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Authors: Donald Hamilton
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ring, as prearranged, the instrument was picked up at the other end.
“Me,” I said.
It was no time for a lot of secret-agent nonsense. If there was someone at the other end who didn’t recognize my voice, we had real trouble.
Amy Barnett’s voice said, “Well, I’m glad
me
finally got around to calling this super-duper secret number. I’ve been waiting around here for practically hours; I thought maybe I’d misremembered the instructions Dad gave me. Matt, are you all right?”
I said, “I didn’t know you still cared.”
She spoke impatiently: “Don’t be silly; I wasn’t asking for myself. But Daddy seems to have run into big problems in Washington.”
“What problems?”
“You know he flew up there to form… well, I guess you’d call it a caretaker government in the absence of the man you all call Mac, who’d suddenly gone missing.”
I said, “Yes, we knew that was coming; that’s why I alerted Doug.”
“It didn’t work.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, it didn’t work?”
“Daddy said to tell you that the king has departed as expected, but the scheduled royal succession has hit a snag. If that makes sense to you.”
“Did he name the snag?”
“Yes. He said it was somebody you knew better than he did; somebody with reason not to like your and Daddy’s organization in general, and you in particular. That was why he was especially worried about you. He said that if you remembered a man named Bennett you could probably figure it out for yourself.”
“Oh, Jesus!” I said. “Just goes to show what being softhearted gets you. Bennett? I should have shot the pompous, scheming, big-nosed bastard while I had the chance.”
“You mean there’s one bastard you didn’t shoot when you had the chance? I thought you were the clean-sweep man.” Her voice was expressionless, but it was of course the rock upon which our relationship had crashed, her uneasy suspicion that I was basically a homicidal maniac. She went on: “Anyway, I’m supposed to help you set up a rendezvous with an agent called Joel. I suppose that’s a code name, like your Eric. Joel will brief you in detail.”
Bennett’s name explained a lot of things, of course. If he’d managed a political coup and taken over Mac’s desk in Mac’s absence, shunting aside Doug Barnett, who was a good agent but no politician, he’d have the agency dossiers at his disposal; it was no wonder the white Honda had picked me up so fast. So now we had two hostile forces to deal with, the kidnappers who’d taken Mac, and Bennett, who’d usurped Mac’s position in the agency and was apparently using it to settle old scores. With me, and presumably others.
Which left one big question mark: Joel. Now that Mac had vanished, as expected, Joel was supposed to track him directly to the lair of the vanishers while I sneaked up on them by another route, the Watrous route, independently.
I said, “First things first. Have you got something for me? I left a name with Mac at the special number, reporting from Hagerstown. I asked to have it checked out. Did he or your pop manage to get a report on it from Research before things went haywire? It would be close timing, but…”
“You’re in luck,” Amy said. “Daddy said it was just about his first and last act as prince regent. He signed for a communication for you, a quick preliminary survey of the problem; they’re still working on it. Unless Bennett has stopped them now, of course. Daddy read it to me over the phone and I took some notes. Just a minute…” I heard paper rustle a thousand miles away. “Oh, here it is. How do you pronounce that name, anyway?”
“Leesanyaymee, more or less.”
“Well, you called it Finnish, and you were right.
Lysa
doesn’t mean anything in Finnish, apparently; but
niemi
means ‘cape’ or ‘point.’ Like Rovaniemi, a sizable city in northern Finland, on a point where two rivers meet. There’s a query here: how reliable is your
“Me,” I said.
It was no time for a lot of secret-agent nonsense. If there was someone at the other end who didn’t recognize my voice, we had real trouble.
Amy Barnett’s voice said, “Well, I’m glad
me
finally got around to calling this super-duper secret number. I’ve been waiting around here for practically hours; I thought maybe I’d misremembered the instructions Dad gave me. Matt, are you all right?”
I said, “I didn’t know you still cared.”
She spoke impatiently: “Don’t be silly; I wasn’t asking for myself. But Daddy seems to have run into big problems in Washington.”
“What problems?”
“You know he flew up there to form… well, I guess you’d call it a caretaker government in the absence of the man you all call Mac, who’d suddenly gone missing.”
I said, “Yes, we knew that was coming; that’s why I alerted Doug.”
“It didn’t work.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, it didn’t work?”
“Daddy said to tell you that the king has departed as expected, but the scheduled royal succession has hit a snag. If that makes sense to you.”
“Did he name the snag?”
“Yes. He said it was somebody you knew better than he did; somebody with reason not to like your and Daddy’s organization in general, and you in particular. That was why he was especially worried about you. He said that if you remembered a man named Bennett you could probably figure it out for yourself.”
“Oh, Jesus!” I said. “Just goes to show what being softhearted gets you. Bennett? I should have shot the pompous, scheming, big-nosed bastard while I had the chance.”
“You mean there’s one bastard you didn’t shoot when you had the chance? I thought you were the clean-sweep man.” Her voice was expressionless, but it was of course the rock upon which our relationship had crashed, her uneasy suspicion that I was basically a homicidal maniac. She went on: “Anyway, I’m supposed to help you set up a rendezvous with an agent called Joel. I suppose that’s a code name, like your Eric. Joel will brief you in detail.”
Bennett’s name explained a lot of things, of course. If he’d managed a political coup and taken over Mac’s desk in Mac’s absence, shunting aside Doug Barnett, who was a good agent but no politician, he’d have the agency dossiers at his disposal; it was no wonder the white Honda had picked me up so fast. So now we had two hostile forces to deal with, the kidnappers who’d taken Mac, and Bennett, who’d usurped Mac’s position in the agency and was apparently using it to settle old scores. With me, and presumably others.
Which left one big question mark: Joel. Now that Mac had vanished, as expected, Joel was supposed to track him directly to the lair of the vanishers while I sneaked up on them by another route, the Watrous route, independently.
I said, “First things first. Have you got something for me? I left a name with Mac at the special number, reporting from Hagerstown. I asked to have it checked out. Did he or your pop manage to get a report on it from Research before things went haywire? It would be close timing, but…”
“You’re in luck,” Amy said. “Daddy said it was just about his first and last act as prince regent. He signed for a communication for you, a quick preliminary survey of the problem; they’re still working on it. Unless Bennett has stopped them now, of course. Daddy read it to me over the phone and I took some notes. Just a minute…” I heard paper rustle a thousand miles away. “Oh, here it is. How do you pronounce that name, anyway?”
“Leesanyaymee, more or less.”
“Well, you called it Finnish, and you were right.
Lysa
doesn’t mean anything in Finnish, apparently; but
niemi
means ‘cape’ or ‘point.’ Like Rovaniemi, a sizable city in northern Finland, on a point where two rivers meet. There’s a query here: how reliable is your
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