“Where the hell are you? We lost track of you yesterday, when you left the hotel. Holly said you didn’t come home last night.”
“I’m in Rouen,” Stone said. “I’ll explain when I see you. Will you have me met at the station in Paris?”
“From Rouen that will be the Gare du Nord.”
“I suppose so. I don’t want to go back to the hotel immediately, and I don’t want another of your Mercedes tanks—they attract attention.”
“We’ll have you met and keep you safe.”
“By the way, that very handy iPhone that Lance gave me has not survived the experience. I could use a new one.”
“What experience?”
“Later.”
“What train?”
“Check the schedule. I’ll get the next available. I’m ten minutes from the station.”
“All right.”
Stone hung up, walked to the taxi stand, and rode to the station. The next train was in twenty minutes, so he bought an International New York Times and sat on a bench to read it. There was a report on page three of an altercation on a Paris bridge involving armed men, and a man was said to have leapt into the Seine and had not been seen again.
—
THE TRAIN wasn’t the fast one, but it was fast enough. Stone did the crossword and kept an eye out for suspicious characters, though it seemed very unlikely that anyone might know where he was. As he got off the train at the Gare du Nord, he saw Rick waiting for him. They shook hands.
Rick waited until they were in the back of an Audi sedan before questioning him. “All right,” he said, “let’s have it.”
Stone told him about breakfast with Yevgeny Majorov.
“I would have not thought that possible,” Rick said, “what with the security arrangements at the duBois building.”
“Neither would I. I’ll have to explain it all to Mike Freeman.”
“Oh, they were not Mike’s people,” Rick said. “Marcel reverted to his own means, to his regret, I’m sure.”
“When I left I decided to have a day on the town.”
“In a cab?”
“It felt more normal. I did some shopping and saw a movie, then, when I was walking back across a bridge, they blocked traffic and came at me from both ends. I took refuge in the Seine.”
“Good God! Do you know how fast and how cold that river is?”
“I do now. I caught a ride on a barge, and the crew were kind to me. They docked at Rouen, and I called you. Where are we going?”
“Not to the embassy or the hotel,” Rick said. “We have a safe house for you.”
“Does Holly know I’m alive?”
“I let her know. I had the impression she thought you had gotten a better offer.”
Stone laughed. “Hardly!”
—
AFTER a few minutes’ drive they stopped at a pair of tall, oaken doors, where two men stood guard, and Rick identified himself. The doors were opened and closed behind them; they were in a mews, and they pulled into a garage. Once the door was closed behind them, Rick used a key to let them into the adjoining house. He handed the key to Stone, along with a new iPhone. “The phone already has your contacts and apps in it.”