Foreign Affairs

Stone got out his phone. “Jim? Dino had a thought. Having failed to unload the chocolate on the baron, maybe he’s looking for another buyer. Perhaps the police would like to know about that. Thank you, Jim.” He put away the phone. “Jim will speak to the police.”

“There’s somewhere I’d like to go,” Dino said.

“Where?”

“The emperor Hadrian’s villa. It’s about an hour from Rome, near Tivoli.”

“I’m game,” Stone said. He called Jim and asked if they could use the car again. After a brief conversation, he hung up. “The car is ours for the day, but he can’t send our bodyguards. They’re out, probably looking for chocolate.”

“Suits me,” Dino said.

“He also recommended a restaurant in Tivoli for lunch. Viv, you want to join us?”

“No, I think I’ll go find Mike Freeman and pretend to work.”

“As you wish.”

—

The GPS in the Fiat knew all. They reached the entrance to the villa in an hour. There, they bought tickets and prepared to walk up a long hill. Dino had a better idea: he went back, flashed his badge, and they opened the gates so that they could drive to the villa.

At the top of the hill, at a visitors’ center, they saw a large model of the villa, which was now an elegant ruin.

“Not bad, for a weekend place,” Dino said. “It would look good in the Hamptons.”

They left the visitors’ center and walked onto the grounds of the villa, past lakes and baths and a theater. “This place is enormous,” Dino said. “I wonder what kind of a staff he needed to keep it ru

“Slaves, I expect.”

They toured the grounds for two hours, then got into the car, entered the address of the restaurant into the GPS, and followed the directions back into Tivoli. The GPS proceeded to conduct them through impossibly narrow streets, in a large circle. They found themselves back in the town.

“There’s a large parking area over there,” Stone said. “Let’s park there and take a cab to the restaurant.”

They could not find a parking place. Eventually, they drove to the top of a hill near a large arch and found a space where they could abandon the car.

“There,” Stone said. “Jim said it was next to a temple.” He pointed at the restaurant.

“Unfortunately,” Dino said, “there appears to be a deep gorge and a river between us and there.”

They went back down the hill to the open plaza; Stone got out his iPhone and went to Google Maps. He pointed at a bridge. “We cross the bridge and take a right. It’s not far.”

Presently, they found themselves at the door of Restaurant Sibilla, where a small electric cart was parked. Shortly they were seated on a large terrace, covered by a grapevine with a trunk like an oak, with the Temple of Diana nearby.

They had a superb lunch, but went easy on the excellent wine, since they had to drive back. They spent a good two hours there, then Dino had an idea and asked if they could have a ride back to their car. The electric vehicle was brought up, they got aboard, and began to move. Back at the main street, two young men took more than a normal interest in them. As they crossed the bridge, Dino looked back. “Those two guys are chasing us,” he said.

Stone looked back, too; Dino was right. “Fortunately, they’re not gaining on us.”

They were driven to their car, tipped the driver of the cart generously, and drove back down the hill. On the way back, they passed the two young men walking up the hill. One of them pulled a gun from his jacket as they passed.

“Uh-oh,” Dino said. He glanced into his rearview mirror. “They’re getting into a car.”

37

Stone was behind the wheel. “Don’t drive fast,” Dino said.

“You want them shooting at us in town?”

“I don’t think they’ll do that.” As it turned out, Dino was right; they were on the autostrada back to Rome before the car pulled up next to them and shots were fired in their direction. Stars appeared on their armored windows; Dino climbed into the backseat. “I’ll bet they don’t have an armored car like ours,” he said. “Let’s find out.” He rolled down the window a couple of inches and fired two rounds at the front seat passenger. Their window glass shattered. “I was right,” he said.

It soon became clear that their pursuers were under-equipped in the armor department.

“What are they doing?” Stone asked.

“They’ve dropped back behind us, and one of them is on a cell phone.”

“You think they’re calling for reinforcements?”

“I think we should behave as if they are.”

Stone checked the rearview mirror and saw the car rapidly approaching in the fast lane. He slammed on the brakes and cut across two lanes to an exit, while the pursuing car was forced to continue down the autostrada.

“Now we’re lost,” Dino said. The woman in the GPS was demanding that they make a U-turn as soon as possible.

“She’ll recalibrate in a minute,” he said.

“I think we should follow her advice and get back on the autostrada. The other guys will be getting off at the next exit.”

“Good idea,” Stone said, slamming on the brakes and executing a U-turn, then gu

“Don’t go too fast, we don’t want to catch up to them,” Dino said. They passed the next exit. “Now go fast, they’ll be on surface roads, looking for us.”

Stone quickly achieved 180 kph. “It flies,” he said. “You want to get back up here?”

“I think I have a better field of fire from back here. I’ve only got the one magazine, though. Give me your gun.”

Stone handed back his pistol and the spare magazines. They continued unmolested to the end of the autostrada, where they had to stop and insert a credit card for the toll.

“Uh-oh,” Dino said, “I think their buddies are laying for us. You’ve got a car coming up fast, and there’s a shotgun sticking out a rear window.”

“Let me try something,” Stone said, accelerating, but not so fast that they couldn’t keep pace. He checked for nearby traffic, then slammed on his brakes and let the other car drift past; then, when they were just a little past him, he turned into them, smashing his left front fender into their right rear. The car spun, smashed into the guardrail, and came to rest athwart the fast lane, pointed in the opposite direction.

“The pit maneuver,” Dino said. “You’ve been watching Cops on TV.”

“How’d you guess?”

They managed to make it back to Marcel’s compound without incident. Jim Lugano’s people made much of their bent fender and bullet-scarred glass.

—

Upstairs, Stone found the liquor and poured them both a drink. “That was fun,” he said, raising his glass.

“It was, at that,” Dino said. “It’s been a long time since I shot at anybody.”

Lugano came into the room. “I hear you’ve scarred up my car a bit.”

“Isn’t that what it’s for?” Dino asked. “It’s not like we went looking for those guys.”

“I can’t disagree.”

“Question,” Stone said. “If those guys were tailing us, how come they waited until we were on the way back before they started shooting?”

“What’s your point?” Lugano said.

Stone found a pad and paper and wrote something on it, then handed it to Lugano.

The only time we discussed where we were going was in this room. I also made a phone call from here to book the table at Sibilla.

Lugano read the note and nodded. “Give me your cell phone,” he said, then left the room. He came back ten minutes later. “The room is clean,” he said, “but is your cell phone the original or the new one?”