Ryan said, “I think it means Gavin was right. The other phone was for the operation. She got what she needed, so she’s left that phone in her room. Or, hell, I don’t know, it could be in her purse.”
Dom said, “You’ve got to check her purse.”
Ryan fired back, “And you’ve got to check her room.”
“Where is she staying?”
“Unknown.”
“Cuz, this is Vegas. There are one hundred twenty-five thousand hotel rooms in this town. You want I should start kicking in doors?”
Ryan grumbled a few cusswords of frustration, then said, “Okay, I’ll find out for you, while I’m digging through her purse. You just sit there and take it easy in the meantime.”
Clark’s admonishing low grumble came over the net. “Gentlemen.”
Ding chimed in now: “Ryan, it’s okay. Check her purse, and if it’s not there, tip us off by asking her about where she’s staying. I’m online now, and Gavin’s IT hacks have given me visibility into all the hotel records in town. You find out the name of the hotel and I’ll get her room number. We’ll send Dominic to break in while you watch the girl.”
Ryan agreed, although Ding made it sound easier than he imagined it would prove to be. “I’ve got to get back. Baggett might try to kidnap her.”
Ding replied, “That French spook would rip his balls off.”
Ryan returned to find Baggett gone, and Élise Legrande alone at the large table, checking her phone and clutching her purse in her lap.
Jack sat back down. “What happened to Ralph?”
“He had to leave. He asked me to wish you a good evening.”
Ryan did his best to hide his pleasure, but Clark’s voice entered his right ear and cooled his excitement. “This is too easy. Keep your eyes open, kid, something’s fishy.”
Clark was insinuating the Sharps intelligence officer might herself be operating against Ryan, but Ryan scoffed at this. He thought she was just interested in him and acting out of attraction. That she’d managed to clear Ralph Baggett’s playing piece off the board was good news for Ryan and his mission, not evidence that the woman had any objective beyond spending some time alone with him.
He watched her put her phone back in her purse, and while she did so he got a fair look inside. There was no other phone.
Ryan now knew he needed to find out the name of her hotel. He didn’t have time to go slowly with this, so he started immediately. “What do you think of the Venetian?”
He was hoping she would say something about the rooms — an indication this was her hotel.
But she just looked around her. “It’s nothing like Venice.”
“Not really, no. Still, it’s pretty nice.” Jack went for broke. “Where are you staying?”
She blinked once. Perhaps a little surprised at the question.
But she answered. “Next door, at the Palazzo.”
“Really?” Jack said. “That’s funny. So am I.”
The Frenchwoman’s eyes narrowed. Ryan could see she didn’t believe him, and instantly he worried he’d screwed up. He wanted an excuse to stay with her a little longer so he could watch her while Dom worked, and if he claimed he was at the same hotel then they could possibly walk back together. Clark had warned Ryan she would have a good BS detector, but he’d pressed his luck anyway.
In his earpiece he heard Ding’s voice, rushed. “I’m getting you a room there now.”
“What room?” Legrande asked, clearly challenging his story.
Ryan raised his eyebrows. “I’m sorry?”
“What is your room number at the Palazzo?”
Damn. He couldn’t just pull a room number out of the air. She might continue challenging him, check for herself, and he’d be caught in a lie.
Ding heard the question. “Gonna take a couple of minutes, Ryan! Stall her.”
Jack smiled. “That’s a bit forward, isn’t it?”
“I am not saying it to be forward. I am saying it because I do not believe you are telling the truth. I don’t really know what you are doing, but I think you just lied to me for some reason.”
Jack just said, “You have trust issues.” He felt like a heel, but he was committed to this now, and he couldn’t back away.
“I have trust issues because I have been around people who do not tell the truth. Like now, for instance.” Ryan could tell she was fully on guard. She prodded him for a minute, asked him where he was really staying, but he stuck with his story.
Finally, Élise said, “Last chance to be honest, Jack. Where are you staying?”
Jack smiled. “Let’s go. I’ll show you my room.” He held his breath.
“You’re bluffing,” she said, a coquettish smile on her face. She truly didn’t believe him, and she looked like she would relish putting him in his place. Jack felt sure she thought this was all just a ploy to get her dress off.
He was bluffing, he didn’t have a room key. But Ryan couldn’t imagine the poised and refined woman in front of him taking him up on the offer. Even if she didn’t believe him. As bluffs went, he felt pretty good about this one.
He said, “I think you are the one who is bluffing. You won’t go.”
She did not reply to this. Instead, she said, “I Googled you today.”
“Really? Did you enjoy the pictures of a fourteen-year-old me with goofy hair and braces?”
Without smiling she said, “Very much so. Of course, I established you do work for Hendley Associates.”
“You didn’t believe that, either?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she said, “There is really nothing bad about you online, but I am surprised how little news there is about you since you got out of college. It’s as if you went into the shadows after that.”
Now Ryan was beginning to get nervous. She was a spook, and spooks got suspicious easily. But he was surprised at the level on which she was challenging him. He wondered if she knew more about him than she was letting on, and if that had her concerned her intelligence operation had been compromised.
Jack just replied, “There’s not much news about me online for one simple reason. I am a bore. It works to my advantage. People get bored by bores.”
“You are asking a woman you do not know to come to a hotel room you do not have. That is strange, but I would not say it is boring.”
Ryan said, “You still don’t believe me?”
“Not for an instant. You need an excuse to follow me back to my hotel, so you claim it to be your hotel. You thought I wouldn’t question this. Perhaps you thought we’d sit and have another drink together in the bar there, before I took you up to my bed.”
“Presumptuous.”
“Experienced.”
Finally Ding came over Jack’s earpiece. “Room thirty-nine-oh-eight. Junior suite. Clark’s on his way to get your key at the front desk, and if you can stall her for twenty minutes Dom will have your shit moved from over here at the Mandarin into your room.”
Jack thought it was a bit hasty of Chavez to assume he was going to take this woman up to his hotel room. Hell, he didn’t even have the key, and he didn’t know how they could get it to him without her seeing the exchange.
Jack stood up and said, “Room thirty-nine-oh-eight.” Not denying her premise, but challenging her nonetheless.
For the first time, the woman smiled. “Okay, Jack Ryan, Jr. Let’s go to the Palazzo and see this room of yours.”
Jack hesitated. Oops.
Ding shouted into his ear, “Not yet. Shit! We are not ready!”
Jack asked a passing waitress for the check, and he hoped like hell she was extremely bad at her job and took a long time producing it.