to the report filed by Homicide Sergeant Clinton Hardwell. One third of the way through the report, her tanned face turned pale.
'My God, he-' Then she blinked in sudden realization and turned her attention to Gerd Maas, who was seemingly bored by the drift of the conversation. 'Why haven't you gone out there and killed this bastard?' she demanded, her voice harsh and unforgiving.
'Because it is essential that we dispose of the sixth agent first,' Gerd Maas responded, his deep and foreboding voice causing Lisa Abercombie to pull back from her aggressive posture. 'It must look like Chareaux is determined to complete his mission.'
'But… but the risk,' Abercombie started to argue as she stared down at the report, seemingly unable to take her eyes away from the descriptive paragraphs.
'Chareaux is emotional, and therefore does not represent a significant risk to this operation,' Maas said with cold indifference. 'The cabin is under constant surveillance, and he will not be allowed to approach this facility until we are ready for him to do so.'
'But what if he eludes all of you again?'
'Mistakes were made when we had him in our possession at Reno,' Maas said coldly. 'Such mistakes will not be made in the future.'
'Mistakes? What do mean by that?'
'For example,' Maas replied, 'it was a foolish mistake to send Gunter away and leave Alex in the hands of Felix and the others. Felix was a tactician whose primary concern would have been to carry out his assignment, whereas Gunter would have killed Alex the moment he tried to escape, and not given him the opportunity to harm the others.'
'But you were in charge-' Abercombie started to protest.
'Gerd was monitoring the situation in the Kenai,' Paul Saltmann interrupted. 'He left orders for all of us to maintain our positions until he returned. However, your bureaucratic buddy, who didn't have the balls to stick around, decided to change the program.'
'Dr. Wolfe had two appointments in Washington that he couldn't reschedule,' Lisa Abercombie retorted. 'But what do you mean, he changed the program?'
'The sixth agent had disappeared, and we didn't want to finish off Chareaux until we had located him,' Saltmann explained. 'Wolfe found a lead through the Fish and Wildlife Service personnel records that turned out to be useful; but instead of waiting for one of us, he ordered Gunter to follow up on the lead, leaving Felix, Shoshin, and Corrie in Reno to monitor Chareaux and Takahara.'
'And I might add that Dr. Wolfe issued those orders knowing that Shoshin had been injured, and therefore was certain to be less effective,' Asai said accusingly.
'Wolfe did that?' Lisa Abercombie blinked in astonishment.
'That's right,' Saltmann said grimly, 'which is why Felix, Shoshin, and Corrie are now dead.'
The Bronx-raised politician muttered a curse under her breath.
'All right,' she whispered. 'I will deal with Wolfe when he returns. Now, what about Nakamura?'
'I was there on that one,' Saltmann nodded. 'Everything was going according to plan until Paxton and his buddy showed up.'
'Larry Paxton, the black agent whom you and Felix and Gunter supposedly killed in Florida?'
'That's right,' Saltmann conceded. 'The plan was to go down and confirm the body, but the lake was filled with alligators that were acting aggressive, like they were down there chewing on fresh meat. There was blood in the water, so we decided it wasn't worth the risk.'
'But obviously it would have been.'
The chilling voice of Gerd Maas stopped Abercombie.
'Other than Wolfe's mistake, the decisions in the field have been correctly made,' the assault-group leader said. 'In this kind of operation, casualties are to be expected.'
Lisa Abercombie started to interrupt, but Maas waved her off.
'These six agents have had some luck,' he said. 'But we can replace our losses, they cannot. This Paxton was clever enough to avoid death in Florida, but then he died in the explosion along with Stoner. And Chareaux was helpful enough to kill Takahara before he escaped, so now there is only one left to deal with-one agent, and then Chareaux- before we have resolved our problem.'
Lisa Abercombie considered this; then, her cold bureaucratic facade back in place, she turned to face Dr. Morito Asai. 'You said that you know the location of this sixth agent right now?'
'Yes.'
'Where is he?'
'At the moment, he is on board a small, private, twin-engine airplane enroute to Washington, D.C.'
'You are certain of that?'
Dr. Morito Asai maintained a stony expression as he absorbed the insult. 'He is on that plane, along with several others. Yes, I am certain.'
Lisa Abercombie glanced down at her watch. 'It's twelve-thirty now. In approximately five and a half hours, the Committee is expecting me to call in with a full report on our progress. When I do so, I would like very much to be able to tell them that-in spite of the horrible cost-the entire situation has been completely resolved. Is that possible?'
Asai turned to Gerd Maas, who nodded his head.
'Gunter has been following the plane for the past eight hours in one of our jet helicopters,' the assault-group leader said.
'By himself?' Abercombie asked.
'Yes, of course.' Maas shrugged indifferently. 'Gunter will not need assistance in this matter. The helicopter can follow this plane wherever it goes, and he can complete his mission at any time, even with an air-to-air missile if necessary.'
'Then what is he waiting for?'
'There are others on the plane, and Chareaux would not logically have access to such weapons,' Maas said. 'They are scheduled to land at D.C. National in approximately one hour. It is better to wait until then.'
'But when they land?'
'Then Gunter will not fail, and the last agent will be dead,' Maas said matter-of-factly.
'Good,' Lisa Abercombie approved. 'I will meet all of you in the conference room at five-thirty, and I will be expecting good news when I get there.'
After waiting until the door closed behind the ICER team leaders, Lisa Abercombie pressed two buttons on the underside of her desk. The outer door of her office automatically locked, and her phone console was set to record. Then she retreated to her private quarters, accessible only from the inner sanctum of her underground office.
Once inside this luxuriously furnished sanctuary, Abercombie treated herself to a long, hot bath, and then to a two-hour nap, which had become a physical necessity to the hard-driving and late-working politician-turned- counterterrorist.
At four p.m., her alarm went off and she woke refreshed and ready to begin again. Thirty minutes later, she was dressed and back in her office, where she turned her full attention to the sheath of reports and clippings on her desk.
By five minutes past five that afternoon, Lisa Abercombie was halfway through the Washoe County coroner's autopsy report on Felix Steinhauser when the private line on her phone console rang.
'Abercombie,' she answered in her characteristically gruff, no-nonsense voice.
'Mrs. Abercombie, this is Gwen Fletcher, Dr. Wolfe's secretary at the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.'
'Yes?'
'You asked me to let you know if anyone attempted to contact Dr. Wolfe at his office.'
'Yes, go on,' Abercombie said, impatient to get back to the autopsy report.
'There have been three such contacts this afternoon. One at two-fifteen. One at three fifty-five, and one at a quarter to five.'
'Oh, really?' she said. 'And what did they want?'
