Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

looking forward to his retirement, we’re going to miss his knowledge and his wisdom, and I hope he has imparted enough of both to you all, so that you can help me find my feet in this new job. It makes it tougher on all of us that we knew and worked with Dick Stone and that we will not have the full benefit of his experience.”
    Hugh English stood up. “Excuse me, Lance, but I think my time to exit this stage has come.” He turned to the group. “Thank you all for your hard work over the years, and I hope you’ll give Lance the same level of dedication and loyalty that you have given me.” English shook hands with Lance, and without another word, he left the room.
    Lance gave his departure a moment’s silence, then turned back to his audience. He indicated a cart filled with file folders, some of them very thick. “I’ve already begun to read these, and let me say that, so far, I’m very impressed with their completeness and lucidity. In a day or two, I hope to be up to speed on all operations, but I’m sure I’ll have some questions for most of you before that time. Any questions for me?”
    A man in the rear of the room raised his hand. “Will you be working out of this office?”
    â€œFor the moment, until Hugh has had time to make his move, and a few alterations have been made. My extension number will be the same in both offices, though, so I won’t be hard to find.”
    His laptop beside him emitted a small chime. “Excuse me a moment,” he said, turning the instrument so that he could see the screen. He looked back at his office. “Any other questions?”
    â€œWhat about vacations already scheduled?” a woman asked.
    â€œKeep them scheduled,” Lance said, “subject only to the sort of last-minute emergencies I’m sure you’re all accustomed to. Anyone else? No? Well, thank you all, and I look forward to working with each of you. By the way, as we speak, all stations are being notified of the personnel changes, so there won’t be any surprises in your contacts with those in the field.” Lance ran a finger down his list of names and photographs, looked around the room and settled on an attractive woman in her forties near the back of the room. “Mona Barry? Will you stay a moment, please?”
    The others ambled out of the room, and Mona Barry rose and walked forward. “Yes, sir?”
    â€œNo ‘sirs’ are necessary; Lance will do,” he said.
    â€œYes, Lance?”
    â€œI’m told that you are our best photo analyst, Mona.”
    â€œThat’s very flattering.”
    â€œI expect you know how good you are.” He turned the laptop so that she could see the screen. “I’ve just received these photos from our station in St. Marks, in the Caribbean.” He pressed a button, and his printer began to work. “I’d like you to give them your closest attention, and at the earliest possible moment.” He also copied them onto a DVD and handed it to her.
    Mona picked up the printout, set her reading glasses on her nose and began examining the three photographs. “What do you want to know about them?”
    â€œThese are photographs submitted by three men to the government of St. Marks on applications to buy houses on the island. All three are British subjects and the photos appear to be the sort used on British passports.”
    â€œAre they wanted for something? Either by us or by the law somewhere?”
    â€œIt’s suspected that one of them may be a fugitive from justice in Britain, and another may be—and this is on a strictly need-to-know basis, Mona—Teddy Fay.”
    She looked up at Lance. “So he’s alive?”
    â€œThat’s what we’re trying to determine.”
    â€œWell, I never worked with Teddy, and since there are no known photos of him on record, the best I can do is clean them up, rid them of facial hair and show them to people who knew Teddy better than I did.”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I want you to do,” Lance said, “and as quickly as humanly possible.”
    â€œI’ll call you when I have something,” Mona said, then left the office.
    Lance went back to reading operations files.

42
    D ino and Genevieve were lunching on the terrace of the beach cottage when the phone rang inside. Dino got up and went to answer it. “Hello?”
    â€œDino, it’s