Unintended Consequences

believe he will be confirmed within a matter of days.”
    “Is he a good man?”
    “The best for the job, I think. As it happens, he is in Paris at the moment. Would you like to meet him?”
    DuBois’s face lit up. “I would like very much to do so.”
    “It would have to be on short notice. He’ll be returning to the States shortly.”
    “I am available at all times,” duBois said.
    “Perhaps I can reach him now.”
    “Please do.”
    “Excuse me for a moment.” Stone rose and walked to a corner of the room and got out his cell phone. He called the number that Lance had programmed into the new phone.
    “Yes?” Lance said.
    “It’s Stone.”
    “Good day.”
    “Good day. Would you like to meet Marcel duBois?”
    “Yes! When?”
    “In an hour?”
    “Yes, good!”
    Stone gave him the address, hung up, and returned to the table. “He will be here in one hour,” he said to duBois.
    “Astonishing! You are full of surprises, Stone.”
    “Merely a happy coincidence,” Stone said. And one, he thought, that would get him off the hook with Lance. Now the man could recruit his own asset, and Stone could avoid further entanglements with the Agency.

20
    S tone and Marcel were having coffee when Lance was shown into the library. He appeared to have recovered from his jet lag and was beautifully dressed in a dark, chalk-striped suit. Stone made the introductions.
    “I am so pleased to welcome you to Paris, Mr. Cabot,” Marcel said.
    “It’s Lance, and thank you.”
    “I am Marcel. And may I congratulate you on your appointment?”
    Lance smiled. “It’s a little early for that, so thank you again.”
    “I’m sure that must be a very great responsibility,” Marcel said.
    “It is, but I believe I’m prepared for it.”
    The conversation continued, with Marcel asking pointed questions and, Stone thought, Lance giving him remarkably straight answers.
    They had been at it for an hour when Lance’s tone became more serious. “Marcel,” he said, “one of my Agency’s great strengths has always been the friends we have in the world, people like you, who are attuned to the activities of business, the professions, and the arts—who can help us understand the tenor of the times in their part of the world.”
    “I can see how that might be very helpful to you,” Marcel replied. He obviously knew what was coming, and he seemed to relax as Lance went on.
    “I would very much like to think of you as our friend and colleague,” he said, “and to hear from you directly from time to time.”
    “Are you inviting me to become a spy for the CIA?” Marcel asked, amusement in his voice.
    “Certainly not,” Lance replied smoothly, “just a friend and colleague. I’m sure that, in your daily dealings, you hear things that might be of interest to us, indeed things that might be of great help to us as we try to help make the world a better and safer place.”
    “Oh, is that what you do?” Marcel replied, chuckling. “Make the world a better place.”
    “Making the world safer for free men makes it a better place, does it not?”
    “I suppose it does.”
    “I would never ask you to take any position against the interests of your own country or your business affairs.”
    Stone spoke for the first time. “Marcel has told me that intelligence is half of what he does.”
    Lance smiled. “The sharing of even a fraction of that intelligence could make a difference for France, Europe, and the United States.”
    “I believe I understand you,” Marcel said. “What sort of arrangement do you envision?”
    “Whatever sort you would feel comfortable with. I will give you a secure means of communicating directly with me, and I will have one of our best men, serving locally, available at all times to assist you in any way he can.”
    “Would that man be Mr. Richard LaRose?” Marcel asked. “The
commercial attaché
?”
    Lance laughed. “That’s right, you and Rick have met, haven’t you?”
    “He was a guest in my home at the suggestion of a friend of mine, Helga Becker. Is she a friend of your Agency’s, too?”
    “Helga moves in interesting circles. From time to time, she hears something I might like to hear. It’s no more than that.”
    “If you expect Mr. LaRose to continue representing himself as a diplomat, you should take him shopping,” Marcel said.
    Lance smiled. “That has already been accomplished,” he said, “with the assistance of Stone. I had a word with the managing director at