Stone Barrington 06-11

a pretty perfect existence for yourself, too.”
    “Yeah, but since Jackson’s death, it hasn’t been the same. And I’ve already told you I’m bored with the work.”
    “So what are you going to do?”
    “Lance has offered me something.”
    “What? When?”
    “At Elaine’s, the last time, when you were in the john and Dino was on the phone.”
    “What did he offer you, exactly?”
    “He was vague but intriguing. He said I’d have to do some training at a place called the Farm, in Virginia. Four months, probably.”
    “I thought those guys recruited from the bottom.”
    “You mean, not middle-aged, retired soldiers and policemen?”
    “Middle-aged, you?”
    “Sure. You, too.”
    “Well.”
    “It might be fun.”
    “The training would be a pain in the ass.”
    “I like that sort of thing. I did a lot of it in the army, training and retraining, then passing the training on to others.”
    “Maybe you’re cut out for it then. But would the work be fun?”
    “Lance seems to enjoy it.”
    “Sometimes I think he enjoys it too much.”
    “I know what you mean. Still, he’s serving his country, so what does it matter if he enjoys it too much?”
    “I hope I never find out. So, you want to go work in an embassy somewhere?”
    “No, the work he’s talking about is domestic and mostly urban. The Agency has a new role in homeland security now, and the change has made them understaffed. The money is no better than decent, but I’ve got my military pension, and I’m fully vested in my police pension, too. Plus what Jackson left me.”
    “Sounds like I should marry you for your money.”
    “I’m not ever going to marry.”
    “You sound very sure.”

    “I am. It just isn’t out there for me. You’re a catch, but you’re too much like me. Jackson was a wholly different person, calm and wise and funny. He wasn’t brilliant, but he knew how to do the right thing in any situation.”
    “That’s as much a gift as Ham’s shooting.”
    “You’re right, and he cultivated it every day. But he’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
    “Did they ever catch the people who did it, that cult group, or whatever they were?”
    “No, but Lance says I’d have a better chance with the Agency. I could never run them down in law enforcement. Either I’d have a department to run, like now, or I’d be caught up in a bureaucracy with some supervisor’s shoe on my neck. I don’t think it would be like that with Lance.”
    “Maybe not.”
    “I could always quit, if I didn’t like it.”
    “I suppose.”
    The phone rang and Stone picked it up. “Hello?”
    “It’s Dino. The address is less than two blocks from your house.”
    “Jesus.” He got a pencil and wrote it down. “We’ll meet you there.”
    “No, come here. We’ve got the building plans on the way, and we need to plan this well.”
    “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
    “Bring your weapons and Holly’s warrant.”
    “Will do.” He hung up.
    “Got your warrant?” he asked Holly.

    “You bet your ass.”
    “Then let’s go.”
    On the way uptown, in the cab, Stone reached out for Holly’s wrist and felt her pulse.
    “What are you doing?”
    “It’s about ninety,” he said. “You want to calm down. Take some deep breaths. It’s going to be at least a couple of hours before we go in.”
    “I want to do it now.”
    “I know, but you have to be patient.”
    “No, I don’t,” she replied.
    “You’ll do a better job if you pace yourself.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Certainly.”
    She began taking deep breaths, and her heart rate started to come down.
    “That’s better,” he said.
    “No, it isn’t,” she replied.

50
    T HE TEAM MET in a conference room at Dino’s precinct. There was a pile of equipment near the door, and men, and a couple of women, were milling around, talking.
    “Okay, everybody, settle down,” Dino said, setting a blowup of a floor plan on an easel. A blown-up photograph of Trini Rodriguez was pinned to a wall.
    People took seats or leaned against the walls.
    “We’re lucky on this one. The building’s under renovation, so current floor plans were filed for the new building permit. What we’ve got is a five-story walk-up, just like the ones on either side, with a fire escape down the back. We’re lucky, too, that the fire escape on our building has been removed, pending replacement, so there’s no way down, except the main staircase.
    “The phone number we tracked down