Nazim al-Kassar dressed, returned downstairs to the hotel lobby and rejoined Muhammad, and the two of them walked to the silver Mercedes to meet with Ibrahim al-Rashid.

Chapter 16

Next, Ben had some expensive shopping to do. To fulfil his requirements Thierry had asked for a high-spec laptop computer, a laser printer and a laminating machine. The specialised sound editing software for cleaning up Romy’s audio recording could be downloaded online.

Ben set off with his list, and returned to the safehouse two hours later with boxes that Thierry helped him bring inside and set about unpacking, along with some junk food and soft drinks for his temporary houseguests. He had additionally purchased some extra items he would need for himself, namely a charcoal-grey single-breasted suit, a white cotton shirt, a plain, sober navy-blue tie and a pair of black patent leather shoes not unlike the ones that the Corsicans had been wearing earlier that day. He went into the bedroom to change, and scrutinised himself in the mirror. By no means his usual attire, but he looked the part reasonably well enough to carry out the next phase of his plan. He changed back into his civvies and set the new clothes aside for later.

While Thierry finished setting up his equipment and got down to work, Ben took the opportunity to fill in the time with a little tourist sightseeing. His destination was the Louvre Museum, where his instincts told him he might find out more about the kinds of ancient art treasures he’d glimpsed in Romy’s video clip.

Despite the light rain pattering from a slate-grey sky, the usual crowds of tourists thronged the entrance to the vast, palatial museum. After having to wait in line for a ticket, Ben made his way inside through the inverted glass pyramid, which he still thought was a hideous blot on the landscape, whatever anyone said. From there he cut a path through the exhibits, not pausing every few steps like the dawdling crowds of other visitors to drink in the magnificence of the collections, but instead following the guidebook and map he’d bought at the ticket desk to head briskly towards the Near Eastern Antiquities section on the ground floor. Those were housed in the Richelieu Wing, one of the museum’s three main sections, and the least congested as it contained fewer of the big-name crowd pullers like the Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo.

Ben skirted without a second glance the wondrous apartments of Napoleon III, not one but two beautiful sculpture gardens, centuries of French, Dutch, Flemish and German paintings, and arts of Islam, until he found what he was looking for in the Mesopotamia section.