“I have the lawyers in Paris on her credit cards,” said Fareed, “but the woman may have multiple identities, in which case there is likely no clue to where she and the man have gone. We can call this woman Matilde, of course, and send people to watch the B and B, but Kapetria and Welf would be fools to go there.”

Seth rose from the chair. He appeared stiff and cold as he often did right before morning, and this was his mute signal that it was time for him and Fareed to retire to the crypts.

Fareed rose from his desk. The three moved towards the door.

“Well, it’s all over for us for the moment,” said Gregory. “I should have the analysis of all her research projects on my desk at the Paris office when we wake. We’ll find out what she was actually doing at the company.”

“No,” said Fareed as they left the apartment together and made their way down the dimly lighted corridor. “We’ll find out what she wanted others to think she was doing in your laboratories, no more and no less.”

Gregory didn’t want to admit that. And Seth walked on ahead impatiently.

Moments later Fareed and Seth were alone in the large crypt beneath the Château that they shared.

Neither had a taste for coffins or other Western romantic trappings of the grave, and this room was a simple though elegant bedchamber. It had a dark carpeted floor, a broad bed in the ancient Egyptian style with gilded lions supporting it, and a solitary standing lamp that gave a warm light through a parchment shade. The walls were painted with the golden sand and green palm trees of ancient Egypt.

Fareed slipped off his boots and lay down among the silk-covered pillows. For the first time in many months, he was actually tired, tired in his bones, and wanted to sleep for a while.

But Seth stood with his arms folded staring off as if he were not in this tiny windowless chamber, but gazing out at the snow falling all around them on the mountainside.

“There were always stories in those ancient days,” he said, “of wise men and healers who came out of the sea. I spoke to many a teller of tales in this or that city of such legends. And there were tales of a great kingdom that had been swallowed by the ocean in more places than one. These wise men and women were survivors of that great kingdom, or so some thought. I used to put hope in such legends. I used to think I could one day find one of these wise men or women and discover from that person some great and salvific truth.”