Across from me, the heavyset man paused at the main doors as if he could feel Bernie's stare gouge into his back. Then he nodded to the nearest guard, pulled open the door, and left the hall.

I wanted to argue. This guy was too big, too light on his feet. Bernie needed backup. But before I could object, I heard more clicks, and the tone of the connection changed. He must've switched to Security's general channel. I saw tension flash from guard to guard as soon as he spoke again.

"There's a team here. I'm following a suspect outside. Axbrewder's after the others. Hold the doors. Don't let anybody in or out until he says so."

My phone went dead.

Bernie left the hall. I couldn't stop him.

Damn and damn. He was the boss, it was his call. But he was making a mistake, I was sure of it. I'd known it the minute I woke up this morning.

Swearing viciously, I shoved the phone into my pocket and forced my legs to slow down. I had to be unobtrusive again. When they couldn't leave by the usual doors, the picks would look for other exits. They might even panic. And the service corridors weren't guarded I needed help. Quickly I searched the hall.

For one frightened moment, I couldn't find what I wanted. Master Soon was already gone. Sternway had vanished from the head table while I wasn't looking. Rasmussen stood at the record-keeper's shoulder, consulting about something. Ned Gage and Parker Neill moved toward opposite ends of the hall. Posten had already started to argue with a guard who wouldn't let him outside. Hong appeared to be watching me dispassionately. But I couldn't locate the picks.

Then my head kicked into gear, and I found them.

I had to gamble, so I did.

The kid in the NO FEAR T-shirt could probably run faster than the others. And Ned Gage was closer to me than anyone else I might've trusted.

I angled across the tournament floor to intercept him.

As I approached, he started a smile that fell away when he saw my face.

I didn't give him time to say anything. Hunching, I whispered, "There's a kid, stringy hair, NO FEAR black T-shirt. Over near the display. He's a thief. Don't let him out of here."

Before Gage could react, I wheeled away.

Now I only had to worry about the dull bland girl and the woman who looked like a chaperone for a junior high field trip. On one of my good days, I would've said that I had them outnumbered. But it wasn't, and I was scared. My impulse to hurry had so much force that I could hardly contain it.

Bernie needed me and didn't know it.

Already people had begun to clump at the main doors, wanting out for one reason or another. The girl joined them without any detectable concern. Some of the spectators muttered complaints at the guard, but she didn't join them. As far as I could tell, she was asleep on her feet.

The guard managed to look flustered and determined simultaneously.

Trying to be polite about it, he held his ground.

I plowed my way into the crowd until I reached the girl. Smiling, I wrapped my arm around her waist and knotted my fist in the fabric of her warmup suit. If you hadn't seen her quick flinch, you might've thought we were old friends.

"You're coming with me," I told her softly.

She didn't resist. Why should she? She'd gotten rid of the evidence.

After one fast glance, she didn't so much as look at me.

Bulk had its advantages. Despite the crowd, I pulled her forward easily until I reached the doors. A few people wanted to know what the hell I thought I was doing, but I ignored them.

The guard nodded to me nervously, peered at the girl, then flicked a question up at my face. Maybe he thought she didn't look like a pick.

I shoved her at him. Reflexively he caught her arms.

"Hang on to her," I ordered over the top of her head.

"She's one of them. I'll get the others."

"Hey," the girl protested eloquently.

"Hey." She may've tried to struggle.

I didn't pay any attention.

Some of the spectators sounded like they were about to get rude. Facing them, I raised my voice a bit.

"Security problem, folks. Nothing to worry about. We'll open the doors in a couple of minutes."

Then I shouldered my way past them and headed for the next set of doors, hunting for a flower print housedress.

She wasn't hard to find. The doors she wanted to use weren't busy, and she stood right in front of them. The guard there was a grandfatherly type with a bad comb-over and pleasant teeth, maybe a few years younger than Bernie, and she was talking to him. Not hassling him. Just the opposite. His attentive smile suggested cronies sharing gossip. When I got close enough, I heard her chuckle comfortably.

I felt a pang of doubt, even though I'd seen her work. She wouldn't have looked less furtive never mind guilty if she'd just been anointed by a Bishop. Involuntarily I hesitated.

But the next second at the edge of my vision I saw the NO FEAR kid sprint across the floor toward the service doors and almost fall on his back when Gage grabbed his arm. At once Gage slipped the kid into a wrist-lock, then walked him in my direction, extracting cooperation with no apparent effort.

That jolted me past my uncertainty. If I was wrong, there was nothing I could do about it now. Bernie needed me.

By my count, he'd already been gone too long.

At the doors, I interrupted the blowzy woman's seduction of the guard by dropping one hand on her shoulder and the other on his. Holding them together, I asked him quietly, "What's standard procedure for dealing with a suspect?"

He gaped at me like I'd asked him to perform a radical mastectomy on her. Apparently he didn't believe Bernie's warning. A nice lady like her, a thief? No way. Hell, in another minute he might've let her go.

Urgency gathered in my chest. I was about to snarl at him, but he managed to jerk his attention back to his job. Swallowing hard, he answered, "Detain them until the cops get here. There's a room we can lock in the Security offices."

The woman put on a perplexed smile and made a show of hoping someone would tell her what was going on.

"Good enough," I snapped.

"This woman is a suspect." I tightened my grip on her shoulder, just in case.

"Do not lose her."

Like magic, the junior high chaperone transformed herself into a yowling harridan.

"A suspect?" She sounded fierce enough to intimidate the dead.

"Of what? Get your fucking hand off me, asshole! I know my rights!"

In another second we'd have an audience.