Paris Match(98)

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            HOLLY ARRIVED half an hour later with reinforcements and oversaw the placement of her people. “They’re on the roof here and across the street. There are two men just inside the gates, and they’ll all be replaced in shifts.”

            Mike Freeman arrived with Marcel duBois in tow, carrying a small suitcase, and Stone took him upstairs in the elevator and got him settled in, then he went back downstairs. Lance Cabot was seated before the fireplace.

            “How the hell did you get to Paris so fast, Lance?”

            “I never left,” Lance replied.

            “So when I called you, you were in Paris?”

            “My phone works everywhere, Stone.”

            “Of course it does.”

            “I’ve just come from a meeting with Prefect Chance.”

            “Jacques?”

            “His father, Michel. He is extremely embarrassed about the conduct of his son. He says he has not been able to find him or speak to him since the newspaper revelations of his selling out to the Russians. He is determined to see Jacques in prison.”

            “The old man is not going to be of much use to you, is he? In the circumstances?”

            “I hope I talked him out of resigning. We need someone we know in that office, until this business is resolved. The good news is, because of the revelations about Jacques in the papers, Yevgeny Majorov is now a fugitive in France. Michel has put his best people on the search for him.”

            “What about Jacques? Is he a fugitive, too?”

            “Yes, but not officially. Michel just wants him detained before he hurts someone. He was shocked at the news of Jacques’s visit with you today.”

            “Not as shocked as I was,” Stone said.

            “Well,” Mike said, “it seems that we have a virtual army on our side now. I hope the French police can prevent Majorov from leaving the country.”

            “That’s more than my people can do,” Lance said. “We’re now in a situation where we have to rely on the French. I had hoped to avoid that.”

            “I don’t want to avoid it,” Stone said. “I want Majorov and Jacques in custody.”

            Marcel came into the room. “I was thinking, perhaps we should issue a statement to the press about what has happened—perhaps even hold a press conference.”

            Lance shook his head. “It’s not a good idea for Stone’s name to appear in the press,” he said.

            “I don’t mind, if it will help find Majorov,” Stone replied.

            “You’re forgetting our election at home,” Lance said. “Your name has already been linked to Kate’s in the press once, she doesn’t need that happening again at this late date.”

            “Of course, you’re right,” Stone said. “I guess I’m not thinking very clearly.”

            “All you can do now, Stone, is just hunker down here until Majorov pops up somewhere, and the French can lay hands on him.”

            Stone knew he was right, but he didn’t like it.





                     53


            Stone woke with a jerk; he had been dreaming, but he couldn’t remember what, except that it was very important. He tried to go back to sleep to regain his dream, but an image popped into his head that kept him awake. It was something he had seen back in Los Angeles, at his son Peter’s hangar at Santa Monica Airport.