TEDDY CHECKED IN at the Agency.
“You got something?” Norton said.
“I’m afraid not. I just wanted to alert you to an incident.”
“Oh?”
“Agent Kristin Rowan and I were attacked last night after dinner.”
“‘Attacked’?”
“Mugged, really. I was the target. Two men set on me, and Agent Rowan came along and scared them away.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“She was armed. She got the drop on them and they fled.”
“Did you report this to the police?”
“No, we did not. I figured the Agency didn’t need the gendarmes messing around in our business. They’re not going to find anything, which means they’d be here forever searching for a motive.”
“You’re probably right. Where did this happen?”
“Outside Le Meurice.”
“You dined at Le Meurice?”
“What can I say? I was trying to impress a young lady.”
“Did it work?”
“It’s hard to make an impression when you have to be rescued. She was impressive, though.”
“You’re treating this awfully cavalierly. Is there something about this attack you’re not telling me?”
“One of the attackers had a gun. I knocked it away from him. Apparently the other one grabbed it because we couldn’t find it.”
“Did they demand money?”
“It never reached that stage. I reacted the moment I saw the gun. That led to a brief hand-to-hand skirmish before Agent Rowan broke it up.”
“Were they trying to kill you?”
“Hard to say. A mugging certainly makes sense. I suppose the other agents should be on alert, but I think it’s an isolated incident.”
Norton frowned. He clearly wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of what.
Teddy left the embassy. He was gratified to find Agent Morrow on his tail. Morrow was the only agent besides Kristin who hadn’t tailed him yet. Teddy led him to the Gare de Lyon Railway Station. He went down and opened box 29, and took out a thousand dollars of Claude Fisher’s money. He went back upstairs and managed to lose Agent Morrow in the station. The last thing Teddy saw was the pudgy agent heading downstairs to search his locker.
His phone bleeped with a text message.
It was from Jacques.
Top of Eiffel Tower.