Lance chuckled. “Let me tell you something you don’t know about my management style,” he said. “In dealing with my most important colleagues, I hardly ever give orders; it’s my view that, if I can’t persuade them that what I want done is the right thing to do, then we look for another way, one that, more often than not, is suggested by them. Then they go away happy and get it done.”

“Let’s cut to the chase, Lance,” Stone said. “What, exactly, do you want me to do?”

“It’s not just what I want,” Lance said. “It’s also about how you want to spend your life.”

“And, in your view, how should I spend it?”

“I’m thinking of creating a new position at the Agency that might suit you very well.”

“And what is the new position?”

“It doesn’t have a name yet. It might be called something like ‘senior colleague.’ Perhaps you can suggest something better.”

“I can’t suggest anything until I hear a better description of the duties involved.”

“The duties involved would be very much like the consulting you do for us now, only more frequent and with much more official weight, not to mention the perks and benefits of a full-time senior officer—salary, insurance, pension.”

“I have never seen or heard a description of what I do now,” Stone pointed out.

“And yet, you have been doing it for some years. This would be a senior position, somewhere between station chief and director. How about ‘deputy director for special operations.’”

“And what are the ‘special operations’?”

“Whatever you and I, in consultation, want them to be. There would be no administrative duties whatever, and you could maintain your current residences, plus something rather special in D.C.”

“Something special?”

“You did a real estate swap with the Presidents Lee a few years ago, in which you gave title to the State Department of your house in Georgetown, for the use of the secretary of state.”

“I did.”

“It seems that the State Department no longer wishes to be a landlord, after the current occupant vacates. And it appears to me that she will be moving out later this year.”

“If she is elected.”

“She will have to resign as secretary of state before she declares herself a candidate—though she could continue residing in your house as long as you wish to have her there.”

Stone was now stunned. Lance was serious.

“Also, if she should not win the election, I would be very interested to have her back at Langley in a very high position, one that would virtually guarantee that she would succeed me, if I should be invited to improve my situation elsewhere.”

“I assume that you have your eye on something in particular?” Stone asked.

“I believe that, no matter who wins the election, I might be in a position to choose one or two other positions.”