“How about Irene?” Stone said. “Is she going to be difficult to deal with?”
Holly dug out a photograph of a handsome woman, apparently in her early fifties, her brown hair streaked with gray. “She was an agency drone for a long time, working her way steadily up the ladder.”
“Do you know her?”
“I think I passed her once in a hallway at Langley,” Holly replied.
“Any chance she’ll recognize you? Or will Teddy, for that matter?”
“Stone, you didn’t recognize me, until I spoke to you.”
“Touché,” Stone said. “Will Teddy recognize your voice?”
“I don’t think there’s anything all that distinctive about my voice, do you?”
“I suppose not,” Stone said.
“For what it’s worth,” Dino said, “I didn’t recognize her either, even when she spoke to me.”
“The transformation is remarkable,” Stone said. “Like two different women.”
“For better or worse?” Holly asked archly.
“They’re both gorgeous,” Stone replied, diplomatically.
“I could get used to this,” Genevieve said waving an arm at the airplane’s interior.
“Don’t,” Dino replied. “Stone’s airplane isn’t as nice as this, and I can’t afford the rental on jets.”
“I’m going to get used to it, anyway,” she said, putting her head back and closing her eyes.
The pilot’s voice came through an overhead speaker. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “we’re at our cruising altitude of forty-one thousand feet, making a little over four hundred knots. We’ll arrive at St. Marks in three hours and forty-one minutes. The toilet is forward, if you need it; please remember to close the curtain.”
“What’s the cabin altitude?” Stone asked.
“A thousand feet,” the pilot replied. “The pressurization is very good.”
Stone picked up a magazine and read until he was drowsy, then he napped. He was awakened by the pilot’s voice in his head.
“Landing at St. Marks in five minutes,” he said.
In exactly five minutes, Stone felt the airplane touch softly down. A couple of minutes later they taxied to a stop, and the pilot shut down the engines and opened the door, which was forward of the wing, then he went back to the cockpit for something.
Stone was first off the airplane, and he found himself facing half a dozen uniformed police officers, all black, pointing guns at him.
“Get on the ground,” a man in plain clothes and sunglasses said.
“What?” Stone asked.
“Get on the ground!” There was the sound of guns being racked.
Stone got on the ground.
6
Stone heard the others being ordered down, then he felt cold steel pressed against the back of his neck.
“Identify yourself,” a voice said.