her dark eyes soft, floating. 'I do love you. God knows what we two misfits think we're doing, but I guess we're going to give it a try.'
'No, not a try,' said Evan, reaching for her with his right hand. 'A lifetime,' he added. She bent down and they kissed, holding each other like two people who had nearly lost each other. And the telephone rang.
'Damn!' cried Khalehla, springing up.
'Am I that irresistible?'
'Hell, no, not you. It's not supposed to ring in here, those were my instructions!' She picked up the phone and spoke harshly. 'Yes, and whoever you are I'd like an explanation. How did you get through to this room?'
'The explanation, Officer Rashad,' said Mitchell Payton in Langley, Virginia, 'is comparatively simple. I countermanded a subordinate's order.'
'MJ, you haven't seen this man! He looks like a nuked Godzilla!'
'For a grown-up woman, Adrienne, one who has admitted in my presence that she's over thirty, you have an untidy habit of frequently talking like an adolescent… And I've also spoken to the doctors. Evan needs some rest and must keep his ankle strapped and his leg quiet for a day or so and his shoulder wound periodically checked, but beyond these minor inconveniences, he could go right back into the field.'
'You are one frozen fish, Uncle Mitch! He can barely talk.'
'Then why have you been talking to him?'
'How did you know…?'
'I didn't. You just told me… May we please deal with realities, my dear?'
'What's Evan? Unreal?'
'Give me that phone,' said Kendrick, awkwardly taking the instrument from Khalehla's hand. 'It's me, Mitch. What's happening?'
'How are you, Evan?… I suppose that's a foolish question.'
'Very. Answer mine.'
'Ardis Vanvlanderen's lawyer is at his summer house in the Sanjacinto Mountains. He called his office for messages and we got an area fix. A unit is on its way there now to evaluate. They should be there in a matter of minutes.'
'Evaluate? What the hell is there to evaluate? He's got the book! Go in and get it! It obviously spells out their whole global structure, every rotten arms merchant they've used in the world! Grinell can run to any of them and be hidden. Grab it!'
'You're forgetting about Grinell's own sense of survival. I assume Adrienne… Khalehla told you.'
'Yes, a seaplane picked him up. So what?'
'He wants that ledger as much as we do, and he's no doubt reached Mrs. Vanvlanderen's man by now. Grinell won't risk coming up himself, but he'll send someone he can trust to retrieve it. If he knows we're closing in, and all it would take is another pair of eyes on the lawyer's house, what do you suppose the instructions will be to his trusted courier who must, after all, get that book into Mexico?'
'Where he could be stopped at the border or in an airport—’
'With us in attendance. What do you think he'll tell that person?'
'To burn the damn thing,' said Kendrick quietly.
'Precisely.'
'I hope your men are good at what they do.'
'Two men, and one is just about the best we have. His name is Gingerbread; ask your friend about him.'
'Gingerbread? What kind of dumb name is that?'
'Later, Evan,' interrupted Payton. 'I've got something to tell you. I'm flying out to San Diego this afternoon and we have to talk. I hope you'll be up to it because it's urgent.'
