Graves, the white-haired man who played the leader of the Mission Impossible force on the old television series.
'Good to see you, too, Stan,' Ford said.
'We'll be more comfortable over here,' he said, gesturing toward a brace of leather wing chairs flanking a Louis XIV coffee table. As Ford settled in, Lockwood seated himself opposite, giving the knife-edge in his gabardine slacks a little tug. 'What's it been, a year?'
'More or less.'
'Coffee? Pellegrino?'
'Coffee, thanks.'
Lockwood signaled his secretary and leaned back in the chair. The old trilobite worry stone appeared in his hand and Ford watched him roll it about pensively between thumb and forefinger. He bestowed a professional Washington smile on Ford. 'Any interesting cases lately?'
'A few.'
'Time for a new one?'
'If it's anything like the last one, no thanks.'
'Trust me, you'll like this assignment.' He nodded to a small metal box on the table. 'They call them 'honeys.' You heard of them?'
Ford leaned over and peered through a thick glass window in the top of the box. Inside winked a number of deep orange gemstones. 'Can't say I have.'
'They appeared on the Bangkok wholesale market about two weeks ago. Going for big money--a thousand dollars for the cut carat.'
A serving man came in wheeling a fussy little sideboard with silver coffeepot, lump raw sugar, cream and milk in separate silver pitchers, and china cups. The little tray rattled and squeaked as it was pushed along. He parked it next to Ford.
'Sir?'
'Black, no sugar, please.'
The man poured. Ford sat back with the steaming cup and took a sip.
'I'll leave the pot here in case the gentleman wants another.'
Lockwood worried the stone in his hands. 'I've got a team of geophysicists at Lamont-Doherty in New York working on what they are. The stones are unusual in composition, with an index of refraction higher than a diamond, specific gravity thirteen point-two, hardness nine. The deep honey color is almost unique. A beautiful stone--with a twist. They're laced with Americium-241.'
'Which is radioactive.'
'Yes, with a half-life of four hundred thirty-three years. Not enough radiation to kill you right away but enough to create long-term exposure problems. Wear a string of these around your neck and you're liable to lose your hair after a few weeks. Carry a pocketful of these around for a couple of months and you might sire the monster from the black lagoon.'
'Lovely.'
'The stones are hard but brittle and easily pulverized. You could take a few pounds of these gems, grind them up, pack them in C-4 in a suicide belt, detonate it in Battery Park when the wind is from the south, and you could loft a nice radioactive cloud over the financial district, wipe out a few trillion dollars of U.S. market capitalization in half an hour and render lower Manhattan uninhabitable for a couple of centuries.'
'Nice work if you can get it.'
'Homeland Security is freaking out.'
'Do the Bangkok dealers know they're hot?'
'The reputable wholesalers won't touch 'em. They're being funneled through the dregs of the gem market.'
'Any idea how these gems formed?'
'We're working on it. Americium-241 is not an element that exists naturally on Earth. The only known way it can be made is as a by-product of a nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium. These 'honeys' might well be evidence of illicit nuclear activity.'
Ford finished his second cup and poured himself a third.
'All indications are that the stones are coming out of a single source in Southeast Asia, most likely Cambodia,' said Lockwood.
Draining the third cup, Ford leaned back. 'So what's the assignment?'
'I want you to go undercover to Bangkok, follow the trail of these radioactive honeys back to the source, locate it, document it, and come back out.'
'And then?'
'We make the problem go away.'
'Why me? Why not CIA?'
'This is sensitive stuff--Cambodia is an ally. You get caught, we need deniability. It's not the kind of operation the CIA does well--small and quick, in and out. A one-man job. I'm afraid you won't have Agency backup on this one.'
'Thanks for the offer.' Ford set down his cup and rose to leave.
'The president's approved the op personally.'
'Excellent coffee.' He headed for the door.
'I promise, we won't hang you out to dry.'
He paused.
'It's simple: go in, find the mine, get out. Do absolutely nothing. Don't touch the mine. We're still analyzing those gemstones--they might be extremely important.'
'I have no interest in going back to Cambodia,' said Ford, his hand resting on the doorknob.
'It does no service to your wife's memory to keep running from your past.'
Ford was startled at this unexpected and painful insight from Lockwood. He sighed and folded his arms.
'The money's good,' said Lockwood, 'the CIA won't interfere, you'll be in control, in charge of your own people. You have the backing of the Oval Office--what more could you want?'
'What's my cover?'
'Crooked American black-market gem wholesaler.'
Ford shook his head. 'Won't work. A wholesaler wouldn't care about finding the source--he'd be content to buy from middlemen. I'll be a get-rich-quick schemer looking for a one-time killing--the kind of guy who thinks he'll get a better price by bypassing the wholesalers and going directly to the source.'
'Is that a yes?'
'Give me a rap sheet with an arrest for smuggling cocaine, dismissed on a technicality.'
'You want to get killed?'
'And two brutal murder charges, acquitted. That'll make 'em think twice.'
'If that's the way you want to play it, fine.'
'I'll need some gold to throw around. American eagles.'
'Will do.'
'I want translators standing by, twenty-four/seven, fluent in the common Southeast Asian languages, especially Thai. There are a couple of high-tech devices I'll need.'
'No problem.'
'If I fail, bury me in Arlington Cemetery, twenty-one-gun salute, the works.'
'I'm sure that won't be necessary,' said Lockwood, his thin lips tightening into a mirthless smile. 'Does this mean you're in?'
'What's the compensation?'
'A hundred thousand. Same as last time.'
'Make it two, so I can pay my secretary's health insurance.'
Lockwood extended his hand. 'Two.'
