She set off downtown, keeping under the West Side Highway in the protection of the concrete pillars, then cut back out to run along the river path to check in front and behind her. After ten blocks she cut in towards Eleventh Avenue and, turning right, continued in the same direction towards Chelsea. It took her less than half an hour to reach Twenty-third Street, and she paused at the end of the street and stood in the shadow of a newsstand to take in the block ahead of her to her left.
Then she ran on, pausing a block at a time, until she reached the block where the apartments were.
She checked the phone box and saw it was empty. Wherever they were, she didn’t expect there to be a heavy presence right under their own noses.
She entered the box, called the number, and imagined the flurry of activity in the rooms that stretched eight windows along the fourth floor. From the box she could see them on the far side of the street.
A boy took the call. She asked for Burt, and there was another pause so they could again gain time to zero on her location. Finally Burt came on the line.
“Well, good morning,” he said. “I hope you slept well.”
“I did. Are you going to let me in?”
“Where are you?”
“Looking at your window.”
She heard Burt chuckle. “I’ll send Larry down. He hasn’t had much sleep, I’m afraid, so be nice to him.”
She put the phone down and jogged across the street, up past the underground garage, and saw the door open and Larry standing there.
“Hello, Larry.”
“Hi, Anna.”
“I’m starving.”
“You’d better come in, then.”
They stepped into the elevator, Larry opening his arm to usher her inside.
On the way up she said, “I’m sorry for the trouble, Larry.”
He grinned at her, but she saw exhaustion in his eyes.
“I’ll tell you, we turned half of downtown over last night. I saw places I never dreamed existed.”
“Is Logan up there?”
Larry grinned again. “I saw your note. What are you planning to do to him?”
“What do you think I should do?”
“I don’t know what your gripe is.”
“The biggest.”
“I’ll break the little creep’s arms any time you say.”
“I’m sure I can manage that myself, thanks, Larry.”
“I’m sure you can.” He nodded.
Burt was waiting personally for them at the elevator. He took her alone to an empty room at the far end of the corridor, where there was no surveillance equipment, just two chairs. Dupont arrived then with a third chair and shut the door behind him.
“France . . . ,” Burt began.
“Never mind that,” she replied. “It’s the past.”
He looked at her with the admiration of someone meeting a true genius for the first time.
“I met with Mikhail,” she said.
“Good,” Burt answered, back to the present. “What’s the score?”
“We have another meeting. He will tell me then about Icarus.”
“Good. And Vladimir?”
“Work in progress. He knows what you want. I passed on the message.”
“And further contact?”
“Yes,” she said. She didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t press her to.
Burt’s phone rang.
“Five minutes,” he said, and clicked it off. He looked at her. “Adrian’s arrived,” he said. “Another jackal in for the kill.”
“What does he want?”
“Same as everyone—Mikhail. But we have Mikhail, don’t we, Anna? Just us.”
“Maybe,” she said. “He committed to nothing beyond looking for Icarus.”
“Then the door is ajar.”
“Maybe,” she said again. “But I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
Burt laughed, enjoying himself.
“Like I say, expectations are for dummies,” he said. “You’ll want to take a shower,” he said expansively. “Marcie has your clothes. How did you spend the night? Comfortably, I hope.”
“Very.”
Burt laughed hugely.
“I hope this is the beginning of a long friendship between us,” he said.
“Be careful, Burt, that’s a hope,” she replied. Then: “A shower would be good. I’ve had a long run. And I’d like to call Little Finn. I didn’t manage it yesterday.”
“Of course,” he said. “You’ll be seeing him very soon too.”
“And Logan?” she said. “I don’t trust myself if I see him.”
“I told him it was better he didn’t show up this morning,” Burt said. “It seems we all have a lot of thinking to do.”
She stood up. Nothing else seemed to be immediately required. Burt was completely relaxed. He would want to examine her story later, no doubt, but with Burt it was business as usual, which meant, apparently, watching things unfold as they did so, and things always seemed to unfold to his satisfaction.
“You caused me great distress by kidnapping my son,” she said. “In the circumstances, I’ll forgive for you that. But I won’t forgive Logan.”
“I understand,” he said.
She left Burt and Dupont in the room and walked down the corridor. Marcie was waiting for her at the far end. She saw Adrian standing by the window of the conference room, looking out onto the street below, but he didn’t turn, and she didn’t acknowledge him.
She and Marcie went along to the far end of the apartments, where the bedrooms and bathrooms were, and Marcie gave her a towel and an armful of clothes.
“You ran rings around them for twenty-four hours,” Marcie said. “Congratulations.”
Then they both laughed, and Anna disappeared into the bathroom.
In the room that she had just left, Dupont remained silent.
“We’re on a home run, Bob,” Burt said. “You seem anxious.”
“What’s the deal with the British?” Dupont said.
“We share with them.”
“Mikhail?”
“Mikhail’s information. Once we have Icarus, Mikhail will prove to be a long-running bestseller. Take it from me, Bob, only Anna can achieve that. She’s the key to Mikhail, and Mikhail is the key to a very profitable chamber of secrets. Mikhail is going to be the jewel in my crown, Bob—the jewel in our crown. We’ll be the biggest game in town for a long time to come. Nobody will ever have made such profits simply by helping their country.”
“You trust Adrian?”
“Of course not.” Burt chuckled. “But I know he knows he has more chance of making a deal with me than if he blows this open and has to deal with Langley. You think Langley cares what the British want? I can carve a nice exchange with Adrian out of this.”
Dupont was silent.
“Cheer up, Bob,” Burt said. “It’s always been a game of chess. We finesse Langley out of this one, keep them away from Mikhail. There’s still work to do, but it’s loose ends, just loose ends now.”
“You know Logan ate with Adrian last night,” Dupont said suddenly.
“You don’t say!” Burt replied.
