Holly had, of course, been right. Stone lay on his back, taking deep breaths, while Holly fondled him further.
“If you’re in search of an encore, you’re going to have to wait a few minutes,” he said.
“You must be getting old. I remember when it was always ready.”
“You just dreamed that.”
“All right,” she said, withdrawing, “I’ll be patient. Sort of.”
“Maybe now would be a good time to call Lance,” he suggested.
“Not yet. I haven’t yet freed my mind of carnal thoughts.”
“What are you going to do about that when or if you become president?” he asked.
“I’ll call you,” she replied smugly.
“What if I’m in L.A. or England or Paris?” he asked, naming the other places where he owned residences. “Or if you are?”
“I may have to resort to toys, but I’ll need a lot of imagination for that.”
“You want to pop down to the sex shop and pick out something just in case?”
“Not yet. You’re available.” She laughed. “See?”
She was right, he was stirring.
She held out her arms. “Come to me, baby.”
He went to her. This time, she climaxed first.
Stone kissed her. “There, I’ve done my duty.”
“That was above and beyond the call,” she replied, kissing him back. “You have restored my faith.”
“You were losing faith?”
“Let’s just say it was wilting, but it’s back now.”
“Okay, time to call Lance.”
“What time is it where he is?” she asked.
“I don’t know where he is.”
“Then how can we call him?”
“The phone works at night, too.”
“But suppose it’s the middle of the night?”
“Suppose Lance wanted to call you urgently: Would he hesitate if it were in the middle of the night?”
“All right, call him.”
Stone retrieved his iPhone and pressed the button.
“Yes?”
“Scramble.”
“Scrambled.”
Stone pressed the speaker button and set the phone on Holly’s naked belly.
“Lance, Holly’s here with me.”
“So I see,” Lance replied.
“What?” Stone and Holly said simultaneously.
“Didn’t I tell you that your Agency iPhone has a camera capability?”
“Every iPhone has a camera capability.”
“All right, I was kidding.”
Holly lifted the phone, and pulled the sheet over her breasts. Stone did something similar.
“Are we all ready to speak now?” Lance asked.
“Holly’s deputy secretary—what’s his name?”
“Mac,” she said.
“Mac what?”
“Maclean McIntosh,” Lance offered.
“That’s the one,” Holly said.
“What about him?”
“He took Holly for a walk in Georgetown and told her he thinks there’s a mole at State.”
“Turns out, my house was bugged,” she added. “It’s been fixed.”
“What is his evidence?” Lance asked.
“One of your people sent him a document that included a phone intercept from GRU headquarters in Moscow. The intercept included language identical to what Mac had used when addressing a big staff meeting a week or so before.”
“I know the intercept,” Lance said. “I didn’t know about the language.”
“Only Mac would have recognized it, since it was his language,” Holly said.
“Have you called the FBI?” he asked.
“Oh, really, Lance,” Holly said, “it would be all over Fox News, or wherever, before the end of their first day on the investigation.”
“You think the FBI leaks?”
“Sometimes,” she said. “Their problem is, they don’t blend in. They always look like FBI Special Agents.”
“You have a point,” Lance said. “Their presence would be disruptive, too.”
“And I’d be yanked in front of the Intelligence Committee and asked why I haven’t caught the mole,” Holly added.
“There is that,” Lance agreed.
“What should I do?” she asked.
“Stone, what do you think?” Lance asked.
“I told Holly I thought she should call you.”
Lance sighed. “Everybody’s last resort,” he murmured.
“I called you the minute I . . .”
“The minute you what?”
“The minute I shared with Stone.”
“I will let that one go,” Lance said.
“I think what is needed,” Stone interjected, “is an investigation that nobody knows is an investigation.”
“What do you have in mind?” Holly asked.
“I don’t have anything in mind,” Stone replied. “I’m just positing something; it’s not as though I have a solution.”
“Then you’re not positing anything,” she said. “Look it up.”
“Now, now, children,” Lance said. “Holly, what Stone has, ah, posited is rather brilliant.”
“It is?” Stone asked.
“I wish you wouldn’t say things like that to him, Lance,” Holly replied. “It will just puff him up.”
“I have an operative who works in plain sight as a writer of nonfiction books. You may remember one called The Tunnel Under the Pentagon.”
“About a mole in the Defense Department,” Holly said. “But they didn’t catch him.”
“Suffice it to say the mole isn’t there anymore,” Lance replied. “I think it would be good if he spent some time at State, under the guise of researching another book—this one not about a mole.”
“What do you mean by ‘spend some time’?” Holly asked.
“I mean he’ll turn up at Foggy Bottom, and you or Mac McIntosh will introduce him at a staff meeting and say that he’ll be wandering around the shop and to talk to him. He’ll have all the right clearances.”
“What is his name?” Holly asked.
“He writes under the name of Martin Schell—likes to be called Marty.”
“Oh, yes, I remember him,” Holly said. “You remember, Stone.”
“Never heard of him,” Stone replied.
“Typical,” she said.
“No need to tell you his real name,” Lance said. “Suffice it to say he has a full legend, from birth through Yale.”
“He went to Yale?” Holly asked.
“No, but that’s what his legend says. If you call the registrar’s office for information on him they’ll have a complete file—his academic record, his degrees, the works.”
“What if you asked someone who went to Yale when he was supposed to be there?” Stone asked.
“Do you remember all the names and faces of your freshman class at NYU?” Lance asked.
“I take your point.”
“He also spent a couple of weeks soaking up the atmosphere in New Haven. He wouldn’t be easily tripped up.”
“Okay,” Holly said, “he sounds great.”
“But you can’t tell anyone at State about him.”
“What about Mac McIntosh?”
“Not even him. Marty will arrive with a folder of correspondence with you, and you can insert those into your files.”
“When will he arrive?”
“He’ll call your secretary and make an appointment.”
“I’ll be back in my office tomorrow afternoon.”
“Fine. May I go back to sleep now?”
“Of course, Lance.”
“And you two can go back to doing what you were doing,” Lance said, then hung up.
Holly was looking carefully at Stone’s iPhone. “Do you really think he could see us?”