come through your earbud?”
“ Clearly.”
“ Excellent.” Amid the distraction, Andrei slipped Brody’s cell phone into his pocket.
Brody didn’t notice.
“ Okay,” Andrei said. “Now, let’s practice what you’re going to do.”
Snow clung to their coats as they left the stairwell, passed the elevator, and walked along a hotel corridor to the security door.
There were five of them-Andrei, Kagan, Yakov, Mikhail, and Viktor, a lanky man Kagan had met only a half- dozen times, newly arrived from Russia. Andrei slid a credit-card-shaped hotel key into a slot. Making a slight metallic sound, the lock electronically opened.
Andrei wore his leather shooter’s gloves so he wouldn’t leave fingerprints when he turned the doorknob. Coordinating their movements via their earbuds and hidden microphones, he and the others had gone into the hotel through separate entrances to avoid attracting attention. They’d lowered their heads when passing security cameras. They did the same now as they stepped under the last camera they needed to be concerned about.
Closing the door, they entered a continuation of the corridor. Numbered rooms stretched along the wall to the left. In this exclusive part of the hotel, an attractive, well-dressed female receptionist smiled at them from a desk and pointed toward the melting flakes on their coats. “I see it hasn’t stopped snowing.”
“ A picturesque night for a walk,” Andrei replied.
“ Have you been to Canyon Road?” the red-haired woman asked.
“ Very impressive.”
“ It’s the big attraction on Christmas Eve. All year-round, in fact. I’m glad you didn’t miss it. Is there anything I can get you?”
“ Thank you, no.”
“ You must have checked into the hotel when I wasn’t on duty. I don’t recall seeing you before.”
“ I don’t recall seeing you, either. We only came back to our rooms to pick up some presents we’re taking to a party.”
“ Have a good time.”
“ We intend to.”
As expected on Christmas Eve, no sounds came from any of the rooms, the guests having gone out to dinner, to enjoy the sights, or perhaps to attend mass in the nearby cathedral. But even though there was virtually no risk of being interrupted, speed was essential.
While Andrei spoke to the receptionist, Mikhail stepped behind her and stuck a hypodermic into her neck, pushing its plunger.
“ Hey! What do you-”
The fast-acting poison made the woman shudder. Five seconds later, she slumped across her desk.
The other men took off their outdoor gloves, revealing latex ones. In a carefully rehearsed sequence, Mikhail grabbed the receptionist’s pass key off the desk, returned to the start of the corridor, and used the key to open a door to a custodial area. Kagan and Yakov picked up the dead woman and carried her through the open door, setting the corpse inside. When they returned to the corridor, they pulled the door shut, automatically locking it.
Meanwhile, Andre and Viktor went up a curved staircase and faced the three doors that led to the target’s suite.
The others joined them.
Andrei looked at his watch and nodded. Everything was proceeding as planned. Six minutes earlier, at 8:00 P.M., they’d stood amid the snowfall on the tourist-crowded Plaza, watching Hassan, his wife, and four protective escorts get into a limousine bound for a reception at the New Mexico governor’s mansion. At 9:00, Hassan was scheduled to step before television cameras and deliver the first of many rousing speeches about his newborn child of peace and his hopes for the Middle East.
But just before the speech, Hassan’s wife would receive a call on her cell phone. She would answer because the number displayed on the phone belonged to her baby’s nursemaid.
The voice would belong to a man, however. It would explain in vivid detail what had happened to the baby. It would emphasize that if Hassan loved his child, he would cancel the speech.
And never make another one.
Kagan stared through the window, straining to distinguish shadows from illusions in the falling snow.
One of them will try to distract me in the front, he thought. Probably Andrei. I set up enough ambushes with him. That’s how he thinks. Meanwhile, Mikhail and Yakov will attack from the sides.
But wouldn’t they have made their move by now? Kagan wondered. Maybe I did fool them. It’s been a while. Maybe nothing’s going to happen. Maybe they’re back on Canyon Road.
The baby whimpered.
“ Meredith,” Kagan said.
“ He’s just restless. Probably having another dream.”
“ Doesn’t sound like a happy one.”
“ I put my little finger to his lips. He’s sucking on it. He’s quiet now.”
“ You can’t let him cry.”
“ He’s a good baby. He won’t cry.”
Kagan never looked in Meredith’s direction. With the gun on his lap, he focused intently on the window.
He continued with the story, working to keep Cole and Meredith calm, hoping it would overcome his fatigue and keep him alert.
“ In those days, the capital of Israel was Jerusalem. The man in charge was a Roman puppet named Herod, who called himself the king of the Jews. He was seriously paranoid. Forty years earlier, a rebellion had chased him from Israel. The Romans had hit back viciously, using thousands of battle-hardened soldiers to return Herod to power. Thereafter, he squashed the slightest sign of a rebellion, even to the point of killing one of his wives, her mother, and several of his sons.
“ Now, suddenly at dawn, the guards on the eastern wall of Jerusalem reported three strangers coming out of the distance, approaching on camels. Their confident bearing identified them as men of importance. When they reached the gate, they announced that they were priests on a sacred mission and asked to pay their respects to Herod. What do you suppose his reaction was, Cole?”
“ He wouldn’t have liked them surprising him like that.”
You bet, especially when the Magi came from Israel’s biggest, closest enemy. He was furious and demanded an explanation from his security team. How had the Magi traveled all the way to Jerusalem without being detected? Why had the Roman soldiers failed to intercept them? What sort of protection did he have if foreigners could pass through the desert as though they were invisible?
“ I told you that the Magi had a reputation for being a secret group with magical powers. Now, when they were brought before Herod, they described an amazing star that had led them to Jerusalem. Herod was astonished. ‘A star?’ he asked. ‘What kind of star?’
“ The Magi answered, ‘A star that announces the birth of the new king of the Jews.’”
Kagan heard footsteps-Meredith bringing the coffee. He started to tell her to keep low, but he didn’t need to. She made him proud by crouching beside him, staying beneath the level of the window.
“ Thanks.” Keeping his right hand on the gun in his lap, he ignored the pain of using his stiff left arm to raise the cup to his lips. He blew on the steaming liquid, then sipped, inhaling its fragrance, tasting the sugar.
“ The water you put on the stove is boiling,” Meredith said.
“ Good. Keep it boiling. Add more water if it gets low.” Kagan never removed his gaze from the window. He listened to Meredith as she crawled across the floor and sat next to the baby.
“ Where was I, Cole?” Kagan didn’t need reminding, but he wanted to keep the boy answering questions.
“ Herod and the star.”
“ Right.” Again, the spymaster’s words came back to him from years earlier. “All through the Jewish and
