Unintended Consequences

“Good evening, Stone, Helga.”
    “Oh, Lance!” Helga said, sounding delighted. “What brings you to Paris?”
    “I wish it were you, my dear, but it’s Stone.”
    Helga looked at Stone oddly. “You two know each other?”
    “Unfortunately,” Stone said.
    “Stone,” Lance said, “give me your cell phone and your passport.”
    “Why?” Stone demanded.
    “Don’t be difficult.”
    Stone sighed and handed over the two items.
    Lance produced another cell phone, then turned on both of them. He made some data entries in each. “Give it a minute,” he said. “The two phones are syncing.”
    “I didn’t know you could do that,” Stone said.
    “You weren’t supposed to know. Ah!” He handed Stone the new iPhone, a white one, and slipped Stone’s into his pocket, then he removed Stone’s passport from its chocolate alligator holder and inserted another passport. “Sign this,” he said, pointing to a line on the passport.
    Stone signed it.
    “Now,” Lance said, “what you have is an iPhone that operates exactly as yours did, except that when you are connected to one of our phones, it automatically scrambles the conversation. It is a secure phone. And your new passport is a diplomatic one.”
    “Why do I need that?”
    “Because the way things have been going, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that you’ve been arrested. That passport is a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
    “Why would I be arrested?” Stone asked.
    “For carrying this.” Lance, keeping his hand low, handed Stone something solid in a leather pouch.
    “What did you just give me?” Stone asked.
    “A small pistol, in a soft holster. Hook it to your belt.”
    Stone did as he was told. “And why do I need this?”
    “I told you, another of our people was shot at today.”
    “And you think I could be next?”
    “Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”
    “You can say that again.”
    “My people have located Bill Eggers, and you will receive a phone call from him on your new phone around noon tomorrow. You should make the most of the call, because it wasn’t easy to arrange. It required an airplane on floats.”
    “All right.”
    “Now, I want you to arrange to see duBois again, the sooner the better.”
    “How about one o’clock tomorrow?”
    “That would be convenient. Why then?”
    “He invited me to lunch.”
    “Well,” Lance said, rising, “my work here is done. Call me at this number after you have spoken to duBois. I would like very much to meet with him.” He handed Stone a card.
    Stone shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do.”
    “I’m so sorry I can’t dine with you both,” Lance said.
    “Don’t be sorry,” Stone replied.
    Lance gave a little wave and disappeared.

17
    S tone turned his attention back to the gorgeous Helga. “I’m so sorry about that,” he said. “Lance can be a royal pain in the ass.”
    “I know,” Helga replied. “I’m astonished that you know each other. How is that?”
    “It’s a long and very boring story.”
    “And you are working for him?”
    “I’m under contract to his organization as a consultant. Now and then, Lance pops up and asks me to do something I’d rather not do.”
    “Always?”
    “I can’t remember an occasion when I was happy about what he wanted me to do. I’m sure you must have had that experience.”
    “Well, yes, I have. It was fun, at first, but . . .” She didn’t continue.
    “Did he ask you to meet me?”
    “No, that was Marcel. I had no idea you were connected in this manner and, I’m sure, neither did Marcel.”
    “I figured.”
    “The other one, I knew about.”
    “LaRose? You’d met before?”
    “No, I just spotted him for what he was as soon as he walked in wearing that awful dinner suit and said he was a commercial attaché.”
    “Not an undue assumption.”
    A waiter appeared with an ice bucket and a bottle of Krug ’78. Stone tasted it, approved more than he could say, and the waiter poured a glass for both of them.
    “This is the first time I’ve had Krug twice in the same week,” Stone said, raising his glass.
    “This one is on me,” she replied, sipping the wine.
    “Oh, no, I’m happy to deal with that.”
    “It was my invitation, it is my dinner. In fact, I’ve already ordered for us.”
    “Then I am your grateful guest.” Stone glanced out the windows. There, just across the Seine, was Notre Dame, beautifully lit. “There’s only one view like this,” he said.
    “Yes, and it comes with superb