"These are very good forgeries, but it's the ink where they got it wrong," Julia said, looking one by one at the several pages in front of them using a magnifying glass.

On top of the table there were a dozen yellowish pages with illustrations and ancient Gothic calligraphy.

"It does seem to look less bright, right?" Carmen asked.

Julia nodded.

"There is this prejudice about medieval art being… well, dark. Perhaps because it's often called 'The Dark Ages'. They take it quite literally sometimes."

"The question is, should we get new ones, or will these ones do?"

Julia shrugged. "You're the VILE expert, not me. Will these fool your Countess?"

Carmen frowned. "It's not my Countess... And it's hard to say. As far as I know, she hadn't seen them in the flesh, only digital images of the pages. So, unless she goes to the museum and checks on them before their coup, by the time she realises these are fake it would be too late."

Julia nodded. "It's quite subtle really." She straightened up and smiled. "I think you're going to be fine."

Carmen nodded, with a smile, and started carefully putting the valuable forgeries away in the files where she had brought them.

"I'll make the swap tonight," she added after a moment. "Whenever they decide to rob this, VILE will end up with a bunch of forgeries and the originals will appear at the museum's gates. Let's just hope tonight is not the night when they decide to come, too."

"That would be very bad luck," Julia agreed. "Still, I'm curious…"

Carmen looked at her. It seemed as if she was carefully weighing words that needed to be said nonetheless.

"You really don't trust… authorities, do you?" She finally said, helping Carmen put away the remaining manuscripts.

"Why do you say that?"

Julia shrugged. "You could just tell the whole thing to the security staff of the museum. You could tell them that you know those manuscripts could get stolen. Even get them to put the forgeries in lieu of the real ones. Make them part of the caper?" That last part was said in a very low voice.

"Maybe I would've done that some time ago. If my favourite agent was still on the field," Carmen said, gently pushing her with her shoulder.

"Yeah, right," said Julia, and Carmen turned around in time to see her turn a bright shade of pink.

"I mean it, though. If I knew there was somebody I could trust… but now we've established that your former Chief wouldn't trust me, and I don't blame it," she hastened to add because Julia had opened her mouth. "And then there is the Braithwaite thing, remember?"

At this Julia nodded.

Carmen continued. "If VILE could infiltrate in those high echelons of law enforcement, there is proof they could bribe a guard, or impersonate one, or… you know, whomever."

That was a hard truth she had had to learn too many times and the revelation of the former MI6 allegiances had made her natural instincts to mistrust even more acute.

"Well," Julia whispered. "Now I feel honoured."

Carmen looked at her, fondly. "You're special, Jules. I knew it from day one." She took the files containing the manuscripts. "Thanks so much for your help."

"Any time," Julia said.

"I'll guess I… I'll see you around? Sometime?"

Julia smiled, although Carmen noticed that her eyes looked a little sad.

"I'll go by the museum tomorrow," Julia said. "To check how real do the forgeries look in their proper places."

Those were news. "There is no need for you to do that." Carmen started.

"I know," Julia shrugged. "I want to do it."

She was smiling, but her eyes were set and Carmen knew better than to try to argue with her.

"Be careful, Jules."

She chuckled. "It's nice of you to worry but I'll be fine. There is nothing strange about an art historian going to a museum. Even if somebody from VILE recognises me, I made my business to make it as public as possible the fact that I left law enforcement."

Carmen nodded, unable to shake her worries. It was silly, really, she told herself. Julia was field-trained, and quite capable of holding her own in a fight.

And then it hit her.

"So you're staying in town? You're not going back to Cambridge tonight?"

Julia shook her head. "Since I'm here," she shrugged.

Some warm feelings seemed to have grown inside her. She could go by and see Julia after the caper. They could talk again tomorrow. She shook her head, though. It was a little dangerous for Julia to go to a museum VILE was about to rob. Being seen with the infamous Carmen Sandiego was something else entirely.

Her train of thought stopped when she felt Julia's hand on his arm. "Good luck tonight," she said softly.

"Thanks," Carmen said, a little awkwardly.

And with a last glance to those big black eyes, she left Julia's hotel room.