“What did you do? Pull the covers over your head?”

Stone retrieved the thumb drive from his jacket pocket and tossed it to Dino. “This is the only copy. Felicity gave it to me.”

“And you believed her?”

“Believed what? It’s all right there in your hand.”

“You believed there are no copies?”

“If there were, I don’t believe Felicity would have bothered to lie about it.” Stone stood up. “Excuse me a minute.” He went into the attached powder room and used the facilities. When he came out, Dino was gazing at his iPhone and laughing. “This is hot stuff, Stone!”

“Dino, you can’t watch a thumb drive file on an iPhone.”

“You can watch this one,” he said. “It has a compatible fire-whatchacallit-plug.”

Stone walked over to where Dino sat and looked over his shoulder, then he snatched the phone away from him, unplugged the thumb drive, and gave him back the phone. “You’re disgusting!”

“Some folks would say that what I just watched was disgusting, but not I. I thought it was great!”

Stone put the thumb drive into his pocket, sat down, and picked up his book. It wasn’t all that easy, because the book must have weighed ten pounds.

“I especially liked the part where your head disappears between her legs,” Dino said.

“Dino!”

“I’ll bet all the spooks at MI-6 are watching it right now,” Dino said, “passing it around the shop.”

Dino’s phone rang, and he picked it up. “Bacchetti. Hey, sweets, how’s it going up there?” A pause. “Okay, what train will you be on? Good, I’ll have Stan meet you at the station. Oh, and when you get here, have I got a surprise for you!” He hung up. “Viv has finished her business and is taking a train back down here. She’ll get in at six-fifteen, so will you ask Stan to meet her?”

“Sure,” Stone said, picking up the phone and paging Stan. He gave him his instructions, then hung up. Then his phone rang.

“Hello?” It was Felicity. “Hello, Felicity. He listened for a moment. “Viv is going to be on the same train, so find her, and the two of you can have a chat on the way down. Why don’t you come to dinner and stay the night? See you then.” He hung up. “Felicity is coming down on Viv’s train, so she’ll be here for dinner.”

“And the night,” Dino corrected him.

“Well, yes.”

“Here’s a thought: you can watch your video together. I expect that will get Felicity going.”

“Felicity does not require that sort of stimulus,” Stone said.

—

Felicity and Viv came downstairs together, after having freshened up, and entered the library.

Stone and Dino, freshly changed into suits, stood to welcome them.

“How nice to see you again—and so soon,” Felicity said, kissing Stone on the ear and letting her tongue flick about.