Chapter 92 Chapter Ninety

Collet stood on the tall straw shed of the Villette Manor, staring at the computer monitor in amazement. "Can all these areas be eavesdropped by using this system?" "Yes," the agent replied, "it appears the data has been collected for over a year." Collet looked at the list in his hand, but didn't say a word. Korbe Sostak - Chairman of the Constitutional Council Jean Chaffee - Director of Jude Baum National Gallery Édouard Desroche - Senior Archivist at the Mitterrand Library Jacques Saunière - Director of the Louvre Museum Michel Breton - French intelligence chief

The agent pointed to the computer screen and said, "The fourth one is obviously interesting." Collet nodded expressionlessly.He quickly noticed.Someone is listening to Jacques Saunière.He looked at the list again.How could others overhear such a famous person? "Did you hear any audio files?" "Heard some. This is a recent document." The agent tapped on the keyboard, and a clear and realistic voice came from the speaker: "Director, an agent from the Cryptography Department has arrived." Collet couldn't believe his ears. "That's me! That's my voice!" He recalled sitting at Saunière's table, radioing Fache, who was still at the Louvre's Grand Gallery, of Sophie Neveu's arrival.

The agent nodded: "If anyone is interested in our operation, then most of the content of our investigation at the Louvre tonight may have been overheard." "Then did you send someone to search for that bug?" "I don't think it's necessary, I know where it is." The agent walked to a pile of outdated notes and blueprints on the workbench, selected a page from it, handed it to Collet, and said, "Does it look familiar?" Collet was horrified.What he held in his hand was a photocopy of an ancient schematic diagram showing the original model of a machine.He couldn't read the handwritten Italian tag number, but he knew what he was looking at.Here is an assembled model of a medieval French knight.

The statue of the knight is now sitting on Saunière's desk! Collet's gaze shifted to the blank space on the page, where someone had scribbled some annotations on the photocopy with a red marker pen.These notes are written in French, to the effect that how to correctly insert the bugging device on the knight.