stare onto Fournier, he said, “Maybe we should start hijacking your planes again and blowing up trains. Maybe our Muslim brothers in Libya will start to divert some of their oil to an ally who appreciates our friendship.”
“And maybe I should find this assassin on my own and hand over all of my information on your organization. Give him all the pretty pictures we have of you and your various identities. I’m sure he would be grateful, and based on what happened last night, he would probably move you to the top of his list.”
“And maybe we should alert your superiors to your double dealings,” Samir shot back.
“Samir, you are not very bright. My superiors know all about this relationship.”
“Do they know about the money we have paid you?” Aziz asked.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Fournier said with a sly grin.
Max cleared his throat. “Enough of this nonsense. What is done is done. Last night was a failure. Now we must decide on our next move.”
“Next move?” Fournier asked.
“How do we find this man?”
“We don’t do a thing. You two are going to leave France,” Fournier said, pointing to Aziz and Samir, “and do so as quickly as possible. You will have to find some other way to trap him.”
“Why must they leave?” Max asked.
“Because we have nine dead bodies . . . one of whom happens to be an important diplomat. Every law enforcement and intelligence asset we have will be thrown at this thing, and the press is going to cover every detail.”
“But,” Max said, “the news reports are saying that it was all the act of a single assassin.”
“You can thank me for that, but unfortunately that story isn’t going to hold up.”
“Why?”
“Because the crime scene investigator is very good at what she does, and sometime in the next forty-eight hours she is going to get the ballistics back on the victims and things aren’t going to match. She already noticed some inconsistencies.”
“Such as?” Max asked.
“Your four men who were killed were hit with one or two well-placed shots. Tarek, the prostitute, the guests, and the employee were sprayed with a burst of bullets to the chest and then finished off with multiple shots to the head.” Fournier shrugged. “I removed certain things from the crime scene to slow them down, but trust me, it will only be a matter of time before the lead investigator figures out that two men walked away from that gunfight.”
“How?” Samir asked incredulously.
“Because the assassin is a professional, unlike you. He hit his targets with very few shots while you and your men hit everything except what you were trying to hit. She’s going to find a hollow-point slug in Tarek’s head that is going to match the slugs that killed your men. She’s going to pull a bevy of slugs from the walls that will match the type of ammunition that killed the other two guests and the worker in the alley, and then she’s going to find the surveillance equipment we installed and she’s going to start sniffing around in places where I don’t want her sniffing around.”
“Who cares?” Samir said dismissively. “We will kill her.”
Fournier was done pleading his case to this idiot. He turned to face Max and said, “If he even suggests this again, I will have him killed.”
“I understand.” Turning to Samir, Max said, “Do not open your mouth again, or I will kill you myself.”
“Last night was a bloody mess,” Fournier said. “Libya is raising holy hell, OPEC is furious, and everyone in the French government is enraged that another government might be behind such a bloodbath. A lot of people are suddenly very interested in finding out the identity of this assassin, and who is behind him.”
“So, they will do our work for us.”
“That is my hope. This man has proven extremely elusive, but up to this moment, very few people even knew he existed.”
“Now everyone will be looking for him.”
“Exactly.”
“What about this investigator? Are you afraid she will stumble onto what we were up to?”
Fournier had spent much of the day worrying about this, but he wasn’t about to tell these fools after they’d suggested she be killed. “I will make sure her focus is on foreign intelligence agencies. For now we need the press to continue to report that it was a single assassin.”
“Why?” Aziz asked.
Max finally saw where Fournier was headed. “The assassin has become a liability.”
“Correct . . . Up until now the man has been a ghost. Killing only his targets and a few bodyguards. Last night was a mess. Whoever is behind him is not going to be happy that this one was so sloppy.”
“You think they will dispose of him?” Max asked.
“We’ll see.” Fournier thought of what he would do under the same circumstances. If one of his men had created such disarray, he would most certainly have that option on the table. He needed more information. Two avenues had crowded Fournier’s thoughts. “For now, we need to sit back and see who pops up.”
“Pops up?” Max asked, not understanding.
