He thought a bit longer, then he looked up the home fax number of his close friend Holly Barker, who was currently serving as national security advisor to Present Katharine Lee. He faxed her the report, adding a handwritten page: “I have been assured by my entirely reliable source that the information in this document is factual. Call me when you’ve read it.”

He went back to his chair and dozed for a while, then his iPhone rang. The calling number was blocked. “Hello?”

“It’s Holly. How are you?”

“Very well indeed, and you?”

“Working all the time, as usual. I think I can guess where this report came from. Well, all right, there’s a cryptic watermark in the paper that I recognize.”

“Would a newspaper journalist recognize the watermark?”

“Not unless he had had dealings with MI6. Has a journalist read it?”

“It has been faxed to one at the L.A. Times.”

“Which one?”

“James Towbin, the film critic.”

“Well, I expect that, if he has read it, he has passed it on to an editor for review.”

“Seems logical.”

“And why have I been gifted with this document?”

“It occurred to me that the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement might be interested to know that a person who had previously been issued a green card to live and work in the United States had an open warrant for his arrest on a charge of murder in his home country.”

“Just as a journalist would be interested to know that the person in question was close to Viktor Petrov?”

“Quite so.”

“The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was my dinner partner at a White House function last month. He gave me his card, which I have in my hand. It has half a dozen numbers on it, one of which is his home fax number. May I ask, what is your interest in Mr. Tirov?”

Stone gave her a rundown of his various encounters with the Russian over the past days.

“Well, I must say, the man sounds like an undesirable alien to me.”

“I cannot but agree.”

“I’ll fire this off to the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and incidentally, it occurs to me that the director of the FBI might find it interesting reading, as well. Shall I fax it to him?”

“What a good thought!”

“Do you have any other enemies I can destroy for you this evening?”

“Not this evening.”

“Then I can only thank you for your noble and patriotic action in bringing this to the attention of your government.”

“I do what I can,” Stone said.

“When will you be headed this way?”

“Not in the foreseeable future. I’m in England. Do you have any plans for foreign travel?”

Holly sighed. “Would that I did. It would be good to see you.”

“We’ll manage that soon.”

“Well, I have my work to do, so I’ll say good night.”