While he'd been sure that it was almost daylight when he'd left Alviss, here it was only approaching evening. Although he did not look closely, being in a hurry to check in, it seemed to him that there was something different about everything in the city.
He finally arrived at the corner of Fourth and Twelfth Streets and stopped, puzzled. There ahead of him was the sign TROUBLESHOOTERS, INC., but it was on a fine modern building that looked as if it were made from spun glass. He could have sworn that it had been on an old brownstone building. Deciding that it must have been the hangover, he hurried inside.
"Kathleen," he shouted to the dark-haired girl at the desk.
She looked up with a friendly but distant smile. "I beg your pardon," she said.
Kevan looked at her and frowned. She looked almost exactly like Kathleen Culanna, even to the emerald green eyes, but she was different. "You're not Kathleen Culanna," he said.
The girl shook her head. "No," she said, "I'm afraid that she left some time ago. You must be one of our men, aren't you?"
"Yes," said Kevan. "Kevan MacGreene's the name. You can be telling his nibs I'm back." The more he looked at the girl the more he thought he'd recover from the disappointment of not seeing Kathleen. "And what's your name?"
"Colleen Dannan."
"A pretty name to go with a pretty lass," Kevan said. "Is his nibs in?"