Iris Johansen - Final Target

"We've located the van they rented in Antwerp. It was abandoned forty miles outside of Paris. That means they've changed to another vehicle. We're checking all rental car agencies in the area. Though with Travis's contacts, he could have obtained a car from other sources."

" Let's hope you have better luck than you've had to date." He walked over to the casket. "Open it."

"Sir?"

"Open it. I want to see her."

Danley motioned to the man guarding the coffin, and the lid was lifted.

Danley probably thought he was some kind of ghoul, Andreas thought. He didn't know why he wanted a last look at Jessica Riley's face. Maybe just to assure himself that it was really her. The theft of the Wind Dancer was completely bewildering, and he couldn't put the pieces together with Cassie's kidnapping. And why would Jessica's sister call and tip them off? Some of the fingerprints at the museum had been Melissa's; she had risked being caught in the same trap as Travis and her sister.

There was no doubt this woman was Jessica. In death her face looked as soft and gentle as in life. That gentleness had always been his impression of Cassie's doctor. He had never been sure that her methods were right, but he'd never doubted the fact that she cared about his daughter.

Until she'd taken his daughter away.

Now he had to deal with a wild card. How did he know what kind of psycho Melissa Riley had turned out to be after those years in withdrawal? He'd felt some comfort when Jessica had called and told him Cassie was safe. There was no comfort at all now.

He turned away from the coffin. "Shut it up."

Dawn was lighting the sky when Melissa came back to the cottage.

Travis met her at the door with a cup of coffee. She took a swallow before she asked, "Cassie?"

"I just checked her," Galen said from the chair across the room. "I think she's asleep." He grimaced. "Though I'm not sure how you can tell."

"I'll take a look." She opened the bedroom door. Cassie was curled up on the bed across the room. "Cassie."

She sensed a withdrawal, a scuttling away. Melissa didn't know to what extent Cassie had been aware of what was going on at the museum, but it had frightened her enough to make her retreat. How far she'd gone Melissa would have to find out later. "Everything's okay, Cassie. Just rest. We'll talk later." She shut the door and came back into the living room. "She's not asleep, but she's all right for now." She sat down on the window seat and leaned back. "How safe are we here?"

"I've arranged to have some of my guys positioned around the beach, so we'll have warning. On a scale of one to a hundred, I'd give it a sixty," Galen said. "It was a seventy before you made Travis snatch the Wind Dancer. It will go down to a forty if Andreas decides to release the story about the theft."

"He hasn't done that yet?"

"Not yet." Travis sat down on the couch across from Melissa, "He may be waiting for us to contact him and make a deal."

"Why would he do that?"

"It's the smartest way to dispose of an art treasure that's instantly recognized by everyone in the world. The only alternative would be to sell it to some closet collector who would bury it in a vault somewhere."

"Would Deschamps have contacted Andreas?"

" I believe he has another agenda."

"What agenda?"

"It wouldn't be the first time some weirdo fixated on the statue."

"And if Andreas did agree to deal, it would probably be so he could set a trap?"

"That's my reading. Getting Cassie well is what's been driving him all these months. The statue's been in his family for centuries, but he'd give it up in a heartbeat to find Cassie. That's all he really wants."

Melissa nodded slowly. "And to get the terrorist who did this to her. He doesn't know it's Deschamps, right?"

Travis shook his head.

"But he has the power to locate Deschamps for us ?"

"Maybe. But it wouldn't be for us. If we told him Deschamps was the man at Vasaro, he'd go after him himself."

"Then maybe we wouldn't tell him. We could just use him for information."

"Use Andreas? He's not that pliable."

"Stop putting roadblocks in my path." Her lips tightened. "You're the one who caused all these damned complications. What's our alternative? I suppose you could spend some of those diamonds and buy the information."

He grimaced. "I'd rather not." He paused. "Actually, I'm going to retrieve the diamond I gave Thomas."

"Why?"

"I need to get Karlstadt off my back. Having to dodge him will get in my way of finding Deschamps."

"Even if you get the diamond from Thomas, you won't be able to retrieve the ones I gave to Guilliame," Galen reminded him. "They're probably in the possession of either the French police or the CIA by now."

"I can work around that. Karlstadt won't like it, but if the diamonds are in a secure place and not in circulation, I can probably stall and keep him from taking a contract out on me."

"They're still not going to be in his pocket. What difference would their not being in circulation make?"

"All the difference in the world." He took a sip of his coffee. "The diamonds are not exactly what they seem."

Melissa's eyes widened. "They're phony?"

"It depends on how you look at it."

"They're either phony or they're not."

"It's all in the eye of the beholder. Those particular diamonds could meet every test the most qualified jeweler could put them through. For nearly fifty years scientists have known how to transform carbon-rich substances into small industrial diamonds, but they haven't been able to create gem-quality stones. There were all kinds of problems. The amount of pressure needed and the graphite, which is soft but very resistant to change. The bond between the layers is weak, so the graphite flakes apart, but the inner layers are incredibly strong. The carbon atoms-"

"I don't want to hear all this. The bottom line, Travis."

"There's a group of Russian scientists funded by the local Mafia that has managed to create perfect diamonds indistinguishable from those grown in the ground."

"That's not possible. There have to be tests that can tell the difference."

"The diamond industry developed one test that detected the defects caused by nitrogen concentrate in synthetic stones. The residual luminescence was unmistakable."

"But the Russians solved the problem?"

Travis nodded. "That they did, and it's scaring the diamond syndicates shitless. I found out about it from one of my sources and decided to go to Russia and see if there was anything interesting in it for me. I was there for about six weeks when there was a convenient explosion at the lab. The equipment and the scientists were blown to kingdom come."

"You obviously managed to survive and get ou"t Galen said. "With your pockets full of diamonds?"

"And a disk with the process."

Galen chuckled. "I thought you were only smuggling. This is much more interesting. And who does Karlstadt represent?"

"He does the strong-arm work for a South African diamond syndicate. Naturally, they don't want the diamonds to appear anywhere. If they did, the bottom could fall out of the market. No one would know whether the jewels they bought were real or made in the lab. Prices would plummet because the element of rarity would be gone. It could spell disaster for the entire diamond industry."

"The Russians could build a new lab."

"I'm sure they're doing that now, but it will take time. Meanwhile Karlstadt can negotiate or use muscle to keep the Russians from duplicating their efforts. The diamonds and the process are the only danger to him right now."

"I don't care about the danger to your South Africans," Melissa said. "What's important is that you don't have money to buy information."