Harry, shrugging on his smoky, dirty jacket, asked, “No ideas from her where Ardelean might be or what he might be up to?”
“She says no, outside of overhearing him tell his brother a shipment had arrived and he was going to bring the program to light.”
“The drones,” Nicholas said.
“Probably. But how, and when? She didn’t know anything else, and I believe her. To make her cooperate, he threw food on her stomach and sent a falcon for it.” She told them the rest, Harry asking questions, many of which she couldn’t answer.
Harry said, “We all need food and sleep, and no more drone or falcon attacks. Ideas?”
Nicholas said, “The Connaught?”
Harry nodded. “Why not? Ardelean can’t be scoping out all the hotels in London, can he? I’ll get us a large suite, have Adam and Ben meet us there. I’ll put it under the name Oliver Kittredge.” He chuckled. “They’ll know what to do.”
Mike yawned, and her ear cracked. Her head cleared. “Finally.”
“What happened? You okay?”
“Yes, it was my ear. It’s been hurting since the safe house exploded. I’m fine. Sort of tired, that’s all. Let’s get ourselves to the Connaught. Is it a fancy place as befits the two of you?”
* * *
The three-bedroom suite at the Connaught was beautifully appointed, with a marble fireplace, exquisite blue velvet sofas, and floor-to-ceiling living room windows looking over the sleeping occupants of Mayfair. They set up the computers on the dining room table and ordered fancy pizzas, club sandwiches, warm tomato basil soup, a whole cheesecake, and a separate order of fish and chips for Adam, who swore he wasn’t going to eat anything else for the rest of his life.
Melinda joined Ben and brought news from Downing Street. “The U.S. president’s trip is not going to be canceled. He’ll be showing up tomorrow as scheduled. First stop, Downing Street, then a press conference at Lancaster House. Then he’ll do Buckingham Palace, then he speaks to Parliament. A private dinner is last on the agenda, at Winfield. I’m telling you, every stop is a target. We’ve warned them it’s not safe, but he’s stubborn.”
Nicholas laughed. “You don’t know the half of it, Melinda. Mike and I learned that the hard way at Camp David.”
“Problem is,” Adam said, chewing a fry drowned in vinegar, “every single place except the dinner is on the list of blueprints we found on Ardelean’s hard drives. So Ardelean could be planning an attack on any of them.”
Nicholas said, “Or none of them. Bringing the ‘program to light,’ and what else did Isabella say, Mike?”
“Give the world a show.” She took a sip of soda, continued. “Look, he’s lost the one thing that mattered to him, his brother. And he believes everyone in the government is responsible, and that includes the prime minister. He could fly a drone up to 10 Downing Street and shoot off a missile right through the windows like he did at the safe house, and no one could stop him.”
Harry said, “He wants to give the world a show—and to me that means he wants to make a big splash, make a definitive statement, kill as many people as he can. And the sites with the extensive blueprints are the most likely targets.”
Ben asked, “So then, what do you think would bring him the biggest bang for the buck? Buckingham Palace or Parliament?”
Melinda said, “I forgot—they’re going to be having a barbecue at Buckingham Palace, like they did with President Obama. It will be outdoors. The PM and the president, manning the grill.”
Nicholas jumped up from his seat. “That’s it. Adam, bring up the plans for Buckingham Palace. What better way to show off his army than attacking the president and the prime minister, and blowing up the Queen’s house?”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
Sky News
London
There are now more allegations against Corinthian Jones, Lord Barstow, who died last night in a bombing near the Prince Edward Theatre. We’ve received information that detail an array of allegations, from money laundering to sexual harassment to coercion and entrapment. The list of names involved is long. Many of them are dead after being attacked over the past few days, and we are endeavoring to separate allegation from fact.
“As you already know, we at Sky News are not going to release charges until we’re able to confirm the leaks to us are real, and these we will report as we get them.
“Meanwhile, a home in Mayfair was destroyed today, where witnesses say the residence exploded. A gas leak is given as the official cause. No one was injured in the blast, and the fire has now been put out. The owners were on vacation in the Seychelles and say the house has been empty for the past few months.
“In other news, the U.S. president comes for his first state visit tomorrow. With a long and busy day, Londoners can expect road closures and other annoyances—”
CHAPTER EIGHTY
A 2012 study, published in the journal Cell Biology, analyzed genomic data from 13 Romani communities across Europe. The researchers concluded that the Roma people left northern India about 1,500 years ago; those Roma now in Europe migrated through the Balkans starting about 900 years ago. These data confirm written reports of Roma groups arriving in medieval Europe in the 1100s.