“I’d appreciate that,” Dino said.

A nurse hurried toward them. “There’s a woman in the waiting room looking for Barrington?”

“That’s me, please let her in.”

Felicity bustled down the hall, looking smashing in a black cocktail dress.

Stone sat her down and briefed her. The doctor emerged from the treatment room. “Jesus,” he said, seeing the crowd. “Who do I talk to?”

“To me,” Dino said, flashing a badge.

“It’s the commissioner, isn’t it?”

“Right. Talk to me.”

“He’s alive and stable. The round cut across the back of his neck, he’s lost some blood, but he’ll make a complete recovery. Right now we’re taking him up to surgery to do a more permanent repair.”

A bed pushed by two nurses came out the door and rolled down the hallway, followed by Stone and the crowd. Ian was sitting up, a roll of gauze behind his neck. He gave a little wave. Somebody came and showed the group to a more comfortable waiting room.

“Well,” Felicity said, “there goes the UN opportunity. I’ll have to think of somewhere else to hide him.”

“I’m sorry, Felicity,” Stone said. “I thought he would be safe in my car.”

“I’ll station a couple of uniforms outside his room, as soon as he gets out of recovery,” Dino said. He came and sat by Stone. “Why do you think Major Rattle was the intended victim?” he asked quietly.

Stone opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.

“Yeah, me too,” Dino said. “You’re not through watching your ass.”

Chapter 29

When Ian was out of surgery and recovering, Stone drove Felicity back to the British UN embassy. Fred had cleaned up the rear seat, except for the bullet holes, and the police had made a mess of that while extracting the slugs.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” Felicity said.

“I think you should do nothing.”

“That’s the one thing I can’t do.”

“I don’t think the shooter was after Ian, I think he was after me. Dino thinks so, too.”

“The Dahaians know nothing about you. You’re not involved.”

“It’s not that. I’ve been involved in something else—a business brouhaha concerning a client. His opponent was a mob type, and he put people on me. Dino and I managed to reverse that process, and the pair killed their boss, then got out of town, so we thought I was safe. But apparently not.”

“Are you quite sure about this?”

“These Dahai people couldn’t have known Ian was staying in my house. That was very closely held information, wasn’t it?”

“In my service, only I knew about it. On this side of the water, only Holly knew.”

“That’s pretty closely held, and I don’t think either of you has loose lips.”