The search had finished at last, while she was busy patching up the team's new medic. Becki blinked in surprise at what the screen was telling her.
"M'allim Rouddim," she read aloud. "Merchant. Owner of a chain of tourist-catering, holy-land souvenir shops: one in Jericho, one in the Jerusalem Arab Quarter, and one in . . . Bethlehem? Where also the proprietor is known to reside." She squinted in question at the computer's report. Why was something tickling at the back of her mind, something that didn't seem quite right -- something to do with Bethlehem?
She scrolled through the search report, finding a dossier photo of the mercantile Rouddim, hawk-nosed, hawk-eyed, and keffiyehed. And beyond that, an inventory, examples of what one might buy in his shops. The usual things, from postcards to jewelry to clothing to candlesticks. And it was nothing unusual that the Bethlehem branch carried a generous supply of olive-wood craftings as well; Bethlehem was known for its olive wood, and --
And it clicked.
She found Cheriss inspecting her vibroblade in the galley. "I bought a sword," Becki announced without preamble, "in a shop in Paris."
Cheriss paused in her inspection to frown in confusion. "Indeed?"
"A little old curiosity shop. With a curious little old shopkeeper. With a more or less Middle Eastern accent. Who showed no reaction to a picture of you -- it was you I'd gone there looking for, you see -- but I'd swear he did react when I mentioned shields. And he sold olive wood from a brother in Bethlehem."
"I don't understand," Cheriss said.
Becki took her to the computer.
"M'allim Rouddim," Cheriss repeated the name. "Why do you think this is the brother the shopkeep in Paris mentioned?"
"A hunch," Becki shrugged. "The olive wood, I guess. That -- and what our prisoner told Mike about M'allim Rouddim."
Cheriss glanced up at the younger woman. "Nothing to do with olive wood, I presume?"
Becki shook her head. "Achmed wouldn't tell Mike the name of the man who hired him. Or rather -- given that he seems to have had no hesitation in telling Mike anything else he wanted to know, probably he just doesn't know that man's name. `The Boss' was all he would call him. And -- this is the peculiar part -- once or twice he referred to him as a sort of magician. Anyway, Rouddim's name he very gladly shared with us. Seems M'allim Rouddim was Achmed's direct superior for a time, one of the Boss's top henchmen. Then there was some sort of falling out, and Rouddim left the fold. Now the Boss has Achmed and his buddies on Rouddim's trail, apparently. Achmed didn't know specifically why, but it seems they were supposed to be recovering something Rouddim stole from the Boss."
Cheriss's night-blue eyes widened. "The shield, do you think?"
"It could explain a lot."
She nodded, beginning to pace in eager thought. "Someone's been selling parts of the shield, but not the main part. I wondered why they'd split it up like that, but what if they didn't -- or at least didn't intend the separate parts to be sold to separate buyers. If Rouddim stole parts of it to sell --"
"And the Boss is trying to get them back?"
"It looks that way."
"What was the curiosity shop, Cheriss?"
The Adumari agent looked momentarily confused at the shift in topic, then nodded as she recalled their earlier conversation. "Where you bought a sword?"
"Yes."
"Was it in the Quartier Latin?"
"Yes, I think so."
"I believe I recall the place -- a curiosity itself, no?" Both the women smiled at the memory of it. "I tracked several men to that shop, men I suspected of brokering -- or buying -- a few minor pieces of the shield. I suspected it was a meeting place, or a front for the bargaining. I left Paris before I could look into it further, though."
"Anyone who looked like this?" Becki scrolled again to the image of Rouddim.
Cheriss shook her head. "No. Agents of his, I suppose, if he is the one running the operation."
"And running three nice little souvenir shops on the side."
"I wonder," Cheriss mused, "what he might have in that shop besides olive wood?"
Becki grinned. "I don't know -- but I feel a sudden urge to do some olive wood shopping, don't you?"