D.C. Dead (Stone Barrington 22)

“Everybody thinks so, until they suddenly feel blood running down their necks from an open artery.”

“Oh, come on.”

“Are you forgetting what city you’re in?”

“Is it really all that different from New York?”

“In New York, everybody thinks only of business. Here, they think about politics, and believe me, that’s a whole different ball game. Every person you meet is not just out for himself, he’s out for the guy he works for and the guy he works for. That means everybody has at least three main causes to screw other people for, and that’s before you take into account the effect of partisan politics on relationships.”

“So you’re worried about me?”

“Listen, a simple, barefoot New York lawyer like yourself wouldn’t last a week in this town. Where Washington is concerned, you’re a rube, and a disposable one at that.”

“Suddenly I feel naked and alone,” Stone replied.

“That’s rather a nice thought,” she said.

“I hope to God we’re not on an Agency line.”

She laughed. “Give me credit for knowing when I can get away with talking dirty.”

“Listen, what if I take you to a fancy restaurant tonight instead of Saturday, and we can continue this conversation over a bird and a bottle.”

“Done,” she said.

“You pick the restaurant and book the table. The headwaiters here don’t know who I am.”

“If I’m doing my job properly, they don’t know who I am, either, but leave it to me.”

“You going to do something sneaky to get a good table?”

“I’m sneaky for a living,” she said.

“And good at it.”

“You said

it, pal.”

“A DRINK HERE AT, say, six-thirty?”

“I’m going to feel like martinis tonight,” she said.

“Then I will aid and abet.”

16

TEDDY FAY TURNED THE CESSNA TOWARD CLINTON FIELD, in the southeast quadrant of greater Washington, ontu 6

“Tell me again why we’re landing at D.C.,” Lauren Cade said.

“Because it’s the last place Mr. Todd Bacon would think of looking for me. You can bet your sweet ass that right now he’s got a team canvassing every general aviation airport on the West Coast all the way to Canada.”

“I get that part,” Lauren said, “but there have to be, at the very least, dozens of people in D.C. that you used to work with at the Agency who would recognize you on sight.”

Teddy shook his head. “First of all, most of a generation of people I worked with have retired, and they don’t have the money to move into D.C. Those who are still active live out near McLean, as close to work as they can.”

“I guess that makes sense, but being here still makes me nervous.”