The Taskforce charter in no way extended to hostile threats against foreign interests, but I wasn’t about to sit back while that asshole conducted a Pakistan-schoolhouse-type attack, killing kids left and right just because he could.

After a pause, Brett said, “No. I don’t think so. They may be armed, but it’s pistols only, if they are. No backpacks and no long guns. I don’t think it’s an attack. They’re doing something else.”

Whew.

“Okay, okay. Knuckles, status?”

“Just pulled up to a B&B. Got Aaron and Retro.”

“Roger. All elements flood the park. Blanket him, but loosely. No idea what he’s doing, but I really don’t care, unless he shows a threat. Ignore the UNSUBS. I don’t give a shit about them unless they’re going to compromise you. Keep tabs on them to prevent that, but if they choose to leave, let ’em go. Everyone have their pictures?”

I got a roger from all, then Shoshana said, “Stop the car. Let me out.”

I said, “What for?”

“We’re paralleling the park right now. I can see it through the woods right there. Let me out. I’ll enter from here.”

“You’ve got no comms.”

“I’ve got a cell phone. This isn’t hard. If he comes this way, call me. I’ll pick him up. All of your guys are behind him. Put me ahead.”

Jennifer had already pulled over, looking at me for a decision, the park right next to us, hidden by a string of forest as thick as Brer Rabbit’s home. I said, “How are you going to get in? There isn’t a path here.”

She pointed, and I saw a gap through the woods, a trickle of water running off of a worn concrete sluice. The break was only about a foot across, but I knew the woods were thickest at the sunlight. She could crawl through, and I was sure it would open up. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to turn her loose.

I turned around in the seat, looking at her. She said, “You don’t think I can get through the woods?”

I saw her eyes and knew she’d already read me in her creepy way. That wasn’t what she was asking. I said, “I’m sure you can get through the trees, but I’m not so sure about getting out of the forest. The one in your head.”

She leaned down and screwed a suppressor into the Glock we’d given her, saying, “I told you: This mission is yours. The mission comes first.”

She sat back up and said, “I’ll kill no one unless you tell me to. And I’ll die if it’s called for, without pulling a trigger. Is that what you want to hear?”

“No, damn it. That’s exactly what I do not want to hear. Get up there and box him in, but don’t do anything stupid. We’ve got the beacon, and worst case, we can always go back to the Internet café.”

She opened the door and said, “Sounds good. I didn’t want to miss my first date anyway.”

She slid out, and Jennifer watched her slink into the culvert. She said, “That was a good call. She’s really, really skilled.”

I said, “Yeah, she’s skilled all right. Skilled at mind control. I hope that wasn’t a mistake.”

Jennifer put the car into drive, heading toward the entrance to the park. She said, “It wasn’t, but what was she talking about?”

She wove through the traffic, looking at me while trying to hide a grin. I said, “What do you mean?”

“What ‘first date’?”

I spluttered for a moment, and Jennifer’s grin broke out for real. “I can’t wait to tell Knuckles he was right. She’s smitten with you.”

57

Sitting on a park bench, Rashid gave his men a couple of minutes, then trudged up the hill, just one more man enjoying the sunshine and green space. He reached the top, the chipped and crumbling asphalt path connecting to a wide lane made of white flagstone. He could just see the edge of the amphitheater down the hill, built into a bowl. He went away from it, heading along the flagstones deeper into the park, leaving the surveillance to his men.

Rashid had no doubt that he was branded into Omar’s psyche, and one glimpse of him would immediately initiate a gunfight. Like a wild animal, Omar would recognize the threat Rashid represented, and would seek to eliminate it with overwhelming force. Just as Rashid would do if the roles were reversed. Or, more precisely, just as Rashid intended to do.

He reached a small alcove of granite set into a copse of evergreens, the flagstones ringed with monuments. In the center was a pedestal with three bronze busts from Albania’s past, a raised step of granite leading to it. Rashid ignored the busts, sitting on the granite and watching a child and father kick a soccer ball back and forth.

He pretended to be engrossed, but kept his eye on the amphitheater. From this distance, due to the slope of the hill, he could make out only the top of the projection building, getting a small sliver of the steel door leading inside.

He sat, patient as a snake on a hot rock, flicking its tongue out, tasting the wind.

Waiting.

*   *   *

I passed the drive leading to our hotel, the Sheraton standing tall on the hill. I pulled in front of the university, looking for a place to park. To my right was a huge roundabout—really a football-size square of asphalt—probably used for parades back in the bad old days. I saw a couple of cabs parked on the outskirts, their drivers out and smoking cigarettes. I crossed the lanes of traffic and pulled in behind them, nose aimed toward the south. Toward the park. Driving a Ford minivan, I didn’t really fit in, but I wasn’t standing out that badly.

I could hear the chatter on the radio, the team working the problem. I broke in. “Knuckles, this is Pike. You with Aaron?”

“Yeah, I got him.”

I explained on the net what Shoshana was doing, saying, “She’s his baby. Make sure he can control her. You stick with him.”

“Roger, but I was planning on running him down the hill. There’s an amphitheater here and it’s pretty large. With Shoshana to the east, I got that covered, but Blood’s the only guy to the south, keeping tabs on one of the UNSUBS.”

“I copy. Retro’s still got eyes on?”

Retro cut in. “Roger. He’s just sitting at a monument. Killing time. I’m okay for a longer spell. If he leaves, I’ll trigger, but I can’t pick up the follow.”

Knuckles said, “Can you get Koko in here?”

I looked at Jennifer and said, “If I do, I’m the only one locking down the entrance. I was going to use her as contingency.”

“If you want me to stay with Aaron as control for the Israeli team, I need her to the southwest. I’ll pick up the follow when Retro triggers, but we’ve lost contact with the second UNSUB. He’s to the southwest somewhere. Get Koko in here for that.”

She was already digging out kit from a large pack in the back. I said, “Roger all. She’s coming in east of the main entrance, on a footpath. Vector her in.”

She glanced up, wondering what I was talking about, looking for clarification about her approach. Off the radio, I said, “See that café?” An indoor/outdoor sandwich shop about two hundred meters away from the primary entrance, it fronted the street with a small patio. She nodded, and I said, “Go farther up the hill. See those goats eating in that little pen?” She nodded again and then saw what I was talking about: a thin footpath that wound from the pen up through the scrub of the hillside, disappearing into the trees.

She opened the bag wider and said, “How many long guns do they have?”

“Brett took one, but everyone else is carrying Glocks.” The weapon choice had happened before we thought there was a threat. Before Rashid had met a team.

She pulled out a harness, saying, “You still think there’s a potential that Rashid is up to something? It’s a little hot, but I can get away with a light jacket.”

The harness was nothing more than a double loop that went over the shoulders, with a magazine holster on one side, the magazine itself positioned upside down for fast removal, and a quick-release clip on the other side that held the folded rifle at the buffer spring, both riding uncomfortably underneath the armpits of the person wearing it.