“I’ll give them a call at CDG right away so they can board the flight,” Rafe said.

“That’ll be good news to them,” Mike added, and they ended the call. Rafe called Pascal Martin back immediately and gave him clearance, telling him he had it straight from the CIA that de Vaumont was clear and there would be no problem with his entering the U.S. Pascal could feel his stomach ease the moment he heard, and advised the airline immediately. The flight was only going to be an hour late, which wouldn’t ruffle the passengers’ feathers too much.

Mike had asked Rafe to email him the manifest, so he had it, and indicate the passenger in question. It never hurt to take another look, just in case someone else of interest was on the flight. He glanced at it a few minutes later, and only noticed one familiar name. Theodora Morgan Pasquier. He had read the story in the news a year before and remembered how tragic it had sounded. She had lost both her husband and son in a bungled kidnapping situation. He wondered if they had caught the kidnappers, but didn’t recall reading that they had. There was no other name that rang a bell on the flight.

He had another thought then, since de Vaumont had some vague link to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, either as a suspect or a connection, and decided to put a tail on him when he arrived. At worst, it would be a waste of time and taxpayers’ money, and at the other end of the spectrum, they might pick up some interesting information that could be useful to them, MI6 in the UK, or DGSE, the French authorities. Mike thought the Russians seemed to be a noticeable presence these days, more than they had been in a long time. There was a lot of money floating around, being placed in strange places for purposes that were of interest to several governments. He called operations and set up surveillance on Pierre de Vaumont, and gave them de Vaumont’s flight number and arrival time. He could always cancel it if the agent said there was nothing of interest going on.