Stuart Woods Holly Barker Collection

by Stuart Woods

  “Indeed, yes,” Harding said. “I was a witness to the incident, as we now all are. I don’t believe you would have had anything to add.”

  “You fired one of my people without consulting me,” Willis said. “I should resign.”

  Harding said nothing, just looked at the man. The room had grown very quiet. “Well, Jim?” Harding said at last.

  “It’ll be on your desk in half an hour,” Willis said. He stood up and stalked out of the room.

  Nobody said anything for a long moment, then Hugh English spoke up. “I thought that went rather well,” he said. He turned to Lance. “As far as I can see, you’re lucky to have the woman.”

  “Thank you, Hugh,” Lance replied.

  “See that you hang on to her,” English said.

  “I’ll do that,” Lance replied.

  THIRTEEN

  TEDDY LEFT NEW YORK CITY in a rented car after midnight and drove south. At six a.m. he arrived at a diner not far from McLean, Virginia, where he waited for half an hour in the parking lot until she drove in and parked her SUV near the front door. He gave her a minute to be seated before following her in.

  Irene Forster was sitting alone in the same two-seater booth she had occupied for breakfast for at least fifteen years, perhaps longer, certainly during all the time she and Teddy had been sleeping together, sometimes in the motel next door. Teddy slid into the booth opposite her. She looked up at him, preparing to tell him to get lost.

  “Good morning, Irene,” he said.

  She stared at the man in the tweed cap with the gray hair and beard, and slowly comprehension came into her face. “Teddy?” she said under her breath.

  “Ah, you didn’t think you were rid of me, did you?”

  “My God,” she said, “I thought the planet was rid of you.”

  “Not quite yet. You’re looking very beautiful.” He wasn’t just flattering her. In her late forties, she had ripened perfectly. Her ex-husband was a fool.

  “Why aren’t you dead?”

  “I thought I’d avoid that as long as possible.”

  “But the announcement from the president and the FBI…”

  “Somewhat exaggerated. I’m sure they know by now that I’m alive, but they’re keeping that quiet.” He looked appreciatively at her breasts under the sweater. “You’re as beautiful as ever.”

  She managed a nervous smile. “Good Lord, I’m wet,” she said. “I didn’t think that could still happen.”

  “I’m flattered. And I’m hard.” He extended his leg until their ankles touched.

  “This is very dangerous for you,” she said.

  “Not unless you’re dangerous to me.”

  She shook her head slowly. “Not in the least. I cheered everything you did.”

  The waitress appeared at their table with a coffeepot and filled both their cups. “What’ll it be, Irene?”

  “The usual,” she said.

  “The same for me,” Teddy said.

  The waitress went away.

  “I’m relieved to hear you say that,” Teddy said. “I must say, I thought you might approve.”

  “You always knew me better than anybody else.”

  “And you, me.”

  She smiled. “Nobody knows you, Teddy, not down deep.”

  “Well, I must say, I like being an enigma. By the way, please call me Mike.”

  “Mike, it is. What on earth are you doing here? Other Agency people come here, you know. What do you want?”

  “Immediately, a good breakfast and to make love to you in the motel next door.”

  “Done,” she said. “And then?”

  “We can talk about that afterwards.”

  “Did you know I was promoted?”

  “That must be very recent, or I would have known it.”

  “Last month. I’m special assistant to the deputy director for Operations.”

  “How is old Hugh?” he asked. “Hasn’t Kate Lee found a way to get rid of him, yet?”

  “Not yet. I think she’s just going to wait him out until retirement. She seems to have found a way to work with him, which I never thought would happen.”

  Their breakfast arrived, and they dug into it.

  “Did you go through the usual vetting for the promotion?” he asked.

  “Oh, sure.”

  “Polygraph and all?”

  “The works.”

  “That’s good. They won’t test you again for at least a year.”

  “Probably not, unless I give them cause.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll disappear after this morning, though we can still get together, if you want to.”

  “You know I’ll want to. Finish your breakfast; I’m randy.”

  THEY LAY BESIDE EACH OTHER, sweating into the motel sheets.

  “God, I’d forgotten what it was like,” she said.

  “I hadn’t,” Teddy replied.

  She turned toward him and rested a cool hand on his belly. “Okay, now that we’ve fucked each other’s brains out, what do you want?”

  “Information.”

  “You’re not done, yet?”

  “Oh, I’m done with assassinating right-wing politicians,” he said. “Now I’m looking for bigger, even more dangerous game.”

  “What sort of game?”

  “My country’s enemies,” he said.

  “I’D BETTER GO FIRST,” Teddy said, after they were both dressed.

  “How will you contact me?”

  He reached into a pocket and took out a cell phone, wiped it with his handkerchief and laid it on the bed. “It’s a throwaway, untraceable.”

  She nodded and put the phone into her purse. “Don’t call me at work,” she said.

  “Of course not. Always after hours.”

  “Now that I know what you’re looking for, how do I call you?”

  “You don’t. That would be dangerous for both of us. Don’t make any calls on that phone at all. If anyone should ever ask, you found it, tossed it in a drawer. It won’t make a record of incoming calls, it’s a bare-bones device. I’ll be in touch in a day or two. In the meantime, start making mental notes, now that you know the sort of thing I’m looking for.”

  She nodded. “When can we see each other again?”

  “Soon, but not here. Do you ever have occasion to travel on business?”

  “I’m going to New York with Hugh in a couple of days. There’s some sort of meeting.”

  “Take the cell phone with you,” Teddy said. They kissed once more, and he was gone. He could trust her, he thought. He hoped so.

  FOURTEEN

  HOLLY WAS TOSSING A STICK for Daisy on the lawn in the late afternoon when she looked up and saw Lance coming. She had not seen him for a while.

  “Good afternoon,” Lance said, strolling up to her and scratching Daisy behind the ears.

  “Good afternoon.”

  “How’s your training going?”

  “I’m sure you know better than I,” she replied.

  “Well, yes, I suppose I do. Let me say that I’m very pleased. Your performance on the firing range stunned the training staff; they’re unaccustomed to trainees who are dead shots.”

  “Sarge has been very nice; I’ve been instructing some of the beginners.”

  “And to good results, I hear.”

  She thought she’d broach the subject before he did. “Are they going to throw me out for hitting Whitey?”

  “Certainly not,” Lance replied. “I watched a videotape of the incident earlier today, and a lot of other people have seen it since and have been greatly entertained. Whitey Thompson was a pain in the ass, and nobody liked him.”

  “Then my first judgment of him was accurate.”

  “Whitey has left us, but he lives in the neighborhood, and I would not like you to encounter him out in the world.”

  “I didn’t know I was allowed out in the world.”

  “This weekend,” Lance said. “There’s a roadhouse about five miles west of here on the main
road called Buster’s; some of the trainees sometimes drink there. I want you to avoid it, because Whitey drinks there every night.”

  “Doesn’t sound like my sort of place, anyway,” Holly said. “Should I just stay on the reservation, then?”

  “It’s a free country, more or less, so go wherever you feel comfortable. But you must remember that Whitey is probably as good a street fighter as anyone alive, and he knows lots of ways to maim and kill. If you should come face-to-face with him, and he looks like making a move, my advice is to shoot him.”

  Holly laughed, but Lance didn’t. “I’ll keep that in mind. Am I authorized to go about Virginia armed?”

  “Your ID card will work with the local and state police. Of course, when your training is over you’ll be given ID that specifically authorizes you to carry anywhere in the United States and its possessions.”

  “Can I have my nine-millimeter back?”

  “I’ll tell Sarge to give it to you, but don’t let the other trainees know; they’ll feel left out. It’s only because I trust your judgment that you’re getting the gun back.”

  “Thank you, Lance.”

  “Sarge was impressed with the gun.”

  “My dad built it. You’ll have to meet him sometime.”

  “I’ve read his army service record and his record with us in Vietnam. I wish he were working for me.”

  “Not much chance of that while there are still fish to catch.”

  Lance looked at his watch. “You must excuse me; I have a meeting. By the way, the deputy director for Operations saw the tape of your interaction with Whitey; he told me to be sure and hang on to you.” He gave her a little wave and walked back toward the main house.

  Holly was aglow from the praise.

  TEDDY DROVE HIS RENTAL CAR down to Manassas Airport, a small Virginia general aviation airfield, and drove slowly along the chain-link fence at its perimeter. He passed a series of hangars and paid particular attention to two of them: one that the FBI had learned about when they were pursuing him and one that they still didn’t know about, he hoped. He had kept the ill-fated Cessna there, and when he had flown it away, he’d left his RV there. Now he wanted it back.

  There was only one way to find out the status of his second hangar, and that was to drive right up to it. He let himself in through the back gate, using the keypad code, and drove to the hangar. He took a remote control from his pocket and pressed the button with one hand while holding a pistol in the other. The bifold door rose, and the interior lights came on. The RV was still there, and the hangar was deserted. He drove inside and closed the door.

  A cursory inspection of the hangar revealed that no one had entered it since he had left. He unlocked the RV and stepped inside. It was in disarray, since he had loaded as much of his equipment as possible into it from the other hangar. He spent an hour tidying it up, then he hitched the rental car to the RV and drove out of the hangar, towing the car, closing the door behind him.

  He drove all the way back to New York, turned in his rental car and found a garage near his workshop. He would transfer much of his equipment from the RV to the workshop over the next few days, so as not to attract attention, then he would be fully set up and ready to go to work. All he needed now was his first target.

  He went back to his apartment and fell into bed, exhausted. He had some catching up on his sleep to do.

  FIFTEEN

  THREE DAYS LATER, Teddy called Irene’s cell phone. “Yes?” she said, sounding businesslike.

  “Bad time?”

  “Two hours,” she said and hung up.

  Teddy waited two and a half, then called her back. “Better?”

  “Yes, it’s all right,” she said.

  “Where are you?”

  “At the Waldorf Towers.”

  “Are you free for a while?”

  “I have another meeting at five.”

  Teddy checked his watch. Just past one. “Take a cab to Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street and enter Central Park there. Turn right at the bottom of the steps, go around the administration building, then turn right again and leave the zoo area. Keep to the path, then sit down on the fifth bench on your right. Take a newspaper, so you can read while you wait. When you’re sure nobody has followed you, take off your right shoe and rub your foot. If you think it may not be safe, take off your left shoe.”

  “Got it.”

  “Go in fifteen minutes.” Teddy hung up. He thought he would entertain Irene; she had always loved the cloak-and-dagger side of Agency work, but she had not been able to become a field agent. He left his workshop, walked down to 64th Street, crossed Park and went into the Plaza Athenee Hotel. At the registration desk he asked for a deluxe double room, paid with a credit card and asked for two keys.

  “Where is your luggage, sir?” the woman asked.

  “The airline lost it; I’m told it will be delivered this evening.”

  “Do you require any personal items, toiletries?”

  “Thank you, no.” Teddy went up to the room, checked it out, then bought a newspaper and walked toward Fifth Avenue. He walked around the corner, checking everyone on each side of the street, turned east on 65th, waited a moment, then walked back down Fifth to 63rd, checking again. Then he waited near the corner until he saw Irene get out of a taxi.

  Since he knew where she was going, he didn’t need to follow her closely. He hung a block or so back, looking for suspicious vehicles or persons. He spent a couple of minutes being amused by the seals in the zoo, then walked north away from the zoo. He saw her from a hundred yards, reading a paperback book. When he was fifty yards away, she took off her right shoe and massaged her foot, then put her shoe back on. Teddy walked past her, then sat down on the next bench and opened his newspaper. He read quietly for five minutes, then took the Arts section, folded it to expose the crossword puzzle and began to work it. When he was sure there was no one near the bench, he spoke up.

  “When I leave, pick up the newspaper and read for ten minutes. There’s a key card for room 710 at the Plaza Athenee Hotel, Sixty-fourth between Madison and Park. Meet me there.”

  “Got it,” she said.

  Teddy tucked the crossword under his arm and, leaving the rest of the paper on the bench, left, walking north.

  TEDDY WAITED FOR HER in bed, looking forward to her arrival. She let herself into the room, leaving a trail of clothing behind her, then crawled into bed with him, snuggling close and throwing a leg over his. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi, yourself.”

  They played with each other for an hour, exploring every crevice and orifice, then copulated at length. She came twice before they managed it together.

  “WOW,” she said.

  “Wow, indeed.”

  “I should have joined you when you retired.”

  “Then you’d be a fugitive. It would be easier to find two of us, instead of one. You wouldn’t like the life.”

  “I like this,” she said, snuggling again.

  “So do I. How has your visit to New York gone?”

  “Very well. We’re here to meet with UN officials about providing counterespionage for their security. There’s a meeting of heads of state on Monday, and they’re nervous.”

  “And what have you found to report to them?”

  “We were asked late to the game, but Hugh came loaded for bear.”

  “What did he give them?”

  “There’s a suspected terrorist cell working out of a townhouse near the UN owned by an Iranian businessman. Actually, he’s an Iranian intelligence officer, and the whole operation is supported by Iranian money. His service is loyal to the mullahs, not the elected government. We’ve got the place bugged, and a full-time translation team on the tapes.”

  “What is the group planning?”

  “They’ve been very careful, so we’re not sure, but we think they’re going to try something during the meeting on Monday. The president is addressing the General Assembly at eleven a.m.”

&nbs
p; “So the Secret Service will be all over this?”

  “You bet they will; already are.” She got out of bed. “Oh, I have something for you.” She took a small digital camera from her handbag, extracted a card from it and handed it to Teddy, then got back in bed.

  “What’s on this?” he asked.

  “Plans of the building,” she said. “I photographed them.”

  “That was very dangerous.”

  “Not really. I was left alone with them.”

  “These should be very interesting,” Teddy said. “Do you know anything about their security?”

  “It’s run by another Iranian.” She wrote down a name and the address of the building on a bedside notepad and handed it to Teddy.

  “Do you know what their procedure is for accepting deliveries?”

  “No one is allowed inside the building. Any deliveries are signed for on the front stoop by an armed guard, then taken down to the outside door of the basement. Presumably, packages are screened there.”

  “Who delivers?”

  “Gristedes grocery store on Third Avenue, FedEx, UPS, messenger services. It’s not hot and heavy; they get no more than two or three items a day. We’ve had some indication that packages addressed to their head of security are not routinely searched. He comes to the basement and opens them himself.”

  “And his name?”

  She wrote it down for him.

  He turned and kissed her. “You’re a peach.”

  “Go get ’em!” she said, kissing him back.

  SIXTEEN

  ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, the training class was called into the auditorium, where they were addressed by the director of training.

  “Good afternoon,” he said. “You may have noticed that your ranks have been noticeably depleted since we last met in this room. Some of your classmates have not met the standards we set here or have failed their polygraphs or have otherwise not survived our security checks. Should you ever encounter any of these people in the outside world, the procedure is to not know them. If you are approached by one of them simply say you’re sorry, but they’ve made a mistake; you have never met. If they persist, disengage them—rudely, if necessary. If they still persist, report the incident to your case officer at the earliest possible moment, giving a full description of the person and the name he or she is using.