Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

he realized that none of the buttons was lit and that the sound of the phone was very muffled. He put his ear to the door of Dick’s secret office, and the bell became louder.
    Stone got out his keys, opened the door and picked up the phone. “Yes?” he said.
    There was a silence on the other end, then a man’s voice: “Stone?”
    â€œYes, speaking.”
    â€œThis is warning,” the man said. His voice was heavily accented.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œKirov.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou understand me?”
    â€œI understood Kirov.”
    â€œThen you know.”
    â€œKnow what?”
    The man was silent for another long moment. “Is Stone?” he asked.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen you know.” He hung up.
    Then it dawned on Stone that the man had thought he was talking to Dick. “I’m a little slow on the uptake,” he said aloud, then hung up the phone. He locked up the office, went back to the desk and called Lance’s cell phone.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œIt’s Stone.”
    â€œHello.”
    â€œDick just got a call in his other office.”
    â€œYou mean the phone rang?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œFor how long?”
    â€œUntil I answered it.”
    â€œYou answered Dick’s hotline?”
    â€œIs that what it is?”
    â€œYes, did you answer it?”
    â€œYes.” Stone told him about the conversation, such as it was.
    â€œHe said Kirov?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œLike the ballet company in St. Petersburg?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou’re sure he said Kirov?”
    â€œPositive. And he had a heavy accent, maybe Russian, maybe Eastern European.”
    â€œKirov is a code word,” Lance said.
    â€œYou think?”
    â€œIt means that something has happened.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œOr that something is going to happen.”
    â€œWhat has happened or is going to happen?”
    â€œI don’t know; I’ll have to do some checking with London.”
    â€œOkay. If something is going to happen, I’d like to know about it.”
    â€œI’ll call you back.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œWait a minute.”
    â€œI’m still here.”
    â€œCall me when you get back Dick’s personal effects, the things that the police took from his body.”
    â€œThey arrived yesterday.”
    â€œThere should be a small coinlike object, larger than a penny, smaller than a nickel.”
    â€œThere were no coins, just ninety-four dollars in a money clip.”
    â€œLook through them again. I’ll hold.”
    Stone put the phone down, went to the cupboard, retrieved the bag and shook the contents out on the desk.
    â€œNo coins,” he said.
    â€œTell me what’s there.”
    â€œSmall wallet, ninety-four dollars, money clip, handkerchief, comb, Chapstick, keys, Kleenex.”
    â€œIt’s got to be there. Take a minute and go through everything again, especially the wallet.”
    Stone removed everything from the wallet and inspected it carefully. Nothing. He went through the money. Nothing. Nothing anywhere. He sneezed.
    â€œBless you,” he heard Lance say.
    â€œJust a minute.” He picked up the Kleenex pack, got one out and blew his nose. “Hang on,” he said. He took all the Kleenex out of the pack, and left inside the plastic was a small disk. “Got it,” he said. “It was in the pack of Kleenex.”
    â€œOkay, are you in the little office?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œGet in there, and take the disk with you.”
    Stone unlocked the door and went inside again, taking the phone with him. “Okay, I’m in.”
    â€œLook at the bottom of the computer; there’s a little panel.”
    Stone looked at the black computer tower. “Yes, I see it.”
    â€œPush on the panel.”
    Stone did so, and out slid a little tray that had an indentation the size of the disk. “Okay, do I put the disk in the tray?”
    â€œYes, smooth side down.”
    There were four little bumps on one side, so Stone put the disk, bumps up, into the tray and closed it. “Done.”
    â€œNow turn on the computer and the monitor. There’s a button at the top of the tower, next to the floppy-disk drive, and another on the monitor.”
    Stone turned them both on. “Booting up.”
    â€œWait a minute, and you’ll get a prompt at the top of the screen.”
    Stone waited, and the prompt