“Where have I heard that one before?” Lavon smiled. “If you want my opinion, Gabriel, I think the Rembrandt is probably long gone. But if you’re convinced Peter Voss might be able to help, let me go to Argentina.”

“You’re right about one thing, Eli. I can still see that tattoo on my mother’s arm.”

Lavon exhaled heavily. “At least let me make a phone call and see if I can arrange the meeting. I wouldn’t want you to go all the way to Mendoza to be turned away empty-handed.”

“Quietly, Eli.”

“I don’t know any other way. Just promise me you’ll watch your step down there. Argentina is filled with the sort of people who would love nothing better than to see your head on a stick.”

They had reached Plantage Middenlaan. Gabriel led Lavon into a side street and stopped before the narrow little house with the narrow black door. Lena Herzfeld, the child of darkness, sat alone in a gleaming white room without memory.

“Do you remember what Shamron told us about coincidences when we were kids, Eli?”

“He told us that only idiots and dead men believed in them.”

“What do you think Shamron would have to say about the disappearance of a Rembrandt that had once been in the hands of Kurt Voss?”

“He wouldn’t like it.”

“Can you keep an eye on her while I’m in Argentina? I’d never forgive myself if anything happened. She’s suffered enough already.”

“I was already planning to stay.”

“Be careful around her, Eli. She’s fragile.”

“They’re all fragile,” Lavon said. “And she’ll never even know I’m here.”

CHAPTER 28

28

AMSTERDAM

Zentrum Security of Zurich, Switzerland, operated by a simple creed. For the right amount of money, and under the proper circumstances, it would undertake almost any task. Its investigative division conducted inquiries and background checks into businesses and individuals. A counterterrorism unit provided advice on asset hardening and published an authoritative daily newsletter on current global threat levels. A personal protection unit provided uniformed security guards for businesses and plain-clothes bodyguards for individuals. Zentrum’s computer security division was regarded as among Europe’s finest while its international consultants provided entrée to firms wishing to do business in dangerous corners of the world. It operated its own private bank and maintained a vault beneath the Talstrasse used for storage of sensitive client assets. At last estimate, the value of the items contained in the vault exceeded ten billion dollars.