“I have no doubt that you will do your job, Mr. Decker. And your country needs you to.”
“If this sucker is that critical, why don’t you call in the big boys?”
Blue Man looked at him with calm resignation. “The problem is, Mr. Decker, I strongly suspect they’re already here.”
DECKER ANDJAMISON DROVE BACKto London. When they got there they passed by a sleek six-story apartment building that looked fairly new.
“Isn’t that Hugh Dawson?” said Jamison.
The man was climbing out of a late-model black Range Rover.
“Yeah, it is.”
“He’s out late.”
They watched as Dawson looked furtively around and then strode through the front door and into the building.
“Pull over,” said Decker.
Jamison parked at the curb and they got out.
Jamison followed Decker into the building. There was a concierge desk, and they heard elevator doors closing as they approached it.
A young woman was at the desk, dressed in a trim dark blue uniform with a name tag that readSARAH. She said, “May I help you?”
Decker and Jamison approached the desk. Decker said, “Sarah, we work for Mr. Dawson. We know he was scheduled to be here. I think we might have just missed him.” He patted his jacket pocket. “We have some papers he needed. He forgot them and called us to bring them to him.
“Youdidjust miss him. He’s already gone up in the elevator. I can take them up.”
Decker frowned and shook his head. “I’m sure you’re perfectly reliable. But Mr. Dawson is very particular. And these documents are confidential. If he knew I gave them to an unauthorized person I’d be out of a job.”
The woman looked at Jamison.
“He’s not kidding,” said Jamison.
“Well, all right, I guess it’s okay. He went up to number five-oh-three.”
“Right. That’s—” He looked helplessly at Jamison. “Crap, I forgot the guy’s name.” He glanced apologetically at the concierge. “Mr. Dawson does so many deals. It’s hard to keep them all straight.”
She smiled and said, “It’s Mr. McClellan’s apartment.”
“Exactly. I knew that’s who it had to be. Good old Stuart McClellan. Well, thanks.”
They got on the elevator and took it up to the fifth floor.
“Dawson is meeting secretly with McClellan?” said Jamison.
“Not so secret if the concierge knows about it,” replied Decker.
“What do you think is going on?”
“Those binders he had on his desk? He told us he was working on some big deal. Maybe that deal is with McClellan.”
“But I thought they didn’t get along.”
“Lots of people who don’t get along still do deals together.”
“You think this has something to do with our investigation?”