Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

hands behind his back. She heard a door open behind her.
    â€œWhat is the meaning of this?” a deep voice said.
    Holly turned and saw the imposing figure of Sir Winston Sutherland filling the doorway.
    â€œUh, good afternoon, Prime Minister,” she said, rising to her full height and leaving duBois on the floor.
    â€œWhat is this, Marcel?” Sutherland demanded, “some kind of sex game?”
    â€œColonel duBois lacks charm,” Holly said. “Apparently he enjoys beating up women.”
    Sutherland stepped into the room and was followed by Stone and another man.
    â€œGinny,” Stone said, “this is Mr. James Tiptree of the American Embassy.”
    â€œHow do you do?” Tiptree said, looking baffled.
    DuBois attempted to get up, but Holly put her foot on his neck. “Be still,” she said.
    Sir Winston Sutherland smiled, then began to laugh. Stone laughed, too. Tiptree just shook his head.

45
    S tone and Holly sat in the backseat of a police car, headed back toward the inn.
    â€œWhat the hell happened in there?” Stone whispered.
    â€œNot now,” Holly said.
    They sat in silence until they were driven to the inn and deposited at their cottage.
    â€œNow,” Stone said as the police car drove away, “what the hell happened in there?”
    â€œI freed myself from the handcuffs, pissed off duBois and, when he came at me, I put him on the floor and cuffed him.”
    â€œSo while I’m playing the lawyer and demanding to see everybody in authority, you’re beating up the guy who was supposed to beat you up?”
    â€œPretty much.”
    â€œDo you know, I think that’s what got us released so quickly? Sir Winston just loved it!”
    â€œWhat was he doing there?”
    â€œTiptree, from the embassy, tried to reach him, couldn’t, and then, as he arrived at police headquarters, so did Sir Winston. He professed to be shocked, shocked that we had been arrested, and you know the rest.”
    â€œWhy were we arrested in the first place?”
    â€œMy guess is that we were at the top of the list of foreign visitors, so they came after us.”
    â€œDuBois said you were being charged with Croft’s murder, and I was being charged as an accessory.”
    â€œThat’s nonsense; he was just bluffing, and you called him on it. I have to tell you, though, I’m not sure what duBois would have done to you once he got some help.”
    â€œFunny,” Holly said, “I didn’t think about that; I just wanted to humiliate him.”
    â€œHolly, it is not a good policy, when arrested in a foreign country, to humiliate your interrogator. That can lead to electroshock therapy, broken bones and a ruptured spleen. Didn’t they mention that to you during your CIA training?”
    â€œNo, we didn’t get that far; my training was interrupted by my sudden transfer to New York.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œThey did say that I would have to return to complete the course, but I think Lance intervened.”
    â€œI think it’s going to be nice to have Lance for a rabbi, now that he has the top operations job. Do you think he’ll bring you to Langley or keep you in the field?”
    â€œI haven’t the slightest idea,” she replied, “but I think that my future might be somehow connected to our success or failure in nailing Teddy Fay while we’re here.”
    â€œWhat, exactly, do you mean by ‘nailing’?”
    â€œSorry, that should read, ‘finding.’ I still don’t know what happens after that.”
    â€œBill Pepper thinks that either you or he is going to be asked to kill him. Are you ready for that?”
    â€œI certainly am not ready for that; I am not an assassin.”
    â€œWell, we’d better start looking for him.”
    â€œI’d like to shower and change before we do that,” Holly said. “That jail made me feel dirty.”
    They went into the cottage and found Dino and Genevieve watching Tiger Woods play golf on TV.
    â€œHey, you’re alive!” Dino said, embracing them both.
    â€œThanks for calling in the cavalry,” Stone replied. “They arrived in the nick of time.” He told Dino about what Holly had done to duBois.
    â€œWoman,” Dino said, “you are lucky to be alive.”
    â€œNo,” Holly said, “duBois is lucky to be alive. Excuse me, I’m going to shower and