The Falconer’s Tale. Gordon Kent

hire informers inside the CIA.”

      Piat laughed. “You would if there were any available. I’m not ‘inside the CIA’ anymore. I’m some guy, a petty crook, that Partlow wants for the great game. I could even be a pretty decent source on antiquities.”

      Dukas looked so dubious that Piat laughed, and then they both laughed. Other patrons glanced at them.

      Dukas leaned forward and shook his head. “No, Jerry. No protection. I’d like to hear what you have to say. I’d probably go to bat for you if Partlow tries to screw you in the end. But I’m not going to give you a security blanket so that I can find in a year that you left it wrapped around my head while you liberated the contents of the British Museum.”

      Leslie returned and interrupted them. They were staying in Skala Eressos and she said they had to go. Piat walked them down to the old Turkish gates as if he were their host, pointing out other features they might enjoy, rating the quality of pots in each shop, indicating the good silversmith and the bad one. In the tunnel of the gate, he stopped, and he and Dukas shook hands. Dukas’s handshake included a slip of paper.

      When he opened it in his house, it had a phone number in Naples and an address. Piat smiled. He realized that he felt reassured. Few things and fewer people had that effect on him anymore.

      He went out the door to call Clyde Partlow.

       4

      Piat’s passport was less than a year from expiry. This cost him an hour in UK customs at Glasgow and preyed on his mind as he drove his rental Renault up the A82 along Loch Lomond and into the highlands. Ingrained paranoia and a horde of legal issues prohibited him from simply renewing it.

      The Green Welly Stop at the turn for Oban provided him with terrible coffee and a delicious, fat-filled pastry, and fuel for his car as well. He browsed the sporting goods, annoyed as usual by the prices that the English and Scots paid for stuff that would cost a few dollars in a Wal-Mart. He was looking for something to buy for Hackbutt or Irene. Nothing offered—and besides, he didn’t have a contract yet. No need to spend his own money.

      Oban reminded him of Mytilene—same harbor shape, same stone houses, same odd mixtures of industry, fishing, and tourism. He parked on the high street, checked his time, and whiled away fifteen minutes in a very promising shop that catered to high-end “anglers” and sportsmen in general. The shop carried rifles for stalking and shotguns for pheasant and grouse—not that Piat ever felt the need to have a gun, but always handy to have access. They also had a wide selection of sporting clothes—decent wellies, good boots, shooting coats. In his mind, he was spending Partlow’s money. He thought that he knew what was coming with Partlow. Why else summon him back?

      When his watch read three exactly, Piat paid for a tide table for the area and a handful of flies and walked through the door, casually checking his car, the street, and the faces and apparel of passers-by in one sweeping glance. He didn’t see anything to alert him and moved off down the high street toward the Oban Hotel. He entered the lobby at four minutes after three and went to the main desk.

      In minutes he was on his way to meet Partlow. The opening door revealed a cheerful room with a view of the harbor and two comfortable chairs. One of them was occupied.

      “Hello, Clyde,” Piat said.

      Partlow smiled. It was a rare smile—quite genuine as far as Piat could tell. It told him a great deal. Partlow was genuinely glad to see him. Piat added a zero to his fee.

      “Right on time, Jerry. I’m so glad.”

      Piat considered saying that the ability to be in a place on the dot of a particular minute from half the world away was a matter of basic competence in the profession. He thought about several ways of saying it—snappy, derogatory, modest. Wrong. Partlow needs me, and this is the time to make a new start. Because he couldn’t decide how to begin, he said nothing.

      Partlow didn’t seem to know how to begin, either. He cleared his throat, twice. “Good trip, Jerry?”

      Piat shrugged. “My passport’s almost expired. It cost some time. I’m here.” Now he was enjoying it. Partlow was discomfited by the absence of raillery or outburst.

      Partlow nodded as if Piat had said something important. He clasped his hands over his knees.

      Finally, Piat decided that they might sit that way all day. He was curious. “I take it Hackbutt tossed Dave out.”

      Partlow rubbed his face. He looked short on sleep. Piat couldn’t remember seeing Clyde Partlow short on sleep. After a few seconds, he said, “Well, no. I tossed Dave out, Jerry. But in effect, the result is the same.”

      Piat nodded. “And you want me back, I take it? Or just some advice?”

      Partlow had been fed the hook, but he didn’t take it immediately. “Where did you leave Dave with the matter of the girlfriend, Jerry?”

      Piat narrowed his eyes and slouched. “I told him we had to recruit the girl to get Hackbutt back. He told me to fuck off.”

      Partlow nodded slowly, as if his fears were confirmed. “No bullshit, now, Jerry. You told him to recruit the girl.”

      Piat was annoyed. He took his time, and then said, “Yes.”

      “Dave believes you sabotaged him and the operation.”

      “He’d have to believe that, wouldn’t he? Otherwise he’d have to believe he wasn’t competent to recruit and run a US national in a friendly country.” Piat allowed a little edge to creep in, but otherwise stayed at Partlow’s level—remote, professorial, as if the operation were an academic exercise.

      Partlow steepled his hands and pursed his lips. “My fault. I should have kept you on board. I did have another CO lined up, but he went to Iraq instead.”

      Piat spoke quietly, the way he did when he consoled a survivor. “I tried, Clyde. He just played the goon, and I walked away.”

      “You could have warned me.” Partlow held up a hand and winced. “No, forget I said that.” He blew out several puffs of breath. “You did try to tell me.”

      Piat raised his eyebrows.

      They sat in silence for a while. It finally dawned on Piat that there might not be an operation anymore. Pisser if true. He glanced at Partlow, who was watching a sailboat, a two-masted ketch out in the harbor, as she got her foresail up, the boat and the sail crisp and clear against the blue water and the clear sky. Maybe not a pisser. Back to Greece and shot of the whole thing.

      “I could run you directly. That’s how I should have done it to begin with. Free hand, Jerry. On an op that matters.”

      Piat had pretended to be a gentleman for ten minutes, and he found the restraint wearing. “I could make a real difference?” he said with gentle sarcasm. “I’ve heard this speech a few times, Clyde. Hell, I’ve made it a few times.”

      Partlow nodded, or rather his head swayed back and forth as if he were laughing very softly. He said, “Listen, Jerry. As such things are reckoned, you were one of the best of your generation. So good that everyone passed you over for promotion so that they could use your reports and your agents to make their careers.”

      Piat shrugged. The flattery was an essential part of any recruitment speech, but he couldn’t completely resist its allure, as he suspected it was true.

      “Now I have an operation with one of your old agents, a prickly man with a bitch of a wife. I need him, Jerry. I don’t have another falconer to hand, and Mister Hackbutt gets top grades from some people that matter in the falconry world. And here you are. Will you do it?”

      “What, for love?”

      Partlow sighed. Piat thought he was secretly pleased to be on familiar ground. “For money, Jerry.”

      “How