again. He gave it two more minutes, and snuck out.
Teddy sighed and shook his head.
This was not going to be easy.
81.
TEDDY CHECKED HIS messages in the lobby of the Pierre. There was an encrypted e-mail from Millie.
Teddy decoded it. It read: Lance wants to know when he can get the dog back. It belongs to a friend of his.
Teddy sent her a message: Prepare the friend for bad news.
Millie e-mailed back: What happened to the dog?
Teddy sent: Nothing yet.
Teddy logged off the computer, cursed Lance, and went to the front desk. “I’m Devon Billingham. I’d like to get my trunk out of the hotel safe.”
Teddy had the trunk brought up to his room. After the bellboy had left, he opened it up, took out his equipment bag, and set it on the bed.
He sorted through and selected a few items that he stowed in his jacket pocket. He repacked the trunk, returned it to the desk manager to store in the hotel safe, and strolled back out again.
82.
DINO RETURNED FROM his meeting with the prefect.
“Is everything all set?” Teddy asked.
“Almost.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s good on everything except letting the Syrians get away. He wants to arrest them, too.”
“I had a feeling he might.”
“He’d like to catch them with the dog. That will complete all the links in the chain.”
“It would if I hadn’t switched dogs. Catching them with Barkley isn’t going to be good for anyone. Except Lance. His buddy wants the dog back.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“If only.” Teddy sighed. “I take it this is a deal breaker?”
“There’s no deal to break,” Dino said. “The Paris police have all the information. He’s going to move on it.”
“Okay. Time for a little razzle-dazzle.”
“What?”
“A little hocus-pocus. A little bait and switch. A little skin game.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Look. Two out of three’s not bad, right?”
“It depends what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about your friend, the prefect of police.”
“I thought you were. I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“You’re going to love it, and so will he. After all, you’re doing him a favor. If he winds up nailing a mad scientist and the Silver Fox, he’s not going to feel that bad about the dog. He’ll be too busy taking bows to give it any thought.”
Dino groaned. “What do I have to do?”
“You have to pull a scam on the prefect.”
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“Sure you can. You just need to keep him from showing up at the airport.”
“How?”
“Here’s the story. You got a tip from your source that the Syrians are picking up the dog at the handler’s house the morning after the conference. If he wants to take out both ends of the operation he should arrest them there. He’ll get the Syrians, the dog, and the handler who was housing him.
“At the same time, he hits the scientist’s lab and Rene Darjon’s office. He has to do it all at once, so no one is tipped off.
“The beauty of that is he’ll want to be personally involved in the arrest of Rene Darjon. Which means he won’t be one of the cops busting an empty house.”
“As if that makes it all better,” Dino said dryly. “If he doesn’t get the dog, there’s no connection between Rene Darjon and the Syrians—and Rene Darjon walks. And the scientist walks. And the Syrians get away. Everyone gets away except me. I’ll probably get the guillotine.”
“I think they stopped using that.”
“I’m not eager to find out.” Dino spread his arms. “I’m right, aren’t I? Without the dog, the prefect’s got nothing on Rene Darjon?”
“That’s probably true,” Teddy admitted.
“So?”
“So let’s get something.”
83.
IT TOOK TEDDY forty-five minutes to break into Kelso Labs. The majority of that time was spent disabling the security system. The main system wasn’t hard, but they had more backup systems than Fort Knox. Once the last alarm was silenced and the last camera was turned off, it was a simple matter of picking a lock.
Teddy entered through a maintenance door and followed the back hallway to the main corridor. Dr. Stephan von Heinrich’s lab was the third door on the left. Just in case there was any doubt, the good doctor had slapped his name on it. He also had locked it more securely than the other labs on the wing.
Teddy made short work of the lock, slipped in, and closed the door. From what he could see in the dim light, Dr. Heinrich had all the latest technological improvements, from electron microscopes to centrifuges, to a device