"Do you have a plan for how to do it?"

"Yes, I do." He smiled wide and leaned back. "Do you know much about security systems?"

"No."

"Neither do I," he confessed. "But I know about the system in the National Gallery in Tunis."

"What are you talking about?"

"I have a master schematic of the security system as well as a floor plan to the building. I bought them from an inside source last month. That's how I know their security is suspect."

"Nice," I said smiling.

"Yes, my source had been affiliated with us for about 15 years."

"What does the place look like?"

"Wait here and I'll show you." He came back minutes later, a tight roll of blueprints clamped under his arm.

I studied the blue and white paper over his shoulder as he rolled them out on the kitchen table. "It's not very big."

"I know. Small country; small National Gallery," he chuckled. "That works against us really. It has been my experience that it's easier to steal something out of a large building than one of this size."

I noticed his use of the plural when he spoke, but kept it to myself. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to a small red sticker on the floor plan.

"That's where 'The Rendevouz' hangs."

"How do you know?"

Samas turned his head and looked at me seriously. "Because I went there to see it, twice. I went to see it, but also to look for the cameras and sensors on this schematic."

"And?"

"And it's all accurate, right down to the guard's schedules. The piece hangs right here as though not a day had passed," he said, placing a chubby finger on the red dot. "But do you want to know what's ironic? It was taken off my wall in 1940, traveled God knows where on its way to Berlin, went to Moscow for forty years, and then went to Rome, New York, Singapore, Johannesburg, and finally Tunis. And after all that, it still rests in the same gold painted oak frame I put it in as soon as the oils had dried."

"That's amazing."

"We're lucky about that."

I looked at him curiously.

"I put it in the frame, I know how to get it out."

"Is getting it out of the frame part of your plan?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Let's hear it."

"Basically the plan is to get in, get the portrait out of the frame, cut it off the internal frame, and get out."

"What security measures are in place to prevent a would-be thief from doing just that?"

"All the doors are alarmed, as are the windows and skylights. Two guards are on duty at all times and make rounds every twenty minutes. The entire floor plan is covered by motion detectors and the paintings hang on pressure sensitive mounts that are wired into the main alarm system."

"It doesn't sound very suspect to me."