Unintended Consequences Read Free

two cases on a luggage cart. Stone directed him to the dressing room.
    “Would you like anything pressed?” the man asked as he set down the bags.
    “Let me see.” Stone opened the two large cases and found that everything had been removed, then stuffed in haphazardly. “Please have everything pressed but the underwear and socks,” Stone said, removing suits. He noted that he was traveling with a dinner jacket, something he only did if some event at his destination would require it.
    “We’ll have everything back as soon as possible,” the man said. Stone tipped both bellmen and closed the door behind them, then he got his charger from his briefcase and plugged in his iPhone. He sat down and had a look through the
Trib
; all the news was fresh to him. He called the front desk and asked if they had any old
Trib
s and was told no. He had just sat down again when his phone buzzed. He went to the desk, picked it up, and sat down. He didn’t recognize the calling number.
    “Hello?”
    “Stone? It’s Holly.”
    “Oh, hello. I was told you were at a retreat and couldn’t be reached.”
    “I’m at a conference of department heads, at our training facility, the Farm,” she said. “They made us turn in our cell phones, but somebody brought me a message from Whit Douglas in Paris, and he told me what had happened to you.”
    “Good, that saves me from having to explain it again,” Stone said. “I’m afraid I don’t know any more than he told you.”
    “No memories have returned?”
    “Not yet. Can you help?”
    “No. When I left you that morning I went straight to my apartment and left my luggage, then went to my office and was summoned to Fort Peary, in Virginia.”
    “Wait a minute, you moved your things into your apartment? Did we have a fight or something?”
    “No, but it was intimated to me from the top that Langley would feel more comfortable if I weren’t shacking up with you.”
    “That was very narrow-minded of them.”
    “Well, we’re getting a lot of attention from the press since the thwarted bombing, and they didn’t want photographs of me arriving at or leaving your house at odd hours.”
    “What’s happened in that regard since I last saw you?”
    “Well, all hell broke loose in the press,” Holly said. “I only escaped the reporters because I ran back to the office immediately after Viv and I dealt with the perps, so she got all the attention, which was just fine with me and with Langley, too. They don’t like our names appearing in the press under such circumstances. They’re giving me the Intelligence Star medal, but then I have to give it right back. The Agency calls these decorations ‘jockstrap medals’ because we never get to wear them.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “How are you feeling after your ordeal?”
    “I don’t remember an ordeal, so I guess I feel okay.”
    “When are you coming home?”
    “I don’t know. Before I do, I’d like to at least know why I’m here.”
    “We’d like to know that, too. We don’t like people associated with the Agency being drugged. I don’t know how you escaped being interrogated by somebody, or even tortured.”
    “Now, there’s a pleasant thought—that somebody might want to torture me.”
    “Well, maybe not, since they didn’t. This whole thing is baffling.”
    “Tell me about it,” Stone said wryly.
    “Listen, I’ve got to get to my first meeting of the day. Oh, by the way, the president has made the appointment of Lance Cabot to succeed Kate Lee. Hearings start tomorrow.”
    “I’ll look for them on TV.”
    “Don’t bother. They’ll be public only long enough for the press to get some shots. Everything else will be in closed sessions.”
    “Okay, I won’t bother.”
    “You’re sure you don’t remember anything yet?”
    “Not yet. Oh, when I opened my luggage I found a tuxedo, which I thought was odd, since I don’t travel with one unless I know I’ll need it.”
    “I guess you must have missed the