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swallowed a sigh of pleasure at the sound.
    “Smack dab in the middle of our new military venture?” Gene asked. “We’d be spreading our resources too thin. I say we wait until the defense division has proven itself before we jump into any more new territory.”
    “Are you always a risk-taker, Helmut?” Claire asked.
    Helmut cracked a lopsided grin and shrugged. A round of chuckles from the board answered the question for him.
    “Because Gene is correct that we already have our fingers in quite a few pies,” she continued.
    “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Their gazes locked across the table, and Claire recognized a challenge in his eyes that had nothing to do with Europe.
    “I agree the potential gains are tempting. But are you willing to risk your job?”
    “That’s the beauty of it. It’s not my job I’m risking, Claire. It’s yours.”
    Claire raised one eyebrow. “That’s where you’re wrong, Helmut. You risk all of our jobs,” she said softly and turned back toward the teleconference camera.
    “Marie, I agree that the idea might be worthwhile, but I want to see more detail. Since speed is of the essence, you can give me a full report in person next Wednesday in Paris.”
    “ Oui, madame ,” Marie said. “In Paris.”
     
    “There is a problem with Paris.” Betty peered over the rims of her reading glasses at Helmut.
    He grinned. “I can survive a week in a city without a baseball team.”
    “My, you’re in a good humor this morning.” Her tone was crisp, but Helmut caught the quirk of the older lady’s lips. “It isn’t your entertainment that concerns me.”
    Helmut picked up one of the small twisted nail puzzles she kept on her desk and began turning it over in his fingers. “What is it?”
    “Did you see the memo this morning about the corporate credit cards?”
    “I skimmed it.” Someone in human resources had lost their laptop, which held a personnel database with employee names, addresses, and corporate card numbers. It was an identity thief’s wet dream. “HR needs to start encrypting all their data. That’s been standard operating procedure for Finance for years now.”
    “Yes, I’m sure they’re working on it. In the meantime, your personal information was in that database, and the credit company has already suspended all of those cards, just in case. They’re issuing us new ones, but the numbers won’t be available until Monday at the earliest.”
    Helmut had a feeling he knew where this discussion was heading. “We can’t cancel the whole industry-wide Air Show next week for a batch of stolen cards.”
    “Of course not. I have your plane tickets on hold with the travel agent for another hour. It’s the last first-class ticket out of Chicago leaving anytime before next Friday. Shall I use your personal card for the reservation?”
    Helmut twisted the nails and pulled. The pair remained annoyingly attached. “No problem. What about the hotel?”
    “Same.”
    He set the puzzle back in its place. “Fine. What’s the rest of my day look like?”
    “The finance all-hands meeting starts in twenty minutes. You have a lunch appointment with Goldman Sachs, a conference call this afternoon, quarterly statements to review, and your racquetball league at four-thirty.” Betty raised one eyebrow. “Would you like me to show you the trick to those nail puzzles?”
    “Nah,” Helmut said. “I’ll figure them out one of these days.”
    “If you say so.”
     
    Claire wrapped a thin towel around her torso, her panties, and the jogging bra she’d worn for her afternoon run on the treadmill. She cracked the door of the private changing room and glanced down the short hall. All clear.
    The gym, situated in the basement of the thirty-story office building that housed Sheffield & Fox’s corporate headquarters, had been built as an executive-only workout facility back in the sixties. Back when “executive” meant “all-male.”
    The facility was top-notch. Except