Black Rose

CHAPTER 22

Valentina Antipov waited until Gutenberg's snoring was in full flower before she got out of bed. She looked at him with distaste. He'd been particularly clumsy tonight and it had taken all her considerable skills to convince him of his romantic prowess. She picked up a red silk nightgown from the floor by the bed, slipped it on and padded softly into the other room.

Gutenberg's laptop computer sat on a desk by the window. It was password protected, of course, but Valentina had long ago discovered the key, a combination of his wife's name and his birth date. For all his power and intelligence, Gutenberg was naive about things like passwords. It would never occur to him that his not-so-intelligent mistress would even look at his computer, much less be able to access the files on it. He should have been using a biometric security lock, but he'd once told her he didn't trust them. Biometrics had been known to fail.

Valentina enjoyed making a fool of him. It was one of the pleasures of her job.

Something had happened to upset him. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was important. Johannes had flown in to Paris unexpectedly and ordered her to be ready for him later in the day. A business meeting, he'd said, but then he'd be free. He'd sounded strained over the phone, even worried, angry. She had never known him to be worried about anything.

Valentina had decided to look at the laptop and see if she could find out why Gutenberg was here, or who it was he'd met with. There was little risk she'd be discovered. His snores echoed loudly in the other room.

Half a bottle of cognac will do that to you, she thought. Pig.

An ornate iron street lamp cast soft, yellow light over snow dusting the cobbled street outside the window. This part of Paris still had the feel of the old city, the Paris of van Gogh and Matisse, of Voltaire and Moliere. Valentina loved Paris. As much as she missed the sounds and nightlife of her native Moscow, she had to admit it was nothing like the city of light.

The sounds in the other room stopped and Valentina froze where she was. A moment later, they started again. She took a deep breath and opened the computer. She entered the password. The screen filled with fifty or sixty file icons, like miniature file folders. Gutenberg was obsessive about records. There was probably a psychological term for it, but she didn't know what it was. He always kept a record of anything he thought important.

If there was something that could tell her what had upset Gutenberg, it would be a recent entry. There was no time to look into each folder. Most of them would be business files, of interest but little use to her. She wanted something recent.

She moved the cursor over the folders, pausing only to see the date of entry. She came to a folder marked K. The entry date was the night before. She clicked on the file. Flashing red letters appeared on the screen.

Damn!

That had never happened before.

Her purse lay on a chair nearby. She went to it and took out a high speed flash drive given to her by SVR's technicians and went back to the computer. She inserted it and copied Gutenberg's entire drive without trying to crack the code on the file. She shut down the computer, withdrew the device and put it back in her purse.

Let Moscow worry about it, she thought. She'd arrange for it to get to the embassy tomorrow, after Gutenberg was gone.

Her work done, Valentina slipped back into bed. She looked over at the man sleeping next to her.

Men are such fools, she thought.