Stone - 25 - Collateral Damage

office across Upper Grosvenor. Eighteen other people either in the street, in cars, or in that building were injured, four of them seriously. The rest was from flying glass and shrapnel. That’s it.”
    Holly heaved a deep sigh. “All right. I have to report to the director now, and after that I’ll see the desk chiefs, one at a time, please, in Tom’s office, to get an overview of current operations in your various purviews.”
    Ann Tinney stood up. “I’ll show you to Tom’s office.” They left the conference room and started down the hall. “All of Tom’s personal effects have been cleared from the room, so you needn’t worry about disturbing anything there. It will be your office while you’re here.”
    “Thank you,” Holly said. She was shown into a large corner office with unremarkable furniture, including a round conference table in a corner. Opaque window shades prevented photographing from outside. “Please excuse me, Ann, while I phone the director.”
    “Of course.” Ann left the room and closed the door behind her.
    Holly picked up the phone, then put it down again. She had never seen anything so horrific, and she needed a minute or two and some deep breaths to get control of herself. She looked at her watch, which displayed the two relevant time zones: it was four A.M. in Washington. She dialed Kate Lee’s cell number.
    Kate answered on the second ring. “Holly? I’ve been expecting your call.”
    “I’m sorry to wake you. I’ve just had a full briefing on the two bombs, with both video and audio.” She recounted what she had seen.
    “Have them transfer that presentation to both the White House situation room and to my office at Langley,” Kate said calmly.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Can you explain to me why Tom went down to sign for the crate?”
    “He thought it was from you. The security protocol doesn’t cover such an incident, and I’ve instructed that it be amended immediately.”
    “It was a stupid mistake,” Kate said.
    “From what I’ve seen, it was the only mistake anyone made, and even that wasn’t against protocol. The room where the bomb went off performed as designed.”
    “It’s a very great disaster,” Kate said.
    “How long do you think it’s going to take to get a new station chief in place?” Holly asked.
    “I spoke to Lance last night. He’s on his way home now, and he’ll have a list of candidates when he gets to Langley later this morning. Have you been briefed by the desk chiefs yet?”
    “No, that’s next on my schedule.”
    “One or two of them may be on Lance’s list of candidates, so I’ll be especially interested in your assessment of them as individuals.”
    “I’ll try and have that for you by the end of the day here,” Holly said.
    “The president made a brief appearance in the press room last night to announce the bare bones of what happened. After he’s viewed the security camera footage, he’ll have a press conference to outline what happened.”
    “I’ll get the footage transmitted as quickly as possible,” Holly said.
    “Good-bye, then. We’ll talk later today.” Kate hung up.
    Holly called in Ann Tinney and gave her instructions on transmitting the footage, along with her commentary. “I’ll start seeing the desk chiefs now,” Holly said.

Holly got to the Connaught just after nine P.M. and was shown to the suite. She had called Stone when she was on her way, and he took her in his arms.
    “It must have been a very bad day,” he said.
    “I just cannot explain to you how bad,” she replied. “Before this is over we’ll have forty dead—more than half of them collateral damage, complete innocents.”
    He put her down in a comfortable chair, gave her a drink, then sat on the ottoman and rubbed her feet.
    “That’s the first good thing to happen today,” she said, tugging at the drink.
    “I’ve ordered dinner,” Stone said. “It will be here in a few minutes.”
    “Oh, thank you. I had half a cup of soup early this afternoon. It was back-to-back briefings, and I hope I can retain half of what I learned. I certainly have a new respect for what the London station chief does. He has all of Europe under his purview. The only good thing is that everything is being smartly handled and operated. It’s a tribute to Tom Riley and Ed Marvin.”
    “Who’s Marvin?”
    “Deputy station chief. Had bypass surgery two days ago, out for a couple of months, probably.”
    The doorbell rang, and Stone let in the