“Thanks, Dino,” Stone said
“God, I’m tired,” Lance said. “I haven’t slept since the day before yesterday.”
“Lance,” Stone said, “go to my house, find a guest room and get some sleep. There’s a key under the stone lion on the stoop.”
“Maybe,” Lance said.
“What’s the alternative? Faint in the street? You have a car and driver, don’t you?”
“I think so,” Lance said.
Stone thought he was fading fast. “Well, with your last remaining strength, go fall into it and give the driver my address. You know it, don’t you?”
“I used to. Yes, I know it.”
“Quickly, Lance, while your lips will still move.”
Lance nodded, got up and, without another word, walked out of the restaurant.
“It will all seem clearer to him tomorrow,” Dino said.
“No, it won’t,” Stone replied.
8
When Stone got out of the cab in front of his house he saw a huge black SUV idling at the curb. He put his key into the front door lock, turned it and walked into the entrance hall to find a man, braced against the living room doorjamb, pointing an evil-looking automatic weapon at him. “Good evening,” Stone said. “May I direct you to the silver?”
“Let’s see some I.D.,” the man said.
“Go fuck yourself,” Stone said, brushing past him. “I live here, and I’m going to bed.” He got into the elevator and pressed the button. As the door closed, the man was still standing there, pointing the weapon at him, trying to decide whether to fire. Stone didn’t care; it had been a long day.
The following morning, as Stone was finishing breakfast, Lance Cabot came into the kitchen, looking refreshed.
“I borrowed one of your shirts and some underwear,” he said, taking a stool at the kitchen counter.
Helene, Stone’s housekeeper, looked at Lance closely. “You look younger today,” she said.
“Thank you, my dear,” Lance replied, “but that was my elder brother, yesterday.”
“Oh,” Helene said, setting eggs, bacon and a buttered English muffin before him.
“Do you eat this way every day?” Lance asked Stone, as he dug into the food. “Why don’t you weigh four hundred pounds?”
“Slim genes,” Stone said. “Feeling better?”
“Better but not less confused. Give me directions to Barton’s house.”
Stone complied. “Would your jackbooted thugs like some breakfast?”
“They’re very self-sufficient,” Lance replied. “I expect they’ve already eaten.”
“One of them pointed a machine gun at me last night. In my own home.”
“Sorry about that; my new rank requires a complement of security only slightly less unwieldy than that of the president. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“He didn’t fire,” Stone said. “If I had been after you, you’d be dead now.”
“I’m my own last line of defense. Anyway, I told him not to shoot you, or he would have. Believe me.”