Corridor One

  ***

  The view out of the Mahogany Suite window on the fifth floor of the Glass Beach Suites was definitely not a spectacular one. A high-rise building across the street, with its dark brownstone walls and dark windows, stood there like a guard, blocking the sunset and city noises from the Glass Beach Suites. The man in the suite was standing near the window. He first looked at the street traffic outside, then at the sky. Why do they call it Glass Beach? There is not much glass around. There is no beach to be seen. I would call it Cement City. Two minutes later, he walked into the dining room, turned on the TV, switched through several channels, stopped at a sports channel with a football game and adjusted the volume, raising it to a relatively high level. Then he moved to the bedroom, looking at himself in the mirror.

  Today he cancelled the usual walk he had scheduled for 2 p.m. Instead, at the last minute, he booked one of the limousines for a one-hour ride through the city. He was lucky that a limousine was available. From what he saw outside the window, it looked like he would need a warm jacket. He looked inside the closet and chose a black one. He looked again in the mirror, adjusted the jacket collar and buttoned it. He could hear the game in the background.

  At exactly 2:15, the service bell rang. His bedroom was equipped with a service control panel, located on the wall to the left of the bedroom door. The panel had several buttons and red bulbs, one for the concierge, room service, library, dining room, limousine service and two other lights he never used. Usually when the service bell rang, one or two lights came on, informing him what service was on its way to his suite. Now the limousine light was on. He stopped outside the suite and listened. He wanted to know if he could hear the voices coming from his TV. When he was satisfied that he could, the man walked to the end of the corridor, where the limousine driver was already waiting for him.

  “Hi, Sir, can I assist you with anything?” asked the driver.

  “Hi, please make sure I have phone reception in the parking lot,” replied the man.

  “Will do, Sir.”

  Then, accompanied by the driver, he used the special parking elevator and went down to the third parking level, where a shiny black limousine was parked.

  The driver opened the passenger door and took a phone out of the charger.

  “There is the phone, Sir. Do you want to make a call here or should I drive you to the street first?”

  “I’ll make it here, thank you.”

  The driver walked away and stood near the elevator door, waiting for the man's directions.

  The man entered the limousine and closed the door behind him. He turned on the phone, listened to the dial tone, and dialed the number.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi, it is me,” replied the man in the black jacket.

  “Everything okay?” The voice on the other side of the phone sounded worried.

  “Everything is in order. Do not worry. How was your flight?” inquired the man.

  “You scared me, dad. The flight was okay. You don't usually call me, what is the reason and to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

  “You know why I don’t call you. Did you have a chance to listen to the last recordings?”

  “Yes, I did. Nothing special, nothing that I needed to inform you about.”

  “Did it have any hint that she was going to sell the apartment or move to another place?”

  “No, dad, not as far as I remember. I can check again. Why are you asking?”

  “The recording unit was returned today. The reason was that she is moving out. Does that not sound strange to you?”

  “I really don’t know. She may be going for a contract somewhere offshore. Remember she went to Australia a couple of weeks ago? Maybe she is moving there for a month or two. But then why sell the apartment? What are you planning to do? Dad, are we abandoning our original plan?”

  “Not for now; we will wait.”

  “Great, because I have booked my train tickets already. What are you planning to do?”

  “I’m going for a ride. I will stop in a couple of places; I feel lucky today.”

  “Good, I’m going to bed. It's almost eleven at night here.”

  “Good night.”

  “Good night, dad. Sorry – what am I saying? It’s daytime for you. Good luck dad, I love you.”

  “I love you too, son. Good night.”

  The man opened the car window and signaled to the driver that he was finished with his phone call. The limousine slowly climbed from the parking garage and joined the traffic on the street. The man took a seat near the car window and passed a small piece of paper to the driver.

  “There are two addresses I want you to stop by in the sequence they are written. Try to find parking at the front so we can stay there ten to fifteen minutes.”

  “Yes, Sir, I see that the addresses are the same as the ones we stopped at two months ago. I think I know where to park,” replied the driver.

  “Yes, they are the same,” replied the man sadly.

  Dina decided to walk a couple of blocks. She wanted to hear the noise of the traffic and feel the wind on her face. On the corner across from her apartment building there was an underground street passage, but Dina decided not to use it and to wait until the traffic light turned green. An endless stream of moving cars continued in both directions. It looked as if the traffic light was stuck on red and would never turn green. A black shiny limousine was parked in the corner, ignoring the ‘No Parking’ sign near the fire hydrant. Dina knew that the police car would be here at any moment to give the limousine a parking ticket. Why is this corner so popular with limousines? I saw one a couple of months ago, also getting a ticket. Now this one. Can’t the driver read the sign or see the fire hydrant?

  For a second, Dina wanted to approach the driver and warn him. She turned her head, looking to see if the driver’s window was open. It was closed, but another, the passenger’s window, was wide open. Dina felt that somebody inside the car was watching her. She looked back, but could not see anything inside but blackness. The car was some twenty meters from where Dina was standing. The traffic lights changed to yellow and then green, but Dina was still trying to see who was inside that limo. She felt like her eyes met with the eyes of the mystery viewer. She followed her instinct and without much thinking, started walking toward the limo.

  She had taken only five steps when the car window started to close slowly. Dina walked faster. Her curiosity blocked any other emotions; she was not scared. She simply wanted to know who was staring at her. When she was about five meters from the car, the passenger’s window was already three-quarters closed. She could hear a man's voice commanding the driver to “Go, go, go,” and the car moved, picked up speed and joined other passing cars. Dina thought, I’m out of luck. If the traffic light was red I would definitely have found out who was staring at me. On the other hand, why is it important? It is only my imagination. Or maybe it was my secret admirer, or Prince Charming. Damn rich people. One day I will be rich too. She smiled and walked back to the pedestrian street bypass on her way to work.

  At ten past three, Igor entered MirexGlobe. Tamara was occupied, talking on the phone. He marched directly to Dina’s office. She had only walked into her office ten minutes before and was organizing her desk.

  “It is another mystery. The private building has very tight security. The moment George parked his car in front of the entry, two gorillas came out. They were definitely military-trained. One stayed at the top of the stairs while another approached George, and actually blocked his car door with his body. Poor George, I told him to open the window and talk to the man, but he insisted on opening the car door. He tried several times, bumping into the security guy. In the end, he opened the window. You should hear how he swears; like a sailor.

  “Security gave us a short speech about trespassing on private property. They showed us their ‘no parking’ sign, saying there is no parking and even standing is not allowed. I tried not to make the situation worse and stayed in th
e car. George passed what he thought was the security device, cursed them several times and we left. Then I left him and went back to the entrance. Five rows of stairs. I’m sure that the entry door has bulletproof glass. Two security cameras at the front of the building. Each side has another surveillance camera. They have another entry, I think for cars or personnel. I called Lieutenant Carol. He assured me he would do his best to give us some useful information.”

  Dina continued organizing her desk, now sorting through the top drawer.

  “What I can say? It is good we got rid of the recording device. What do you think, Dina?”

  “I think we did a great job. All you are telling me now points to somebody with a lot of money, connections, and power. Maybe it's one of our competitors or maybe one of the legislators or someone else in government. I would like to suggest that we stop our investigation. If somebody has any reason to listen to me, it will come out sooner or later. Do you agree?”

  “I do, but I would still like to hear from Carol. I'll leave you alone for now. I can see you are busy.”

  “Good, I’m thinking about Geneva and Gregory’s suggestion. We all have a lot on our plates. I think we need a day or two to go back to our routine and stop being detectives for a while.”

  Dina's voice took on a commanding tone and Igor understood that he needed to postpone all the other options and suggestions he had wanted to discuss with her. They parted and Dina dove into her paperwork and the readings that she wanted to complete before the weekend.

  Four hours of uninterrupted work and Dina felt comfortable, calm and pleased. It was her micro-world; inside her office, where she could be herself, be independent and make her own decisions, not haunted by mysteries and doubts. She enjoyed every second.

  Geneva

  Dina was in the middle of an article when she heard a light knock on her office door. By the sound of it, she knew it was Gregory. Her first thought was to ignore it and leave it unanswered. This thought was quickly replaced by another: I was planning to finish all of my work today. What else is left for me to do? She looked at the pile of articles that she was planning to finish reading. Not a big deal. I can finish what’s left at home.

  “Gregory, you can come in.”

  “Sorry for interrupting you, Dina, but I need to leave now and you did not come to the lab to collect the pictures you asked me to age.”

  “Yes, I totally forgot about them. You can leave them here.” Dina pointed to the ‘In Box’ tray on her desk.

  “I’ve put them into an envelope, two originals and two aged.” Gregory was surprised that Dina did not ask him to show the pictures to her.

  “That’s fine. I will take them home. It’s good that they are in an envelope. I need to finish some work first.” Dina looked at the visibly-surprised Gregory.” Is anything wrong?”

  “No, nothing at all. It's just that I thought that you would want to see them now.”

  “Why?” Now it was Dina’s turn to be surprised.” Why do you think I should see them now?”

  “I don’t know. You may recognize somebody in the pictures. Igor suggested that you see them today and not tomorrow.”

  “Yes, I suspected that you had been talking with Igor before you knocked on my door. Where is he now?”

  “I think he is in his office waiting for your call.”

  “Both of you are running a conspiracy against me, are you now?” Dina smiled.

  “Not at all. Igor was adamant that you see the pictures now. I have no idea why. But you know Igor, he has his ways of logical conclusions, and he’s often right. It’s up to you, of course. If you wish, I can tell him that you will see them at home and we'll discuss them with him tomorrow.”

  “Please call him and Tamara to join us,” Dina was abrupt.

  Gregory left the room and returned with Igor a few minutes later.

  “There you are. What about Tamara? You both want me to get into trouble with her?” Dina pushed the button on the intercom and asked Tamara to join the team. Dina was surprised at how quickly Tamara zoomed into her office.

  “Now, when all the conspirators are in one room, Igor will explain to us what the rush is and why I should interrupt everything that I’m doing to review the aged photos.”

  A couple seconds of silence followed.

  “First of all, since we are all here together, Tamara will make a short announcement,” started Igor, lightly pushing Tamara forward. She looked at Dina, lowered her head, her two hands rumpling a white napkin, and started slowly.

  “I’m sorry, Dina. Do you remember when, after you came back from Derchany, you left for Spain for two weeks? We had a big contract there with the Madrid museum?”

  “Yes, I remember, it was one of my best visits to Europe,” said Dina, sitting down.

  Tamara continued, “I was taking care of the plants in your apartment. Do you remember that you gave me your key and I watered them twice a week?”

  “Yes, of course, I remember that you almost killed my Ficus by overwatering it. I asked you to be there once a week, but you decided that it wouldn’t be enough and watered all my plants twice a week. Plus I remember that you broke my favorite coffee cup.”

  “It was an accident, didn’t I already apologize? It slipped from the tray. I wanted to organize and clean your place before you came back.”

  “I know that you had good intentions. Was anything else broken that day that you want to tell me now? Almost three years later?”

  “Nothing else was broken, no. One day when I was there watering your plants, I received a call. I mean, you received a call. It was the building manager who was looking for you. I answered the phone because I was there. He asked me if I, I mean, if you signed the forms left by the security company. The ones that they put into your mailbox.” Tamara stopped, raised her eyes and looked at Dina.

  “I know what you are going to tell us next,” interrupted Dina.” You took the form and you signed it, didn’t you?”

  “I thought that I was doing you a favor. You were in Spain. The building manager told me that it was important that the forms be signed that week.”

  “And you could not resist faking my signature. You did practice faking my signature for a long time and waited for this occasion, didn’t you?” Dina could not hold her emotions and began laughing contagiously. Tamara was standing in the middle of the room, shifting from one foot to another. She reminded Dina of a small girl waiting to receive punishment for her misbehavior from her parents.

  “You all should appreciate,” replied Tamara, “that when Igor came to me today with the copy of the security company form, it reminded me of what I had done and I immediately suggested to him that I should confess.” Tamara looked around uneasy hoping that one of her friends would come to her defense.

  “Dina, it's true,” said Igor. “Tamara wanted to approach you and tell you her story, but we knew that you were busy so, we waited until this moment.”

  “I appreciate the confession, but your actions allowed somebody to listen to and spy on me for almost three years.”

  “Sorry Dina, it wasn't my intention.” Tamara was close to an emotional breaking point. Dina was afraid that Tamara would start crying at any moment.

  “Hey, girl.” Dina jumped out of her seat and rushed toward Tamara. “Hey, girl, stop it! You did exactly what I would have done for you too.” She hugged Tamara and held her closely. “We are joking, relax. You did well. To hell with those who are listening to me snore at night. Are you okay?” Dina released Tamara and looked at her face. “Don’t even try to cry here in my office in front of all these insensitive men.” Dina smiled and hugged Tamara again.

  “I’m okay.” Tamara took what was left of the napkin and cleared her nose.

  “Here, have more.” Dina approached her desk and took a box of napkins and gave it to Tamara.

  “I’m okay, I’m sorry. It will never happen again. Sorry, Dina.”

  “Let’s forget about this incident.” Dina looked at
Gregory and Igor, motioning for them to leave Tamara alone.

  She approached her desk and sat down.

  “Now, I would like to go back to my original question, Igor: why should I look at the pictures? Is it really necessary to do it today, and if it is, then why?” Dina took the envelope with the pictures from the In Box and held it in her hand, ready to open it.

  “Today is Wednesday, and I was thinking,” started Igor, slowly, but Dina interrupted him.

  “You know, I think I can guess the reason why you want me to open it today. Should I try?”

  “Yes, you can try. I'm not sure that you can get it one hundred percent right, but you can try.” It seemed that Igor was enjoying the game that Dina was playing with him.

  “Good, my guess is that you asked Gregory to push me to open the envelope because I asked you to hold all detective activities for the rest of the week but you couldn’t stop. Is that correct? I know that when you start acting like a detective, you have a difficult time stopping.”

  “Great Dina, you know how to read me and you knew I was disappointed when you asked me to stop being a detective. But I am a man of discipline, you should know this also. When you give me directions, suggestions or commands, I follow them like a dog.” Igor smiled.

  “Yes, I know, but you have a more serious reason, don't you?” Dina knew that now when Igor was satisfied, he would reveal the real reason without any prologues or long explanations. She was right.

  “I stopped my investigation the moment you told me to stop, but I had limited influence on Lieutenant Carol, whom I asked earlier this afternoon for help with the investigation of the security company from Glass Beach Suites. In the beginning, he couldn’t find anything interesting. No problems with the registration, no breach of regulations or any other violations. Glass Beach Suites are clean as crystal. Do you remember when we asked Carol to get us some information about our friend, Yellow Raincoat, and he was unable to find any criminal records? He only had street cameras located near Glass Beach Suites at his disposal.

  “There were no public cameras directed at the entry to the suites, only a private one that belongs to Glass Beach Suites. Nobody has access to them. But he found public cameras located thirty meters away from the entry to the suites. Carol has a good memory and he remembered what we asked him to do about two weeks ago. Guess what, or actually whom, he found when he reviewed the footage from the street cameras near the suites?”

  Everybody in the office went quiet.

  “He printed a black and white picture. I inserted it into the envelope that Gregory delivered to you. I had hoped that you would take a look and change your mind about the investigation,” continued Igor.

  “What do you mean, change my mind?” asked Dina.

  “I meant that you will give me a chance to continue with the investigation. I know that the last two weeks have been stressful and full of surprises. Even more, I’m sure that each event and item starting with your brother’s diary, the mysterious Yellow Raincoat, the diamond, the recording device – all are the results of a carefully planned operation and flawless execution. Somebody very clever and experienced has been conducting it from behind the scenes. That is my professional instinct talking to you now. Please open the envelope and see for yourself. I know that you are tired and that the interests of the company should be your first priority.” Igor stopped and looked at Dina. He was ready for her to explode with anger, but Dina remained calm and relaxed.

  “Igor, please continue.” Dina surprised him; she knew exactly what Igor was waiting for. She did her best to hold back her emotions. Dina decided that she must protect her team and her friends, especially after what happened to her today with the limousine on her way to work. “I would like to hear your argument through to the end.”

  “Good, I think MirexGlobe should remain your first priority. Please open the envelope. There is other strong evidence there. I think you need to reconsider your decision to put the investigation on hold.” Igor knew that when Dina made a decision, it was almost impossible to change it. The pictures in the envelope were his last hope.

  “You all know my opinion about your involvement in my personal affairs. I’m talking about my dad, the diamonds and recordings in my apartment.” Dina slightly raised her voice.” I’m not prepared to let all of you, the four of us, be occupied with this investigation. I agree with Igor that somebody smart is behind the events of the last two weeks. I know that a future investigation sounds very interesting and very exciting. Some days during the last two weeks, I felt danger, I felt frightened. Starting from today, you will participate in this investigation on an as-needed basis. No more investigation team meetings, no more gatherings or group decisions. The MirexGlobe activities are your first priority.” On the inside, Dina felt sorry for her team but she had no choice and did not know how else to protect them. She continued in the same tone of voice. “I will open the envelope now. Then we will all go home.” Silence filled the room. Everybody remained motionless. Dina took the envelope from her In Box and emptied it. A total of six pictures were now spread on her desk. Two were the original ones that were given by Igor to Gregory, with two young faces of a man and woman in their early twenties. The next two pictures, with the same faces, but looking much older. Gregory had aged the pictures using special graphics software.

  “I would like to explain something.” He broke the silence. “Igor asked me to age the faces by twenty years. It is difficult and almost impossible to age for an exact number of years, so this is an approximation, give or take three to four years.“

  Dina moved the two pictures with the aged faces close to the two originals. The man looked familiar and he reminded her of her uncle Greduer from Central City, whereas the woman looked like a complete stranger. Dina’s eyes moved from one picture to the other.

  Igor watched Dina and waited for her reaction.

  “He looks familiar.” Dina pointed to the picture of the man. “The face of the woman is not familiar. Maybe because of her hairstyle, I don’t know. For now, I’ll say I do not know this person.”

  “I had hoped you could identify your aunt and uncle,” said Igor.

  “Yes, I know. My memory for faces has never been a good one. Leave it with me. I’ll take the pictures home.”

  Dina shifted her attention to the pictures provided by Lieutenant Carol. One picture showed five people crossing Bloor Street. The street cameras were positioned in a way to always show the name of the street. The second person from the left looked familiar. The other picture was an enlarged version of the same man. Igor came close to the desk. He produced two markers from his shirt pocket. One yellow and one brown.

  “With your permission, please.” He took the picture and colored in the raincoat of the man and his boots. “What do you think? Who does this man remind you of?”

  Tamara and Gregory came closer.

  “It is our Yellow Raincoat,” replied a surprised Tamara. “One hundred percent, it is him.”

  “I also think that it is him,” said Gregory. “Sorry, I did not pay much attention to his looks, but I trust you, Tamara.”

  “It is him, yes, it is,” repeated Tamara.

  “The picture was taken on the same day that Yellow Raincoat delivered the diamond. It was taken two hours before our meeting with him in Dina’s apartment. It could be a coincidence that he was thirty meters from Glass Beach Suites, or it could not be. I think this may be another clue to our mystery.” Igor stopped and looked directly at Dina’s grim face. “Sorry, to Dina’s diamonds' mystery.”

  The long pause was interrupted by Dina. “As I mentioned before, now we are all going home to relax. I will take the pictures with me. Tomorrow, I will be in the office early. I did not complete what I had planned to do for today.”

  Dina returned the pictures to the envelope and put in in her briefcase.

  Tamara was the first to leave the room. Gregory followed.

  “I’m going to do a lot of thinking. If I need you, ca
n I call you?” asked Dina.

  “Any time,” replied Igor. It was noticeable that he was disappointed. ”Please reconsider, as we may lose momentum and unrecoverable time. I can feel that we are very close to our target.”

  Dina was near the door and was ready to leave her office. ”You know that I trust your intuition, and I’m counting on your experience. I will call you.”

  “Please do.” Igor felt much better. The last of Dina’s words gave him hope that she might reconsider her position.

  In a taxi, on her way home, Dina replayed every word of last hour's conversation with her team in her head. In the end, she said to herself, I had no choice; I needed to protect them. They are good people, they are good friends, and they are trying to help me. But I must protect them; I have no right to put them in any danger or risk. I’m right.

  As usual, Igor’s late dinner ended with a cup of tea with two spoons of honey. The ten o’clock evening news was boring and he switched his TV to a sports channel. He was napping, lying on the sofa, covered with a warm wool blanket when his phone rang. He sat up and picked up the receiver from the coffee table.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, Igor. It's me, Dina. Did I wake you up?”

  “Not really, I was waiting for your call.”

  “I’m glad we can talk. I’m sorry if I was rude to you today.” Igor could hear blues playing in background. It meant Dina was in a good mood.

  “Do not worry, I do understand what are you going through, and I appreciate your concern for our team.”

  “I don’t want to keep you late; I decided to go to Geneva. My only concern now is whether to take the diamond with me or not. Should I return it to the Treasury?”

  The sound of the music became louder. Igor knew that Dina was now in her living room.

  “Dina, can you please turn down the music, I can barely hear you.”

  “One moment,” replied Dina, and the music stopped. “I decided to go to Geneva. Should I take the diamond with me? Should I return it to the Treasury?” repeated Dina.

  “If I were you, I'd hold onto it. I suggest that you go there first. Check what is going on with the Twin Crowns and with the Treasury. Please keep in mind that now you know much more than Interpol. You know much more about your father and the location of the rest of the diamonds. If you return the diamond, you will become a suspect. It wouldn't be so simple to link you to the Twin Crown guards, but it is possible. How are you going to explain the appearance of the diamond after more than twenty years? And how are you going to explain that it was given to you? By returning it now, you are going to raise many questions, many hard questions.”

  “Thank you, Igor. As usual, your advice is valuable. I will take the diamond with me; I will consider everything you told me. Can I ask you to take care of the company while I’m absent?”

  “Don’t worry. Everything will be taken care of.”

  “Yes, I know. Another thing I almost forgot. I want to ask a favor of you. Can you please follow up with the Derchany municipality and identify what paperwork we need to submit in case we would like to visit the Derchany catacombs? Please keep what I am asking you only between us.”

  Igor remained silent. He could not believe what he had heard.

  “Are you there? I can hear your TV. Anybody home?” Dina joked.

  “I’m here. You changed your mind so quickly. I almost got a heart attack. ”

  “That is why you love working for me, isn’t it?”

  “Now I am one hundred percent awake. Do you know when you are planning to go on the trip, and for how long? The Derchany municipality will ask me for this information.”

  “Between two weeks and a month from now. We will need the catacomb access permits for a minimum of three days. If they ask you what the reason for the visit is, mention that we have a client from a university who is interested in doing catacomb research. In my readings today I found one who would be a good fit and who is willing to provide us with a good cover.”

  “You knew all along, all day today, that you were going to Derchany, didn't you?” asked Igor.

  “It is late; I need to go to bed. Good night, Igor. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Dina hung up the phone.

  What a girl! Igor put back the phone and left the living room. What a girl.

  Igor was right. Dina had made her decision to go to Derchany on her way to work after her afternoon incident with the limousine. Her relationship with money had always been a casual one. On occasions she would wish to be rich, with all of the perks that came with it; a mink coat, a pair of diamond earrings, an expensive car. But these feelings were fleeting and she would usually forget about them a second later. Today was different. She felt that she wanted money, a lot of money. She wanted to be there, inside this shiny black limousine. She wanted to be the one telling to the driver “Go, go, go.” She could not explain why these feelings came to her. But the decision to go to Derchany was made. And she would go there, get her father's diamonds and become rich.

  The rest of the week was filled with work, work and more work. Everybody was busy, occupied with their daily tasks. Dina had one meeting after another. A couple of new clients signed contracts with MirexGlobe. Old, existing contract issues, presentations and status reporting. Nobody talked about diamonds or catacombs. Dina kept her promise to her team – no future investigations until the end of the week.

  Everything changed early on Saturday morning.

  “Hi, Tamara, how are you? I need a ticket to Geneva. I need to be there on Monday morning. Please book a hotel for three nights. I would prefer not having to fly at night.”

  The next call was to Gregory. “Hi, on Monday I am flying to Geneva. Could you please ask Aleksa if she can arrange a meeting with the Head of the Federal Treasury? I would prefer to have it on Tuesday morning. And if she is busy, can you ask her to help Tamara schedule?”

  Igor called her five minutes after she had her conversation with Gregory.

  “I know you told Tamara about Geneva. She called me, and she is so happy that the last ten minutes she was jumping and screaming at me on the phone. Are you taking the red box with you?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Then make sure you have the MirexGlobe special customs declaration forms on your way out. I will take care of and deliver them to your apartment tonight. Do not go without declaring it. Do you have an estimated value?”

  Dina thought for a moment.

  “I will use the estimated value Gregory presented to us. Do you remember what it was?”

  “I think it was around two or three hundred thousand dollars.”

  “Great, I will use the higher figure.”

  Saturday and Sunday were rainy days. Dina had time to practice Kerzhak Navigation. She added more obstacles and new warm-ups from the charts in Peter’s notebook. Dina noticed that her energy level was more balanced. She did not feel exhausted toward the end of her exercises. Igor had no time to come up and he left the customs forms with the concierge. Tamara called and informed Dina of the flight details and wished her a great trip. She was laughing and asked for directions on watering the Ficus. Gregory called late on Sunday. Aleksa had done her best and added Dina to the Head of Treasury meeting schedule for 2 p.m. on Tuesday. She was not sure it would be approved by the Treasury Secretary, but she promised to confirm on Monday. What was left was to pack and get the diamond from the safety deposit box. Dina’s departure was at eleven and there was plenty of time for her to finish all of the required preparations.