Zero History

effectively. We had to take high-rez photographs of the site, from as many angles as you
can, then marry them to whatever that exact angle on the construct would look like, then
choose from those.”
“Did you do that yourself?’
“I chose, but Alberto did the photography and the imaging. That Newton memorial is
one of his own pieces, but he rendered all of the others.” She pushed a strand of hair
back from her eye. “Locative art probably started in London, and there’s a lot of it, but I
haven’t seen much of it there. I decided to stick to American artists. Less to bite off, but
also because it all has some peculiarly literal sense of place. I thought I had a marginally
better chance of understanding it there.”
“You must know a lot about art.”
“I don’t. I stumbled on this stuff. Well, that’s not true. Bigend suggested I look at it.
Though at the time I had no idea it was him doing the suggesting.”
He’d worked the corner of his thumbnail under the shrink-wrap. “Thank you,” he’d
said, “it looks very interesting.”
Now she closed the black book, saw him looking at her. Smiled.
“What are you reading?” he asked.
“Rogue Male. Geoffrey Household. It’s about a man who tried to assassinate Hitler, or
someone who’s exactly like Hitler.”
“Is it good?”
“Very good, though it really seems to be about wriggling down into the heart of the
British countryside. Third act all seems to take place inside a hedgerow, down a badger
hole.”
“I like your book. Like people were able to freeze their dreams, leave them places, and
you could go there and see them, if you knew how.”
“Thank you,” she said, putting Rogue Male down on the table, without bothering to
mark her place.
“Have you seen them all, yourself?”
“Yes, I have.”
“What’s your favorite?”
“River Phoenix, on the sidewalk. It was the first I saw. I never went back. Never saw it
again. It made such a powerful impression. I suppose it was really why I decided to try to
do a book, that impression.”
Milgrim closed Presences. He put it on the table, opposite Rogue Male. “Who are we
going to see in Paris?”
“Meredith Overton. Studied at Cordwainers, shoe design, leather. She lives in
Melbourne. Or did. She’s in Paris for the Salon du Vintage, selling something. She’s with
a keyboard player named George, who’s in a band called the Bollards. Do you know
them?”
“No,” said Milgrim.