As soon as he returned from meeting Crystal in Florida, Yuri called Jason for a face-to-face meeting in Annapolis. Jason was instructed to be outside Starbucks at 1:30 in the afternoon. Yuri planned to pick him up in a rental car and conduct their meeting while driving around in the car. This method gave Yuri control of all aspects of the meeting. At precisely 1:29 Yuri pulled over to the curb very near where Jason was standing. A cold wind was coming off the bay, and Jason was bundled up in a faded red plaid woolen mackinaw, black watch cap and wearing laced-up worn Herman Survivor boots. Jason looked up at the car, recognized the man he knew as his control in his customary black fedora and climbed into the Ford Taurus.

No names were used or needed. Jason had been taking orders for two decades, and recognized and respected his control as a higher ranking fellow professional who could do action jobs if needed. He had always taken care of Jason and took great care to ensure the plans allowed for the operative to escape. For the last two decades under his control’s guidance, Jason had been developing his own network. Since then he had recruited and trained three men and one woman to follow his orders. One of these was his son. The others were relatives of his common law wife. He trusted them to carry out his orders. Up until now none of them had ever killed, but he was going to have them help with the next mission, whatever it was. He would plan, pick the shooting positions, and lay out the escape route for them.

All they would have to do is the actual shooting. Yuri passed $10,000 bonus money to Jason and said, “I have a difficult mission for you. Our terror program against this country is picking up. We have been instructed by the Center to spread fear by attacking unprotected local government officials. Pick three mayors for the first mission.

“If the authorities believe it is the same organization or people doing the killing, so much the better. The media will pick up the story and give it extensive publicity. The timing is a little flexible but we would like the mission completed in 30 days. Try to leave no more than five days between kills. Pick targets well away from your base, otherwise you have freedom to conduct your own operation. Just make sure you have a very reliable escape route and leave no evidence of any kind behind. Use any member of your network you think is ready, but absolutely no failures.

“I want you personally to guard the escape route if any of your network acts as the shooter. No prisoners. Anyone close to being arrested must be liquidated. As usual no one carries any identification. Jason, you know all this. I am just being extra careful. There will be a sizable bonus for success. You can divide it any way you want among the team. Any questions or resources you need from me?”

Jason responded in his usual harsh voice, “I understand. It is clear.”

“Good, then. I will see you on the 15th of next month.”

Yuri handed Jason a book of paper matches. Jason took the matchbook to identify the next meeting site, waved goodbye and got out of the car. He took a taxi to within three blocks of his parked car, and in an hour he was back in his marina. Jason thought this was the most dangerous assignment he had ever been given. It was clear he had to go over his own escape plan, in case he had to get away from everybody, including his control. With a few more bonuses he would have plenty of money to start over. He would make plans to sell the marina. You could never be too careful or too suspicious. In this business you had to take care of yourself.

Yuri drove his rental car to Dulles Airport, turned the car in and boarded a flight to San Francisco. He had another contact to make tomorrow with Sidney Oliver, his cell leader in San Francisco. One of the original KGB illegals, Sidney had been living under cover for the last three decades. Yuri had given him very little to do in the last year.

Sidney loved Chinese food. Chinatown in San Francisco had a number of places he frequented. Today, with his control paying the bill, he selected the most expensive. When his control called from the airport, Sidney told him to go to the Golden Palace in Chinatown. He would be waiting for him in one of the small private dining rooms.

Driving back to his office from Chinatown after the meeting, Sidney Oliver thought killing three mayors in less than a month was pushing too hard. Thank God, he had talked the man into doing the mayor of San Francisco first and delaying on the others until they met again. He disliked his control. The man had no sense of humor or appreciation for culture. He treated Sidney like a marginal employee.

It was dangerous work. He was not an action hero and was always frightened. But the money was very good and Sidney needed it. Keeping a young wife happy was draining his reserves. He would have to play sick to get the time off from his accounting firm to plan and execute the kill. He only had two other people in his cell, and he would have to do the wet work himself. No one else had the experience. Training without experience wasn’t good enough. To be truthful he wasn’t much of a sniper. He would have to get close, somewhere inside 70 meters, but a couple of hours at the rifle range would sharpen his skill and confidence.

Then, too, Carol Richland, the mayor, was an easy target. She was always out of the office, putting in appearances at a variety of community events. The local paper always published her schedule. She loved to have crowds on hand for her photo ops. He would need a few days to case her next event and he would be ready. The modified .270 Remington with the hunting scope couldn’t be traced to him. He would wear gloves and make sure it was well wiped, including the ammo, before he set up to shoot. Leaving it behind seemed to him to be the best tactic. No doubt he would shoot from inside a building or a roof top. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard after all.

Not surprisingly, his control knew Sidney’s weakness. He didn’t have the same confidence in Sidney he had in Jason, but he had no choice but to use this part of his aging network to extract the maximum amount of money from the al-Qaeda bankers. They should be impressed with the killing of mayors in Virginia and San Francisco, if his frightened cell leader could manage it. Within two months, he would receive one million dollars from al-Qaeda. He was sure Kazar, the middle man in New Delhi, was undoubtedly skimming a sizeable piece of each payment. He would have to deal with the bastard later. Anyway it was now out of his hands. Yuri turned in his rental car and headed for the United terminal for his flight back to Dulles.