It was a day that improved the longer it went on. Some time around five, Rani began to feel more like an ork again, after plenty of food and the self-indulgence of what claimed to be a bagel with smoked salmon. Whether or not it was, it cost the same as the real thing, and it tasted bloody wonderful. She was feeling good about a lot of things right now, and fairly secure about her destination for later that evening. She’d done some advance checking of the streets and alleys around the Finchley Road exit.