Teddy had spent twenty years working for the CIA, but not as an operative. He had risen to become head of the Agency’s Technical Services division, where his work had been to supply and equip undercover agents with the tools that enabled them to carry out covert operations—weapons, clothing, poisons, burglars’ tools, disguises—whatever they needed. In order for Teddy to do his job effectively he had to know the nature and details of each mission, and he had stored this information in his commodious memory. After his retirement he had begun carrying out missions of his own devising, which had not endeared him to the government and agency he had served so well for so many years.

Thus, he had become a fugitive, which had required a great many new skills. Finally, after acting to save the lives of two young men, Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti, the gratitude of Stone Barrington and his friendship with both the former and current presidents had resulted in a presidential pardon for Teddy’s sins, for reasons of national security and sealed against any inquiry.

Teddy had become Billy Barnett and had gone to work for the two young men, who were beginning their careers as filmmakers, and eventually, after doing all sorts of jobs for them, he found himself serving in a production role, at which he was very good. When Ben had been promoted to head of production for the studio, there was more and better-paid work for Billy.

Billy had refrained from employing Teddy’s methods, except on rare occasions, when the safety of his benefactors was in question, and it was clear to him now that the safety of Stone Barrington was in question.

Billy had developed a disaffinity for Russian mobsters. He had found them to be blunt instruments, without finesse and without much guile, either. From his earlier dealings with them he made some suppositions about Boris Tirov: he thought that Tirov would be guarded by two large men, partly out of a native paranoia, but also out of parsimony—he would be unwilling to pay more people, except under extreme duress. He thought that Tirov, who he knew to be very wealthy, would live in a well-fenced property, but not one so large as to require more security people. He knew there would be a dog, but probably just the one. There would also be a security system, but it would be little used, because Tirov would believe that two men and a dog were better, and because, with the three of them roaming the house and grounds, they would be continually setting off alarms, disturbing their master’s sleep.