“No, I’ve got a signal issue right now. Give me a minute.”
“Great timing,” grunted Hansen.
“Take the wheel,” Valentina ordered Noboru; then she grabbed her weapon and hopped out. She crossed to the black SUV and joined Gillespie, who’d donned a long trench coat, just like Valentina had. Ames climbed out as well, and all three started down the slope, toward the bike Hansen had spotted. They were shouldering their SC- 20K rifles with long-range scopes and under-barrel attachments loaded with Cottonballs, LTL (less-than-lethal) projectiles that resembled shotgun shells but were, in fact, aerosol tranquilizers with stronger, faster-acting agents that began taking effect on impact. The round would strike the target, release its contents, and render the subject unconscious for about twenty minutes, depending upon the size of the dose, the target’s body weight, and a host of other factors. Valentina thought it’d be a small miracle if they actually got to fire one of those rounds.
“Keep going. It’s right there,” came Hansen’s voice through their subdermals. “Near the bottom of the slope.”
“Wait a minute… wait a minute…” began Ames. “I got movement. Wait… red shirt! There he is! He’s running!”
Ames sprinted off ahead of them, and Valentina cried out for him to wait up, but then she saw him, too, climbing up the opposite slope and heading toward the trees — and for a moment it was like a dream, utterly surreal — Sam Fisher dressed like a goofy tourist but Sam Fisher nonetheless, stealing looks over his shoulder as he bolted away from them and spirited into the dark cover of the woods.
Valentina’s heels dug deeply into the soft earth, and she and Gillespie fought to catch up with Ames. They reached the top of the slope and once more spotted Fisher darting into the woods, heading east.
“You’re about 120 feet from the reservoir, 200 feet across, and there’s a dirt road on the other side. Looks like he’s headed there,” said Moreau.
“We’re standing by in the cars,” said Hansen. “Noboru and I will be ready to pick you up. Just don’t lose him!”
“No chance of that now,” said Ames.
Valentina was about to snort when the short man in front of her lost his footing and suddenly dropped to his rump. And in the next second she and Gillespie found themselves stumbling downward as the forest gave way to a forty-five-degree slope. Gillespie fell; then Valentina lost her footing and slammed onto her butt, and now all three of them were careening down, gliding across thick beds of leaves, trying to push off trees and find a path toward the flickering sheet of darkness that was the cool, calm surface of the reservoir.
And then… a splash… and Ames grunting into his SVT: “He’s in the water.”
22
Ames smacked into the tree so hard that he was wrenched sideways and his rifle flew off his shoulder. He whipped his head as the weapon slid away and landed beside another tree a few meters away.
Before he could get up, Valentina and Gillespie were already back on their feet and running past him. He cursed, rose, and crawled on his hands and knees to scoop up his weapon.
He stood and headed farther down the embankment to where the women had dropped down to their bellies, along a rocky ledge with the water about ten feet below.
“Wait for him to come up,” said Valentina. “I have the first shot when he does.”
“No, I got it,” snapped Ames, hurrying up to the edge himself.
“I have it,” Valentina insisted. “Do not test me, little man… ”
Ten, twenty, almost thirty seconds passed…
Ames impatiently stared through his scope, searching in vain across the dark waves dimly lit by the moon. The night scope lit up the darkness, but there was still some distortion coming off the water. Mist perhaps.
And then, sans any forewarning, Valentina launched a Cottonball.
Ames jerked his rifle left, toward the sound, and spotted Fisher in the water. The old man had come up to steal a lungful of air, and Valentina’s round hit him perfectly in the back of the head.
But that wasn’t how Ames would interpret it.
“You missed,” he said through his SVT. “Damn it, you missed!”
“No, I didn’t! He’s hit,” barked Valentina.
“No, he’s not!” Ames insisted, paving the way for what he’d do next…
He tracked Fisher’s intended path, and he assumed that the man, clearly alerted to their presence, wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Fisher had taught Ames that water was cover, escape, and safety, and he’d also taught him to swim on his back and steal breaths so that only his mouth broke the surface, not his head. This was a basic escape-and-evasion technique often forgotten by operative in the heat of the moment.
Imagining Fisher doing just that, Ames zoomed in with his scope and spotted a faint outline in the water, the slightest disturbance across the waves.
Ames shuddered. He had him.
But now to set it up for the others.
“He’s getting away,” Ames cried. “But he’s submerged. The Cottonball’s no good. I have to stop him.”
With Kovac’s orders to kill Fisher echoing through his head, Ames took in a long breath and steadied his rifle. Fisher was shifting through his sights. Ames would not waste this opportunity. No way.
Was there any guilt? Even the faintest trace? No. It was just business. Time to put the old boy out of his misery. Fisher’s ghost would probably thank him for it.
Ames blinked and stared more intently through the scope. He took another deep breath, held it. Then he trained his crosshairs over the disturbance in the water.
Moment of truth. He was ready, with thirty 5.56-mm bullpup rounds at his disposal. The SC-20K’s bullpup design meant that the magazine and action were located behind the weapon’s trigger, allowing the rifle to have a longer barrel length relative to its size. The design was popular with NATO operators and quite useful for Splinter Cells who needed the capabilities of a longer- range weapon in a compact design for stealth.
Indeed, that longer range would come in handy, since now Ames would use the Splinter Cell’s favored rifle to kill the program’s most lethal operator. Ironic? Fitting? Oh, it was hardly that dramatic. He just wanted to make sure he got credit for the kill.
He took his first shot, the pop much sharper than the one produced by Valentina’s Cottonball.
“Is that live fire?” cried Gillespie through her SVT.
Ames gritted his teeth, spotted even more waves, and realized he’d missed.
He adjusted aim and fired another round.
That one must’ve hit Fisher.
“Ames, is that you? Hold fire! Hold fire! I already got him with the Cottonball,” said Valentina.
“You missed.”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t!”
“All right, hold up,” said Ames.
“Ames, are you firing live rounds?” Hansen demanded over the channel.
“She missed him. I’m not shooting to kill. Just forcing him toward the shoreline.”
More BS from the king of BS, Ames thought.
“We’re trying to take him alive,” insisted Hansen.
“Roger that. He’s still in the water. He has to come up soon. We’ll get him.”
“I’m coming down,” said Hansen.
“You sure? We’ll need you up there,” said Ames. “If he heads farther north, you’ll need to circle around. I’ll let you know.”
“He’s right,” said Moreau. “Stay with the SUVs.”
“All right, but you watch that fire, Ames!” ordered Hansen.
A moment passed, with Ames just listening to the sound of his own breathing.
