“From time to time. Last night I caught them coming back from our dinner and he was pumping her a little bit.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
“Well, both, now that you mention it. They seem to do almost as much of that as you and I.”
“Lucky them.”
“But this time he was pumping her about an earlier conversation. She had told him she knew something that she couldn’t tell him.”
“And last night she told him everything?”
“She told him something, whispered in his ear, and from his reaction, I think she may have told him everything.”
“And you’re thinking about having her … What’s the phrase they use in spy novels? Terminated with extreme prejudice?”
“That’s the term. I’m not really going to do that, of course. My problem is, what do I do?”
“I believe you’ve already had a serious conversation with her about this, haven’t you?”
“I have, and I thought I had scared her into silence. But …”
“But, she whispered into Jim’s ear last night.”
“Exactly. How can I shut her up?”
“Well, you could have them slapped around a little, I guess.”
“Stop it! You’re no help at all.”
“All right, all right. Being an attorney, I tend to look for legal solutions to problems. I seem to recall reading about there being some federal judge that can secretly issue wiretap warrants for the FBI. Is that true?”
“I’ve heard that, too.”
“Well, since the president has unleashed the Agency on an unsuspecting population with his executive order, wouldn’t that give you access to the judge?”
“Very possibly,” she said. “Go on.”
“Well, you could formally request a gag order from the judge, barring Jim and Kelli from discussing the, ah, event with others. If they violated the order, they could be held in contempt of court and jailed indefinitely.”
“What an attractive idea,” Holly said, grinning. “I knew you’d come up with something.”
Stone sighed. “There’s another way to deal with the problem of leaks, though—a more honest way.”
“What’s that?”
“Get the president to reveal to the public what happened in L.A.”
“Holy shit!” Holly exclaimed. “The media would go absolutely nuts!”
“Not as nuts as if they found out about it from Kelli or someone else who was there. It just may not be possible to keep a lid on this forever, and I think it would be better for the president, and for the country, if he were the one to tell them about it, instead of The New York Times or Vanity Fair. And you have the ear of the president, through Kate.”
“I knew you’d tell me what to do,” Holly said. “And I knew I wouldn’t like doing it.”
Stone shrugged. “An attorney gives advice—hopefully good advice. It’s not always fun to follow it.”
They were back at Stone’s house, having a nightcap in his study when Holly’s cell phone went off. She looked at it. “It’s the director,” she said, “and at eleven o’clock at night. This can’t be good.” She pressed the button. “Good evening, Director.”
“Holly, I have Felicity Devonshire on the line, and I want to conference you in, so that you can hear what she has to say directly from her. And I don’t mind if Stone listens, too.”