Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

it?”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with St. Marks? I’m working practically alone—ah, with the woman I love—in my very own country; I have nobody local breathing down my neck, except the guy at the embassy. And you’re having the time of your life; your tennis game has never been better.”
    â€œIf we were a couple of years from retirement, St. Marks would be heaven,” she said. “But we have careers ahead of us. In another year, Langley will forget we’re here, and we’ll be left to rot on the vine. But if you could make Robertson as Barney Cox, the Brits would love you for it; maybe you could join MI6.”
    â€œSarcasm doesn’t suit you. Think of some way we can make hay out of Barney Cox.”
    â€œIf we were the police, we’d be world-famous in an instant, have our pictures in every newspaper in the world, but that’s not who we are, is it? If we’re responsible for busting Cox, only the Agency is going to know; Langley is not even going to tell the Brits.”
    â€œThey’d be very pleased if we busted Cox for the Brits. They could lord it over MI6 for years.”
    â€œWell, there is that. All right, you want me to see what I can find out at the tennis club?”
    â€œDoes Robertson play tennis?”
    â€œHe’s a new member; I checked.”
    â€œYou’ve been holding out on me, haven’t you?”
    â€œI only checked today. I win the blow job!” She shucked off her nightgown.
    â€œHang on, I don’t even remember what the bet was about. How do I know you won?”
    She grabbed him by the hair and drew his face into her lap. “Trust me,” she said.
    They forgot about calling Lance.

25
    L ance asked for and got an appointment with the director, and he presented himself at the appointed time. His morning conversation with Barker had been interesting.
    â€œGood morning, Lance,” Kate Lee said, waving him to a chair. “What do you have to report?”
    â€œWe’ve identified a man in St. Marks as, possibly, Teddy Fay.”
    â€œGreat!”
    â€œStone Barrington interviewed a man at the airport who showed him a small airplane belonging to a recently arrived Englishman, calling himself Robertson. There’s no British paper on this character at all, so he’s obviously not who he says he is, and he more or less fits Teddy’s description.”
    â€œNow what?”
    â€œProblem is, Bill Pepper, on his own hook, has made a different identification.”
    â€œPepper’s our man in the casino down there, isn’t he? The computer whiz?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œWho does Pepper think the man is?”
    â€œHe thinks he’s one of the four men who robbed a currency-transfer company at Heathrow a few months ago, name of Barney Cox.”
    â€œI remember the incident; a hell of a lot of money, wasn’t it?”
    â€œOver a hundred million quid.”
    â€œHard to handle that much cash, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes, but with careful planning, it could be done. Private jet to a country with amenable banks, numbered accounts, et cetera.”
    â€œHow much does a hundred million pounds sterling weigh?”
    â€œLet’s see, the biggest sterling note is fifty pounds; you could get a million in a large briefcase.”
    â€œSo a hundred large briefcases would do it?”
    â€œOr ten manageable-sized crates. As I recall, they used a large van to remove the money from Heathrow.”
    â€œThey’d need a big private jet, then.”
    â€œOr a not-very-big cargo plane. Of course, the Brits would be all over that sort of flight.”
    â€œThey could truck it across the channel and fly from anywhere in Europe.”
    â€œYes, they could, if they waited for things to cool off enough.”
    â€œSo you think this Robertson could be Cox?”
    â€œIt’s possible.”
    â€œJust as possible as if he’s Teddy Fay, then.”
    â€œI’m afraid so. The reason I came to you about this is that Bill Pepper doesn’t work for me. He did me a favor and met briefly with Holly Barker to tell her what he knows about Pemberton. She was also interested in the evil Colonel Croft, né Benet, of Haiti.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œTheir cottage is bugged, and she suspects Croft, a logical assumption.”
    â€œHave they blown their mission?” Kate asked.
    â€œNo, they’ve been careful. But as I was saying, Bill