He'd camp out in conference rooms, copying voluminous crime statistics for his fictional reports, then would make trips to the vending machines and restrooms, glancing at internal FBI memos and phone books and ID documentation and procedure manuals. Meanwhile at his home and at his safe house in Gravesend he was spending time cruising the Internet and learning about government facilities, police procedures and security systems (and, yes, Parker, about foreign dialects).

Fielding made hundreds of calls to interior designers who'd worked at FBI headquarters, to the GSA, to former clerks, outside contractors, security specialists, asking innocent questions, talking about phony employee reunions, arguing about imaginary invoices. He usually managed to extract one vital fact-say, about the layout of the headquarters building, the staffing on holidays, the exits and entrances. He learned the brand and general location of security cameras in headquarters. The number and stations of the guards. The communications systems.

He'd spent a month finding the perfect front man-Gilbert Havel, a bum with no criminal record and virtually no recorded past. A man naive enough to think that someone as brilliant as Fielding needed a partner. A man easy to kill.

It was arduous work. But perfection requires patience.

And then, this morning, the Digger shot the hell out of the Metro and Fielding showed up at the Bureau doorstep, eager to help but suitably indignant about being the third wheel on the investigation. Other agents would have double- or triple-checked his credentials, called police headquarters. But not Margaret Lukas, the poor childless widow. Because here was Len Hardy, soon to be a childless widower, racked with the same sorrow she'd struggled through five years ago.

Of course she accepted him into the fold without a thought.

And they'd never guessed a thing about him.

Just as he'd figured.

Because Edward Fielding knew that combating crime today is the province of the scientist. Even the psychologists who profiled the criminal mind use formulae to categorize their prey. Yet the perpetrator himself-the human being-is so often overlooked. Oh, he knew that the agents, believing the unsub to be dead, would be concentrating so hard on the extortion note, the linguistics, the handwriting, the trace evidence, and their computer programs and fancy equipment that they'd never see the real mastermind standing-literally-three feet behind them.

He now came to the elevator. The car arrived and he got inside. Fielding didn't, however, push the seventh-floor button to go to the document lab. He pushed 1B.

The car began to descend.

The FBI's evidence room is the largest forensic storage facility in the country.

It's operated around the clock and usually there's a staff of two to help the agents log in evidence and sometimes to help them carry the heavier items into the locker area or drive confiscated cars and trucks and even trailered boats into the warehouse connected to the facility.

Tonight, though, there were three agents on duty, a decision made jointly by the deputy director and Margaret Lukas. This was because of the value of a particular item of evidence sitting in the vault at the moment.

But since it was a holiday the two men and the woman were pretty casual. They were lounging around the log-in window, drinking coffee and talking about basketball. The two men had their backs to the window.

"I like Rodman," said one of the male clerks.

"Oh, puh-lease," responded the other.

"Hi," said Edward Fielding, walking up to the window.

"Hey, you hear what happened with that guy on the Mall?" the woman asked him.

"No," Fielding said and shot her in the head.

The other two died reaching for their weapons. Only one managed to get his Sig-Sauer out of the holster.

Fielding reached through the window, buzzed himself in.

He counted eight video security cameras trained on the window, shelves and vault. But they sent their images to the third-floor Security room, where there was no one left alive to see the perfect crime unfolding.

Fielding lifted the keys from the dead woman's belt and opened the vault. It was a large room, about twenty by thirty, and was where agents stored drugs and cash taken from heists. In his months of research for the robbery Fielding had learned that prosecutors are obligated to present to the jury the actual cash seized during, say, a drug bust or kidnapping. This was one reason the agents would have brought the ransom money here. The other was something else he'd anticipated-that Mayor Kennedy, whom Fielding had psychologically profiled, would want to keep the cash available in case the Digger contacted him and demanded the ransom after all.

And here it was, the money.

Perfect…

Two huge, green canvas satchels. A red tag dangled from each strap. FEDERAL EVIDENCE. DO NOT REMOVE.

He looked at his watch. He estimated that he'd have twenty minutes before Cage and Kincaid and the other agents returned from the Mall after their shoot-out with the Digger.

Plenty of time. As long as he moved quickly.

Fielding unzipped one bag-it wasn't locked-and dumped the cash on the floor. The satchel was wired with several homing devices, as he'd known it would be. The money wrappers too, he'd learned from Tobe Geller-a trick he hadn't anticipated. He wondered if individual bills themselves had been rigged somehow. He doubted it; Geller had never said anything. Still, to make sure, Fielding reached into his pocket and took out a small silver instrument-a Trans-detect, a scanner that could sense the faintest transmission signal of any wavelength, from visual light to infrared to radio waves. He ran this over the pile of cash, just in case the Bureau techs had managed to insert a transmitter into a bill itself. But there were no signals.

Fielding tossed aside the sensor-he had no need for it any longer-and pulled a silk backpack from under his shirt. It was made of parachute material and he'd sewn it himself. He began to pack the money into the bag.

He'd asked for $20,000,000 because that was a credible amount for a scheme like this and also to give some credence to the motive of revenge for a significant event like the Vietnamese War. Fielding, however, would only be able to carry $4,000,000-which would weigh seventy-two pounds. Generally unathletic, he'd worked out at a health club in Bethesda, Maryland, for six weeks after he'd come to the area so that he'd be strong enough to carry the cash.

The hundred-dollar bills were all traceable of course (tracing money was easy now thanks to scanners and computers). But Fielding had considered that. In Brazil, where he would be in several days, the $4,000,000 in traceable cash would become $3,200,000 in gold. Which would in turn become $3,200,000 in untraceable U.S. dollars and eurodollars.

And over the next few years it would easily grow to $4,000,000 once again and then beyond, the mutual fund industry and interest rates willing.

Fielding had no regrets about leaving the rest of the money. Crime can't be about greed; it must be about craft.

He packed the cash into the bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Stepping into the corridor, staggering under the weight, working his way to the elevator.

Thinking: He'd have to kill the guard at the front door, as well as anyone in the team who was still here. Tobe Geller, he thought, had gone home. But Lukas was still in the building. She definitely would have to die. Under other circumstances killing her wouldn't matter-he'd been very careful about hiding his identity and where he really lived. But the agents were much better than he'd anticipated. My God, they'd actually found the safe house in Gravesend… That had shaken Fielding badly. He never thought they'd manage that. Fortunately Gilbert Havel had been to the safe house a number of times so neighbors would see Havel's picture when the police were doing their canvassing and assume he was the man who'd rented the place-reinforcing the agents' belief that he was the mastermind of the crime.