This is not to say Geoffrey Barnes wasn’t patriotic. Anyone who didn’t want to see his life laid wide open should never say so where he could hear them. Geoffrey Barnes was one of the few men privileged to sift through intelligence information and sort it into categories, the essential, the important, and the normal. The important was given out to others. The country had so many crooked dealings that certain things couldn’t reach the knowledge of the president. Everyone understands, surely.

“We’re fucked.” He was recovering, still furious. “Set up a meeting for six-thirty.”

“So early?” Staughton questioned timidly.

“I’m awake, aren’t I?” Barnes yelled. “So no one else better lie around in bed.” He saw that Staughton wasn’t going to object.

“Okay,” Staughton replied, opening the door to carry out the order. For a few moments noise filled the office, shattering the quiet in there.

“Thompson,” Barnes called.

“What, boss?”

“I want a report in a half hour on my desk with all the facts and events we know up to now.”

“It’s done,” the other obeyed, immediately looking for the door out.

“You should warn all your contacts,” Barnes ordered.

“All?” the other asked with his hand on the doorknob. All he could think about was the cigarette he wanted to smoke as soon as possible.

“All.” Barnes got up with difficulty and leaned on the table. “How much time do you need?”

“I just have to make a few calls,” Thompson replied thoughtfully. “Fifteen minutes. I want to know what rumors are going around now.”

“Do that.”

Thompson opened the door. Now he could already anticipate the bitter tobacco calming his nerves, refining his olfactory pleasure, his fighting instincts. Things would be hard from now on.

“And don’t forget to bring me the report in half an hour,” Barnes warned, turning his back and looking over the city. He hated not having control over situations. Worse, he hated not understanding shit about what was happening. Three murders in a public bathroom in Holland, one of them an old CIA agent. The memory of him with a dark, purple cavity right in the center of his head marking the end of his life. Whoever killed him was a son of a bitch, since everything indicated only one killer, and statistics don’t attribute crimes of this sort to women.

The city was an immense lamp of yellow lights, punctuated below by the red taillights of cars. London was also a city that never sleeps, never. At this hour he’d rather be taking breakfast at Vingt Quatre on Fulham Road in Chelsea. Being known there saved him from having to stand in the long line of people waiting for a table night and day. The thought of some scalloped eggs with fried sausage made his mouth begin to water. To hell with those who came between his proud gut and the possibility of filling it with nutritious substances. He’d have to leave it for another night. It was lucky Vingt Quatre hadn’t moved.

He forgot the city and picked up the phone. Someone was waiting on the other end of the line, his secretary, Theresa, who asked him what he wanted.

“Hello, Theresa. Bring me a double burger with cheese, pizza, and a Carlsberg, as quick as possible.” Barnes’s mouth watered at the thought of all that in front of him. At the same time he listened to his secretary’s solicitous questions. Barnes always showed respect and never raised his voice with her. “I prefer Burger King, but if you can’t find one open, it can be anyplace else, don’t worry about it.” And he hung up.

He turned his thoughts back to the situation at hand. Once again Jack Payne or Rafael, or whatever he called himself, had crossed his path. The difference was that this time Rafael wasn’t going to get the best of him. There wouldn’t be deals to save him. Why had he carried off the two corpses in Amsterdam? For what? The bodies were useless, or were they? He needed a clue as soon as possible. That was it. He picked up the telephone, but this time pressed three numbers. Two seconds later someone picked up and spoke his last name, the organizational rule for avoiding “hello” and “who’s calling?”

“Staughton,” said the recipient of the call.

“I want you to put a team on Jack’s trail. I want him in front of me before the morning is over.”

“After Jack Payne, really?” There was no room for misunderstandings in this profession. One was playing with human lives, and errors were costly.

“Of course Jack Payne. Who else?” Jack had a gift for leaving him irritated, and, consequently, hungry.

“Okay. I’ll take care of that,” Staughton replied, disconnecting without waiting for Barnes to give him more instructions. Giving orders was fine, if you didn’t have to carry them out yourself.

Barnes hung up also, a little stupefied. He looked at the room beyond the divider window. A continuous stream of men and women moved back and forth, people swinging their arms with their hands full of papers, others shouting into the phone, some listening attentively but not to music. The more distracted or less familiar with this scene might imagine they were dealing with the stock market on Wall Street or in London, working overtime. The apparent disorganization was deceptive. Everyone knew what they were doing inside that room. On the large screen that filled the wall, the map of the world had changed and now showed only the Old World. New circles of various colors blinked psychedelically over certain places. Each color identified a certain activity, whether a listening post, a long-term or short-term operation, or mere positioning of agents in a territory or wherever. They were indicators that meant something only to those who worked here, although many secret services or other less scrupulous individuals would love to get their hands on that information.

Although it seemed like no one gave the screen a second look, the instructions contained there were vital to the agency. The actions of the people running around inside there were identified and classified. With a simple click they could access anyone’s personal data, previous criminal records, bank accounts, weddings, children, if there were any, and every imaginable and possible fact. If it was necessary, they could block the same accounts or modify them, alter former records, innumerable possibilities that were done every day on people, though not on Barnes, of course. Up to now he’d been considered an active, competent agent in his yearly evaluation.

If he made the effort, from where he was in the office Barnes could see a red circle blinking over Amsterdam. Information was still scarce, but soon it would be coming in.

“My fucking food still hasn’t come,” he complained.

At that moment a shrill sound resonated without stopping. He shivered. He looked at the green telephone on top of the desk. A green light winked on and off. The alert was impossible to avoid. Langley wanted information on a secure line. This wasn’t standard. The beige phone also went off, making an amalgam of ringing sounds. An orange blinking light announced the sound. Barnes silenced the telephones to clear the atmosphere and his own head, leaving the pulsing lights as a signal the calls continued. What was the protocol to follow when two telephones on secure lines sounded at the same time? It didn’t exist. He chose his patrons at Langley. Ultimately they were the ones who paid him.

“Barnes.”

The sound of the other phone could be heard in the office. Barnes sank into his chair without taking his eyes off the telephone. The endless sound might fool him, but the blinking red light of the emergency signal left no room for doubt. The president’s telephone was showing signs of life, too.