“Look, we have no reason to believe that Yevgeny knows where I am.”

“You might have been spotted when you went furniture shopping today.”

“Or I might not have been spotted, or they would be here by now. Anyway, if I leave here again, that increases the chances of his people spotting me.”

“Well, there is a kind of logic in that,” she admitted.

Stone’s cell phone rang, and he reached for it on the bedside table. “Hello?”

“It’s Rick. Why are you still there?”

“I live here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Nobody lives in a safe house—you stay as long as you’re safe, then you move to another safe house.”

“This is no longer a safe house.”

“That’s my point.”

“No, I mean it’s my house—I bought it from Lance.”

A short silence. “Lance doesn’t own it.”

“The foundation owns it, and Lance is the head of the foundation’s board of trustees and has the authority to sell it. In fact, it will be the second house the foundation has sold me. A contract is being drawn as we speak.”

“I’m sorry,” Rick said, “I’m getting dizzy.”

“Focus on a fixed object, like my presence in this house.”

“It’s dangerous for you there.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ve spotted some of Majorov’s people cruising the seventh arrondissement, looking for you.”

“They haven’t found me yet, but if I leave here, that gives them another shot.”

Rick sighed. “All right, then I’ll send some firepower over there.”

“I just started refurnishing the place, and I don’t want it shot up.”

“Then I’ll place them on nearby roofs.”

“You’ve already got two of your boys on me—three, with Holly.”

“Thanks a lot,” Holly said. “I thought you knew the difference between boys and girls.”

Stone bit her on a nipple.

“Ow!”

“You loved that.”

“I loved what?” Rick asked.

“Never mind. May I suggest that you stop concentrating on defense and switch to offense. It’s time to stop screwing with this guy and put him permanently out of business.”

“There are more where he came from.”

“If they keep losing management, they’ll eventually get discouraged and look for somebody else’s hotels to steal.”

“I don’t know about that, they’ve been remarkably persistent.”

“Tell me about it—that’s why I want it ended, and I don’t care if the gutters of Paris run red with their blood.”

“I also have to keep your blood out of the gutters. Going to war with these people won’t fix it.”

“Cutting the head off the snake might.”

Rick made a strangled noise. “I’ll talk to Lance.”

“You do that. Bye.” Stone hung up.

“I guess we’re hunkering down here,” Holly said.

He kissed a nipple. “And we hunker so well, don’t we?”

His phone rang again. “Hello?”

“It’s Herb Fisher.”

“Hey, Herb, how are you?”

“I’m just fine, thanks. What’s this about your moving to Paris?”

“Nobody said anything about moving here—I just found a place I liked, so I bought it.”

“I spoke to an Yves Carrier in our Paris office, and he’s on it. He’s doubtful about as quick a transaction as you want.”

“I just want to get Lance Cabot’s signature on a suitable document and to pay him before he has second thoughts.”

“We can do that, but there may be other formalities that will have to be dealt with before you’ll own it in the eyes of the French. They have a large bureaucracy there, and they have to give them work to do.”

“Tell M’sieur Carrier to take as long as it takes for that stuff—just the transaction done in the eyes of the CIA. Joan’s already getting a cashier’s check that will be on his desk when he gets the e-mailed document. All he has to do is print it and sign it, then deposit the check, and we’re done, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Are you still at l’Arrington?”

“No, I’m in the house, but keep that to yourself. I had to leave l’Arrington because people were looking for me there, so tell M’sieur Carrier to keep his lip buttoned.”

“Okay. When are you coming back?”

“Later this week, after the grand opening of the hotel.”

“See you then.”

They both hung up.

“What are we doing about dinner?” Stone asked.

“I stopped by Fauchon on the way here and got us some prepared dishes. All we have to do is nuke them.”

Stone got a leg over. “First, I have to nuke you.”

49

Ann Keaton called the unruly meeting to order. “Hey! Shut up!” Reluctantly, they did. “And cut those phones off and put them away!” Resentfully, they did.

“We’ve got a new poll, and Tom Alpert is here to explain it.” There was a collective groan.

Tom Alpert was a skinny man in a black suit; he looked like an undertaker. “I’ve been told I look like an undertaker,” he said. “That may be appropriate for this meeting.”

Now everybody was really, really quiet and attentive.

“I want to stress that this wasn’t done on the fly. We have a sample of twelve thousand independent, likely voters in seventeen swing states, and here’s how it breaks down: if the election were held today, fifty-four percent of them would vote for Honk, excuse me, Henry Carson. Forty-four percent would vote for Kate Lee, with two percent undecided. That is a very small number of undecideds at this stage. If Kate won all of them, we could lose the election by as much as eight points.”

There were expressions around the table ranging from disbelief to near tears.

“Wait a minute,” somebody said. “Between Democrats and Republicans we’re holding at fifty-five percent Dems to forty-six percent Reps, aren’t we?”

“Not anymore,” Alpert said. “The numbers won’t be in until the day after tomorrow, but we know the margin is narrowing. What I’m saying is, we’re on the knife’s edge of losing, and the personal conduct of the candidates could throw it either way. If either of them does or says something stupid in the next few days, it could make the difference.”

Ann spoke up. “Kate is not known for making stupid statements or behaving stupidly,” she said. “Honk, on the other hand . . .”

“Don’t count on that happening this week,” Alpert said. “Honk won’t say a word that isn’t typed in great big letters into a teleprompter—you may count on that.” He cleared his throat. “I would advise Kate to do the same.”

“Kate hates prompters,” Ann said, “and she’s very good on her feet.”

“Maybe we can find a way to slip a blunder into Honk’s prompter,” somebody said.

“Don’t you even think about doing that,” Ann said. “First of all, Kate would fire you if you tried, and second of all, getting caught at it could throw the election to Honk, and then you’d have to go to a place where I could never find you.”

“I have an aunt in darkest Mexico,” the prankster responded.

“Do yourself a favor, and leave now.”

The woman raised both hands. “Just kidding.”

“Stop kidding and get to work. We’ve got to make these last days the smoothest and most credible of the campaign,” Ann said. “Keep it high-minded and keep it straight: no missteps, no pranks, and thus, no backfires. And above all, not a single leak to the press about this poll! Everybody clear on that? If this leaks, I’ll find out who did it and personally kill that person!”

There was a murmur in the room, and the group began to disperse.

“Good, now let’s get to work.” Her cell phone rang, and she recognized Stone’s number, stepped into her office, closed the door behind her, and drew the shades, signaling to the staff that she wished to be left alone. “Hi,” she said, trying to sound cheerful.

“You sound as though you’re trying to sound cheerful,” Stone said. “And you aren’t making it.”

“Oh, God,” Ann said, her voice quavering, “I’ve got the most awful feeling we’re going to lose this thing, and I can’t tell anyone but you.”