not like I'm being sent out naked. Also, don't tell Stanley how often I
don't wear his lousy outfit, he'll sulk.. .. I wonder what kind of chest protector he'll send?"
"Assassins don't aim for the body, my dear, they aim for the head with telescopic sights."
"I keep forgetting, you know all about that stuff."
"Fortunately, I do, which is why I want you to tell our mutual friend, Stanley, to go to the devil!"
"I can't do that."
"Why not? He can send out a decoy on the streets. It would be so simple! But not you."
"Somebody else? Maybe somebody who's got a brother who's a farmer in Idaho, or an automobile mechanic in Jersey City? .. . I couldn't live with that."
"And I can't live without you!" shouted Karin, lunging out of the chair and into his arms.
"I never, never thought I'd ever say that to anyone else in the world, but I mean it with all my heart, Drew Latham. Only God knows why, but it's as if you're the extension of the young man I married years ago, without the ugliness, without the hatred. Don't despise me for saying this, my darling, I simply have to.
"I could never despise you," said Drew quietly, holding her.
"We need each other for different reasons, and we don't have to analyze them for years." He tilted her head back and looked into her eyes.
"How about when we're kind of old and sitting in our rocking chairs, looking out over the water?"
"Or the mountains. I love mountains."
"We'll discuss it." There was a rapid knocking on the hotel door.
"Oh, hell," said Drew, releasing her, "where's that time-code sheet?"
"I tacked it on the hallway wall. You can't miss it."
"I got it. What time is it?"
"Seven-thirty is good enough. The shift changes at eight."
"Who is it?"
"Bonney rabitte," said the voice of Frack behind the door.
"This is infantile," said Latham, opening it.
"It is time, monsieur."
"Yes, I know. Give me a couple of minutes, okay?"
"Certainement," said Frack as Drew closed the door and turned to Karin.
"You're leaving, my friend."
"What?"
"You heard me. You're being transferred to the embassy."
"What? .. . Why?"
"You're an employee of the American Embassy, and it has been determined that your work in classified communications is reason enough to remove you from harm as well as from possible compromise."
"What are you saying?"
"I've got to go solo, Karin."
"I won't let you! You need me!"
"Sorry. You either, go calmly or Messieurs Frick and Frack give you a needle and take you their way."
"How can you, Drew?"
"Easy. I want you alive so we can sit in those rocking chairs in Colorado, looking up at the mountains. How about that?"
"You bastard!"
"Never said I was perfect. just perfect for you
The [email protected] agents escorted Karin down the elevator, assuring her that her belongings would be removed from the hotel and delivered to the embassy within the hour. Reluctantly, she accepted her circumstances; the elevator door opened and they walked out into the lobby. Instantly, two other Deuxie'me personnel came forward; the four agents nodded at each other, and Messieurs Frick and Frack turned, walking rapidly back to the bank of elevators.
"Stay between us, please, madame," said a stocky, bearded man who placed himself on Karin de Vries's right.
"The car is just outside to the left of the entrance beyond the lights of the canopy."
"I trust you realize this is not of my choosing."
"Director Moreau does not confide in us about every assignment, madame," said the second clean-shaven
Deuxieme officer.
"We are simply to make sure you get from here to the American Embassy."
"I could have taken a taxi."
"Personally," said the bearded agent, smiling, "with no offense, I'm glad it was not permitted. My wife and I were to have dinner with her parents. Can you believe after fourteen years and three grandchildren they're still not certain I'm the right husband for their daughter?"
"What does their daughter say?"
"Ah, she is again with child, madame."
"I believe that says enough, monsieur." Karin smiled weakly as the trio approached the glass doors. Outside on the pavement, they quickly swung left from under the canopy, away from the wash of the dual strands of lights beneath the deep-red canvas. In the relative darkness and through a profusion of the evening pedestrians on the rue de PEchelle, the two Deuxieme agents rushed De Vries thirty feet down the street to the armored Bureau vehicle waiting in the No Parking zone. The bearded escort opened the curbside door for Karin, smiling and gesturing for her to enter.