Hey, what is up between Q and Zoya, the woman doctor who treats him?  Am I wrong or is there a considerable amount of flirtation in their interaction?  Is this perhaps the appeal of one defrocked physician for another?

True, I don't imagine Our Fave Ferret is going to be sending her a dozen gardenias, but it seems to me we see him (delightfully, I might add) almost as a schoolboy playing with someone he's got a crush on.  All right, the flirtation *is* a little grim, but this is Quiller, after all.

I particularly like the way they share a "favorite joke" (and a "happy [fill in the appropriate holiday] to you too").  Later, they joke about men being unable to stand pain, and how guys use it as a sympathy ploy.  Then, too, it's really nice that he thinks Zoya would eat Natalya alive were they to meet (this appeals to me because I reckon Natalya for a clinging, dependent mope who can't even pick up on the need to throw off the militia who stop them outside the cafe).  And finally, just what does she mean when Q says, "If I don't see you again. . .you did a great job and I want to thank you," and *she* says,

"Of course you'll see me again."

Hmm...

--IM