"What timing," Stone said. "He's just now checking in."

Stone waited until the data filled the screen. "Room twenty-two ' fourteen," he said.

"Hyatt Regency, room twenty-two fourteen," Hanley said to Lincoln, "and grab him fast--if he asked the cab to wait, he's headed for the airport soon."

"Got it," Lincoln said. "Then what?"

"Bring him here."

Reyes steered up the driveway to the Hyatt Regency.

"Room number twenty-two fourteen," Lincoln said. "We grab him and bring him to the Oregon."

Reyes stopped the car and slid it into Park. "You got any money?"

210.

211.

"Sure, what for?" Lincoln asked.

"There's the cab," Reyes said, pointing. "Pay him off and tell him 'j to leave. Then meet me on the twenty-second floor."

MICHAEL TALBOT PAID the bellman, then closed the door. He was due at the airport any minute, but he was grimy and decided on a quick shower. Undressing, he walked into the bathroom and adjusted the shower.

Tom Reyes reached into his wallet and removed a universal key card. Then he slid it through the slot and waited until the light went green. Then he slowly opened the door. At first, he thought no one was in the room, then he heard the shower running. Reyes started to close the door but heard the sound of footsteps approaching down the hall.

He peered out and saw Lincoln. Reyes touched his finger to his lips, then motioned Lincoln inside.

bedspread. Next, he was quickly gagged and blindfolded, with his arms and legs secured with plastic ties.

Earplugs were slipped into his ears. He could not hear Reyes tell Lincoln, "I'll go find a room service cart. You stay here."

Lincoln nodded and flipped on the television. Their prisoner was not going anywhere. He lay trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey, not moving a muscle. Eight minutes later, Lincoln and Reyes had snuck him out a back entrance of the hotel, then brought the car around and slid him onto the backseat.

"I'm hungry," Reyes said as he reached over to place the car in Drive.

"Man," Lincoln said, "you always say that."

BARRETT," HANLEY SAID, "are you cross-trained in the Magic Shop?"

"I've worked it before," Barrett said.

"Go down there and warm up the latex machine."

"You've got it, boss," Barrett said, walking quickly out of the control room.

TALBOT WAS TOWELING himself off and trying to decide what he would wear. He stepped from the bathroom and into the bedroom.

A large black man was sitting at his table, and the image so surprised him that his mind was unable to process the discovery for a second.

Then, from the side of the door, he felt a hand around his mouth.

He was thrown facedown on the bed, his eyes pressed tight against the 213.

stainless-steel screws on the rear of the box with an optometrist's screwdriver.

"Go again."

"I did not have s.e.x with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Barrett said.

"Read my lips, no new taxes. Out of respect for the family, I will not answer that question, la de dah."

"Hold on," Hanley said.

He repeated Barrett's ramblings while staring at the screen. Barrett watched and raised an eyebrow. His voice was coming from Hanley's mouth. It was both eerie and amazing.

"My mother couldn't tell the difference," he said.

"Modern technology," Hanley said, "still astounds me."

"How are you going to attach it?" Barrett asked.

Hanley showed him.

AT THE SAME instant that Reyes and Lincoln were pulling alongside the Oregon and parking, Max Hanley was checking a device in the Magic Shop. In the background, on one of the numerous workbenches, the machine that heated liquid latex beeped to signal it was at operating temperature, then automatically went to standby.

Hanley turned and stared at the latex machine, then diverted his eyes back to the small box in his hand. "Okay," Hanley said to Barrett, "let's try it again."

"Testing, one, two, three," Barrett said. "The brown cow jumped over the red moon, four score and seven years ago our--"

"That's fine," Hanley said, cutting him off.

He stared at the small box, then placed it to his throat and repeated what Barrett had said. Staring at a computer screen displaying a series of bar graphs, he noted the discrepancy and adjusted a series of tiny T) EYES GLANCED AROUND the port; no one was watching. With -L.Xiincoln's help, he removed Talbot from the rear seat, then dragged him up the gangplank onto the Oregon. Met at the inner door by Julia Huxley, the trio was directed down to the Magic Shop. Talbot, still blindfolded, stumbled down the pa.s.sages, into the elevator, then along the last stretch of hallway until they reached the Magic Shop.

Once Lincoln opened the door, Reyes directed Talbot to a chair, then sat him down and placed straps across his body. A light was moved to the front of Talbot's seat, then turned on. Talbot could feel the heat from the lamp. A few seconds later, his blindfold was removed and the blinding light met his eyes.

"You Michael Talbot?" Hanley asked.

"Yes," Talbot said, turning from the light.

"Eyes forward," Hanley said.

Talbot complied, but he had a hard time looking into the light. He could sense someone was behind him, but the straps were too tight to turn.

IT1.

214.

215.

i "Did you have s.e.x with a teenage boy in Indonesia?"

"Who are you people?" Talbot said.

A second later, he felt a touch on his neck, then a surge of electricity hit his body.

"We ask the questions here," Hanley said. "Did you have s.e.x with a teenage boy?"

"He told me he was eighteen," Talbot said through gritted teeth.

"We're tired of slime like you coming over to Asia to partake of your sick desires," Hanley said. "It's giving America a bad name."

"I'm here on busi--" Talbot started to say.

The sharp bite of electricity.

"Silence," Hanley snapped.

Talbot was afraid, the kind of deep-down fear of the unknown and unseen that creeps into a man's soul and plays with his nerves and internal organs. Talbot began sweating from his forehead and the need to urinate was overpowering.

"I have to pee," he said.

"When we say you can," Hanley said. "First we are going to make a mold of your head. Then we will produce a three-dimensional image of it, which we will transmit over our computer network. From here on out, the Asian police organizations will be on the lookout for you. Then you are going to read a confession aloud. If you cooperate and perform these tasks, you will be taken to Hong Kong so that you can catch the first flight to the United States. Screw with us in any way and you will be washing up on the beaches of mainland China a few days from now.

What'll it be, lover boy?"

"Okay, okay," Talbot blurted. "But I'm about to pee my pants."

"Take him to the facilities," Hanley said.

Blindfolded once again, Talbot was led to a restroom and his hands untied.

Four minutes later, he was back in his seat and strapped in place Fifteen minutes after that, the mask was formed and the voice prin recorded. A few minutes later, Michael Talbot was placed facedown on the rear seat of the sedan again and was driven toward the ferry dock.

WINSTON SPENSER WAS trying to figure an angle. There was none. He had grabbed for the bra.s.s ring and come up short. His choice now was to live or to die, and the people that were controlling him had made a compelling argument. He'd walk out with a new ident.i.ty and a million in funding. He decided this was a deal he would honor.

Spenser stared at his new pa.s.sport and doc.u.ments, then watched the lady in the group talking on the cellular telephone. She disconnected and turned to the leader.

"The president is on his way, Mr. Chairman," she said. "He's taken care of the problem."

Spenser had no idea of the ident.i.ties or affiliation of the people who had taken him hostage. He only knew from what he had witnessed so far that they had a power that went far beyond anything he had ever _ seen. They seemed to exist in a world of their own creation, a world of ' control and illusion, and whatever Spenser may have planned, they had always been one step ahead. And then it hit him.

"You were at the auction in Geneva," he said to the leader.

Cabrillo stared at Spenser, as if trying to decide. "Yes, I was."

"How did you know I'd switched the Buddhas?"

"You paid our company to fly the icon here to Macau, then take it by armored car to the temple," Cabrillo said.

"So you staged the entire affair at the party as a ruse?"

"That, and we wanted to fulfill your deal with the man outside,"

Cabrillo said.

"Unreal," Spenser said. "And the one hundred million?"

"It will go to charity," Cabrillo said. "We were hired to bring the real Buddha back to its rightful owner--this side deal is just frosting on the cake."

w 216.

217.

Spenser thought for a moment. "What is your ideology, your group's motivation?"

"We are a corporation," Cabrillo said. "That is the only ideology we need."

"So you exist to make a profit?"

"We exist," Cabrillo said, "to make right from wrong. But along the way, we've learned how to make that a very lucrative enterprise."

"Amazing," Spenser said.

"Not as amazing as this," Cabrillo said as the door to the hangar opened and the car carrying Hanley drove inside. Once the door closed, Hanley climbed from the pa.s.senger side of the SUV. "Meet Michael Talbot," Cabrillo said to an astonished Winston Spenser.

THE SOFTWARE BILLIONAIRE took a key from a chain around his neck and opened the leather portfolio on the table. Then he removed a folder and flipped through the papers. The stack of papers was nearly an inch thick and was composed of bearer bonds in various amounts. The largest denomination was for an even $1 million. The smallest, $50,000. The banks that had issued the bonds were from a hodgepodge of European countries, from Great Britain to Germany to the most prevalent, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The total was $100 million.

It was a king's ransom to purchase a princely prize.

But to the software billionaire, it was just money. He lived for the fulfillment of his own desires. It was not the art of the Golden Buddhs that intrigued him, nor the history that surrounded the icon like a cloud; it was the fact that it had once been stolen and now it had been stoler again. It was the crime that turned him on, the inflation of his ego h< would="" feel="" when="" he="" knew="" that="" he="" was="" the="" only="" man="" in="" the="" world="" to="" possess="" the="" rare="" and="" priceless="" artifact.="" truth="" be="" told,="" he="" already="" owned="" a="" collection="" of="" stolen="" art="" that="" rivaled="" any="" museum="" in="" europe.="" monet,="" manet,="" daumier,="" delacroix.="" da="" vinci="" sketches,="" donatello="" bronzes.="" illuminated="" ma.n.u.scripts,="" crown="" jewels,="" stolen="" historical="">

Warehouses in California were filled with antique automobiles, historic motorcycles, and early airplanes. Stolen Civil War artifacts, Romanov icons heisted from a museum in St. Petersburg, scientist Nikola Tesla's writings lifted from a museum in Romania after the fall of communism, secret presidential letters, even a toilet from the White House.

The first computer, the first personal computer, the first ma.s.s-produced consumer computer.

Those last were for nostalgia, since computers were where his fortune had come from. He still had a hard copy of the first program his company had sold--one he had stolen himself from an unsuspecting programmer who'd believed he was just helping another enthusiast.

That had been his first and largest theft, and it had set the stage for all the others.

He stared at the bonds again, then reached for the satellite telephone.

EDDIE SENG WATCHED as a pair of olive-green Zodiac boats were raised from a lower deck on a utility elevator that exited amidships on the Oregon. As soon as the elevator stopped, Sam Pryor hooked a cable to the center hoisting ring of the first boat and swung it over the side, then into the water. Down at water level, Murphy took the bowline of the boat and tied it to the dock. While Pryor was hooking up the second boat, Murphy climbed aboard and checked the fuel and oil for the high-output four-stroke outboard motor. The oil was fresh and full, the tanks topped to the rim. Murphy turned the key and watched the lights on the dash; once he was sure everything was fine, he twisted the key and the engine started and settled into an almost silent idle.

Once the second boat touched the water, Kasim duplicated Murphy's efforts. The two boats sat idling in the night. Seng climbed aboard Murphy's vessel and checked the supplies that had been loaded aboard IT?

218.