The cybofax screen had enough definition to show a frown wrinkling Victor's forehead. "Oh. Right. Can you get me her credit card number?"

Greg looked across at André Dubaud, who was sitting on one of the fold down seats, his back to the driver. "Can we get that from the Celestious?"

"Yes."

"Call you back," Greg told Victor.

The Celestious had a faintly Bavarian appearance, a flat high front of some pale bluish stone, a tower at each corner. Windows and doors were highly polished red wood, with gleaming brass handles. The principality's flag fluttered on a tall pole. Greg looked twice at that, there couldn't be any wind under the dome, someone had tricked it out with wires and motors. Utterly pointless. He put his head down, and went through the rotating door. It was the politics of envy. Monaco was getting to him, he was finding fault in everything. Always a mistake, clouding judgement. Never would have happened in the old days.

There was a strong smell of leather in the lobby, the decor was subdued, dark wood furnishings and a claret carpet. Biolums were disguised as engraved glass bola wall fittings.

André Dubaud showed his police card to the receptionist and asked for the manager.

"You think she's made a bolt for it?" Suzi asked Greg in a low voice.

"Yeah. She came here for one thing, delivering the flower to Julia. When that was over, her part in all this finished."

"Snuffed?"

"Could be." He scratched the back of his neck.

"But you don't think so."

"Not sure. My infamous intuition doesn't say chasing her is a waste of time."

"So how did she get out? This gold-plated rat hole is worse than a banana republic for security."

"You're the tekmerc, you tell me."

"No. Seriously, Greg, I'd never take on a deal inside Monaco. Use hotrods to burn data cores in the finance sector, maybe, but only from outside terminals. It's like Event Horizon; something you just have to learn to accept as untouchable."

"I thought you left Event Horizon alone because Julia owned it."

Suzi made a big show of shifting the weight round on her shoulder strap. "Yeah, well. That, and I've seen what's left of people after our angel-face Victor has finished with them. Sometimes there's enough to fill a whole eggcup."

"He's good, isn't he? Julia and old Morgan Walshaw knew what they were doing giving him the job."

"Too fucking true."

"So you don't reckon our Miss Fielder could get out on the quiet?"

"Put it this way, I've never heard of anyone else doing it. And I would've done. It's the dome which is the problem. A one hundred percent physical barrier. The only holes are the official ones. Nobody needs to create smuggling routes into Monaco, see? Drugs aren't illegal here. They actually have two pharmaceuticals licensed to produce narcotics. Any kind you want."

"I didn't know that." Somehow he wasn't surprised.

André Dubaud walked over to them with the manager, a tall old man with thinning grey hair, who actually wore glasses, round lenses with silver rims. He must do that for effect, Greg thought. It worked too; he had the kind of old-world dignity anyone would trust.

He listened to Greg's request, and beckoned one of the receptionists over. Greg was given Charlotte Fielder's American Express number, which he squirted direct to Victor.

The porter who was on duty the night of the Newfields ball was summoned from the staff quarters. Greg didn't learn much. Charlotte Fielder had phoned the hotel and told them to pack her bags, a car would be sent to collect them. The porter couldn't remember any details, it was a limousine of some kind, black, maybe a Volvo or a Pontiac.

"Not a green Aston Martin?" Greg asked.

"No, sir," said the porter.

"You seem very sure, considering you couldn't remember the make."

"We have a complementary fleet of Aston Martins at the disposal of our guests," the manager explained. He consulted his cybofax. "One was booked by Miss Fielder to take her to the El Harhari for the Newfields ball. But that's the only time she used one."

"Right, can you show me the memory for the camera covering the front of the hotel please."

The manager gave a short bow. "Of course."

They viewed it in his office, sipping coffee from delicate china cups. Greg watched the porter put three matched crocodile-skin cases into the boot of a stretched Pontiac, a chauffeur helped him with the largest.

"Progress," said Greg. He leant forward and read the licence plate number off to André Dubaud. "Can we have a make on the driver as well, please."

"It's a hire car," the Commissaire said, as his cybofax printed out the vehicle registry data. "I'll have my office check the hire company's records. The chauffeur's identity won't take a minute."

Greg and Suzi walked back out into the dome's filtered tangerine light. One of the Celestious doormen was holding the Citroën's door open for them. André Dubaud followed slowly.

"Problem?" Greg asked.

A muscle on the side of André Dubaud's cheek twitched. "There seems to be a glitch in our characteristics recognition program."

"Meaning what?" Suzi asked.

"It's taking too long to identify the Pontiac's chauffeur." He gave the cybofax a code number, and began speaking urgently into it.

Greg met Suzi's eyes as they sank down into the Citroën's cushioning, they shared a sly smile. He knew André Dubaud wasn't going to trace the chauffeur, it wouldn't be a program glitch, that was too complicated. The simple method would be to wipe the chauffeur's face from the police memory core, or make sure it was never entered in the first place. Either way, it would take a pro dealer to organize. His cybofax bleeped.

It was Julia. She appeared to be sitting in Wilholm's study. The walls behind, her were covered with glass-fronted shelves, heavy with dark leatherbound books. The edge of a window showed sunny sky.

"How's the speech day coming along?" Greg asked.

Julia smiled. "You'll have to ask her when she gets back."

"Right." He was talking to an image one of the NN cores was simulating. He wondered how many of her business deals were made like this, flattering the smaller company directors with what they thought was a personal interview.

"Rachel was right about Charlotte Fielder," Julia said. "She's quite well known, at least to us. She's one of Dmitri Baronski's girls. Security keeps a fairly complete list of his stable in case any of my executives should stumble."

"Who's Dmitri Baronski?" Greg asked.

"A first-class pimp, although that doesn't do him justice, he's a lot more than that. Clever old boy, lives in Austria. Runs a stable of girls who aren't quite as dumb as they like to make out to their clients. He's made a fortune on the stock market based on loose talk they've picked up for him."

"No messing?" For the first time, Greg began to feel a certain anticipation. "So this Fielder girl was a good choice as courier, then?"

"Yes. After all, would you know how to deliver a present to me, and be sure I'd see it?"

"Royan would," Greg said. "But you're right; method is one thing, carrying it off is another. Fielder must be bright enough to realize some of the implications of what she was doing."

Rachel, Pearse Solomons, and Claude Murtand were sitting round the El Harhari security centre's desk drinking tea. A plate of biscuits rested on top of the terminal. The monitor screens were dark.

"Got her," Rachel said. "She left at five to eleven, and she was with someone."

Greg didn't like the dry amusement leaking into Rachel's voice, it suggested a surprise.

Claude Murtand called up the memory, and Greg watched Charlotte Fielder walking out of the El Harhari with a young teenage boy. The kid kept sneaking daunted looks at Charlotte Fielder's low-cut neckline, his smile flashing on and off.