“Duly noted,” Lance said. “You should make a point of not running afoul of the law in St. Marks, partly because of Stone’s unsatisfactory relationship with Sir Winston and partly because, as prime minister, he has run the island in a more authoritarian manner than the previous administration did. Questions?”
“Why does Holly have red hair?” Stone asked.
Lance smiled. “I think I told you that Holly has seen Teddy Fay twice, although he was heavily disguised, but that means that he has also seen her twice, so I thought that a change of appearance was a good idea, and a change of identity, too. Teddy may still have computer access to the Agency mainframe computer, and he probably read Holly’s personnel file at the time he met her. She is taking the identity of Virginia Heller, her father’s girlfriend, whom you met on Islesboro.”
“Why Ginny?”
“Because it’s faster than creating a legend for Holly. Since Ginny is a real person, she can be researched by Teddy. We’ve changed the photographs on Ginny’s website and substituted Holly’s-Ginny runs a flying school in Florida-and in the Florida driver’s license database and the U.S. Passport database. This should hold up, because should Teddy become suspicious of her, he doesn’t have any resources on the mainland to investigate Ginny. He’ll have to be content with electronic investigation. Any other questions?”
Dino spoke up. “What do we do when we get to St. Marks?”
“Find Irene Foster, and go from there. You should know, Dino-all of you-that this is not an official Agency operation; it’s purely a seat-of-the-pants thing to learn whether Teddy Fay still exists. It’s being paid for through a front travel agency operated by the Agency, and the funds will be untraceable. Just be who you are when you get there, except for Holly, who will be Ginny. Any other questions? No? Then I’ll give you some basic info on St. Marks.”
Lance set up a large laptop computer and began displaying maps of the island and photographs of the terrain. “The island is made up of a central, dormant volcano, known as Black Mountain, surrounded by tropical forest and fine beaches. St. Marks is a former British possession that gained its independence about twelve years ago. Since that time, one political party has held power, and Sir Winston is only the second prime minister. It is, ostensibly, a parliamentary democracy, although Sir Winston, as previously noted, wields more personal power than most elected officials.
“The government is stable and the island safe for tourists. Ninety percent of the population is black, as are all the people Stone knows there; the rest are mostly descendants of the former British settlers, whose accents are British. There are a few dozen expatriates who’ve bought homes there because of the stable political atmosphere and the moderate real estate prices.”
“So finding Irene Foster shouldn’t be hard?” Stone asked.
“No,” Lance replied.
“Why did she leave St. Barts for St. Marks? I mean, the real estate prices on St. Barts would have been higher, but she already owned a property there. What made her move?”
“We investigated her existence in St. Barts thoroughly, before she left the island. What we picked up was that she didn’t speak any French, which is the local language, and she preferred an English-speaking island. Also, she got an unsolicited offer for her house, and she jumped at the chance to move. Incidentally, before she moved, we had a close look at the inside of her house, and we found no indication of a co-habitor-only one toothbrush, et cetera. She had a local reputation for picking up suitable men at local bars and having them over for a night or two-always tourists, who would be leaving in a few days. From that, we deduced that she was not being sexually satisfied by a regular lover-i.e., Teddy.” Lance looked at his watch. “You have a flight from Manassas, Virginia, in three hours, and you have to get packed. Any other questions?”
Stone spoke up. “What do we do if we find Teddy Fay?”
Lance closed his laptop, put it into his briefcase and closed it. “Holly will inform me, then you will all go home.”
“And what will happen to Teddy?” Stone asked.
Lance stood up and walked to the door. “You needn’t concern yourself with that,” he said. “Have a nice trip.” He walked out and closed the door behind him.
5
When they got out of their car at Manassas Airport, Lance was waiting for them, standing beside a small jet.
“Is that the new Swearingen J-30?” Stone asked.
“It is,” Lance replied.
“I’ve been reading about it for years, so I guess it’s finally certified?”
“Just barely. This is the first one bought by the government; we’re anxious to see if it flies.”
“Oh, great,” Dino said. “We’re an experiment?”
“Relax, Dino,” Stone said. “The airplane has been through the whole gamut of tests, and only one has crashed.”
“Where can I get the nearest commercial flight?” Dino asked.
“Dino,” Lance said, “shut up, put your luggage in the locker, and get aboard.” Everybody started to climb aboard, but Lance pulled Stone aside. “I don’t want you to draw any inferences from what I said yesterday.”
“And what was it you said?”
“I said to let me know if you find Teddy Fay, and that I would take care of it. I meant just that. You should know that Teddy is dangerous when he’s cornered, and you are not equipped to deal with him.”
Stone felt his ears starting to get hot. “Lance, I’ve dealt with more cornered rats than you’ve had hot dinners. While you were sitting behind your desk at Langley or wandering around Europe, Dino and I were putting away heavily armed bad guys, whether they liked it or not, and we never needed help from the Central Intelligence Agency.”
“Calm down, Stone; this is a special case, and it has to be handled carefully. We don’t want this hitting the papers, or the president and the director could end up as collateral damage.”
“You’ve already explained that very thoroughly,” Stone said. “We’ll be in touch.” He turned around and got aboard the airplane, followed by a single pilot. “Mind if I fly right seat?” Stone asked.
“Not today,” the pilot replied. “Maybe on the return trip.” He began starting the engines and running through his checklist.
Stone shrugged, took off his jacket and found a seat. It wasn’t hard, because there were four seats and only one was available, facing aft, opposite Holly.
“I hope you don’t mind sitting there,” Holly said. “I sometimes throw up when I travel backward.”
“I’ll be fine here,” Stone said. He settled in and fastened his seatbelt. The airplane began to move.
“What were you and Lance talking about?” Holly asked.
“Oh, it was just the usual stuff with Lance, the control freak.”
“Well, he is that, but he’s good at it.”
“Great.”
The airplane turned onto the runway without slowing down, and a moment later they were in the air, climbing fast.
“Are you going to be able to recognize Teddy Fay?” Stone asked. “You’ve met him twice, is that right?”
“Sort of. The first time I met him at the opera, and he invited me to sit with him; since he had better seats than I did, I accepted. Problem was, he was well disguised. Second time, I’m not even sure it was him; it was an old man on crutches, with one leg.”
“Since there are no photographs, do you have any idea what he looks like?”
“He’s about six feet tall, slender, balding or bald. We had a sketch done with the help of people in Tech Services who had worked with him.” She fumbled in a large handbag and handed him a sheet of paper.
Stone looked at the face. “This looks like Larry David from the HBO TV show.”
“Everybody says that, so it must be true. He’s pretty bland-looking, so he disguises easily, and he’s good at it.”
