Heavy Fire by Stephen Mertz

Author:Stephen Mertz [Mertz, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The call had come to the safe house at 0700 hours. Anderson had requested Stone’s presence at 0900 hours in his office.

It was the typical office of what was supposed to be a typical lower-echelon bureaucrat in the basement of the American consular building. Furnishings included a gray metal desk, matching file cabinets that, like the desk, had seen better days, and three chairs.

Anderson sat behind his desk. He and the men occupying the chairs stood when Stone was shown in, the door closing behind him.

The two men were Gallic as hell and they had an air about them, as they scrutinized Stone up and down, that he sensed right away.

Anderson said, “This is Agent de Champs and Agent Carceaux. Gentlemen, this is Mark Stone.”

The Frenchmen neither smiled nor extended a hand in greeting.

“Your reputation precedes you, monsieur,” de Champs said without a trace of good nature. “What we have heard about you is not good.”

Carceaux nodded. “You have much explaining to do, Monsieur Stone. You would be well advised to cooperate.”

Stone turned to Anderson. “Who are these clowns?” he demanded.

“I told you—”

“I mean who the hell sent them? I didn’t think the Frenchies would sniff us out so fast.”

“We are from Service Five,” de Champs said stiffly. “You and Mr. Anderson have been ordered to cooperate with us in this matter.”

“Ordered by who?”

“By the French government, monsieur.”

“They’re with the French Intelligence Service,” Anderson explained. “Service Five gets its authority from the Ministry of Defense, but has the power of arrest and is authorized to carry out operations against criminals and terrorists.”

Stone returned his gaze to the Frenchmen. “And which heading does Etienne Doumergue fall under?”

“You have been called here to answer questions, not to ask them of us!” Carceaux said, bristling.

“I showed up here because I felt like it, not because I had to,” Stone growled.

Anderson cleared his throat. “Uh, maybe it would be better if we all pulled back a little bit here. Both governments do have a mutual interest in Doumergue.”

“In the late Monsieur Doumergue,” Carceaux said.

“Our government was investigating him,” de Champs added, a bit less huffy than before. “Imagine our surprise when he showed up riddled with bullets.”

“But this is going over the local police, obviously,” Stone said. “Sounds like a matter of national security or you boys wouldn’t be on top of it.”

“As I’m sure you know, monsieur,” Carceaux said, “Doumergue is, er, was a key figure in the international arms black market.”

“Then why hadn’t you moved on him on your own?”

“We were still developing evidence against him,” de Champs said.

“And why do you think I would know anything about it?”

Carceaux remained angry. His eyes held nothing but distaste and dislike for Stone. “We are anything but a backward nation, monsieur. We do monitor your embassy’s transmissions.”

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Anderson grumbled. “See here, gentlemen, I think we’re talking international incident if—”

“We certainly are,” de Champs said. “This is our country, unless you’ve forgotten. You Americans are visitors, nothing more.”

“So if you know

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