Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

more than twenty years.”
    â€œ Harry! ” Irene exclaimed.
    â€œWhat’s the matter? Is it still a secret?”
    â€œSort of,” she muttered.
    â€œIt wasn’t a secret when you worked there,” he said. “Why is it a secret now?”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Stone said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
    â€œYou’re not prying,” Irene said. “It’s just that when you work for the Agency for so long, you get used to not discussing your work. I used to tell people I worked for the Agriculture Department; that usually stopped the conversation in its tracks.”
    Everybody laughed.
    â€œThis is one hell of a good drink,” Harry said, taking another sip and savoring it. “How do you make it?”
    â€œPour six ounces out of a fifth of vodka, replace it with Rose’s sweetened lime juice, and put it in the freezer until it hurts to hold the bottle. If you make it in a cocktail shaker, you just water it down.”
    â€œWell, I’ll be damned,” Harry said. “So easy!”
    â€œCertainly is.”
    Dino jumped in. “What part of the CIA did you work for, Irene? Were you a spy? Or is my question a no-no?”
    â€œIt’s not a no-no,” Irene said. “I worked in the operations section, but I wasn’t a spy; I just worked with spies. I was an administrator.”
    â€œWas it exciting?” Genevieve asked.
    â€œSometimes it was dull as dishwater,” Irene replied. “And sometimes it was way too exciting. It was kind of fun doing work that nobody knew about, only the people you worked with. It was sort of like a club.” She held up her glass. “May I have another of these?”
    â€œOf course,” Stone said and went to the freezer for the bottle. He came back and poured both Irene and Harry a drink.
    â€œDid you ever work with that guy who killed all those people?” Holly asked. “I forget his name; something about a Teddy Bear.”
    Stone tried to keep a straight face. “I know the one you mean,” he said. “He got blown up in an airplane explosion.”
    â€œOh, yes,” Irene said. “Teddy Fay. Teddy worked with people all over the Agency; he was a technical expert. I knew him, but mostly ten or fifteen years ago.”
    Harry chimed in. “What does a technical expert do?”
    â€œAll sorts of things: communications, documentation, weapons—you name it.”
    â€œI would have liked to do something like that,” Harry said wistfully. “After you’ve been in the home improvement business for a few years, there aren’t any surprises; one kitchen or bathroom looks pretty much like all the others.”
    â€œYou make it sound boring, Harry,” Stone said. “Was it?”
    â€œWell, not really. Once I was doing well enough to hire people it wasn’t so repetitive. After that I just went around and worked up estimates, then inspected the work. I like to think I had a reputation for quality.”
    â€œThat’s hard to come by these days,” Stone said. “I did most of the work on the renovation of my house, and every time I hired somebody else, I had to watch them like a hawk to make sure the work got done right.”
    â€œYou’re good with your hands, then?” Harry asked.
    â€œYou’re pretty good with your hands, too, Harry,” Irene said, leering at him.
    Harry seemed embarrassed.
    â€œMy father was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker and a furniture builder, to his own designs,” Stone said. “I worked in his shop part-time as a kid.”
    â€œYou can learn a lot from the right man,” Harry said.
    â€œHe started out by slinging his tool kit over his shoulder and going around, door to door, in Greenwich Village, asking people if they had any odd jobs. He could fix anything. I still have some of the furniture he made.”
    â€œI would have liked to know him,” Harry said. “I admire people like that.”
    â€œIrene,” Genevieve said, “is it true that the CIA can listen in on just about anybody’s phone conversations and read their e-mail?”
    â€œYou’re thinking of the National Security Agency,” Irene said. “They’re the electronics wizards. Most of what the Agency does is just collect information, sort it and analyze it. Of course, there are actual spies, some of them in embassies around the world, pretending to be