"Sounds ridiculous, I know. Somehow, a bullet in Dawson's brain seems less objectionable to me than invading his privacy. I guess that's something I need to get over."
"Immediately."
They walked toward a black Escalade SUV parked just outside the hangar. Tavak opened the rear hatch and tossed his and Rachel's bags inside. "Funny how Demanski rented that hot little Maserati for himself and this behemoth for us."
"Well, I feel better in this."
"I do too, actually. It's more inconspicuous if we're going to be tailing someone around the streets of Chicago. Too bad Demanski didn't show a bit more restraint with his own car."
"The words 'Demanski' and 'restraint' should never appear together in the same sentence." Rachel suddenly realized something. "I think that's why Allie is drawn to him. She's been restrained by her illness and fighting those strictures for most of her life. Demanski's recklessness and flaunting the rules must be very appealing."
"You're not worried that she might be unduly influenced?"
"Allie's no fool. She might enjoy him, but she's too strong to let him change anything about her."
"Then there's no problem. You know her better than I—" Tavak's cell phone rang, and he picked up. "Tavak."
"You tried to shut me out, dammit. Okay, so I told you no more tombs, but I can handle—"
"Ben?"
"Yes. You should have come to me first. You've known me a hell of a lot longer than Nuri."
"You're still in the hospital, dammit."
"No, I'm in London."
"Oh, for God's sake."
"I'm fine. A little wonky, but at least I'm not bored. That hospital was driving me nuts."
"Ben, go back to the hospital."
"Nope. I'm on the job. Nuri and I will get back to you as soon as we find out something."
"Is Nuri there? Let me talk to him."
A moment later Nuri was on the line. "I'm sorry, it was necessary that I either bring him or have him follow me."
"How bad is he?"
"Not too bad. The hospital would have released him within a few days anyway."
Tavak muttered a curse. "Listen to me. Take care of him. Sometimes he's—Don't let him do too much."
"Trust me. I know he's your friend." He paused. "But now he's my friend, too. I will watch over him. And now I must go because Ben is looking at me with extreme indignation. Goodbye."
"Your friend, Ben?" Rachel asked, as Tavak hung up.
Tavak nodded jerkily. "He checked himself out of the hospital and tagged along to London with Nuri."
"Nuri seemed to be very capable." She studied him. "But you're not with Ben, guiding, watching him yourself. You don't like that. You're very protective."
"Yeah, that's why I almost got him killed in that tomb. Well, there's nothing I can do about it now." Tavak checked his watch. "Ready to go to school?"
* * *
It took less than an hour for Rachel and Tavak to drive to the University of Chicago, park, and make their way to the five-hundred-seat auditorium where Dr. James Wiley was lecturing.
As they entered the hall and allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness, Rachel realized that Wiley was speaking on the subject of Babylonian customs. He spoke in a painful monotone, and to illustrate his lecture, he used a large projection screen and a particularly unimaginative PowerPoint slide presentation.
Rachel glanced around the auditorium. "These poor kids," she whispered.
"Half of them are asleep," Tavak said. "Can you blame them?"
Wiley pulled up another slide of a colorful painting. "For the next hour, we'll take a look at some of the headpieces of this era… "
Rachel was sure she heard about two hundred anguished sighs in the room.
"That's our cue," Tavak said. "Let's go."
Tavak was already out of his seat and heading for the door. Rachel ran to follow him.
Outside, in the bright sunlight, Tavak briefly consulted a campus map on his phone before pointing to another building. "His office is over there in Haskell Hall. He just told us the coast will be clear for the next hour."
"What are you going to do?"
"Remember that thing we decided you needed to get over?"
"Invading people's privacy?"
"Yes. Over it yet?"
"Guess I'd better be," she said, as they walked into the building and climbed the stairs to the second floor. Tavak consulted a scrap of paper as they walked past a row of faculty offices. They finally stopped at a door with a typewritten card affixed to it that read DR. JAMES WILEY and listed office hours. Before Rachel even realized what was happening, Tavak had jimmied the door and was ushering her inside.
"You did that way too fast," she said.
"I admit I've done this once or twice before." He pulled her into the office and closed the door behind them.
Rachel flipped on the lights to reveal a small, windowless room with a desk, a set of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a long table covered with what appeared to be ancient stone cookware.
Tavak leaned over the desk and looked at Wiley's computer monitor. "His e-mail application is open."
"Is there anything there?"
"You mean a subject heading that says 'come look at our stolen Egyptian artifact'?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Tavak scrolled though Wiley's e-mails for the previous week. "Afraid not. And nothing about plane reservations or travel plans of any kind. Too bad."
Tavak reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a black box the size of a pack of cigarettes. He pulled off an adhesive backing and affixed the box to the underside of Wiley's desk.
"What's that?"
"A listening device."
"A bug? I thought those things were smaller."
"This is a special one. It records all conversations from here and e-mails them to me as audio files."
She nodded. "Interesting. You know, if you set up a relay with a simple voice-recognition software package, you could have a written transcript created and e-mailed to you at the same time."
"I hadn't thought of that."
She shrugged. "I can set that up in fifteen minutes. I'll work on it tonight."
He smiled. "You're a natural."
"A natural what? Criminal?"
"Spy. I'm glad you're on my side." Tavak pulled a small plastic disc from his pocket and walked over to the door, where an overcoat hung from a hook. He unzipped a corner of the lining, placed the disc inside, then closed it.
"Let me guess," Rachel said. "GPS transmitter?"
"You catch on fast. I don't know what Demanski's source has, but Dr. James Wiley won't be able to make a move without us knowing about it." Tavak pulled out another GPS transmitter and again consulted his scrap of paper. "Now let's go to the faculty parking lot and find his car. According to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles, it's a gold Toyota Camry."
* * *
"Why did your contact want to meet down here?" Allie asked as she walked with Demanski down the busy stretch of Michigan Avenue known as the Magnificent Mile. Allie watched as the high-end shoppers jostled with businessmen, tourists, and a large group of children who had obviously come from a Star Wars-themed birthday party.
Demanski stepped around a small child wearing a Yoda mask. "It was my idea, actually."
"Your idea?"
"I thought it would be fun. Have you ever been here on the Magnificent Mile?"