Honour Among Thieves

looking at the two documents in amazement, unable to think of the words that would adequately express his admiration. 'When William J. Stone was asked to make a copy back in 1820, it took him nearly three years,' said Dollar Bill. 'And, more important, he had the blessing of Congress.' 'Are you going to tell me the one difference between the final copy you've chosen and the original?' 'No, but I will tell you it was William J. Stone who pointed me in the right direction.' 'So what's next?' asked Angelo. 'Patience,' said the craftsman, 'because our little souffle needs time to rise.' Angelo watched as Dollar Bill transferred the two parchments carefully onto a table in the centre of the room where he had rigged up a water-cooled Xenon lamp. 'This gives out a light similar to daylight, but of much greater intensity,' he explained. He flicked the switch on and the room lit up like a television studio. 'If I've got my calculations right,' said Bill, 'that should achieve in thirty hours what nature took over two hundred years to do for the original.' He smiled. 'Certainly enough time to get drunk.' 'Not yet,' said Angelo, hesitating. 'Mr Cavalli has one more request.' 'And what might that be?' asked Dollar Bill in his warm Irish brogue. He listened to Mr Cavalli's latest whim with interest. 'I feel I ought to be paid double in the circumstances,' was the forger's only response. 'Mr Cavalli has agreed to pay you another ten thousand,' said Angelo. Dollar Bill looked down at the two copies, shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Thirty-six hours later, the chairman and the chief executive of Skills boarded a shuttle for Washington. They had two assessments to make before flying back to New York. If both came out positively, they could then arrange a meeting of the executive team they hoped would carry out the contract. If, however, they came away unconvinced, Cavalli would return to Wall Street and make two phone calls. One to Mr Al Obaydi, explaining why it would be impossible to fulfil his request, and the second to their contact in the Lebanon to tell him that they could not deal with a man who had demanded that ten per cent of the money be lodged in a Swiss bank account in his name. Cavalli would even supply the number of the account they had opened in Al Obaydi's name in Geneva, and thus the blame for failure would be shifted from the Cavallis to the Deputy Ambassador from Iraq. When the two men stepped out of the main terminal, a car was waiting to ferry them into Washington. Crossing the 14th Street bridge they proceeded east on Constitution Avenue where they were dropped outside the National Gallery, a building that neither of them had ever visited before. Once inside the East Wing, they took a seat on a little bench against the wall just below the vast Calder mobile and waited. It was the clapping that first attracted their attention. When they looked up to see what was causing the commotion, they watched as flocks of tourists quickly stood to one side, trying to make a clearing. When they saw him for the first time, the Cavallis automatically stood. A group of bodyguards, two of whom Antonio recognised, was leading the man through a human passage while he shook hands with as many people as possible. The chairman and the chief executive took a few paces forward to get a better view of what was taking place. It was remarkable: the broad smile, the gait and walk, even the same turn of the head. When he stopped in front of them and bent down to speak to a little boy for a moment they might, if they hadn't known the truth, have believed it themselves. When the man reached the front of the building, the bodyguards led him towards the third limousine in a line of six. In moments he had been whisked away, the sound of sirens fading into the distance. 'That two-minute exercise cost us one hundred thousand dollars,' said Tony as they made their way back towards the entrance. As he pushed through the revolving door a little boy rushed past him shouting at the top of his voice, 'I've just seen the President! I've just seen the President!' 'Worth every penny,' said Tony's father. 'Now all we need to know is whether Dollar Bill also lives up to his reputation.' Hannah received an urgent call asking her to attend a meeting at the embassy when there was still another four months of her course to complete. She assumed the worst. In the exams which were conducted every other Friday, Hannah had consistently scored higher marks than the