All those years of black bag work for CIA and the final place I ever hit was also the nicest, even if I didn’t ever confirm the rumoured Vermeer. That job was a villa outside Rome, and it was really more of a palace. The analyst’s report had hinted at the Vermeer, but a man like that might have a half dozen safes littered around the house, not to mention vaults in a few freeports around the globe, so he had plenty of other places to stash his art. The safe we were after was in his office, so admittedly I only stole a few brief peeks at the living quarters. That was fine. We weren’t there for the art.
在中央情報局幹了這麼多年的黑包(black bag)工作，我最後去的地方也是最好的，儘管我沒有親眼看到傳聞中的維米爾畫作。那份工作是在羅馬郊外的一座別墅，更像是一座宮殿。分析師的報告暗示了這幅維米爾的作品，但像他這樣的人家裏可能有六個保險箱，更不用說世界各地幾個自由港的保險庫了，所以他有很多地方可以藏他的藝術品。我們要找的保險箱在他的辦公室裏，所以不得不承認我只偷瞄了幾眼生活區。這沒關係。我們不是爲了藝術品而來的。