“Thank you, Stone. It’s good to see an American member here,” the commodore replied.

“It’s good to be here,” Stone said.

Geoffrey, the butler, served champagne and cocktails, and there was chat among the guests and their hosts.

“Do you have a place in the neighborhood?” Stone asked Tim Barnes.

“No, I had to come down from London for the launching of a new submarine. Ozzie and Deirdre were staying with Felicity, and she asked us to join them, so my barge brought us from Portsmouth to her dock on the Beaulieu.

“What does an admiral’s barge consist of these days?” Stone asked.

“A very comfortable Nelson motorboat of forty feet. It’s suitable for a weekend place.”

Felicity joined them. “Tim has also just come from a visit to our Station Two, in the Scottish Highlands. He was kind enough to give me a lift back in a naval aircraft.”

“Why does MI-6 have a station so far north?” Stone asked.

“Station Two is our training facility for new recruits to the service,” she said. “I drove up there last week for my own inspection, but I was called back to London and had to leave my car there and fly back.”

“Is this the Aston Martin DB11?”

“It is, and I miss it already.”

“How will you get it back from Scotland?”

“A good question. Would you like to drive it back?”

“That’s a very tempting thought,” Stone said. “I’ve never driven that car.”

The foreign minister joined them in time to hear that exchange. “You look like a fit fellow,” he said to Stone. “You might enjoy a taste of the training up there.”

“Good idea,” Tim said. “The place is run by an old chum of mine, a colonel in the Royal Marines. I’d be happy to give him a call and tell him not to be too hard on you.”

“Is this a sort of boot camp, then?” Stone asked, intrigued.

“The first two weeks are very much a boot camp,” Tim replied. “Lots of hikes and runs, weapons training, hand-to-hand fighting, that sort of thing. The next two months are all the secret stuff: codes, tradecraft, communications. All the James Bond stuff.”

“They’re in the first week of training now,” Felicity said. “You could join them for the second week, then drive the car back.” She turned to the FM. “Stone is a consultant to our colleagues at Langley, so he’s a family member, in a way. He’s also been of help to us on occasion.”

“Then I don’t see why he shouldn’t have a bit of fun at our expense,” the FM said. “Send me an authorization to sign—and, of course, a release for his signature, absolving us from any liability for serious injury or an early death.”

“You make it sound like such fun,” Stone said, “but . . .”