The Paris Option - Страница 87

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"Are you going to join us, Jon?" Larry Schulenberg asked, glancing at the cell phone in Jon's hand.

"Yeah. In a few minutes. Save me some meat loaf. Got a call to take first."

Schulenberg grinned, and the overhead light caught the diamond in his ear and reflected it with a flash of silver-blue that reminded Jon of Chambord's gel packs.

"Girlfriend?" Schulenberg inquired politely.

"Not yet." Jon promised, "You'll be the first to know."

"Right." Schulenberg laughed heartily and went into the elevator.

"Hold on, Fred," Jon said into the phone. "I'm going outside where we can talk."

The noontime sun was hot, the rays through the clear mountain air like lasers as he strolled out the door and down the steps. Being in the mountains reminded him of Peter. The last time they had talked, Peter was back in his lair in the Sierras, hiding out from Whitehall. They had some new project for him, and he was reluctant. Of course, he would not reveal to Jon what it was.

Jon put on his sunglasses and said into the phone, "You have my full attention."

"Talked to Randi lately?" Fred asked conversationally.

"Of course not. She's off somewhere on assignment. But Marty e-mailed me this morning. He's settled in and swears he'll never leave home again."

"We've heard that before."

Jon smiled. "You're checking up on me."

"Am I? Well, I suppose I am. You had a rough time over there."

"We all did. You, too. It's tough to be the one behind the scenes, waiting, not knowing." There was a loose thread that worried Jon: "What about Mauritania? Is there any information about him?"

"As a matter of fact, he was my excuse to phone. You just didn't let me get to him fast enough. I've got good news. He's been sighted in Iraq. An MI6 asset reported a man who fits his description and then other eyewitnesses came forward who make it a sure fit. We'll get Mauritania now."

Jon's mind swept back through the events in his chase of Chambord and the molecular computer, to Mauritania's cold-blooded willingness to trade others' deaths for his dreams. "Good. Let me know when you find him. Meanwhile, I'm back in harness here. We've got a DNA computer to build."

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