Thorn pressed the button on the intercom that allowed him to speak to Murray through the thick glass partition that separated them. 'Let's go, Murray,' he said. Then, clicking off the intercom, he answered Joan Hart's question: 'Washington.'

Joan Hart smiled again. 'Air Force One waits for no man. What are you doing, advising the President on how to run the country?'

'No,' said Thorn, finding that he enjoyed her sense of humor more than he wanted to. 'Just the Secretary of State. Now, what can I do for you?'

Joan Hart reached into her bag again and brought out a small leather-bound notebook and a gold pencil. Her manner changed instantly, as if possession of the notebook invested her with special powers. She was transformed into the hard, smooth professional reporter, digging away at the hidden facts, like Bugenhagen excavating artifacts.

***

By the time they were halfway to O'Hare, Thorn was tired of the interview game. 'You've asked me seven questions so far, Miss Hart,' he said, 'and every one of them has to do with money.'

She favored him with her most devastating smile. 'Makes the world go round, doesn't it?'

‘That, and a few other things,' Thorn said.

Joan could tell he was getting restless and annoyed, but she couldn't tell him what she believed. Not yet. She needed a little more time.

'Uh... your father built the museum in-‘ she glanced at her notes—'1940, I think it was. How much did it cost?'

'About ten million, more or less,' said Thorn.

'Give or take a million,' she laughed. ‘When your father first came to Chicago, didn't he work in the stockyards?'

'Right.'

'And didn't he make you and your brother Robert take cold baths and sleep on boards so you'd know what it was like to be poor?'

Thorn burst out laughing. 'Is that what they tell you about us?’

Just then, the limousine stopped short. They had come to the Michigan Avenue drawbridge that crosses over the Chicago River. Its strident warning bells and flashing red lights signaled that the bridge was about to be raised to let a ship pass. Thorn looked out the car window and recognized a Thorn Industries tanker. He was being delayed by one of his own ships.

Joan Hart chose that moment to change the subject. She took the raising of the drawbridge to mean that she had been granted the time she needed to tell Thorn what she had come to tell him.

'Did you ever meet Bugenhagen?' she asked.

'No,' said Thorn, sensing immediately that she had taken a different tack.

'Did you know he was an exorcist as well as an archaeologist?'

'I don't see what that has to do with-'

'His skeleton was found in your dig at Belvoir Castle,' she went on. 'Didn't you know that?’