As often happened, Pim and Bim woke up in a different place than where they went to sleep. I can’t explain this phenomenon. I’m not even going to try.

The darkened corridor that terminated in Mrs. Love’s room seemed even darker than usual, its door characteristically ajar, as though for her malign intent to seep insidiously out.

Mr. Love delayed his appointment with Mrs. Love by stepping into the prison library. There he discovered Slim, who’d taught himself medieval Italian solely to read Dante’s tale of Ugolino, sentenced to gnaw eternally at the brain of his arch enemy, Ruggieri.

As instructed, Mr. Love conveyed the disarticulated wings of the Well-Dressed Albatross to the maximum security prison in which Mrs. Love resided, and on which stormy and hateful night had descended.

Mr. Love removed the wings of the Well-Dressed Albatross and made off with them, thereby imposing some significant challenges upon the unfortunate bird.

Slim enjoyed lurking places in the hope of discovering material for extortion. The conversation between Ukifune and Brad gave him nothing in this regard, though he did get a chuckle at their recollections of having been unjustly imprisoned by Slim.

Finding the place empty, Brad and Ukifune retired to twin, wall-mounted IKEA beds that Pim and Bim had assembled and installed at a distance of two metres from each other.

Because they’d gone opposite directions when they departed Beijing, Ukifune and Brad approached the home of Pim and Bim from opposite directions.

The Well-Dressed Albatross continued talking until he discovered that his audience had vanished. Exhausted from his explications, he too departed and found a place to relax. Until an all too familiar figure encroached.

Exasperated by the inability of the Well-Dressed Albatross to follow his rigorous logic, Clive made his way swiftly to the École Polytechnique, so that he might mingle with minds of his intellectual caliber. After many days in motion, Paris at long last appeared on the horizon.