“Where do you want this to happen?” Louise demanded, her voice shrill now.
They had already reached the first bridge across the creek and for the next stretch the park area was very narrow, not enough room to maneuver.
“We’re going to cross under Massachusetts Avenue. A little past that there’s another bridge. I’ll get out there.”
“Jesus Christ,” Louise said, her hands tight on the steering wheel.
Two minutes later they crossed under Massachusetts Avenue and almost immediately the second bridge was just ahead.
“Now,” McGarvey said.
Louise jammed on the brakes and McGarvey popped open the door and jumped out even before the Toyota came to a full stop.
“Go,” he shouted over his shoulder, and darted off the road about ten yards into the woods, where he stopped and looked back.
Louise was gone, and the blue Taurus had pulled over to the side of the road and two men were getting out. The same two from outside his hotel at Baghdad. It was perfect.
FIFTY-FIVE
Kangas and Mustapha stood at the edge of the road looking down the hill into the denser woods. The rising sun was in their eyes, but they knew that McGarvey had to be somewhere close, they’d seen him jumping out of the Toyota.
“There,” Mustapha said suddenly, and Kangas looked where his partner was pointing in time to see McGarvey disappearing farther down the hill.
“That’s the bastard,” Kangas said.
“Whoever the broad was probably brought him a weapon,” Mustapha said. “Could be a trap. He jumps out, and like complete idiots we run after him.”
“That’s exactly what this is. But we’d be bigger idiots to turn down three mil each.”
“Won’t do us any good if we’re dead. I say we turn around and get the fuck out of here right now. You know what this guy is capable of.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t know us, now, does he,” Kangas said. “And I’m not ready to walk away from a pile of money.”
“You’d do it even if there was no money at stake,” Mustapha said, and Kangas grinned.
“Payback time for Baghdad.”
“Sandberger…”
“Fuck Sandberger, this is for us,” Kangas said. “Go left, I’ll go right. We’ll catch him in our cross fire.”
Mustapha nodded. “Careful what you shoot at.”
Kangas took the silencer out of his pocket and screwed it onto the end of his Beretta, and headed down the hill into the woods, slightly to the right of where they’d last seen McGarvey, at the same time Mustapha headed at an angle the other way.
Back at the airport they had just reached their car when Boberg called and described the Toyota SUV that had come for McGarvey. “Some woman driving, but she’s not on any of our lists. I checked.”
“Anyone else with her?” Kangas had asked as Mustapha headed down the spiral ramp to one of the cashier gates at the bottom.
“Not unless they were hiding in the backseat.”
“Did he spot you tailing him?”
“I don’t know,” Boberg said. “But I think it’s a good possibility. He was looking at something in the passenger-door window. Maybe at the woman, but he could have been looking at the reflection in the glass.”
“If he spotted you he’ll be expecting someone from Admin to be on his ass,” Kangas said. It had been a stupid mistake on Boberg’s part that just made their jobs a lot tougher. “Thanks.”
“Take the bastard down anyway you can. That’s priority one after what he did to us in Baghdad. We’ll pick up any loose ends afterward.”
“Could be collateral damage.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Boberg had said. “Get the job done this time.”
Ninety seconds from the moment they’d come within tailing distance, the Toyota had suddenly sped up and the woman had driven like crazy into Georgetown and the park.
The bastard had definitely set a trap for them, and when he saw it was them he would shoot first and ask questions later. Only this time Kangas had a bargaining chip. One that McGarvey wouldn’t be able to resist.
FIFTY-SIX
From where he stood behind the bole of a large tree McGarvey heard the two men coming down the hill and knew they had separated, as he expected they would. Once out of sight from the road he’d headed off to the right, well away from the line the first of them had taken, putting him on their right flank, not between them.
Theirs was a good tactical move, but they hadn’t counted on the unexpected, and they were walking into a trap. It was something that happened when the operator underestimated his opponent.
A couple of minutes later he spotted a figure moving through the trees about forty yards beyond where he figured the first guy was coming down the hill. But the first one had stopped. He was smart, possibly suspecting something.
“Mr. McGarvey,” a man called out, off to the right, perhaps ten yards away. “We know you’re down here somewhere. It was very smart of you to take our fight away from the road where innocent bystanders might get hurt. Very smart.”
McGarvey moved halfway around the tree to where he had a better sight line up the hill and to the right, and he caught just a flash of something dark, perhaps the sleeve of a jacket or shirt.
“But there’s no need for gunplay this morning. Because we have something that you want. And we’re willing to trade.”
The bastards hadn’t flown commercial back from Baghdad. Probably hitched a ride on a military transport, or perhaps a private jet one of the oil or reconstruction firms operated.
“Mr. Kangas, I told you that I would kill you if I saw you again,” McGarvey said. “And that goes for your partner out to your left.”
“We know about you. What you’re capable of, and I’m not ashamed to admit that we made our mistakes in Baghdad, but now everything has changed. Mr. Sandberger and a couple of his personal bodyguards, plus Harry Weiss, are all dead, and Admin is in pretty tough shape.”
“I’m listening,” McGarvey said. He stuffed his pistol in his belt, and got down on his hands and knees, below the level of most of the brush and tall grasses, and careful to make absolutely no noise began edging his way back up the hill.
“We lied to you in Baghdad. Admin was responsible for your son-in-law’s death and the IED at Arlington. It was meant for you. Mr. Sandberger wanted you dead to protect one of his clients.”
McGarvey stopped. He was less than five feet from Kangas, who was looking in the general direction of the big tree. It took everything within his power not to shoot the contractor in the back of the head, right now.
“Listen, we want to make a deal with you. We’re getting out of Admin, too much shit is going to hell. It’s no longer healthy for us.”
McGarvey took out his pistol, suddenly stood up and in two steps was on Kangas, jamming the muzzle of his silencer into the side of the man’s head. “Drop your pistol now.”
Kangas hesitated for just a second, but then did as he’d been told.
“Tell your partner to drop his weapon and come closer so I can see him.”
