“I’m not sure,” he said, “but don’t leave the house; stick by the phone.”

“All right,” she replied.

Stone hung up. “Should I call her back and have her check the office in the wine cellar?”

“Don’t bother,” Carpenter said. “It isn’t Cabot’s office.”

Stone looked at her. “Then whose is it?”

“It belongs to the owner of the house,” she said. “He’s one of ours.”

“Why would Lance rent a house from one of your people?”

“He doesn’t know. We’ve been keeping track of Cabot ever since he arrived in London last year. He was followed to an estate agent’s, where he was looking for houses to rent, and we, in effect, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The rent and the location were irresistible.”

“Who shot the two Israelis?”

“Not our people; maybe Stan Hedger.”

“Why?”

“He may have read them as a threat to Cabot, and he didn’t want anything to happen to Cabot, at least not yet.”

“This is way too complicated for me,” Stone said.

“Then don’t try to figure it out.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Dino chipped in from the backseat.

“What does?”

“The whole thing. Hedger hires you to look into Cabot because he’s afraid if he uses his own people Cabot will figure it out, because, having been one of them, he knows how they operate. Cabot researches you, figures you were telling the truth when you said you were no longer working for Hedger.”

“I did tell the truth,” Stone said. “Eventually.”

“Yeah. Once Cabot thinks you’re not working for Hedger, he figures you for a mark.”

“God knows, that’s true.”

“The Israelis obviously want whatever Cabot is buying, and so does Hedger.”

“But the American government already has access to this technology, doesn’t it?” Stone asked Carpenter.

Carpenter looked momentarily uncomfortable. “Not necessarily,” she said.

Dino continued. “Makes even more sense,” he said. “The Brits build this . . . thing . . . and they don’t share their little secret with the Americans, so Hedger and his people are pissed off.”

“But why me?” Stone asked.

“You’re not some unknown person,” Dino said. “You get your name in the papers now and then. That’s probably how you came to Hedger’s attention—that, or your old professor buddy down at NYU dropped your name on somebody he used to know.”

“And who would the professor be?” Carpenter asked.

“Samuel Bernard,” Stone replied. “He was one of my professors in law school.”

“That bloke is a bloody legend,” she said, wonder in her voice.

“I knew he had a lot of connections, but I didn’t know he qualified as a legend.”