“Your retirement announcement,” Stone guessed.
“My retirement announcement,” she confirmed. “I thought if the opposition believed I wouldn’t be around much longer, they’d speed up their plans or drop them completely. Given that there had been no attempts on my life since the party, I assumed it was the latter. In light of what’s transpired this evening, however, it appears I was wrong.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here and not…” Stone nodded at the TV.
“Just because I thought they’d given up their plans to kill me didn’t mean I didn’t want to find out who they were. I came to the States to discuss potential options for handling the situation. Naturally, I didn’t want anyone to know what I was up to, so I arranged for one of my people to pretend to be me. Unfortunately, she seems to have done her job too well.”
“You came to discuss options with Dino and me?” Stone asked.
Felicity huffed a laugh. “I will grant that you are both very intelligent men, most of the time, but this is not a topic on which I’d expect you to be much help.”
“I’m not sure if I should feel grateful or insulted,” Dino said.
“If not to see us, what are you doinghere?” Stone asked, gesturing to the room.
“The bombing occurred while my plane was on approach to Boston. That’s where my meeting was to take place. It wasdecided someplace less populated would be a better location for me to, as you Americans say, lay low.”
“And my Maine house was the first thing that came to mind?”
“You have to admit, itisperfect.”
“Who were you supposed to meet with?”
Someone knocked on the front door.
“That’s got to be Ed,” Dino said.
“Ed who?” Felicity asked.
“Rawls,” Stone said.
“Right. I forgot he was your neighbor.”
“I invited him for dinner, but I’ll see if I can get rid of him.”
Stone went to the door and opened it.
“Good evening, Stone,” said Lance Cabot, the director of the CIA.
“Hello, Lance.”
“Has your guest arrived yet?”
“Come in, Lance,” Felicity called from the living room.
“I see she has.” Lance squeezed by Stone as he stepped inside.
Stone shut the door and followed.
“Excuse me,” he said. “What exactly is going on here?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” Felicity said. “The person I’m meeting with is Lance.”
“And you’re doing it here?”
“What better location?” Lance said.
“Did it occur to either of you to ask me first?”
