“So, she’s a pretty high-up civil servant?” Peter asked.
“Pretty high up.”
“This is going to be interesting,” Peter said. “The three of us have made some L.A. arrangements of our own.”
“Oh?” Stone asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Leo Goldman is going to give us all a tour of Centurion Studios.”
“That sounds like a great idea.”
“And I’m going to get to play with the studio orchestra, when they record a film score,” Hattie said. Hattie was a brilliant young pianist, who was studying musical composition at Yale, while Peter and Ben were at the School of Drama.
“Good, then you can watch the movie on television for years to come.”
“And we’re going to get to meet some movie stars,” Ben said.
“You’ll meet lots of them at the hotel’s opening festivities. Centurion has taken twenty-five suites for their people.”
“Then there’s the Immi Gotham concert,” Peter said. Immi Gotham was Centurion’s greatest star and a wonderful singer; critics had called her a combination of Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand.
“Along with the Beverly Hills Philharmonic,” Hattie said. “It’s really going to be something!”
“The whole event is going to be something,” Stone said. “Every suite and room is booked.”
“If there are two hundred suites and rooms,” Peter asked, “how are they going to fill up the fifteen hundred seats in the Arrington Bowl?”
“There’s an invited audience,” Stone said. “The Bowl has its own entrance and parking, separate from the hotel’s. People have been fighting over the tickets for months. The Times says scalpers have been offering ten thousand dollars a ticket and getting no takers.”
“There’s never been anything like this, has there, Dad?”
“Not in my memory. Centurion is making a documentary film about it, and it’ll be shown on TV at Christmas.”
“Dad, can we rent a car while we’re there?”
“You have to be twenty-five to rent a car these days. I’ll arrange for you to go to Centurion in a hotel car, and Leo can send you back in one of his.”
“Sounds good.”
“You’re going to have to get used to a lot of security at the hotel,” Stone said, “what with two presidents and a lot of other VIPs. You’ll be issued ID cards, and you can’t get in or out of the hotel grounds without them.”
“All the time, or just for this event?” Peter asked.
“Just for this event,” Stone replied. “After the opening, it’ll be just like any other hotel.”
“Has there ever been another hotel like this one?” Ben asked.
“Well, there are some very fine hotels scattered around the world,” Stone said. “But The Arrington will be unique, I think.”
“You know, I think Mom would have liked all this,” Peter said. “I mean, she had already given her permission to build the hotel on the property, but I really think she would have loved the way it’s turning out.”
“I think she would have, too,” Stone said.
Then they all ate quietly for a while.
Finally, Peter asked, “When is Felicity arriving from London?”
“She arrived yesterday,” Stone said, “but she’s been resting.”
“Is she staying with us?”
“No, she’s staying at the residence of the British ambassador to the U.N. He has quite a nice house.”
“Dad,” Peter said gravely, “I want you to know that it’s all right for you to have sleepovers when I’m here.”
Stone didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Thank you, Peter, that’s very kind of you.” And he meant it.
30
Stone hired a driver and picked up Felicity Devonshire at the ambassador’s residence. “You look radiant, as always,” he said, holding both her hands and looking her up and down.
“And you are a great flatterer, as always,” she replied. “Where are we having dinner?”
“At a place that’s new to me, called Patroon. It’s not all that far away.”
“Then why did you bring your car?”
“I would be nervous taking you out on the street, since the last time you were here someone was gunning for you. The car is armored, so you will be protected.” He led her out and down the stairs.
“Oh, you have a new car, a Bentley?”
“Yes,” Stone said. “My Mercedes came to a bad end last year. Mike Freeman at Strategic Services had this in his fleet and sold it to me. Their armoring division had done a lot of work on it.”
“Why do you have armored cars?” Felicity asked, getting into the rear seat.
Stone got in beside her. “Accidental in both cases. I went into the Mercedes showroom to buy the first one, and they had it on the floor. It had been ordered by someone of shady reputation, and it arrived one day late. Somebody got to him, so I bought it from the widow. When I smashed it up, Mike was there to help.”
“You are the most fortunate man,” she said.
“If I were more fortunate I wouldn’t have totaled the Mercedes. By the way, thank you for your kind note after Arrington’s death.”
“It was the least I could do,” she said.
They arrived at the restaurant and were seated.
“This is very nice,” she said, looking around.
Stone ordered them drinks, and they were visited by the owner, Ken Aretsky. They chatted briefly, then the drinks arrived and he moved on to another table.
“Is this your new Elaine’s?” she asked.
“It’s one of them. Dino and I have learned that Elaine’s cannot be replaced-there is just no other place like it.”
“To a better future,” Felicity said, raising her glass.
“I’ll drink to that.”
“So you have a son now?”
“You’re keeping up, aren’t you?”
“What is the point of being in the intelligence game if you can’t spy on your friends?”
Stone laughed. “You’ll meet Peter and his girlfriend, Hattie, as well as Dino’s son, Ben, and Dino’s new girlfriend, Viv. They’ll all be on the airplane.”
“Why are you going out there in advance of the actual opening?” she asked.
“Well, I’m an investor and on the board, as is Mike Freeman. We both want to have an opportunity to look the place over before the guests swarm in.”
“What with having two presidents in residence, you and Mike must have some security concerns.” She didn’t look directly at him when she said this.
Stone caught something in her statement; he wasn’t sure what. “Yes, the Secret Service will be there in strength, and so will the Strategic Services people.”
“Good,” she said.
“Felicity, is there something you want to tell me?”
“Want to but can’t,” she replied, looking into her martini.
“Suppose something terrible happens, and you didn’t warn me?”
“Then I would feel very guilty,” she replied.
“Come on, unburden yourself.” But the menus arrived, and they took time to study them. “I’m not letting you off the hook,” he said when the waiter had taken their orders and gone.
“Something did come across my desk,” she said, “but I don’t want to raise the alarm over what might be nothing.”
“Do you recall that a couple of years ago you forced me to sign your Official Secrets Act?”
She brightened. “That’s right, I did, didn’t I? Prescient of me.”
“Yes, it was. Now give, please.”
“Oh, all right.” She looked around to be sure no one was within earshot. “Our signals people have picked up a series of oddly signed messages,” she said.
“Would the signatures be from a nursery rhyme?”
Felicity’s jaw dropped. “Now you must tell me how you know that.”
“No, I mustn’t.”
“I have to know if there was a leak on my end.”
“There was no leak. Those messages were picked up by the NSA.”
Her eyes widened. “And they circulated that information to you, a private citizen?”
“Actually, they probably don’t know that I was in the loop. Let’s just say they circulated it to someone I know.”
“Someone at the CIA?”
“No.”
“Well, if I were in charge around here, I’d have this person you know taken out and shot!”