Lahat ng Kabanata ng Just for two weeks: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Jim, now having made it clear to Sophie that he has no intention of leaving, moved with her across the Salle des Etats. The Mona Lisa was still twenty yards ahead when Sophie turned on the back light. And the bluish crescent of penlight fanned out on the floor in front of them. She swung the beam back and forth across the floor like a minesweeper, searching for any hint of luminescent ink. Walking beside her, Jim was already feeling the tingle of anticipation that accompanied his face-to-face reunions with great works of art. He strained to see beyond the cocoon of purplish light emanating from the black light in Sophie's hand. To the left, the room's octagonal viewing divan emerged, looking like a dark island on the empty sea of parquet.Jim could now begin to see the panel of dark glass on the wall. Behind it, he knew, in the confines of her own private cell, hung the most celebrated painting in the world.The Mona Lisa's status as the most famous piece of art in the world, Jim

Across the room, Sophie McEwan felt a Cold sweat breaking across her forehead. Jim was still spread-eagle on the floor. Hold on, Jim. Almost there. Knowing the guard would never actually shoot either of them, Sophie now turned her attention back to the Matter at hand, scanning the entire area around one masterpiece in particular - another Day Vinci. But the UV light revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Not on the floor, on the walls, or even on the canvas itself. Sophie felt totally certain she had deciphered her grandfather's intentions correctly. The masterpiece she was examining was a five-foot-tall canvas. Behind her Sophie could hear the guard trying to radio again for help. She pictured the message scrawled on the protective glass of the Mona Lisa. So dark the con of man. The painting before her had no protective glass on which to write a message, and Sophie knew her grandfather would never have defaced this masterpiece by writing on the painting itself. She paused. At least no

Sophie's SmartCar tore through the diplomatic quarter, weaving past embassies and consulates, finally racing out a side street and taking a right turn back onto the massive thoroughfare of Champs-Elysées. Jim sat white-knuckled in the passenger seat, twisted backward, scanning behind them for any signs of the police. He suddenly wished he had not decided to run. You didn't, he reminded himself. Sophie had made the decision for him when she threw the tracking device out the bathroom window. Now, as they sped away from the embassy, serpentining through the sparse traffic on Champs-Elysées, Jim felt his options deteriorating. Although Sophie seemed to have lost the police, at least for the moment, Jim doubted their luck would hold for long.Behind the wheel Sophie was fishing in her sweater pocket. She removed a small metal object and held it out for him. "Jim, you'd better have a look at this. This is what my grandfather left me.Feeling a shiver of anticipation, Jim took the object and

Outside the Salle des Etats, Andrie Romano was fuming as Louvre warden Pablo Diez explained how Sophie and Jim had disarmed him. "Captain?" Lieutenant Suslowicz loped toward them from the direction of the command post. "Captain, I just heard. They located Agent McEwan's car.""Did she make the embassy?""No. Train station. Bought two tickets. Train just left."Romano waved off warden Pablo Diez and led Suslowicz to a nearby alcove, addressing him in hushed tones. "What was the destination?""Lyon.""Probably a decoy." Romano exhaled, formulating a plan. "Okay, alert the next station, have the train stopped and searched, just in case. Leave her car where it is and put a plainclothes watch in case they try to come back to it. Send men to search the streets around the station in case they fled on foot. Are buses running from the station?""Not at this hour, Sir. Only the taxi queue.""Good. Question the drivers. See if they saw anything. Then contact the taxi company dispatcher with a d

The Depository Bank of Zurich was a twenty-four-hour Geldschrank bank offering the full modern array of anonymous services in the tradition of the Swiss numbered account. Maintaining offices in Zurich, Kuala Lumpur, New York, and Paris, the bank had expanded its services in recent years to offer anonymous computer source code escrow services and faceless digitalized back up.The bread and butter of its operation was by far it's oldest and simplest offering - the anonyme Lager - blind drop services, otherwise known as anonymous safe-deposit boxes. Clients wishing to store anything from stock certificates to valuable paintings could deposit their belongings anonymously, through a series of high-tech veils of privacy, withdrawing items at any time, almost in total anonymity.As Sophie pulled the taxi to a stop in front of their destination, Jim gazed out at the building's uncompromising architecture and sensed the Depository Bank of Zurich was a firm with little sense of humor. The build