit: their reunion and the
narrative of their shared past is interrupted by the equally serendipitous
arrival of Halfcourt, when Umeki's 'life took one of those turns'. Halfcourt
interrupts Kit/Umeki just as Umeki herself has just interrupted
Auberon/Yashmeen. Kit, absent here, has been recalled by the letter
(Halfcourt: 'That American chap ...') and then the flashback. Within this
flashback the narrative offers tantalising glimpses of a plot inspired by
history, or one kind of history. Umeki is 'on some mysterious mission on
behalf of the technical establishment of her country when she happened to
stroll one early evening into the bar at the Deux Continents'; and then Kit
'might have meant to ask about the Q-weapon and the Tunguska Event and so
on'. Each of these plotlines is abandoned.