yes."
"Tell him yourself,” Laura said. She and Shana were sitting at a table for two some distance from the six sided bar. “Come on I'll introduce you. Oh. And I told him you are a friend. So don't embarrass me."
Laura left them talking as she took twenty-five steps away from the bar. She pretended to admire a statue of two cowboys on a pedestal in the center of the room under a gorgeous cupola of green stained glass. She dialed Harry Johnson, gave him the description of Stevenson Karbouski and spelled the name.
Shana shook hands with the barman, sealing their agreement. Laura walked back to the bar. "I didn't ask him about a room yet, Shana confided."
"I have a better idea about that," Laura declared. Why don't you stay with me during the tryout week. I am living in a three bedroom house a few blocks north of here, not far from the University of Texas. My father owns it. He's a realtor. He bought it below market but hasn't been able to flip it yet because it is architecturally different and it has a lot of expensive elements. So I am living there alone till it sells. What do you say?”
"I say YES, thanks." She stepped from where she and Laura had been sitting to a dark nook along the wall where she had left her carryon.
Chapter 9
Stevenson Karbouski stepped onto a local train at Pompeii, a suburb of Naples, Italy. He had taken a United Flight at noon the day before, Saturday, and arrived in Rome at 8:00 A.M. the following day, Sunday. By the time he reached Naples on a non-express, it was a little past noon. His stop at a military surplus store on a back street not far from the central station did not take long because he had called ahead. He left a credit card that had a spendable value of $100,000 and took away a shoe box containing a mobile phone trigger and some T4 Plastico explosive.
A few minutes before 6:00 P.M. , Steve was walking away from the House of the Vetti brothers in Pompeii. He had slid the shoebox between vertical bars on the see-through iron gate that had been added to the entrance of the house. Then he used a sawn off broom handle that he brought with to push the small box till it was out of reach from the gate. It rested on the tiled floor just underneath a fading three foot high fresco, a painting at eye level directly on the wall. The subject was a Greek mythological figure called Piriapus. He was depicted as a strong man, having an erect phallus, exaggerated in length and resting on a scale to illustrate its extraordinary size.
The House of the Vetti once attracted many curious visitors, but had been temporarily closed much of the time for ten years. The house contained many frescos but only those in the vestibule, which included the one of Piriapus, could be viewed without unlocking and entering through the front gate.
An hour and a half after Steve pushed the shoe box through the bars, he left a note at the desk of the Bristol Hotel. The manila envelope had printed on it the name of Flint Rock which the woman at the desk did not remember to give to Flint when he and Mary returned from Gina's dinner. She noticed it two hours later, walked it to his room and knocked on the door. He was on the sofa in the sitting room in Ava's room not far away, so he did not hear the knock.
Flint awakened at 8:00 A.M. to the sound of his phone. It was Laura, about to go to bed an hour after midnight in Austin. Shana had already turned in and Harry had asked Zeta to tell Laura what they now knew about Steve. She passed it on to Flint. Steve was a former Soviet spy, an East German with an odd Polish-sounding name, granted asylum by the United States when the USSR ceased to exist. His personal history had gaps that Zeta thought odd. She told Laura to tell Flint to watch out and to not trust him.
Laura and Flint hung up. Mary was still asleep
"Tell him yourself,” Laura said. She and Shana were sitting at a table for two some distance from the six sided bar. “Come on I'll introduce you. Oh. And I told him you are a friend. So don't embarrass me."
Laura left them talking as she took twenty-five steps away from the bar. She pretended to admire a statue of two cowboys on a pedestal in the center of the room under a gorgeous cupola of green stained glass. She dialed Harry Johnson, gave him the description of Stevenson Karbouski and spelled the name.
Shana shook hands with the barman, sealing their agreement. Laura walked back to the bar. "I didn't ask him about a room yet, Shana confided."
"I have a better idea about that," Laura declared. Why don't you stay with me during the tryout week. I am living in a three bedroom house a few blocks north of here, not far from the University of Texas. My father owns it. He's a realtor. He bought it below market but hasn't been able to flip it yet because it is architecturally different and it has a lot of expensive elements. So I am living there alone till it sells. What do you say?”
"I say YES, thanks." She stepped from where she and Laura had been sitting to a dark nook along the wall where she had left her carryon.
Chapter 9
Stevenson Karbouski stepped onto a local train at Pompeii, a suburb of Naples, Italy. He had taken a United Flight at noon the day before, Saturday, and arrived in Rome at 8:00 A.M. the following day, Sunday. By the time he reached Naples on a non-express, it was a little past noon. His stop at a military surplus store on a back street not far from the central station did not take long because he had called ahead. He left a credit card that had a spendable value of $100,000 and took away a shoe box containing a mobile phone trigger and some T4 Plastico explosive.
A few minutes before 6:00 P.M. , Steve was walking away from the House of the Vetti brothers in Pompeii. He had slid the shoebox between vertical bars on the see-through iron gate that had been added to the entrance of the house. Then he used a sawn off broom handle that he brought with to push the small box till it was out of reach from the gate. It rested on the tiled floor just underneath a fading three foot high fresco, a painting at eye level directly on the wall. The subject was a Greek mythological figure called Piriapus. He was depicted as a strong man, having an erect phallus, exaggerated in length and resting on a scale to illustrate its extraordinary size.
The House of the Vetti once attracted many curious visitors, but had been temporarily closed much of the time for ten years. The house contained many frescos but only those in the vestibule, which included the one of Piriapus, could be viewed without unlocking and entering through the front gate.
An hour and a half after Steve pushed the shoe box through the bars, he left a note at the desk of the Bristol Hotel. The manila envelope had printed on it the name of Flint Rock which the woman at the desk did not remember to give to Flint when he and Mary returned from Gina's dinner. She noticed it two hours later, walked it to his room and knocked on the door. He was on the sofa in the sitting room in Ava's room not far away, so he did not hear the knock.
Flint awakened at 8:00 A.M. to the sound of his phone. It was Laura, about to go to bed an hour after midnight in Austin. Shana had already turned in and Harry had asked Zeta to tell Laura what they now knew about Steve. She passed it on to Flint. Steve was a former Soviet spy, an East German with an odd Polish-sounding name, granted asylum by the United States when the USSR ceased to exist. His personal history had gaps that Zeta thought odd. She told Laura to tell Flint to watch out and to not trust him.
Laura and Flint hung up. Mary was still asleep
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