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Mediterranean History professor mentioning them. That’s the class Lucy and I were in together.”
    “Really? Your professor mentioned them? My brother Michael—he has two degrees in history, and he’d never heard of them.”
    “That’s because they’re not historical,” Sammi said, “they’re entirely modern. A sect operating in present-day Egypt. Very radical. Made up of intensely passionate Egyptian nationalists. Among other things, their aim is to repatriate any Egyptian artifacts and treasures they see as having been stolen by other countries.”
    “Stolen’s a bit strong,” Gabriel said. “Most of what’s in museums was legally obtained.”
    “Most is not all,” Sammi said, “and ‘legally obtained’ is in the eye of the beholder. And in their eyes a great wrong has been committed. One they feel calls for revenge.”
    “The thefts in Istanbul—”
    “And from the Louvre, yes. We discussed them in class. Our professor didn’t approve of the tactic—”
    “By ‘tactic’ you mean beheading the security guards?”
    “—but he seemed sympathetic to the desire for Egypt to have her artifacts back. But then, he was Egyptian himself.”
    “Do you suppose he’d be willing to talk to me? I’d like to know more about this group before I meet with them.”
    “I wouldn’t know how to contact him—he was avisiting professor only, he went back to Egypt at the end of the semester. But, Gabriel,” she said, reaching out and taking hold of his hand, “surely you are not going to meet with members of this group. Of all people, not you.”
    “Why ‘of all people’?” Gabriel said.
    “For heaven’s sake, what are you known for? How many precious artifacts have you taken out of Egypt and her neighbors and brought back to the United States? If this group has two enemies, it must be you and Howard Carter. And Howard Carter they can no longer kill.”
    “I may not be quite as easy to kill as they think,” Gabriel said.
    Sammi’s voice shook when she spoke. “But don’t you see? That is why they took Cifer. With her life in the balance, how could you dare to fight them?”
    “I’ll think of something,” Gabriel said, with more confidence than he felt. “Listen, did you find anything when you searched Lucy’s apartment? Anything that might be helpful?”
    “Just this.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a small plastic bag. It contained the other half of the broken glass syringe, the half with the plunger. “It was on the floor in the bedroom.”
    Gabriel nodded. “I found the other half behind the bed. Can I take it Lucy isn’t a drug user?”
    “Hardly! She doesn’t even like to drink very much.”
    “Then it must have been the kidnappers,” Gabriel said. “Some sort of knock-out drug, maybe.”
    “We’ll find out,” Sammi said. “Before I picked you up, I called a man I know who has a pharmacy and he agreed to run some tests. In fact—” She took out her cell phone and looked at the clock on its display. “We’d better get going, it’s almost eleven.”
    “He stays open till eleven?”
    “Jean? No, he closes at seven; eight on weekends. But that’s for ordinary customers. For me . . . he’ll make an exception.”
    Gabriel tried to read the expression he saw in her eyes. “Sounds like he might prefer if I stayed in the car,” he said.
    “I am sure he would,” Sammi said. “But I would not.” And she squeezed his hand once more.

Chapter 5
    La pharmacie
was closed, of course, but Sammi rang the bell and after a moment, a light went on in the back. Someone came to the door, flicked a switch, and the metal security gate rolled up slowly. Then the door swung open.
    The chemist was a man in his forties, the sort you could tell had been fit once but hadn’t kept at it, so that now he was glad to have a bulky pharmacy apron to hide behind. He was mostly bald and had a pair of glasses hanging on a chain around his neck. He smiled warmly at Sammi, greeted her in