his feet as she entered.
“Lady Blakeney?”
“Yes, what is it that you want?”
“I have been instructed to give you this from a gentleman named Chauvelin, a Frenchman-”
“Yes, I know him, give it to me!”
He handed her a letter. She quickly broke the seal. It was a note from Chauvelin and along with it was Armand’s letter. Chauvelin’s note read: You have discharged your service Citoyenne St. Just. Your brother will be safe. I leave for Dover this morning. Adieu. Chauvelin.
She continued staring at the note, oblivious now to the man’s presence.
“I have already been paid for my service, Lady Blakeney,” he said after a moment. “I will see myself out.”
He hesitated and, when she did not respond, gave her a slight bow and left. He passed the servant she had sent out to question the grooms as he left.
“Milady, the grooms report that your husband left for Dover, along with Master Lucas and Miss Andre.”
She crumpled the letter in her hand. So they are all in it together, she thought. Ffoulkes and Dewhurst, Hastings, Lucas, Andre, all of them. The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel-and she had betrayed them. She had told Chauvelin of the meeting Ffoulkes had had with the Pimpernel in the supper room at the Foreign Office, long after most of the guests had left and those few remaining were gathered in the parlor. Chauvelin had seen Ffoulkes meet the Pimpernel and now he was on his way to apprehend him the moment he set foot in France. They were riding directly into a trap and she had set it
“Tell the grooms to have my horse saddled at once,” she said.
“Your horse, milady? Would not the coach be-”
“Yes, my horse, damn you! Be quick about it!”
With Cobra’s chronoplate, they didn’t have to waste time sailing across the English Channel or riding to Paris. They clocked from Dover, where the agent had set up a temporary safehouse, directly to Calais.
“All right, here’s how it stands right now,” said Cobra. “I’ve got one of my men stationed at Lafitte’s tobacco shop, just in case Mongoose or the boy returns there. There’s been no sign of the boy since we took his brother. What’s more, there’s been no sign of the old man, either.”
“What, the tobacconist?” said Lucas. “Jean’s uncle?”
Cobra nodded. “He may be working with Mongoose, as well. Something that you don’t know is that before he became head of field operations, Mongoose was section chief in Paris in this time period. I’m only making a wild guess, but it’s possible that Lafitte might have been one of his indigenous field men.”
Finn threw up his hands. “Jesus, this is getting nuttier all the time!”
“But it makes sense,” said Lucas. “I was wondering how Mongoose was able to dress up as an old woman and make off with Leforte and still have time to get back to the safehouse and meet us as Fitzroy some ten minutes later. I had thought that he might have taken Leforte directly to the safehouse and hidden him from sight after tranquilizing him, but that would still have been cutting it extremely close. In fact, considering everything that he’s been able to accomplish, it would make sense that he was getting help from more than just a 12-year-old boy.”
“Wait a minute,” Finn said. “If Mongoose used to be the section chief here, wouldn’t the man who came in to replace him know the-”
“Allow me to anticipate you,” Cobra said. “No, not necessarily. Remember, we’re still dealing with a practice that is technically illegal. As a result, section chiefs tend to be extremely secretive about such things. Besides, no one would like to inherit somebody else’s field personnel. They’d prefer to pick their own. The old contacts would simply dry up and new ones would be made. Except in this case, it looks like the old contacts have been reestablished. The problem is, I have no idea how many of them there might be.”
“You’re saying that Mongoose has an indefinite number of indigenous personnel dancing to his tune?” said Finn
“I don’t know,” said Cobra, “but it’s entirely possible. Probable, in fact. He likes to have an edge.”
“Terrific,” Finn said. “I’m sure glad you save these little tidbits until they become germane.”
“Delaney, you just don’t seem to understand,” said Cobra in exasperation. “I’m disclosing top-secret information to you here! You guys aren’t supposed to know any of this!”
“What worries me is not what we’re not supposed to know that you’ve already told us,” Finn said, “but what we’re not supposed to know that you haven’t told us yet.”
Lucas looked at him and frowned. “You want to run that by me again?”
“No, I’m not sure I understand what I just said, either,” said Delaney.
“Never mind,” said Cobra. “It doesn’t really matter. There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. I’m way out of line in telling you as much as I have already. You could do a great deal of damage to the agency with what you know now.”
“What about the damage the agency has done?” said Finn.
“In spite of what you may want to believe,” said Cobra, “the agency is the only thing keeping-”
“Let’s not get into this, all right?” said Lucas. “We’ve got enough problems. The question is, what do we do about St. Just, now that he’s been compromised?”
“We get him out,” said Cobra, “and we take the Comte de Tournay on this trip, as well.”
“When did you have time to locate him?” said Finn.
“I didn’t. The local section chief did.”
“How many people does the TIA have back here, anyway?” said Finn.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Where are St. Just and the Comte de Tournay now?” said Lucas.
“At this moment, they should be somewhere between Paris and Cap Gris Nez,” said Cobra. “They’re going by road because by the time they get there, Ffoulkes should arrive in time to receive them. You don’t want them rescued before the Pimpernel could have had time in which to do it, do you? He’s due to arrive in Calais tomorrow, right? By then, the section chief’s people should have them here and if Ffoulkes is surprised at the speed with which you got them out, you can tell him that the Pimpernel’s agents in Paris were in on it. It’ll almost be the truth.”
“So what’s our next move going to be?” said Andre, who had been silently smoking a pipe all through the discussion, having developed a liking for it.
“First of all, is Pierre Lafitte going to be safe alone at Richmond?” said Cobra.
“He’ll be fine,” said Andre. “I’ve got him in the gamekeeper’s cottage.”
“What did you tell the gamekeeper?” Cobra said, surprised.
“The truth,” said Andre.
“The truth?” they all asked, in unison.
“Well, something fairly close to it, anyway,” she said. “I told him that I was having an affair with Andrew Ffoulkes, that Ffoulkes was a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and that the league had kidnapped the boy because he’s the son of a French spy we wanted to put pressure on. Ffoulkes needed a safe place to keep the boy for a week or so and I thought I could help.”
“And he bought that?” Cobra said, incredulously.
“Why not? Who’d make up a lie like that?”
“Amazing.”
“What’s amazing is that in all the excitement, I actually forgot about that kid,” said Finn.
“Believe it or not, so did I,” said Lucas. “This mission has me going in so many directions at the same time, I can’t even keep track of what’s happening anymore.”
“Well, in that case, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s almost over,” Cobra said. “The Scarlet Pimpernel ended his career after rescuing the Comte de Tournay and St. Just. It was a brief career, but a flamboyant one.”
“You mean that’s it?” said Finn. “It’s over?”
“Not quite,” said Cobra. “This will be your last trip to France, but there’s still the matter of Percy Blakeney to consider. Chances are there’s going to be a relocation and you’ll be relieved, but that can’t happen until the adjustment has been reported as complete and I can’t clock to Plus Time to do that so long as Mongoose is at liberty. You’re just going to have to stay here until he’s found and apprehended.”
“Hold on,” said Finn. “Maybe you can’t clock forward, but any one of the agency people here can.”
