As he finished with the visitors and returned to work, he felt his face burn. And it wasn't from his recent injuries, but rather from embarra.s.sment. It had been so stupid of him to do that particularly in front of Adelphia. He could still feel the weight of the knife in his hand. So stupid So stupid.

Later he decided to take the Metro to Milton's house. If his friend had been able to trace the car tag, Stone wanted to know. Plus, he wanted to make sure Milton was all right. The people they were dealing with could also run down a fingerprint as easily as Milton could.

He was walking down the street toward the Foggy Bottom subway station when he heard a horn sound behind him. He turned. It was Agent Ford. He pulled his Crown Vic to the curb and rolled down the window.

"Want a ride?" Alex suddenly noted his friend's injuries. "What the h.e.l.l happened to you?"

"I fell."

"You okay?"

"My ego was bruised more than my face." Stone climbed into the car and Alex sped off.

Waiting for what he hoped was an acceptable period of time, Stone finally said, "I was thinking about our conversation last night. How's your investigation going?"

"It's going so well I've been busted back to protection detail."

"Agent Ford-"

"You know, Oliver, after all these years, you can probably call me Alex."

"I hope that my advice didn't get you in trouble, Alex."

"I'm a big boy. And you happened to be right. Only I didn't have all the facts straight, and now I'm paying the price."

"What facts?"

"Afraid I can't say. Where you heading, by the way?"

Stone told him. "I'm visiting some friends," he added.

"I hope they're the ones in high places. You can never have too many of those."

"I'm afraid I don't have any any of those." of those."

"Neither do I. But h.e.l.l, it turns out my rookie partner-and I use the term 'partner' very loosely-it turns out she has some of those kinds of friends. In fact, she informed me today that her G.o.dfather is none other than Carter Gray."

Stone looked at him. "Who's your partner?"

"Jackie Simpson."

Stone stiffened. "Roger Simpson's daughter?"

"How'd you know that?"

"You mentioned friends in high places, and they don't come much higher than Roger Simpson. He worked at the CIA but that was decades ago."

"I didn't know about that, but I guess it explains his interest in intelligence."

Stone was staring out the window. "How old is the woman?"

"What, Jackie? Mid-thirties."

"And she's just starting out at the Secret Service?"

"She was a cop in Alabama before joining the Service."

"What's she like?"

"Well, she's pretty high on my s.h.i.t list right now. The lady basically sold me down the river this morning."

"I mean what does she look look like?" like?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious," Stone said.

"She's pet.i.te, black hair, blue eyes, and has a big-time drawl when she's real p.i.s.sed. She doesn't back down and says what's on her mind. No shrinking violet."

"I see. Attractive?"

"Why, you thinking about asking her out?" Alex said grinning.

"Old men are always curious about young women," Stone replied with a smile.

Ford shrugged. "She's pretty, if you get past the att.i.tude."

Mid-thirties, thought Stone. thought Stone. Black hair, blue eyes and an att.i.tude. Black hair, blue eyes and an att.i.tude.

"Have you ever met Carter Gray?" Stone asked.

"I did today," Alex said.

"What was your opinion?"

"Pretty d.a.m.n impressive."

"So is that why you got in trouble? You ran into Gray?"

"Let's just say I thought I'd be real smart and let the two NIC agents on the case run some a.n.a.lysis on the suicide note we found. That would give me an excuse to go there and poke around. Turns out I got sandbagged. I should've seen it coming."

Stone had not been listening to the last part. His attention had been captured by the part about NIC having the suicide note. Were Milton's fingerprints on it? Were Milton's fingerprints on it?

"Uh, were the two agents at NIC helpful?"

"Not particularly. You know, I hate spooks, I really do. I don't give a c.r.a.p if you call them the National Intelligence Center, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the Defense Intelligence Agency, they wouldn't tell you the truth if their mother's life depended on it."

"No, they wouldn't," Stone said under his breath.

Halfway to his destination, Stone instructed Alex to let him off up ahead.

"I can take you all the way to where you're going, Oliver," he said. "The director gave me the rest of the day off to think about my sins."

"I really need to walk."

"Well, you should get that jaw checked out."

"I will."

As soon as Alex drove off, Stone pulled out his cell phone and called Milton. In one way it was disheartening to learn that the Secret Service agent was off the case, but at least he would not be in danger. Stone could not say the same about the rest of them.

Milton's voice interrupted these musings. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Milton, where are you?"

"I'm at Chast.i.ty's."

"How long have you been there?"

"Since this morning, why?"

"When you left your house, did you notice anyone around?"

"No."

"Don't go back home. I want you to meet me somewhere else." Stone thought quickly. "Union Station. Can you be there in the next half hour or so?"

"I think so."

"I'll be standing by the bookstore. Were you able to run the car tag down?"

"That was no problem. I have his name and address. It's-"

"Tell me in person. And, Milton, I want you to listen very carefully. You need to make sure that no one is following you."

"What did you find out?" Milton asked nervously.

"I'll tell you when I see you. Oh, one more thing. Could you see what you can find on a Jackie Simpson, Senator Simpson's daughter? She's a Secret Service agent."

Stone clicked off and then called both Reuben and Caleb and updated them. After that, he set off for the nearest Metro station and a little while later stood at the entrance to the B. Dalton bookstore that occupied a large chunk of ma.s.sive Union Station. While browsing through some books, Stone periodically checked the subway exit, where he a.s.sumed Milton would be coming out.

When Milton arrived from a different part of the train station, Stone looked at him questioningly.

"Chast.i.ty drove me," he explained. "What happened to your face?"

"It's not important. Is Chast.i.ty here?"

"No, I told her to go back home."

"Milton, are you absolutely certain you weren't followed?"

"Not with the way Chast.i.ty drives."

Stone led him over to a bagel shop located across from the bookstore. They bought coffees and then settled down at a table in the far corner.

Milton took out his cell phone and hit a b.u.t.ton.

"Who are you calling?" Stone asked.

"No one. My cell phone has a recorder built in. I just remembered that I have to call Chast.i.ty later about something, and I'm leaving myself a reminder. The phone I gave you has the same capability. And it's also a camera." Milton spoke into the recorder and then put his phone away.

"What's the man's name?" Stone asked.

"Tyler Reinke. He lives out near Purcellville. I have the street address."

"I know the area. Did you find out where he works?"

"I checked everywhere I could get into, and I can get into quite a few places. But I didn't find anything on him."

"That might mean he does work at NIC. I don't think even you you could hack them." could hack them."

"It's possible."

"Did you find anything on Jackie Simpson?"

"Quite a bit. I printed it out for you." He slid a folder over to Stone.

He opened it and gazed at a laser printer picture of the woman. Alex had been right, thought Stone; the att.i.tude was evident on her features. Her home address was in the file too. It was close to WFO. Stone wondered if she walked to work. He closed the file, put it away in his knapsack and told Milton about NIC having the suicide note and the possibility of his prints being on it.

Milton let out a deep breath. "I knew I shouldn't have touched that paper."

"Would you still be on the NIH database?"

"Probably. And the Secret Service printed me when I sent that stupid letter to Ronald Reagan. I was just so upset with all his budget cuts on mental health."

Stone hunched forward. "I wanted to have a meeting tonight at Caleb's condo to go over things, but now I'm not sure if that's safe."

"So where do we meet, then?"

Just then Stone's cell phone rang. It was Reuben and he was excited.

He said, "I met an old buddy of mine for a beer. We fought together in Nam, and we joined Defense Intelligence at the same time. I heard he'd just retired from DIA, so I thought I'd have a drink with him and see if he'd open up a little about things. Well, he told me NIC had p.i.s.sed everybody off by demanding that all terrorist files be turned over to NIC. Even the CIA's files were purged. Gray knew that if he controlled the flow of information, then he controlled everything else too."

"So all other intelligence agencies have to go to NIC for that information?"

"Yep. And that way NIC knows what everyone else is working on."

"But by law, NIC oversees all that anyway, Reuben."