I said, “Straight north?”

“Yeah. Straight north.”

He’s going to hit Jennifer’s path.

“Can you keep eyes on?”

“Not without compromise. And he’s got a weapon.”

The unspoken command being, I’ll have to kill him. I said, “Let him go. I think he’s going to end up right in front of me. All elements, all elements, give me an up.”

I heard from Retro, Blood, and Knuckles. All had successfully avoided the police and were now working their way back. But no Jennifer. I called again, “Koko, Koko, status?”

At the crest of the hill, I saw a figure appear. Running down the hill. I put my glass on him and recognized Rashid. I said, “All elements, all elements, I’ve got eyes on. He’s coming down the hill. My van is in the square across from the university. I’m going to leave the keys on the right front tire. Retro, you got the van. Stage until I call. Knuckles, Blood, you guys get down the hill and vector in on me. He’s coming fast.”

I got a roger from all, then said, “Koko, Koko, what is your status?”

I got nothing again, which gave me pause. A little tendril of dread. I saw the figure halfway down and knew I had to make a decision quickly. I said, “Knuckles, I’m now going Foxtrot. You are surveillance chief. Blood, redirect. I need you to find out what’s up with Koko.”

He knew the unspoken emotion behind that call. She was a teammate to all of them, but he knew she was something more to me. He said, “Roger. Headed back to the amphitheater. Don’t worry. Probably just a bad mic.”

Then, “This is Koko. This is Koko. I’m okay. I monitor all.”

I wanted to explode at her, in between the relief I felt. I saw Rashid reach the goat pen.

I left the vehicle, locking the doors and surreptitiously putting the keys on the front tire. All clinical, I said, “Roger. What’s your status?”

“Got caught up in the police response. I couldn’t talk. I’m on the way.”

Rashid passed through the fence, glanced left and right, then began walking at a hurried pace, headed north one road over from where I was. I said, “I got the eye. He’s going into the Block.”

Rashid went north, moving deeper into the area once reserved for communist royalty, but now full of bars and kitschy boutiques. I intersected his line of march at an angle, losing sight of him for a panicky two minutes, but finding him again soon enough. He kept glancing back, and was clearly shaken. His tradecraft earlier had been pretty good. Better than any of the usual goat herders I tracked—which, given his training with DGSE, was to be expected—but now he was moving as fast as he could without drawing attention by simply running. He was scared.

He went about a quarter mile, then hung a left, and I alerted the team. “Now on Abdyl Frashen Street, headed west. He’s afraid, looking for the bad man. Get a team ahead of him; my heat state’s getting bad.”

Knuckles said, “Roger. Got Blood and Koko headed that way. Give me the pass when you have to.” Meaning, give him a call when I had to pull off or get compromised.

He then said, “Pike, what’s your feel? Is he going to run?”

I said, “Yeah, if I was going to call it now, he’s running. Whatever happened back there was probably the reason he was here, and it clearly went to shit. Would you stay? He can’t know what the police are going to find, and he sure as shit isn’t going to wait to find out.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Uhh . . . you think it’s time to call Showboat?”

Which was something I’d chosen to forget. I’d kept LTC Alexander in the loop for the surveillance today—before the last bit of high adventure—and I wasn’t sure where Knuckles was going. I didn’t need his approval to continue surveillance, and I wasn’t going to waste my time telling him about the gunfight because it would just lead to a giant list of questions I couldn’t answer. I said, “For what?”

“For in-extremis assault. If he’s going to flee, this is it. You find his bed-down, and the clock’s ticking. We’ve probably got enough time for him to get on the Internet and buy plane tickets, then get to the airport. We can’t take him down in a cab. We have to hit that site before he leaves.”

Everything he said was true. I saw Rashid cross the street, running to a drugstore. He disappeared into a side door, and I caught a quick glimpse of stairs. This was it. I couldn’t follow him inside, and he’d disappeared.

I said, “All elements, all elements, I’m at the bed-down. You got my location?”

Knuckles said, “Yeah. Signal’s strong. We got you on the map. Moving now. Look for Blood and Jennifer. Find a place to stage with all of us, including the vehicle Retro’s bringing.”

I said, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Still got to make that call to higher.”

I heard, “Yeah, yeah. Like that’s ever stopped you.”

I felt good that Knuckles was pushing the issue. I thought he was right, but if he believed this was critical, it meant a lot. You read books about the great leader making decisions that bucked the odds, or was proved right when “everyone” said it was wrong, but in my experience, it was never one guy. It was one guy in power backed by a small minority who felt as he did, giving encouragement from the background. Unfortunately, for every one guy who went down as the stalwart defender of freedom, there was another who went down as a goat.

But this wasn’t a decision that would make me a goat. As long as forty-two thousand things didn’t go wrong. I said, “Going off the net. Calling Showboat.”

I dialed, waiting on the encryption to catch up. A commo guy answered and said, “Send it,” as if I was going to give another sitrep. I said, “Put on Showboat.”

He said, “He’s engaged. Send it to me.”

I snarled, “Put him on the line right now, or I’ll rip your throat out. I don’t care if he’s taking a shit. I need to talk to him.”

I heard some fumbling, then, “Jesus, Pike, what did you say to the guy? You know your reputation, and I don’t need them afraid of you.”

“Nothing. Just that I needed to talk.”

And I gave it to him: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

He said, “Shit. I need to get to Kurt on that. I can’t do an in-extremis without lives at stake. Keep eyes on.” He did a calculation in his head and said, “It’s lunchtime in DC. I’ll have to track him down.”

I said, “I’m good with that, but I need a call right now, in case I see indications he’s leaving. I need to know my authorities. Something happened in that park, and it was important. I have no idea what it was, but Rashid does.”

“Pike, you said he went into some dive apartment complex. You don’t even have a room. You couldn’t hit if you wanted to. Let me contact higher. Get some sanction.”

What he said was true, with the exception of one thing. I said, “Sir, Aaron got a Dragontooth on him. I can find his room. The sun’s going down right now. It’ll be dark in thirty minutes. All I need is assault authority. I can do it. I have the team closing now.”

“How will you exfil?”

“With my vehicle. It’s a minivan. It’s got windows, but I can keep him low. I can get him out.”

He said, “Okay, okay. Build an assault plan, but you have no execute authority. After Nairobi, I need some backup. I can’t go crazy just yet.”

61

I knew where Blaine was coming from, and I appreciated the support. I said, “Roger all, but Rashid’s going to flee, and sooner rather than later. Once he’s on the pavement, he’s in the wind. Tell them that. Let them know the urgency. We can do it clean right now. Later, it gets much, much messier.”

I saw Brett and Jennifer walking up the street and heard, “I got it, I got it. I’m working it.”

They reached me and I said, “We need to find a staging area for the van. That’s you, Brett. Jennifer, I want you to penetrate the apartment. Get up the stairs and use the Dragontooth. Find the apartment he’s in. Nothing fancy. Just get in and walk, then get out. Pay attention to atmospherics. Let me know where the stairs go and what we’ll encounter if we try to drag a body out of there.”