Stealth

32

Stone and Lance took a ride together at mid-morning. After jumping the wall Lance pulled up under a tree and got down from the saddle. Stone followed him. Lance sat down with his back against the tree. “Join me?” he asked.

Stone joined him.

“This might be a good moment for a little chat,” Lance said. “I don’t suppose the horses or their tack are bugged, are they?”

“I think not,” Stone replied.

“I was thinking about our relationship,” Lance said.

“‘Relationship’?”

“Between you and the Agency. I think it has been valuable to both of us on occasion, has it not?”

Stone thought about that in terms of what Lance had done for him, not what he had done for the Agency. “I suppose so,” Stone said. “At widely separated intervals.”

“I was thinking that the relationship might be more satisfying, if the intervals were shorter.”

“What, exactly, do you have in mind, Lance?” He was curious, but guarded, as he always was with Lance.

“Well,” Lance said, “you have homes in places where we do business, so to speak — New York, Los Angeles, England, and Paris. Perhaps it’s just as well that you disposed of your Connecticut property.”

Stone remained silent.

“Allow me to elucidate.”

“Please do,” Stone said.

“Because of your widespread holdings and your apparent ability to do business while visiting them, while doing not much work for Woodman & Weld...”

“Let me stop you right there,” Stone said. “I do a great deal more work for the firm than you are, perhaps, aware of.”

“I’m aware of a great deal,” Lance said. “It’s in the nature of what I do.”

“You are sometimes underinformed, Lance,” Stone said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cast aspersions on your practice of the law.”

“Didn’t you?”

“I’m merely pointing out that, in spite of being an important partner at your firm, you manage to have a great deal of flexibility in the way that you do your work.”

“I suppose that may be true,” Stone said, then immediately regretted it. He had given Lance a foothold, and Lance could do a lot with a foothold.

“I’m merely suggesting that we might formalize our relationship just a bit.”

“How much of a bit?” Stone asked.

“Well, I believe that you might find more serious work with us a good deal more satisfying — even entertaining — than just being a consultant for the Agency.”

“Are you telling me that your firm is more fun than my firm?”

“Oh, most definitely, Stone. We have such a good time, saving the world. Wouldn’t you like to have a hand in saving it? At the end of it all, you might find your memories more gratifying than just having made it rain at Woodman & Weld.”

“I grant you that making rain at a law firm is not the most fun you can have, but the material rewards compensate quite nicely.”

“I know how much money you make there, Stone,” Lance said, “and I know how much money you have tucked away. You could shift gears in your life quite easily and never miss a meal, as it were.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Stone said, “but retirement doesn’t appeal to me.”

“Then why not do work that is more important than just making money?”

“Let me be frank, Lance. Being at your beck and call, as a consultant, is preferable to being at the end of your leash, no matter how long a leash it might be.”

Lance chuckled. “Let me tell you something you don’t know about my management style,” he said. “In dealing with my most important colleagues, I hardly ever give orders; it’s my view that, if I can’t persuade them that what I want done is the right thing to do, then we look for another way, one that, more often than not, is suggested by them. Then they go away happy and get it done.”

“Let’s cut to the chase, Lance,” Stone said. “What, exactly, do you want me to do?”

“It’s not just what I want,” Lance said. “It’s also about how you want to spend your life.”

“And, in your view, how should I spend it?”

“I’m thinking of creating a new position at the Agency that might suit you very well.”

“And what is the new position?”

“It doesn’t have a name yet. It might be called something like ‘senior colleague.’ Perhaps you can suggest something better.”

“I can’t suggest anything until I hear a better description of the duties involved.”

“The duties involved would be very much like the consulting you do for us now, only more frequent and with much more official weight, not to mention the perks and benefits of a full-time senior officer — salary, insurance, pension.”

“I have never seen or heard a description of what I do now,” Stone pointed out.

“And yet, you have been doing it for some years. This would be a senior position, somewhere between station chief and director. How about ‘deputy director for special operations.’”

“And what are the ‘special operations’?”

“Whatever you and I, in consultation, want them to be. There would be no administrative duties whatever, and you could maintain your current residences, plus something rather special in D.C.”

“Something special?”

“You did a real estate swap with the Presidents Lee a few years ago, in which you gave title to the State Department of your house in Georgetown, for the use of the secretary of state.”

“I did.”

“It seems that the State Department no longer wishes to be a landlord, after the current occupant vacates. And it appears to me that she will be moving out later this year.”

“If she is elected.”

“She will have to resign as secretary of state before she declares herself a candidate — though she could continue residing in your house as long as you wish to have her there.”

Stone was now stunned. Lance was serious.

“Also, if she should not win the election, I would be very interested to have her back at Langley in a very high position, one that would virtually guarantee that she would succeed me, if I should be invited to improve my situation elsewhere.”

“I assume that you have your eye on something in particular?” Stone asked.

“I believe that, no matter who wins the election, I might be in a position to choose one or two other positions.”

“Let’s see, what might be suitable? Head of the National Security Agency? Perhaps even secretary of state?”

“That’s very flattering, Stone,” Lance said. He got to his feet and prepared to mount his horse.

“Think about it, and we’ll talk later.” He swung into the saddle, and Stone remounted and followed him.

In the late afternoon, as Stone sat in the library with his book, his cell phone rang. “Yes?”

“Is that the lord of the manor speaking?” she asked.

“Ah, Holly,” he said, feeling a wave of warmth.

“I’m absolutely certain,” she said, “that I told you there’d be an opportunity for us to rendezvous in England around now.”

“Of course you did. I haven’t forgotten. When?”

“I’ll be popping over this weekend, and I expect I can manage a week or two between London and your Windward Hall.”

“How will you be traveling?” he asked. “I mean, in what sort of aircraft?”

“Well, I don’t rate Air Force One, but it will probably be a very nice Gulfstream 500 that various members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have managed to corral for themselves.”

“In that case, they can dump you right into my backyard.”

“I have to jump?”

“No, there’s a very nice seven-thousand-foot airstrip on my property, with GPS approaches. They can land, boot you and your luggage out, and take off again, unhindered, then fly to wherever they were going in the first place. Got a pencil?”

“Always.”

He gave her the coordinates and frequencies for landing. “Pass that on to your pilots before you take off.”

“That sounds delightful. I’ll fly over tomorrow, then a car will whisk me to London on Sunday night.”

“Then back here when you’re done in London.”

“Of course.”

“Request an early-morning departure — that will get you here in daylight. And even if it doesn’t, there’s a beacon and runway lighting, pilot-operated on the common frequency.”

“Duly noted. What clothes will I need?”

“Oh, a couple of ball gowns and your workout gear, I suppose. Don’t forget your riding togs. I will introduce you to some horses. We’ll have at least one black tie event, maybe two, so come equipped.”

“I can do that.”

“I’d suggest you leave your London gear on the airplane and have them deliver it to your hotel. Where are you staying?”

“In the Agency’s suite at the Connaught. Lance was helpful.”

“Speaking of Lance, I’ll want to talk to you about him.”

“Give me a hint?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, all right.”

“Call me at this number on your satphone when you’re fifteen minutes from touchdown, and I’ll meet you at the airstrip.”

“Wonderful. See you then.”