Chase checked his watch. “What time’s this whole thing supposed to kick off?”

“Two o’clock,” Sophia told him.

“So we’ve got about an hour to find Dick before he gets up onstage with the president, which is when it gets kind of hard for us to have a word in private. I’m guessing he won’t be hanging about afterwards.”

“Hardly,” said Sophia. “If I remember our original itinerary, my husband wanted to get out of Botswana so quickly that he even had a helicopter laid on just to get back to the runway and the company jet as soon as the official function ends.”

“Where were you due to go next?” Chase asked. “I mean, if we miss him here we’re probably buggered, but we might get a second shot.”

“Switzerland. But he may have changed his plans since I left.”

The bus stopped beside the marquee’s main entrance. Chase picked up the bags. Leaving the vehicle, they were directed into the huge tent. Its walls were lined with large poster displays showing off the mine’s technological prowess; the giant trucks, the even bigger excavators that filled them, the security systems monitoring and protecting the precious stones, even an airship used to survey the Okavango for more diamond veins. Around two hundred people were already inside, buffet tables set out and staff serving drinks. There was also a clear social division: two-thirds of the interior was occupied by the attending media and the apparently less influential attendees, with a smaller roped-off VIP area at the far end.

“Uh-oh,” Chase said quietly as they moved through the throng, lowering his head and gesturing for Sophia to do the same. “You see who I see?”

“I do,” she replied. Nina looked down the tent and spotted Yuen through the crowd, standing laughing with a small group of men in the VIP section.

But it wasn’t Yuen who caught her eye. “Shit,” she whispered, lowering her own head and summoning Chase closer. “That’s him. That’s the guy who took the other pages!”

Chase cautiously followed her gaze. “The guy with the ponytail?”

“That’s Fang,” said Sophia. “Fang Yi, my husband’s… I suppose enforcer would be the most accurate term.”

Nina tried to get a better look. Fang was standing slightly apart from Yuen, something about his body language suggesting suppressed impatience, waiting for his boss to finish his conversation. He had his black cane in one hand, and in his other was a briefcase-which, Nina saw with a sudden jolt of excitement, was handcuffed to his wrist. Exactly how the Brotherhood had brought the Hermocrates text to New York.

“Oh my God,” she said quietly. “I think he’s got the pages in that briefcase.”

“He’s got something important in there, that’s for sure.” Chase surveyed the rest of the tent. “Bollocks. I don’t see an easy way to get to him. There’s too many goons around.” The rope dividing the marquee was guarded by several security men, all with pistols on their belts.

“We might be able to catch Richard before the tour,” Sophia suggested. “I know him: he’ll want to take a few minutes to meditate and put on a clean shirt for his speech. He’ll probably get changed in the administration building.”

“Which means we need to get out of here and into the admin block,” Chase said. “Okay, let’s check out the catering entrance over there, see if we can sneak out. Say we need to use the loo or something.”

“Subtle as ever,” said Sophia with amusement as Chase led the way across the tent. None of the other guests or staff seemed interested in them. He checked that nobody was watching, about to dart through the door-

“Wait, wait!” Nina said. “Look!” She indicated the VIP area. Yuen had finally ended his conversation, and Fang was taking him off to one side. He held up the briefcase and opened it. Inside was…

Nina’s breath caught as she watched Yuen carefully lift something out of the case, turning his back to shield it from the sight of the other people nearby. But she didn’t need a good view to know what it was.

The missing section of the book. The stolen pages of Plato’s Hermocrates.

The rest of the map that would lead her to the Tomb of Hercules.

“That’s it, that’s the book!” she said in a high-pitched whisper, barely able to contain herself. “It’s here, he brought it!”

“All right, calm down, you’ll have an aneurysm,” Chase told her dismissively. She huffed, then looked back at Yuen and Fang. Yuen examined the pages, then returned them to the case and said something to his henchman. Fang nodded, closed the case and walked away. A guard stepped aside to let him through an exit at the rear of the marquee.

“We’ve got to go after him!” said Nina. “We’ve got to get the other pages!”

Chase frowned. “Wait, we came here to get Yuen, remember?”

“No, Eddie, she’s absolutely right,” Sophia said. “Fang has the book-and he doesn’t have any guards. All the security will be concentrated around my husband, and the president when he arrives. We can get the book-and then we don’t need to do anything else, except get back to the plane.”

Chase looked from Yuen to the exit through which Fang had departed, then let out a breath between his teeth. “Okay, let’s bag him. But we’ll have to shift to catch him.” He put down the bags, then ducked through the door.

They emerged by the catering trucks. A couple of uniformed staff looked at them disinterestedly before carrying on with their food preparation. The reason for their lack of surprise soon became obvious. The marquee was a no-smoking area; from the number of cigarette butts on the ground, this was the only place where the media could grab a smoke.

Chase led the way along the side of the tent and peered around the corner. There was another security guard outside the exit through which Fang had left, but his back was to Chase as he watched a pair of men carrying a set of wooden steps into an open area marked by a circle of white tape. They were preparing for the arrival of a helicopter, presumably President Molowe’s.

Chase spotted Fang, heading for a line of white Toyota Land Cruisers alongside the nearby administration building. “I see him,” he told the two women. “Looks like he’s going for a drive.”

“What if he’s leaving already?” asked Nina, worried. “If he drives back to the airfield-”

“Follow him,” Sophia said. Chase checked that the guard was preoccupied, then crossed the few yards to take cover behind a parked bulldozer at the end of a row of similar machines. Sophia and Nina quickly joined him.

Fang got into one of the Land Cruisers and reached up to slide the keys out from the sun visor. He started the 4×4, orange warning lights on its roof flashing.

Keeping low, Chase hurried along the row of earth-movers until he reached the last one. He leaned out from behind it to watch as Fang set off. The Land Cruiser skirted the landing area-there was a second helipad farther away, occupied by a Jet Ranger sporting the Ygem logo-and passed out of sight behind the marquee.

Chase popped open the leather strap holding his Wildey in its holster, then gestured for Nina and Sophia to hurry to the nearest Land Cruiser. He kept his eyes on the guard as they crossed the gap, one hand on his gun, but the man’s attention was still elsewhere. Once the women were in cover, he ran to join them.

“Okay,” he said, opening the driver’s door, “I’ll drive.” Sophia went to the front passenger door, again leaving Nina to sit on the row behind. Once inside, Chase tipped down the sun visor, the keys dropping into his hand. “Guess they don’t have much of a chav problem around here. Do this in England, your car’d be gone in six seconds, never mind sixty.”

“We are twenty miles from the nearest town,” Sophia pointed out. Chase grinned and started the engine.

“Ahem,” said Nina. Chase and Sophia looked around to see her holding up two white hard hats. “These might make us a bit less conspicuous.”