"It's what sometimes has been called 'femme fatale' role."

Sarah's senses reeled. The luxurious surroundings were as nothing now. The chips were down. The bottom line of profit marked. No honour. No fulfilment Just they that stoop the lowest got the prize.

She had a husband, just, two beautiful children and a life. Yet here she was again getting involved with the politics of the clip joint. She tried to keep her head and reason logically.

"But I am nothing like what you need", protested Sarah. "Why do you need me when you can choose from all those models in there. They are younger. They are beautiful."

"And you are more convincing", responded Tim firmly. "You look and talk like a suburban housewife with children and a husband. For what we have in mind you are perfect."

He cleared his throat, again he seemed embarrassed.

"We really do need your help and we are willing to pay well for results. It's too late to save your house off course but it will give you a good start towards the future. You can go home to your family and get on with your life with time to look around and find what's best for you. Plus you will be paying them back for what they have done to you and other unfortunates".

His mention of her family was deliberate - he knew it was her highest priority.

"We need you to find out how to get into their computer systems", said Michelle flatly. There was a cold edge to her tone. She didn't like Sarah's objections and the way the conversation was going.

"And if I'm not willing to go along with your plans?" snorted Sarah.

"For a successful result we will put fifty thousand pounds sterling into a Swiss Bank Account in your name. It will relieve most of your immediate worries."

His eyes gazed at her steadily. "We are paying highly because we understand the personal risk of … unpleasantness … to you."

The sum took Sarah's breath away but tears welled up into her eyes and a huge feeling of sadness overwhelmed her. It was clear that the offer was designed so that she could not afford to refuse. She now saw that their visit to Avignon was part of the softening up process.

Everybody has limits and she had pushed hers beyond the limits before. Now she realised she would almost certainly have to push them beyond the limits again. But something in her resolved to fight with every ounce in her being to avoid the implicit outcome."

"With the money you will earn, you can go anywhere, do anything, far away from these guys", suggested Tim persuasively. He could see she was going to accept.

Later in the day, the sun was going down over the hills of L'Ardeche spreading rich reds and dark blues rippling across the sky. Sarah joined a newly arrived young curly haired twenty something French youth in the administrative offices of Michelle's salon to receive her technical briefing.

His English was erratic but he was enthusiastic about his subject.

"All you need to do, Sarah, is to extend the printer cable with this." The device he showed her looked like a printer cable plug on one side and a socket on the other.

"When it is attached, it will be invisible to any one looking casually - and of course, people seldom spend time looking at their printer cables."

"What exactly will it do", said Sarah doubtfully.

Joel was more than willing to explain.

"Inside this little device there is a micro modem, a two way radio and a ROM (Read Only Memory) chip with a small program on it that is activated as soon as the target computer is next switched on. We are assuming that the target computer will be free standing and not connected to any telephone system to avoid any possibility of outsiders hacking in. This device enables us to log onto the target computer through our portable radio and terminal as if through a conventional telephone line. Then the rest is easy. We send a program down the line that lets us operate the computer as if we were in the room with it. We tell it to send us a copy of everything on the hard or CD ROM disks and the job is done. C'est manifique, non."

"C'est manifique", agreed Sarah. Then, as a thought struck her, "Could you give me a copy of that program for my portable computer. It would mean I could transfer files from my portable to my computer at home whenever I wanted and check any messages that had come in."

Joel looked at the pretty lady sat next to him. She was not chic like a French woman of her age but had a simple warmth and a sexiness in her green eyes that Joel liked. She had also just given him a very winning smile that lit up her face and melted away any objections he might have had.