“Mike,” she said, sounding breathless, “I think I’m sick.”

“What kind of sick?”

“I’m sick to my stomach, and my head is pounding. I’m dizzy. And I keep forgetting what I was going to do. I’m at the château. I came to get something, but I can’t remember what.”

“Are you upset about being there?” His own heart was beating fast now too.

“Yes. No. It’s sad, but I knew they wouldn’t be here. I thought Axel was here, but he’s not.” She did remember that. “I think I came to get a coat,” she said, sounding vague again.

“Who’s with you?” he said, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

“Daniel and the gardener. They’ve been very nice, but I don’t think I’m all right. That’s why I called you. I keep getting mixed up like I’m half asleep. And Pierre de Vaumont was here, I think, but I’m not sure. I think he wants to buy the house or something.”

“Theo, let me talk to Daniel,” he said quietly. She didn’t answer but handed him the phone. Mike had his official voice on the moment he spoke to the bodyguard. “Daniel, there should be someone in plainclothes in the vicinity. Look around and see if you notice anyone.”

The bodyguard turned away so Theo couldn’t hear him. “There’s a gardener who says he’s DGSE and a paramedic. I saw his badge. He called an ambulance.”

“That’s the one. How does she look?”

“Not well. She says she doesn’t feel well, she’s perspiring, and the gardener, the paramedic, says her pupils are constricted and her pulse is slow. He thinks she may have had an overdose of something, a medication maybe.”

“Get her to a hospital as fast as you can. She may have been poisoned. I’m going to call his boss and see what we do now. Tell the ambulance when they arrive that it may be poison. I’ll call you back.”

Mike hung up, and called Guy Thomas on his personal cellphone. He picked up immediately when he recognized Mike’s number.

“She’s at the château and I think she may have been poisoned. De Vaumont was there with her.”

“Christ, this is all we need. Is my guy with her?”

“Yes, he called an ambulance and identified himself. He was posing as a gardener,” Mike told him rapidly.

“He has medical training. I’ll call him right away. I want her taken to the nearest hospital, and if they let her, I’d like to have her at a hospital in the city, so our people can keep an eye on her if she’s been poisoned. And I want all her lab work sent to one of our facilities. They know what to look for.” As he said it, he was praying that no one had administered one of the Russian nerve agents, which would be disastrous. Even the château would have to be decontaminated, if that was the case. “I’ll send someone to get the keys to the château from her,” Guy said to Mike. “I want a forensics team out there immediately to comb the place and see what they find. How bad is she?”