Stuart Woods - Iron Orchid

He went back to his apartment and fell into bed, exhausted. He had some catching up on his sleep to do.

THREE DAYS LATER, Teddy called Irene’s cell phone. “Yes?” she said, sounding businesslike.

“Bad time?”

“Two hours,” she said and hung up.

Teddy waited two and a half, then called her back. “Better?”

“Yes, it’s all right,” she said.

“Where are you?”

“At the Waldorf Towers.”

“Are you free for a while?”

“I have another meeting at five.”

Teddy checked his watch. Just past one. “Take a cab to Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street and enter Central Park there. Turn right at the bottom of the steps, go around the administration building, then turn right again and leave the zoo area. Keep to the path, then sit down on the fifth bench on your right. Take a newspaper, so you can read while you wait. When you’re sure nobody has followed you, take off your right shoe and rub your foot. If you think it may not be safe, take off your left shoe.”

“Got it.”

“Go in fifteen minutes.” Teddy hung up. He thought he would entertain Irene; she had always loved the cloak-and-dagger side of Agency work, but she had not been able to become a field agent. He left his workshop, walked down to 64th Street, crossed Park and went into the Plaza Athenee Hotel. At the registration desk he asked for a deluxe double room, paid with a credit card and asked for two keys.

“Where is your luggage, sir?” the woman asked.

“The airline lost it; I’m told it will be delivered this evening.”

“Do you require any personal items, toiletries?”

“Thank you, no.” Teddy went up to the room, checked it out, then bought a newspaper and walked toward Fifth Avenue. He walked around the corner, checking everyone on each side of the street, turned East on 65th, waited a moment, then walked back down Fifth to 63rd, checking again. Then he waited near the corner until he saw Irene get out of a taxi.

Since he knew where she was going, he didn’t need to follow her closely. He hung a block or so back, looking for suspicious vehicles or persons. He spent a couple of minutes being amused by the seals in the zoo, then walked north away from the zoo. He saw her from a hundred yards, reading a paperback book. When he was fifty yards away, she took off her right shoe and massaged her foot, then put her shoe back on. Teddy walked past her, then sat down on the next bench and opened his newspaper. He read quietly for five minutes, then took the Arts section, folded it to expose the crossword puzzle and began to work it. When he was sure there was no one near the bench, he spoke up.

“When I leave, pick up the newspaper and read for ten minutes. There’s a key card for room 710 at the Plaza Athenee Hotel, Sixty-fourth between Madison and Park. Meet me there.”

“Got it,” she said.

Teddy tucked the crossword under his arm and, leaving the rest of the paper on the bench, left, walking north.

____________________

TEDDY WAITED FOR HER in bed, looking forward to her arrival. She let herself into the room, leaving a trail of clothing behind her, then crawled into bed with him, snuggling close and throwing a leg over his. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi, yourself.”

They played with each other for an hour, exploring every crevice and orifice, then copulated at length. She came twice before they managed it together.

“WOW,” she said.

“Wow, indeed.”

“I should have joined you when you retired.”

“Then you’d be a fugitive. It would be easier to find two of us, instead of one. You wouldn’t like the life.”

“I like this,” she said, snuggling again.

“So do I. How has your visit to New York gone?”

“Very well. We’re here to meet with U.N. officials about providing counterespionage for their security. There’s a meeting of heads of state on Monday, and they’re nervous.”

“And what have you found to report to them?”

“We were asked late to the game, but Hugh came loaded for bear.”

“What did he give them?”

“There’s a suspected terrorist cell working out of a townhouse near the U.N. owned by an Iranian businessman. Actually, he’s an Iranian intelligence officer, and the whole operation is supported by Iranian money. His service is loyal to the mullahs, not the elected government. We’ve got the place bugged, and a full-time translation team on the tapes.”

“What is the group planning?”

“They’ve been very careful, so we’re not sure, but we think they’re going to try something during the meeting on Monday. The president is addressing the General Assembly at eleven a.m.”

“So the Secret Service will be all over this?”

“You bet they will; already are.” She got out of bed. “Oh, I have something for you.” She took a small digital camera from her handbag, extracted a card from it and handed it to Teddy, then got back in bed.

“What’s on this?” he asked.

“Plans of the building,” she said. “I photographed them.”

“That was very dangerous.”

“Not really. I was left alone with them.”

“These should be very interesting,” Teddy said. “Do you know anything about their security?”

“It’s run by another Iranian.” She wrote down a name and the address of the building on a bedside notepad and handed it to Teddy.

“Do you know what their procedure is for accepting deliveries?”

“No one is allowed inside the building. Any deliveries are signed for on the front stoop by an armed guard, then taken down to the outside door of the basement. Presumably, packages are screened there.”

“Who delivers?”

“Gristedes grocery store on Third Avenue, FedEx, UPS, messenger services. It’s not hot and heavy; they get no more than two or three items a day. We’ve had some indication that packages addressed to their head of security are not routinely searched. He comes to the basement and opens them himself.”

“And his name?”

She wrote it down for him.

He turned and kissed her. “You’re a peach.”

“Go get ‘em!” she said, kissing him back.

ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, the training class was called into the auditorium, where they were addressed by the director of training.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “You may have noticed that your ranks have been noticeably depleted since we last met in this room. Some of your classmates have not met the standards we set here or have failed their polygraphs or have otherwise not survived our security checks. Should you ever encounter any of these people in the outside world, the procedure is to not know them. If you are approached by one of them simply say you’re sorry, but they’ve made a mistake; you have never met. If they persist, disengage them- rudely, if necessary. If they still persist, report the incident to your case officer at the earliest possible moment, giving a full description of the person and the name he or she is using.

“We’d like you to know that those of you who have survived the initial training have all done well, and we are pleased with your performance. As a reward, you’ll have a pass to leave the installation tomorrow night, between the hours of six p.m. and twelve midnight. You must have checked in at the front gate by midnight, no exception. Failure to do so will result in appropriate action up to and including expulsion from the training program.

“There are other requirements: you are to travel in pairs or threes, and only with people from your training subgroup-Johns, Harrys, etcetera. Each of you will be given an envelope containing a valid driver’s license from one of the fifty states, two credit cards and one or two other forms of identification, along with a written legend. You will memorize the legend and use only that name, even among yourselves, while you are off the installation. Feel free to embroider your legend, but use only those facts that you can remember, in line with the training you have had. If any person on the outside shows too great an interest in your background, you are to report it to my office. When you return to the installation, you are to resume your normal form of address, by subgroup.