Scene 2

Maille had flown to Dakar, where he had missed Professor Koslow by a hair's breadth. He had spoken to the professor's erstwhile assistant in Moscow and fought off one of Koslow's henchmen on a rampart of the Great Wall in Beijing. He had allowed a Chinese secret service officer, disguised as a fisherman, to lead him down the wrong path – and then proceeded to search for the truth in the murky waters of a Swedish pond. All these efforts had, however, neither brought the professor back nor solved the riddle. And now he was sitting on a plane bound for Korea – in search of Tatjana, Koslow's daughter. Why the dickens should it be Korea – yet another end of the world? It was by no means environment-friendly.

Tatjana, Koslow's illegitimate daughter and sole living relative, had apparently moved to Korea about half a year earlier, much to her father's dismay. According to information gleaned by Maille's office, Tatjana was, how could it be any different, a brilliant physicist, and had been educated at the most different universities and provided with the latest inputs by her father. It was clear that this diamond of a scientist also played an important role in the ORM arena. As the «big» and, as Mercier had observed, «particularly shapely ear of her Papa», the young lady spent her time travelling from one science congress to another. On a flight from Paris to New York, Tatjana had met a Korean businessman, fallen in love and travelled out to him at the first opportunity.

«She sent to her father the Solomon's Seal», Marie Soussentatold Maille over the phone.
«Solomon's Seal?»
«That's what Mercier told me.»
«Is that a threat?»
«According to the Internet, it's a star made up of two interlocked triangles. Tatjana's Korean tiger definitely has a factory in the south-west of the country, something with cabbage, the address follows.»
«Does the man have a link with Hing ? Must I be particularly careful?»
«Take care where you tread: Koreans have the most beautiful feet in the world.»
If there were a Pulitzer Prize for misunderstanding, Marie would certainly have deserved it.

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