Solomon's Throne Read Online Free PDF Page A

mouth. “I’ve never seen him like that before, I can tell you. He was devastated.”
    “Bless his heart,” Rei said. She, also, was an employee of Xavier International, although in her job as an art restorer, she rarely saw the big man. “I hope it’s not his wife or his son. Isn’t he at university? That would be unbearable. Have you talked to anyone yet? What do you think really happened?”
    “I left messages all over Lisbon, but no one’s called me back. Luis and Emil are heavy hitters there, with their old families and their old money… I’m sure there’s a lot going on at the moment. Obviously it was an inside job. Theoretically we could say a hacker, but I doubt it. The codes are randomly generated by a computer. The computer is not connected to any outside feed other than power. The code is encrypted automatically, downloaded to a thumb drive, sealed in courier package, and delivered to the London office weekly. Luis opens it on a small laptop kept for that sole purpose. It isn’t connected to the internet or a phone line, either.”
    “So far so good,” Rei said. “Very cloak and dagger.”
    Gideon nodded. “Yep, so hacking is out. At least hacking from an external site. But it’s got to be an inside job at Tavernier Security—the rest of the system was too complex. There was another keypad with a 14 digit code. A randomized laser nest on the floor. Live camera feeds that suddenly died without tipping off anyone in the monitoring station. The entire building’s security was compromised, and no one would have known except for the one thing that is not in the original plan: the alarm that sounds after the door is closed, if Luis’ fingerprint is not scanned within 5 seconds of the lock engaging. That was added as an afterthought, and never put into the file or even on the invoice.”
    “Is that vault checked regularly?”
    “No, that’s the irony, at least as far as the thieves were concerned. If they’d gotten away from the building, it might have been months before anyone knew a theft had occurred. Maybe even longer. With all the security, and with the biometric component of the system, Luis only checks the contents when he’s in Lisbon, has extra time, and remembers… Whatever’s in there isn’t something he uses or needs, that’s for sure. It’s one of those ‘my father’s father’s father’ kind of things. Probably Luis thought it was kind of stupid after so many years, but he wasn’t going to be the one in that long line of Xaviers to drop the ball.”
    “There’s another irony—it wasn’t stolen until he put it in that super expensive vault… Gotta hate when that happens.” Rei tossed her crumpled napkin onto her plate and pushed it away, smiling.
    Gideon grimaced and nodded. “Seriously.”

    Gideon sat back in his chair, his feet up on his desk, the telephone to his ear. He didn’t have a nice little church to look at. In fact, he didn’t have a window at all, since his office was on the inside wall of the townhouse style building. “So he hasn’t said anything?”
    “No, nada. He prays.” The Portuguese detective sounded disgusted.
    “He prays?”
    “ Certo… He prays. And I think he is speaking Latin when he is praying. He does not eat. He sleeps, and he prays. That is all he does. He does not even look up when we talk to him. Just praying.”
    “And there is nothing on him in Interpol? Maybe he’s American?” Gideon tossed a pen onto the desk and closed his eyes.
    “No, he is not American. He is from Europe, somewhere. Italy maybe. Portugal. I don’t know. Bad teeth. Americans never have bad teeth. And how many of you Americans pray in Latin?”
    Gideon laughed. “True. So you have absolutely nothing, except that you know he was one of the men who broke into office.”
    “Yes, we know he was there. He was dressed all in black, and had many ah… maquina … equipments for stealing with him. They ran out the back and he fell on his face in the street