Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

are your orders, Holly: Kill him on sight; do not wait for him to threaten you or run. Do you understand?”
    Holly heaved a deep sigh. “I understand.”
    â€œI’ll meet you at Manassas airport. Good-bye.” Lance hung up.
    Stone was staring at her. “Are you going to do it?”
    â€œYes,” she said.

57
    L ance had hardly hung up the phone when it rang again.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œIt’s Kate Lee, Lance.”
    â€œGood morning, Director.”
    â€œLance, the president wants to announce his candidacy for reelection, probably in the next day or two; he’s meeting with his campaign people now. Where are we on the St. Marks operation?”
    â€œI anticipate a resolution within hours,” Lance said.
    â€œCan you promise me that?”
    â€œNo, Director, because I’m not on St. Marks, doing it myself. But I believe that before the day is out, I can give you a conclusive answer.”
    â€œAll right. I’ll expect to hear from you later in the day.”
    â€œSomething else, Director: Hugh English’s secretary told me yesterday that an item had appeared on the Drudge Report website saying that Hugh had resigned because he has Alzheimer’s disease.”
    â€œI’ve heard about it, and I’m shocked.”
    Lance thought he detected an ironic overtone to that statement. “I’ve told Carolyn that she can give a quote to Drudge, attributed to an inside source, but not named, that the information is false.”
    â€œGood. If I’m asked about it, I’ll issue a strong denial.”
    â€œThank you, Director. I’ll call you later today.”
    â€œI’ll sit by the phone, Lance. Good-bye.” She hung up.
    Lance leaned back in his chair and began doing deep breathing exercises to calm himself.

    S tone and Holly got into Thomas’s car.
    â€œThomas,” Stone said, “can you drive us straight to the airport when we’re done with this errand? I’ve told Dino to take the rental car and our luggage.”
    â€œOf course,” Thomas said. “Please tell me what you hope to accomplish by this trip up Black Mountain.”
    â€œThat remains to be seen,” Holly said.
    â€œI think it’s time the two of you and I had a frank discussion,” Thomas said.
    â€œGo ahead,” Stone said.
    â€œOf course, I’ll deny that this conversation ever took place, and I expect you will, too.”
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œI’ve known for some time that Harold Pitts is Teddy Fay.”
    Stone’s mouth fell open. “Why on earth didn’t you tell us?”
    â€œBecause Teddy had work to do, work that I and some others on the island thought necessary to preserve this little country as something other than the dictatorship of Winston Sutherland.”
    â€œYou mean you had Teddy kill Sir Winston?”
    â€œNo; he did that entirely on his own hook. Let me explain.”
    â€œPlease do.”
    â€œTeddy came here first as Pemberton, an Englishman, some months ago. He and I met in the restaurant, and we talked a lot. Gradually, as I got to know him better, the talk turned to local politics. I told him that the island was being strangled by corruption at the top, that Winston was squeezing practically every business on the island for money, using Croft and duBois for muscle, then shipping it into an offshore account. Pemberton, as I knew him, was intensely interested in this. He intimated that he was motivated, and had the skills, to remove Croft and duBois from the picture. The words were never spoken directly; these were highly nuanced conversations.”
    â€œSo you hired Teddy to kill Croft and duBois?”
    â€œCertainly not; didn’t you hear what I just said? He volunteered, and I did not discourage him. Then Pemberton abruptly disappeared and Harold Pitts arrived.”
    â€œWho is in this with you?”
    â€œThere is a group of us on the island, mostly members of Parliament, as I am, who thought that with Croft and duBois out of the way, we could go to Winston and bully him into backing off. After all, he had already accumulated enough to keep him in luxury for the rest of his life.”
    â€œFrom what I know of Sutherland,” Stone said, “I don’t think he could have been bullied.”
    â€œNeither do I, and I was prepared to go further if he resisted us. Then, early this morning, Teddy killed duBois, and I believe that he