The building's famous glass pyramid soared high above them, bathing the great museum's atrium in brilliant sunshine.
'I think I'm having another Dan Brown moment,' Big Ears said, gazing up at the glass pyramid.
'They didn't do what we're going to do in
Lily provided the perfect cover; after all, how many snatch-and-grab teams enter a building holding the hand of a small child?
West's cell phone rang.
It was Pooh Bear.
'Give us ten minutes,' West said and hung up.
Eight minutes after that, West and Big Ears were both dressed in the white coveralls of the Louvre's maintenance crew—taken from two unfortunate workers who now lay unconscious in a storeroom in the depths of the museum.
They entered the Denon Wing and ascended the impressive Daru Staircase. The staircase wound back and forth in wide sweeping flights, disappearing and reappearing behind soaring arches, before it revealed, standing proudly on a wide landing . . .
... the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
She was, quite simply, breathtaking.
The goddess stood with her chest thrust forward into the wind, her magnificent wings splayed out behind her, her wet tunic pressed against her body, perfectly realised in marble.
Six feet tall and standing on a five-foot-high marble mounting, she towered above the tourists milling around her.
Had her head not been missing, Winged Victory would almost certainly have been as famous as the Venus de Milo—also a resident of the Louvre—for by any measure, the artistry of her carving easily outdid that of the Venus.
The management of the Louvre seemed to recognise this, even if the public did not: Winged Victory stood high up in the building, proudly displayed up on the First Floor, not far from the Mona Lisa, while the Venus stood in confined clutter on an underground level.
The marble mounting on which the great statue stood resembled the pointed prow of a ship, but this had never been a ship.
It had been the armrest of Zeus's throne, the broken-off tip of the armrest.
If you looked closely, you could see Zeus's gigantic marble
The natural conclusion was mind-blowing: if Victory was this big, then the Statue of Zeus—the actual Wonder itself, now vanished from history—must have been absolutely
Victory's position on the First Floor of the Denon Wing, however, created a problem for West.
As with the other key exhibits in the Louvre, all items on the First Floor were laser-protected: as soon as a painting or sculpture was moved, it triggered an invisible laser, and steel grilles would descend at every nearby doorway, sealing in the thieves.
On the First Floor, however, there was an extra precaution: the Daru Staircase, with all its twists and bends, could be easily sealed off, trapping any would-be thief
Dressed in their maintenance coveralls, West and Big Ears strode up onto the landing and stood before the high statue of Victory.
They proceeded to move some potted trees arrayed around the landing, unnoticed by the light weekday crowd strolling past the statue.
West placed a couple of trees slightly to the left of Victory, while Big Ears placed two of the big pots far out of the way, over by the doorway that led south, toward the side of the Louvre that overlooked the River Seine. Lily stood by this doorway.
No-one noticed them.
They were just workmen going about some unknown but presumably authorised task.
Then West grabbed a rolling 'Repair Work in Progress' screen from a nearby storeroom and placed it in front of Victory, blocking her from view.
He looked at Big Ears, who nodded.
Then Jack West Jr swallowed.
He couldn't believe what he was about to do.
With a deep breath, he stepped up onto the marble podium that was Zeus's armrest and pushed the Winged Victory of Samothrace— a priceless marble carving 2,200 years old—off its mount, to the floor.
No sooner had Victory tilted an inch off her mount than sirens started blaring and red lights started flashing.
Great steel grilles came thundering down in every doorway—
All except one doorway.
The southern doorway.
Its grille whizzed down on its runners—
—only to bang to a halt two feet off the ground, stopped by the two solid treepots that Big Ears had placed beneath it moments earlier.
The getaway route.
Victory herself landed in the two potted trees that West had placed to her left, her fall cushioned by them.
West rushed to the upturned statue, and examined her feet, or rather the small cube-shaped marble pedestal on which her feet stood.
He pulled out a big wrench he'd taken from the maintenance room.
'May every archaeologist in the world forgive me,' he whispered as he swung down hard with the wrench.
The tourists on the landing didn't know what was going on. A couple of men stepped forwards to investigate the activity behind the screen, but Big Ears blocked their way with a fierce glare.
After West's three heavy blows, the little marble pedestal was no more—but revealed within it was
The Third Piece of the Capstone.
It had been embedded in Victory's marble pedestal.
'Lily!' West called. 'Get a look at this thing! In case we lose it later!'
Lily came over, gazed at the lustrous golden trapezoid, at the mysterious symbols carved into its top side.
'More lines of the two incantations,' she said.
'Good. Now let's go,' West said.
The Piece went into Big Ears's sturdy backpack and, with Lily running in the lead, suddenly they were off, sliding under the propped-open grille that led south.
No sooner were they through than West and Big Ears kicked the pot plants free and the grille slammed fully shut behind them.
Running flat out down a long long corridor, legs pumping, hearts pounding.
Shouts came from behind them—shouts in French, from the museum guards giving chase.
West spoke into his radio mike: 'Pooh Bear! Are you out there?'
'We'll find out soon enough!'
The corridor West was running down ended at a dramatic right-hand corner. This corner opened onto a superlong hallway that was actually the extreme southern flank of the Louvre. The hallway's entire left-hand wall
