Learning nothing he didn't already know, Hi decided to call it a night and start with a clear head in the morning. Intending to hail a taxi, Hi went outside Cuco's. But the midnight fog, which seemed almost supernatural, was so thick Hi could hardly see the sidewalk in front of him, much less any passing taxi.

Hi walked east on Corrientes in the fog. As he did, he began hearing footsteps behind him. Crossing Calle Florida (a pedestrian street--no taxi here), he kept walking. He should have gone west, toward Nueve de Julio, but he mistakenly thought the Plaza de Mayo was not far away down east Corrientes. There he could get a taxi to Recoleta and his rented bungalow. But the plaza was blocks to the south. And soon east Corrientes, as he walked, was deserted.

Those footsteps behind him continued, not too far away in the fog. They seemed to stop whenever Hi did. He determined to find out who it was--and to not let himself get knocked out again. Hi stepped into a doorway and waited.

The footsteps approached. Hi took a deep breath, the adrenalin pumping, and stepped out from the fog-shrouded doorway. He almost scared Soto to death. Looking into his face, Hi remembered seeing this man, who had reacted self-consciously, both nights in the cabaret.

"What is your name?" Hi asked, in a tone suggesting that he better get an answer.

Soto adopted an indignant manner. "What is my name? It is none of your business."

"That's a funny name. Why are you following me?"

Soto glanced around as if to see if someone else was there. "Who is following you?" he asked rhetorically.

"Then what are you doing?"

"I am lost in the fog, like you."

"What a coincidence. I've seen you twice at Cuco's Cabaret."

"Then you must like Cuco's Cabaret too. It's a pretty good place. Where are you going, anyway?"

"I'm lost in the fog, like you. I thought I was going to the Plaza de Mayo."

"Ha. The Plaza de Mayo is that way," Soto said, gesturing with a nod of the head toward the direction from which they had come.

"I thought you said you were lost."

"I am. But I have a feeling that if we go back the way we just came, we won't be lost anymore."

Soto gave Hi a self-satisfied look, turned, and walked away into the fog. Hi stood there a moment, wondering if he should have roughed up the guy to find out why he was following him, and wondering what would have happened if he tried.

When Hi finally got to the Plaza de Mayo--there was no sign of Soto--he took a taxi to Recoleta. Waiting for him by their rented Chevy sedan in the fog in front of the bungalow were Diego and a man whom Hi assumed was the one Diego had wired him about--a British intelligence agent who had some kind of job for Hi involving Adolf Hitler.