Unintended Consequences

saw them coming and waved them to the rear of the exhibit, where there was a small office.
    “Before we go out there,” he said, “let me tell you what has happened.”
    Stone and Rick exchanged a glance.
    “At four o’clock this morning I was awakened to answer a phone call from your Lance Cabot. He told me that information had reached him from intelligence sources that an attempt would be made to attack the auto show shortly after it opened this morning.”
    “What sort of sources?” Rick asked.
    “Cell phone traffic picked up by your National Security Agency.”
    “Ah, yes.”
    “I called the prefect of police immediately and put my chief of security and his people at his disposal. When my ten Blaises arrived here on trucks at six o’clock this morning, they were searched and two bombs were found and disabled.”
    “That’s a relief to hear,” Stone said.
    “Every other car in the show was searched, but mine were the only ones affected.”
    “So this was an attack against your company, not the whole show?” Rick asked.
    “I or my company—it’s pretty much the same thing. I can tell you that never has a new association so immediately been of such great benefit to me, and I am very grateful to Lance and your Agency.”
    “I’ll pass that on to him,” Rick said.
    “I have already phoned him and expressed my thanks.”
    “He is being sworn in today as director of Central Intelligence,” Rick said.
    “Then he has scored a coup on his first day,” Stone said.
    “I must tell you that it was not until I saw the morning papers that I heard of your terrible accident after you left my home yesterday, if an accident was what it was. I was extremely embarrassed to learn that a truck belonging to my construction company was involved. The driver was found unconscious at one of our building sites, and I was told that the man who stole the truck and crashed it into you was fired yesterday morning for being drunk on the job. He is being sought by the Prefecture of Police. Please accept my apologies for this terrible tragedy. I spoke to Lance again, and I am making a contribution to a fund being set up for your driver’s family.”
    “That’s very kind of you,” Rick said.
    “All these events have made me proud to be associated with your Agency,” Marcel said. “Now, I must go to the platform and make a speech and give some television interviews, then we will have lunch. I promise to get you both home unmolested afterwards.”
    They followed Marcel back to the exhibit and listened as, bursting with pride, he introduced the Blaise to the world.

24
    T he lunch was held not in a grand ballroom but in a private dining room, and Stone was told that those present were the top people at each of the auto companies represented at the show. Marcel was the toast of them all, and Stone heard many complimentary things said about the Blaise.
    Then, when they were seated at the best table, Stone looked across the room and saw, at a rear table, a familiar face. “Don’t look now,” he said to Rick, whose back was to that table, “but your friend Majorov is here.”
    Rick looked at him sharply. “How do you know that name, Stone?”
    “You pointed him out to me at Brasserie Lipp.”
    “Yes, but I didn’t mention his name.”
    “Amanda Hurley did. We saw him at Lipp the following day, and he followed us as we were gallery-hopping. Lance told me that ten minutes after she and I parted, someone took a shot at her.”
    “That sounds like Majorov,” Rick said.
    “Who does he work for?”
    “That’s a very good question. He’s Russian, and earlier in his career he was KGB. It’s said that he and Putin served together there, and that they have remained close.”
    “So he’s a sort of personal representative of Putin?”
    “I wouldn’t go that far. We’ve heard rumors of Russian gang connections. He has an interesting background: his father was a KGB general and was said to have planned an invasion of Sweden back in the eighties, one that never came off.”
    “I remember that a Russian submarine ran aground near a secret Swedish naval base,” Stone said, “and there were stories in the press about sightings of miniature subs in Swedish waters.”
    “All those sightings were connected to the putative invasion. Strangely enough, President Will Lee is connected to the story.”
    “But that was a long time ago.”
    “He was chief of staff to Senator Ben Carr of Georgia at the time and was also