I, Saul (32 page)

“To reassure me, he adds that I'm in the driver's seat, that my guy can be bought. ‘My guy?' I said. ‘Who's my guy?' and he said, ‘Who do you think I've been talking to today?'

“I didn't want Dimos to see I'm freaking out, so I just kept listening. I had to know if he had really talked to Sardinia.”

“Good thinking. And …?”

“He wouldn't come right out and say it, but he did tell me the guy's lined his own pockets before, and that he uses the Tombaroli to do his
dirty work. He told Fokinos he'll decide how much he can afford to share with us. If Fokinos is telling me the truth, he and this guy both really believe that anybody can be bought.”

“We need to encourage that,” Augie said.

“Way ahead of you,” Roger said. “I told Fokinos I'd be happy not getting whacked and even coming away with a little something. He laughed and said, ‘A little something? You'll be set for life.' So I said, ‘What about my friends?' and he said there's enough for all three of us— not to mention—” Roger hesitated and glanced at Sofia.

“Don't spare me, Rog. I'm a big girl. There's also my father.”

“Right. Dimos says he told his contact to figure a couple of million euros each for you two and me—and that if the parchments were proved real, your father would buy the goods for around five times his expenses—.”

“Meaning paying off the three of us,” Augie said.

“Right, you and Sofia and me, plus certain services by the Tombaroli. So this Art Squad guy gets about thirty million euros and we get two each. Imagine how much that investment of thirty-six million euros will be worth for Sofia's father in the end.”

“If it is Sardinia, wouldn't he know I'm already supposed to get a finder's fee?”

Roger shrugged. “I'm only guessing it's Sardinia. I asked Fokinos what's in it for him, if the three of us are getting a total of six million. He told me not to worry about him, because he's guaranteed a percentage from Trikoupis, not on the purchase but on the profits. He claims that in the long run, his piece will be bigger than what his contact at the Art Squad gets.”

“The manuscript is really worth that much?” Sofia said.

“If Fokinos is right, parceled out in pieces on the black market it
could gross a billion euros. Why? Thinking about taking him up on it?”

Augie was pleased to see her finally smile. “I don't mind letting him think we're interested,” she said. “If that would get you out of danger.”

“Then what?” Augie said. “We entrap him, pull off some kind of a sting?”

She nodded. “Something like that.”

Roger seemed to study Sofia. “You realize your father is the buyer, so he also gets caught in whatever trap we set.” She shrugged.

“He could spend the rest of his life in prison, Sofia,” Roger said. “Can you live with that?”

She sighed. “It would crush me. But it would be his own doing.”

Augie began to pace. “If Sardinia
is
behind all this, it's been way too easy for him. Klaudios makes the heist and leads him to Roger. Dimos shows up on Sardinia's doorstep with a gift-wrapped buyer waiting in the wings. Sardinia's looking at netting thirty million euros, after our six million and whatever other expenses he's incurred. That's some lucrative civil servant job.”

“So how do we reel these guys in?” Sofia said.

“We have to give them something,” Roger said.

Augie nodded. “Something real.”

“Such as?” Sofia said.

“We need to let Dimos examine the parchment.”

“But he can't perform real tests on it,” she said. “It belongs to the Italian government. It's one thing for you to protect it until you turn it over to the state, but there's no way Dimos could cut out a sample, no matter how small, for carbon dating.”

“That's what it would take?” Augie said.

“It's not my field, but I know my father has invested in manuscripts
several hundred years old once they were authenticated by carbon dating. But they had to slice thin strips from the parchment to do that.”

“Is there a simpler way, something he could do that wouldn't affect that first real page but be a good indicator until the government can have it tested?”

“You'd have to ask Dimos,” Sofia said. “If I wanted to talk to him, I wouldn't have switched hotels.”

“He'd have to do it here,” Augie said. “I don't want to keep moving that thing around. Tomorrow I'll put it into a safe-deposit box.”

The three sat silent for a moment. “Want me to call him?” Roger said.

“Do it,” Augie said. “But remember, we're playing him.”

“Meaning?”

“Don't sound eager. Make him work for it. Then get him to meet me someplace.”

“Thought you said it had to be here.”

“He doesn't need to know that till he picks me up. That'll keep him from tipping off anyone else.”

“Good idea,” Roger said. “I wouldn't put it past him and Sardinia to kill us and keep the manuscript for themselves.”

“You're getting a little dramatic, aren't you?” Sofia said. “Whatever the first page is worth, the whole stack of—how many?—.”

“Around five hundred pages.”

“—is naturally worth that many times more. As long as we don't give them Klaudios's envelope, they need us.”

Roger brightened. “I say we don't open that envelope till we nail ‘em. That way we couldn't reveal where Klaudios stashed the pages even if they tortured us, because we don't know.”

“Better yet,” Augie said, “we send them in the wrong direction. Once they start looking, we find the memoir and turn it over to the government.”

“Why don't we do that now?” Sofia said. “Life would be simpler.”

“Problem is,” Roger said, “the Art Squad could already be watching us everywhere we go. Surveillance is their specialty. They could follow us right to the goods and catch us red-handed. Nobody's gonna believe we weren't stealing a priceless artifact.”

“Klaudios's envelope is in the safe,” Augie said. “We need to stash the photocopies of the pages somewhere else. They aren't worth much, but I don't want them in the wrong hands.”

“We need to keep Roger on the move, right?” Sofia said. “Put the box of copies in the safe in my room for when Dimos is here tonight. Tomorrow Roger can wait for us there.”

“Works for me,” Augie said.

The three of them huddled around the landline phone. “Have him meet me at ten at the Keats-Shelley Memorial House,” Augie told Roger.

“Nice,” Roger said. “Confuse the devil out of him.”

As soon as Roger identified himself, Dimos said, “You alone?”

“Dr. Knox is here.”

“Put me on speaker. Augie?”

“Hi, Dimos.”

“Anybody know where Sofia is? She's not answering her phone and she's not in her room.”

“Couldn't tell you,” Augie said, winking at her.
That,
he thought,
is how you mislead without lying.
“I'll see her tomorrow.”

“So what's up, Roger?” Dimos said.

“Been thinking about what you said today. Got a few questions.”

“I thought you might. Fire away.”

“Remember I told you I was sure what we have is real because somebody paid the ultimate price for it.”

“So you did, but neither my buyer nor my seller will commit until I've examined at least that one real page.”

“That's asking a lot.”

“It's mandatory, Roger. We're dead in the water until we know for sure. And face it, you're in danger.”

“I don't know, Dimos. How do you test it without damaging the goods?”

“Listen, I have what I need to be able to satisfy both parties—a bright, safe light and a high-power microscope. I use no liquids and I do no cutting. The buyer and seller will have to do that at some point, but it will be out of our hands by then. But if this is what we think it is, my examination will allow me to assure my contacts with a degree of certainty that will allow them to proceed.”

“And then I'm off the hook? I'm gettin' tired of living like this.”

“You'll be not only safe, my friend, you'll be comfortable for life. That goes for you too, Dr. Knox. I mean, if that appeals.”

“Let's just say I'm open-minded,” Augie said.

“Good. And no one ever has to know your involvement. How sweet is that?”

“Very. But Roger's not entirely convinced and I can't say I blame him.”

“He can ask me anything!”

“Okay,” Roger said, “how do we know that as soon as you're satisfied the thing is real, you don't tell the wrong people where we are?”

“What would be the point? One page is something, but we want the whole memoir.”

Roger rolled his eyes at Augie. “We're going to need a few days to think about it.”

“Roger! They had an all-points bulletin out on you today, a Sunday! You think you're going to survive a Monday when the whole force is working? You've got a small window of opportunity. It has to be tonight, man.”

Roger paused as if struggling with the idea. “If we tell you where to meet us, you tell no one and you come alone.”

“On my honor. Just make sure that wherever we're going has electricity for the light. I'll wait till I'm back in my hotel room before I let both parties know my findings. If I determine it's real, you'll be cleared, the Tombaroli get blamed for Klaudios's murder, and you get credit for helping thwart whatever they were doing. Best of all, you get your life back. Not to mention a nice allowance.”

“Dimos,” Augie said, “why would anyone cut me in on this deal?”

“Consider it services rendered, and the first service is your silence. Then we need a translation, your specialty. But you understand, everything hinges on finding the whole original manuscript.”

“You said it hinged on your seeing the first page,” Roger said.

“Well, initially. But no one gets paid until Trikoupis takes delivery of the entire document.”

“We're not sure where that is.”

“Right!” Dimos said, laughing. “You haven't read Klaudios's instructions yet!”

“Correct.”

“Okay, have your fun. When I've seen the page, we'll talk about the rest. Now where and when?”

“Piazza di Spagna
26, ten o'clock”

“You're kidding. The museum house at the steps? Tell me you didn't stash—no, you wouldn't. They're closed Sundays anyway.”

“That's just where you're meeting Dr. Knox,” Roger said. “Then he'll tell you where you need to go.”

At breakfast the day of Primus Paternius Panthera's hearing, the guard was dressed in his finest uniform and freshly shaved, but he looked haggard.

Primus' wife whispered, “We both heard the crier's call of fourth watch.”

“You were still awake at three?”

Primus nodded. “I worry that the man will renege, he's so ambitious. If he does, I am out of a job, you lose what you paid him, and—.”

Luke held up a hand. “I may be new to this underhanded business, but I know enough to withhold payment until services have been rendered.Young Gaius had better weigh his options. He can feed you to the
wolves and perhaps see his pay increase, or he can follow through on his commitment to me and immediately double his income.”

Primus said, “Many was the night I enjoyed food from your hand to look the other way when you visited my prisoner. I was no better than Gaius.”

“But now you break small rules,” his wife said, “only for the benefit of others, not for yourself.”

“I confess I remain skeptical about Paul's message, Lucanus. But you both are so passionate about it. And you know I don't believe in the gods anymore, if I ever did. But to step all the way over to the other side … No one could know or I could lose my citizenship, my job, even my freedom.”