Ava lay awake for an hour.
Finally, she slept.
She woke with a start. A bright morning. Blue sky. Sun in her eyes. Tariq was not in bed. She rolled over. A man stood in the doorway; someone she had not seen before.
“Good morning, Madame,” he said. “I am to inform you that the prince has left the premises.”
Ava pulled the sheet to her neck. “Pardon me,” she said. “Tariq is gone?”
“Yes, Madame.”
“Where to?”
“Home.”
“Which home?”
“Qatar, Madame,” replied the man. “We have prepared coffee and toast for you, as requested. When you are ready. There is clothing for you in the dressing room.”
“Where is the dressing room?”
The man gestured to his right, and Ava saw an open door adjacent to the bathroom.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll be down in a few minutes for breakfast.”
She waited until the man left and shut the door behind himself, then rose. How, she wondered, had TNT slipped out of bed without her knowing? She was not by nature a heavy sleeper.
She walked to the dressing room, in fact a walk-in closet as big as the bedroom. Racks ran the perimeter. A pale-blue ottoman sat in its center. Not clothing, but an entire wardrobe. Blouses and blazers and parkas. Blue, white, red, green. Until then she’d refused to be impressed. But this ... this was too much. Her hand touched fur, and she stopped. A mink coat. Not mink, sable. Only the finest for Tariq’s conquests.
Ava settled on blue slacks and a white turtleneck and black ski jacket. There were shoes too. Twenty pairs? Twenty-five? She picked a pair of zip-up après-ski boots.
Everything fit perfectly.
There were five men in the kitchen, seated around a large dining table. None said a word to her. Ava ate standing. If they were relaxed now that the boss was gone, so was she.
“I’d like to call him,” she said, after finishing her toast.
No one answered. They stared at her without malice and without interest or even acknowledgment. Finally, one of the men stood. He could have been TNT’s double. “Back to the hotel,” he said.
“I’ll walk.”
Chapter 36
Sport Hotel Corviglia
St. Moritz
Ava called Zvi the moment she was back in her hotel room.
“Did you get them?”
“Beautiful,” said Gelber. “I congratulate you.”
“I figured it out, Zvi,” she said, forcing herself to calm down. “The whole thing. What TNT is planning. We’ve got to take this to the chief.”
“Slow down, there,” said Gelber. “First we need to authenticate the plans.”
“You saw them,” said Ava. “The blueprint tube has the lab’s name stenciled on it. You confirmed payment was made. This is happening.”
