Ten minutes later they were seated in the McLean Greek restaurant. Anita ordered dolmas and a Greek salad. Jack spotted the lamb shank and ordered it with all the trimming. Sitting over strong coffee and baklavas, Jack asked Anita to tell him her story.

“I grew up in a small town in Western Pennsylvania called Greensburg. Not much green about it. A lot of Italians and Poles settled there during the heyday of coal mining and small steel fabricating plants. Industry is now gone. Young people leave as soon as they can. I was one of those.

“I competed on the high school swim and track teams. I could outrun most of the boys. My grades and athletic skills earned me a scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh, long before you arrived. I specialized in the 400 and set a state record, broken only last year. I majored in business with a minor in psychology and graduated with honors. I received several job offers, but none of them excited me.

“I wanted to travel and experience some adventures before kids and a house in the burbs. The Army interested me, and after the usual processing and waiting, I went into the Army’s Officers’ Candidate Program. Finishing near the top of my class, I was accepted into Ranger training. I loved it and did well. Ten years of Special Ops followed.

“In the invasion of Iraq, I was inserted way in front of the main battle group. The small Ranger Group I was with did well. We all received decorations. I have some shrapnel scars on my left thigh.”

“Are you seeing anyone special?”

“Mr. Brandon, are you hitting on me?”

Jack laughed and said, “Any red-blooded man would at least think about it. Maybe over dinner but not lunch. Besides you are one lethal woman.”

“Any woman likes to be wanted, but I was pulling your chain. Several years difference in our ages, and you are not the oldest. May I assume you had another reason to ask about my love life?”

“Yes. I was probing your willingness to travel on short notice and spend long periods of time out of touch with a loved one.”

“It’s the nature of my profession. When the need is there, I am ready to go. Two months ago I broke a long-term relationship because he couldn’t deal with my absences and inability to make and stick to a schedule. I’ve recently met a man I like a lot but need more time. He is a retired army colonel with a Special Forces background. I like to be with men, but don’t need them, but I’m getting to the point where a house in the burbs with kids does appeal to me. Did I answer your question?”

“Yes.”

“Is it my turn?”

“Sure, ask away.”

“Why aren’t you seeing someone? Are you still in love with your first wife?”

“No way! I can’t even remember what she looks like.”

“What’s the problem then? I thought you and Kathy would be a perfect match.”

“I guess I don’t want to move too fast.”

Anita burst into laughter. “Too fast! If you move any slower, the poor girl will wonder what’s wrong with her!”

Jack laughed with her and said, “Okay. Enough ‘eat and tell’ for one day. Go look over what we have.”

***

Buy “Justice Beyond Law” on Amazon, as well as the rest of the Jack Brandon series and other books by Barry Kelly, a former CIA agent and adviser to President Reagan. 

The next morning Jack asked Anita if she could research Jason alias Morgan’s business and the area around his house. Jack told her he had done some fishing on Broad Creek bordering Tilghman Island, a closed community. Strangers, except day tourists, wandering around are suspect. They would have to get in and out fast. He doubted the two Morgans Anita and Kathy killed were the end of the cell.

As soon as Anita left to go to the library, Kathy grabbed Jack’s arm and said, “Let’s go. You need your own wheels. I love to buy cars. Just follow my lead and don’t say anything. I know the dealer.”

Twenty minutes later Kathy whipped her vintage Mustang into a BMW dealer on Route Seven just west of Tysons Corner. The dealer knew Kathy was coming and came out to meet them. He asked if she had made up her mind about what she wanted. Kathy told him it depended on the price.

After more than an hour’s discussion, Kathy winked at Jack and said, “Okay, honey, write the man a check for your gunmetal grey X54.8 Beamer Wagon with 25 thousand miles.”

Jack smiled and did as he was told. She grinned at Jack and said, “If it hadn’t been for Shadow, I would have picked something else, but that dog deserves the best. Now let’s drop my Mustang at my house and go get Shadow settled in the first class compartment in the back and bring him home.”

They drove over to the animal hospital to pick up Shadow. Shadow’s doctor met with Jack and told him Shadow was an ideal patient. His immense strength and ability to deal with pain were critical in his treatment. The danger now was in Shadow pushing himself too much, too soon. It would be several weeks before Shadow made a complete recovery. With Kathy’s help, Jack got Shadow into the back of the BMW. Shadow acted so full of himself, Jack thought he wanted to jump in by himself. Once in, he lay down carefully on his left side. Shadow wouldn’t be negotiating stairs for a few more days.

Jack pulled up in front of the apartment and went around to the back of the wagon to get Shadow who was already standing, waiting for the door to swing up. Shadow walked to the edge of the opening and looked down. Jack put his arm under Shadow to keep most of the weight off his wounded shoulder and eased him to the ground. Shadow tugged to go over to the house. Over in front of the burned house, Shadow stared, growled deep in his throat, moved between Jack and Kathy and sat down, leaning against his master’s leg. After a few minutes Jack said, “Come on, Shadow. We’ve a lot of work to do and some adjustments to make.”

After helping Jack get Shadow settled in the garage, Kathy went upstairs to continue analyzing Yuri’s DVD and notebook. Jack watched her climb the stairs and then went to the library to help Anita. Using local library sources and the internet, Anita found the Island Marina. It seemed to be in a rather secluded area of a small sheltered cove off the Chesapeake. A clapboard ranch-style house facing east and a small shack near the dock were the only structures on the property. The marina advertised 20 slips and several small fishing boats for renting to tourists.

Their target area was located south on Route 33 across the Choptank, a right turn to the east on Coppertown Road, to a sandy unpaved road marked by a hand-painted sign “Island Marina Boats for Rent.” They had commercial satellite photography several weeks old showing a marina with several occupied slips, a dockside boat house, and a two- or three-bedroom clapboard ranch house sited against a wooded tree line. A few commercial fishing boats, looking like small barges with a canvas-topped box forward on the bow, were anchored near a wooden pier 30 feet offshore. No other buildings were in the immediate area.

As they were gathering up their papers and maps from the library table, Jack said, “How about we go have ourselves a decent lunch?”

“I’m ready if you are going to pay.”

“Greek. Okay?”

***

Buy “Justice Beyond Law” on Amazon, as well as the rest of the Jack Brandon series and other books by Barry Kelly, a former CIA agent and adviser to President Reagan. 

Early the next morning Jack borrowed Kathy’s car and left for an 8:30 a.m. appointment with Lee Jensen. Kathy and Anita were already working on the DVDs found in Yuri’s basement. After meeting with Lee, Jack drove over to see Shadow. Shadow was making wonderful progress. When Shadow saw him, he stood up and howled in recognition, almost as if saying, “Get me out of here, the food is terrible!”

Jack rubbed Shadow’s head and talked to him. The veterinarian on duty told Jack, Dr. Green had noted on Shadow’s chart he could go home tomorrow but needed to stay on his antibiotics for the next five days. Jack said goodbye to Shadow and told the staff he would pick up Shadow tomorrow morning.

His meeting with Lee Jensen dealt mostly with implementing his father’s will. Jack signed document after document, counting on Lee to be sure what he was signing was okay. Jack asked Lee to arrange to have his father’s body picked up and cremated.

After leaving Lee’s office, Jack went by the police station. The police had told him it may be better if he did not see his father’s body. But Jack knew he had to say goodbye to his father, and Lt. Gallagher took him to the morgue and left him alone with his father. Jack wept for the last time. He had a perfect place to scatter his father’s ashes after Yuri’s whole network and financiers were finished. It would be a very private service. Except for Lee Jensen and Frank, his father had no close social or business friends. He never attended a church nor joined any organizations.

While Jack was executing his father’s will and visiting Shadow, the off-duty firemen he had hired to recover the two safes were in the process of going through the ruins of the Brandon house. They showed up with a rented crane strong enough to pick up a gun safe and move it to the garage under the apartment. Jack drove directly from seeing his father to the burned house. When he arrived, the firemen had already located the two-drawer safe and were transporting it to the garage. Jack put on some coveralls and boots and went over to poke around the ruins of the house. It was chilly but no rain was falling. A 15 mph wind had come up, enough to stir up ashes. The space over the burned remains of the house was filled with drifting flakes of his father’s life.

Two hours of carefully searching in the ruins produced little of value. Jack hoped he would find some salvageable books from the library, but nothing was left. The fire, water, and the force of the collapse followed by hours of a smoldering burn had finished the Brandon library.

Jack found his father’s PC and carried the CPU out of the wreckage to make sure the hard drive was destroyed. In the end only some antique tools without handles were left. Jack gave those to one of the firemen who said he had a woodworking shop and could restore them. Jack paid off the firemen just before lunch and quiet descended over the home his father had loved. The flower beds were burned and trampled. His father’s prized rose bushes died with their keeper. The firemen gave him the name and phone number of a local salvage business to come in and haul away some of the appliances, brass hardware and other fixtures.

The space above a four-bay car garage made for a nice sized apartment of three bedrooms and two baths plus a large sitting room and Pullman-type kitchen. Since the garage itself was heated, Jack was planning to sleep down there with Shadow when he came home tomorrow. For some reason known only to the original builder, the garage was on a completely separate utilities system.

Kathy made lunch of tuna sandwiches and tomato soup. After a quick lunch they went down to the safes in the garage. The firemen had already sluiced them off. They opened the gun safe first. The dial mechanism was filled with ashes and particulate matter from the fire so the numbers were barely visible. Rather tentatively, Jack sprayed the mechanism with WD-40, spun the dial until it moved more freely, then dialed the combination. Moving the dial back to zero he turned the knob, heard the satisfying sound of the last tumbler falling, and tugged the door open.

The gun safe was found in a pool of water on the ground level. In fact, both safes were in the same room. The firemen told Jack the water had pooled in the low part of the ground floor with no way for it to drain out. Since the safe was watertight, they found the weapons, and aside from some heat damage to one fiberglass stock on a .22 caliber rifle and some apparent scorching of a few polished rifle stocks, the guns stored in the safe looked not too much the worse for wear. The small amount of ammunition kept in the house was consumed by the fire.

Anita said, “YES!” And gave Jack a high five when she saw the three nine-millimeter handguns. “Now we’re back in business. We’ll have to test fire all weapons just to be sure they’re okay.”

Jack said, “I hope we have the same luck for the contents of the two-drawer safe. I want to find some of my father’s personal papers.”

Jack pulled out his wallet and extracted a business card where he had jotted down the combination and began to work the combination on the small safe. Here the sequence of dialing the three-number combination was different: Turn counter-clockwise for the first number, spin past it twice, stop on the third time, spin past the third number once and stop on the second time, and then spin back to zero. After three tries, he turned to Kathy and asked for help.

She laughed and in ten seconds had the door open. There were brown crinkled edges to some of the files but most looked to be in readable condition. Inside was an old metal framed green glass box. The box had an intricate-appearing lock. The antique key was taped to the top of the box. Jack opened the box. He found more detailed notes on the management of the overseas accounts and a number of priceless old photographs. A few were of him at a very young age. In one he was held by his mother. The one he treasured most was of the whole family together when he was about three. There was also a gold necklace and a locket containing a small picture of Jack as an infant. A note on the bottom of the box said the box once belonged to his grandfather. The box also contained a safety deposit box key for a local bank. Jack put the key in his pocket, thinking he would check it out as soon as he could.

The lower drawer contained a water-tight aluminum attaché case. The case held a number of letter-sized brown envelopes, one bulging with diamonds of various sizes. Another larger brown envelope contained bundles of currency in large denominations and two passports, one in the name of Peter Brandon. The other one showed his father’s slightly altered image with the name Joseph L. Black. There were also a few file folders containing information on people.

Kathy and Anita left Jack with his papers and went upstairs, talking about diamonds. Before Jack finished with sorting out the contents of the safe, Anita called down and asked him to come up and look at the printout from Yuri’s DVD. When he got upstairs, Kathy handed him the printout. He was astounded by the detail. Every person in Yuri’s network was identified with a name, picture, address, contact arrangements and the mission they had been given.

Jack wondered if they could turn this all over to the FBI. Nothing they gave to the FBI could provide any chance of leading back to them. Could the FBI be convinced this astounding data was authentic? It could just as well end up in the nut basket file. He had seen plenty of clues called or sent in to help the police solve real and imagined crimes, end up in the dead file folder. If they just sat on the information and played it safe, more people would die. Doing nothing was not really an option. One point seemed certain, the people in Yuri’s network were isolated from each other, so each cell of the network could be treated in isolation. The cell on Tilghman Island had the mission of killing local mayors. Were the two shooters on the hillside part of the same group who killed the mayors of Richmond and Leesburg? Following this line of thought led Jack to the conclusion they had better deal with the Tilghman Island cell themselves.

There just wasn’t time to get their information to the Bureau. First, Jack had to call Frank at the CIA. After dark Jack left the apartment to take a long walk. In back of the McLean Library, he took out a throwaway cell and dialed Frank’s number. Frank picked up on the second ring. Jack identified himself as Nick and said he had some information to pass on. Frank said, “Let’s have it.”

“We killed Yuri and two of his shooters yesterday. The killing site was cleaned up but the bodies are still there. We recovered a DVD concealed in his house describing his entire network, communications, addresses, names, missions and payments. Two of the missions recorded in the DVD point to planned car bombings in New York and the further killing of mayors in Virginia and Maryland. When we can separate the data on the DVD, we will send it to the FBI in time for them to deal with the New York cell. We will have to take care of the cell killing mayors ourselves. I assume you saw the news of the attack on my dad’s house and his death, along with his Vietnamese friends. We’ve confirmed Yuri and his crew were responsible. That’s all I have for now. Your turn.”

“Good work, Nick! You’ve given me all I need for now. If you have any trouble getting the FBI to act, call me again. Remember, don’t hesitate to take action, if it looks like it’s the only way or the best way.”

After silence for a few seconds, the line went dead leaving Jack with the dial tone. Jack looked at the phone and thought, Frank doesn’t have much of a bedside manner. That’s okay. He had done what was required. Anyway he felt much less like a vigilante on the vengeance trail. Now they had to get on with a plan to take out the Tilghman Island cell.

Jack thought he had a good team. Anita was a very cool shooter, wasn’t bothered about killing in self-defense or killing bad guys in any situation. Kathy hadn’t had as much experience but handled herself well. In fact, she probably saved my life. All in all, the trap for Yuri had gone very well. Just like the plan they had developed, not very different from a homicide bust in his old job. He now knew Yuri had led the team that attacked his father’s house and Yuri personally had killed his father. The murderous bastard deserved to die. His death was too easy for the man who killed his mother, father and baby sister. From now on, it was war with these people.

Back at the Brandon garage, Jack parked the Cherokee outside. Yuri’s BMW was already in the garage, leaving plenty of space for the shooters’ vehicle Anita was bringing. After opening the middle garage door, Jack went upstairs to wait for Anita.

Jack found Kathy at the top of the steps. He gave her a hug and thanked her for doing her part so well. She said, “Those bastards deserved to die, and I’m glad they’re dead, but this is the first killing I’ve been a part of up close and personal. It has shaken me. I guess I’m not as tough as I thought.”

“It’s not a matter of being tough. You have to be convinced you have to kill in order to save your life or others. And I don’t mean in a theoretical sense. Yuri killed my father and a lot of other people. His shooters on the hillside were trying to kill me. You and Anita had no choice. I don’t enjoy killing, but I can do it when my survival or the lives of my friends or other innocent people are threatened. In this kind of work you have to believe when the time comes, you won’t let your comrades down. I know it won’t be a problem for you.”

A short time later, Jack heard Anita bring the shooters’ transport into the driveway. Jack and Kathy went down to meet her as she got out of the van. He grabbed Anita, gave her a big hug and said, “Thanks for being so damn good. I never thought there would be two snipers backing up Yuri. He must have arranged for his two-man team to take me out when he gave a signal. I saw him snatch off his hat. There was no reason I could think of for Yuri to pull off his hat. I believe it was the signal to shoot me. You two saved my life. You are my guardian angels from now on.”

Anita laughed and told Jack, “That’s our job. But I must admit we were scrambling to get the second shooter. They were very good. I think they may have been father and son. The son couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen. They had pretty esoteric weapons for here. I left them with their weapons. I fired each of them two times. I left their brass where it fell but picked up ours and brushed out our tracks. I think it’ll take the cops awhile to put the scene together. If we’re lucky, those rifles were used in other shootings, and the cops will have them on record.”

Jack said, “The bodies could be there a day or a number of weeks depending on the weather and the foot traffic on the hillside. Okay! Now we need to clean up any loose ends. Check my thinking and add anything I miss. The Cherokee was exposed in the parking lot for about twenty minutes. We need to get rid of it. Any suggestions?”

Kathy said, “I’ll remove the plates and put on some untraceable temporary plates with quick releases. Park the Cherokee on the street with the keys in the ignition in Anacostia. The car will be gone in a few hours. It’ll become part of the underground ‘rental car’ business in southeast Washington, D.C.”

Anita said, “After we search Yuri’s car and the shooters’ van, we will have to get rid of them. The van we can also park on the street in Anacostia. It’ll be gone in ten minutes. Oh, and there’s a motorcycle in the back of the van. Everything we touched in the vehicles will have to be wiped down.”

Jack said, “Good. I think we should put Yuri’s BMW back in his garage when we go over to search his house. Kathy wore gloves so it wouldn’t need a wipe down. Wipe downs always alert the police forensic team. What about the other stuff we need to get rid of?”

Anita said, “Our clothes, boots and rifle barrels have to go. I noticed a decent tool supply and work bench in the back of the garage. I’ll damage the rifling and drop the barrels in the Potomac.”

“Okay, you and I will get rid of the van, rifles and clothing. Kathy, you have the most spook experience, so put Yuri’s car in his garage and start searching his house. Watch out for surprises. We need some leads to his network. He has to own a computer. Anita and I will join you as soon as we can. We’ll park Anita’s car down the block and walk to Yuri’s place. We’ll go around the back and knock three times on the door. No phones. Okay, let’s see what we have in these vehicles.”

Jack and Anita began their search of the van. After an hour of searching and wiping, it was clear the shooters were professional. They carried no ID on them. With the exception of the keys and camouflage face paint, nothing was in their pockets. Paper food wrappings from Hardee’s, gas receipts and bridge toll receipts were on the floor, with an operating cell phone in the glove compartment.

Both the van and the motorcycle had alternative license plates, probably stolen. Finally, they found a hidden compartment under the floor in the back of the van containing $25,000 cash, Maryland driver licenses, documents with phony names and addresses, and some bad sketches and time notations, probably casing data. The driver’s license and registration indicated both vehicles were owned by a Chester Allan Morgan, age 63, owner of The Island Marina on Coppertown Road, on Tilghman Island. The other shooter was William Harry Morgan at the same address, probably father and son.

With Anita following him in her car, Jack drove the shooter’s van with the motorcycle inside down to a side street in Anacostia and parked it with the keys in the ignition. They followed the same procedure with Jack’s Cherokee.

Kathy eased the BMW into the garage. She picked the lock on the door leading from the garage into the house and checked for traps but found none that would show someone had opened the door in his absence. She was still searching the house an hour later when Jack and Anita showed up. She looked for concealment places but didn’t find anything until she started tapping on the blocks in the basement. Yuri had removed a cement block from the wall in a dark corner and replaced it with a metal box of the same size with a fake cement front. Removing the fake front, she reached into the hidden recess in the wall and pulled out the metal box containing a bundle of cash in hundreds, fifties and twenties, three passports and two DVDs.

She hadn’t found a computer in the house, although she had seen him carry a notebook computer. It must be hidden either in the house or in the car.

Calling up to Jack she asked him to search Yuri’s car for a notebook computer. Jack went back to the garage and a short time later came back with a Dell notebook he had found under the BMW’s passenger seat. Keeping their gloves on, they once again searched the house and after finding nothing else of value, they left separately by the back door. Kathy used her tools to lock the door and joined Jack and Anita by her parked car in the next block.

Safely back in the apartment, Jack hosted a drink to his father and said, “Dad, we made a good start. I wish you were here to celebrate with us. Now we’ll get the rest of them.”

Just as Jack was finishing his drink and preparing to call it a night, a news flash appeared on the screen catching their attention. The anchor in a somber broadcast voice announced, “An hour ago, unidentified gunmen killed two people, one man in Richmond and a woman in Leesburg. Both appear to have been killed with a single shot fired from a distance. Not much else is known at this time, but both people were sitting mayors in Leesburg and Richmond.” The announcer promised further details soon.

Jack said, “I’ll bet the shooters are part of Yuri’s group.”

Kathy commented, “We can hope so. I hope the police get some good ballistic evidence, but for now we have to concentrate on Yuri’s records. I found no weapons, only a box of .38 hollow tip rounds. The Dell notebook Jack found in the BMW hasn’t been searched. The box contained three passports of different nationalities, $200,000 in cash, and best of all a couple of DVDs.”

Anita said she was bushed and needed a good sleep. Jack, too wired to sleep, was surfing the channels trying to find a classic western. Self-defense or not, killing another human was hard even when it was a monster like Yuri. Eventually Jack relaxed, gave up his search for the perfect western movie and went to bed.

After receiving the phone call, Yuri put in a panic call to Jason from his house. He talked for five minutes with Jason, who said he could be in the Washington area by 3:00 p.m. and in place at the meeting site by 4:00 p.m. They worked out their plan. Yuri had eaten at the restaurant several times and was able to give Jason a detailed description of the meeting site. Yuri told Jason he believed he could handle the problem himself, but if things got out of hand he would take off his hat as a signal for Jason to kill the man. Yuri would then put the body in the man’s car and walk to his car parked some twenty meters away and drive off. Jason would travel through the bush back to his hidden van and drive back to Tilghman’s Island on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay and wait for further instructions.

Jason switched off his cell phone, looked over at his son and said, “I don’t like this. No time to do a proper look around for escape routes, shooting lanes and sun angles. We don’t have a good cover story for being in the area, too much of a scramble. I also didn’t tell our control you were with me. I figured that’s my business and I could really use your help on this one. You shoot better than I do.”

“Dad, let me do the shooting, you cover me and our escape route.”

“Okay, Billy, let’s do it your way.”

By the time Jason and Billy went over as many details and options as they could without knowing the scene, they were within a few hundred yards of the restaurant.

It was now 3:45. Anita and Kathy had been in place for 25 minutes. Anita selected both shooting positions. There had been plenty of time to assemble the rifles they carried in black gym bags. Anita took a position higher on the hill with a clear view of the terrain below her down to the parking lot, but probably would not be able to cover Jack’s car from her position. Kathy’s lower position, much nearer the parking lot, allowed her to backup Jack in case he needed help with Yuri or a second Yuri backup car actually pulled into the parking lot. Jack had to be careful not to let his car or his body screen the line of fire to Yuri. Their camouflaged hunting gear and the high dead grass made Anita and Kathy almost invisible in their shooting positions. Only the camouflaged rifle barrels protruded slightly from the sniper nests. Anita thought, it is a real luxury to work with another trained sniper. Jack would set up the target for them. Using the micro communications system Frank had left them, Anita checked with Kathy to make sure they were both ready. Anita trusted the sight alignment of both rifles because she had tested them before she put them in the storage unit Frank set up. Their longest shot would be less than fifty meters.

About the time Jason and Billy, taking advantage of some deep gullies, were slowly making their way from the high ground to the north down the ridge behind Fisherman’s Inn, Jack left for the meeting. With a 4:30 meeting time, Jack and Anita knew any backup for Yuri would have to be in place at least 30 minutes early or come with Yuri in a separate car and box Jack in between their cars. Both Jack and Anita agreed the most likely backup would take a shooting position on the high ground overlooking the parking lot. The other scenario had too many downsides to take place in daylight in a public place, even one as remote as this one.

Kathy told Anita she was settled into her shooting position. The distance, light and wind factors for several shooting lanes had all been fed into her mental shooting solution. The natural noises of the woods had begun after being disturbed by her arrival. The clucking of squirrels and the sound of passing cars were the only sounds apparent to her heightened senses. Behind her and higher on the ridge she heard and then saw a flock of woodland doves take to the air. At the same time she saw and heard Jack’s car pull into the parking lot below her.

Kathy hit her squelch button to get Jack’s and Anita’s attention and then whispered, “I have movement approximately forty meters to the northwest of my position!”

“Copy. Take no chances. Take the shot as soon as you have one.”

Higher on the ridge Anita was so focused on the possibility of danger behind her, she almost missed the slight counter wind movement in the branches of a small pine tree in front and left of her. A ten mph wind was moving steadily up the hillside. Slowly sighting in on the suspected area, she saw more movement in the pine grove. A closer look revealed part of a boot.

Anita pressed her push-to-talk button and whispered, “I have a possible shooter in my sights 30 meters directly in front of me. Can’t see any weapon. I think there may be more than one shooter. These people are good. Very good. I’m going to take him now. I’ll wait until the traffic noise can mask the shot.”

Anita waited until a truck passed by on the two-lane road below her, and tracing the shooter’s leg up to his body mass, she fired twice. The truck’s engine noise covered the coughing sound of her weapon. The leg twitched and was still. She knew the target was finished but made sure before moving on. She immediately blocked the kill from her mind and began to search the hillside below her. Anita reasoned if there was another shooter, he or she had to be lower on the hill. She began moving fast but quietly toward a dry stream bed with shallow banks she had marked on her way in. Once in the dry stream bed she made good time. Reaching the half way point, and judging the second shooter would be below her and facing downhill, Anita paused for a moment, then moved slowly toward the area where she believed the sniper was hidden. The wind helped cover her movement.

Kathy, alerted by Anita, began checking the ground behind her. Searching foot by foot she noted a dark shadow in a stand of low scrub pines and then saw a wrapped rifle barrel. She whispered to Anita the location of the second shooter. Anita said she was coming and to take the shot as soon as Kathy had a good target.

Jack’s was the only car in the area. A few cars, probably belonging to the restaurant staff, were parked on the upper level near the restaurant. He heard the muted sound of Anita’s rifle and thought they would now be searching for a possible second shooter. Jack adjusted his mirrors so he could cover the lot. He saw himself in the mirror. The image made him catch his breath. The shadows around his eyes from the makeup, the graying of his hair and the rimless glasses had aged him thirty years.

Again he agonized over leaving the house to interview Kathy. His father would have had a chance to live and so would the Nguyens if he had been there.

Yuri hadn’t heard from Jason since his call hours ago. He could only assume Jason was in position to protect him. As Yuri approached the meeting place, he slowed and pulled into a Great Falls Park parking area just below and across the road from the entrance to the restaurant. Locking his car and adjusting the snub nose .38 in the small of his back, Yuri walked up the driveway. The hillside behind the parking lot was covered with scattered clumps of pines, high dead grass and dormant winter scrub. As he approached the driveway entrance to the Park, he could see a white Cherokee across the road in the restaurant’s lower lot. It looked as if a single male was sitting behind the wheel.

Anita and Kathy heard Yuri’s car arrive and knew they had to hurry. Jack was a sitting duck for a hillside sniper.

Checking his mirrors, Jack saw Yuri walking up the parking lot driveway. He walked like a man well into his sixties but very smartly dressed, including a snap brim fedora. When he was about 20 feet away, Jack opened his door and swung his cane out to support himself as he got out. Jack straightened up and noticed Yuri had stopped.

Jack walked a few steps forward and said, “Hello, Yuri.”

Yuri walked another step and stopped dead. His face had turned white. He put his hand to his face and said, “Is that you, Kalin? No, you’re dead! It can’t be! I killed you! You’re the only one who could have recognized me and figured out what I was doing!”

While Jack was moving toward Yuri, he heard a popping noise. Yuri took his hat off in a quick snatching movement. Instead of watching his opponent go down after Jason shot him, nothing happened. Looking more closely he could see movement in the dense thicket on the hillside. Sensing something had gone wrong, he realized he had underestimated his opponent. Yuri turned and, for a man his age, moved quickly down the parking lot. Jack caught up with him in three steps. As Jack was reaching for him, Yuri turned and pulled a .38 revolver from under his coat. Jack knocked the gun out of his hand with a swing of his cane. Before the gun hit the ground, Jack struck Yuri on the right side of his neck with his cane, and trapping his neck with the cane and his left arm, pivoted quickly breaking Yuri’s neck.

Anita came running up and told Jack there were two shooters. Kathy had just killed the second one. She helped Jack drag Yuri deep into the hillside brush. Jack checked Yuri’s pockets and took his keys, glasses, money, watch and wallet. While he was searching Yuri, Anita ran back to help Kathy clean up the killing ground and pack their camouflaged suits and rifles. Anita radioed Jack to say she was sure the shooters’ transportation had to be nearby. She was going to look for it. She had the shooters’ keys. If she failed to find it, she would call for Jack or Kathy to pick her up.

He told her to fire the shooters’ weapons and leave them with the bodies. Jack told Kathy to pick up Yuri’s BMW and drive it back to the apartment. He would leave the keys to the BMW on the ground near where his car was now parked. Jack was not surprised no one had shown up to check out the parking lot. No one was close enough to see anything or recognize the popping or coughing of a sound-suppressed weapon. He thought the press will have a field day with this against the backdrop of the sniper spree in the area several years ago. So be it. Nothing here could be traced back to them. The parking lot had no video monitors. The rifles, blood spotted clothes and boots would be destroyed before morning. Their brass was picked up. Their commo gear was low-powered and too sophisticated to worry about anyone intercepting and decrypting their transmissions. Now the question is how long the bodies will remain undiscovered.

Kathy came walking up the driveway just as Jack got back to the Cherokee. Jack gave her Yuri’s keys and told her to take Yuri’s car back to the apartment and wait for him and Anita there.

Over Kung Po chicken, hot and sour soup, steamed rice and green tea, Jack, Kathy and Anita reviewed their plan to deal with Yuri. During the discussion Jack asked Kathy what she knew about Yuri. Kathy closed her eyes for a minute and said, “Yuri’s BMW is registered to his address on Westmoreland Boulevard. A Google search did not turn up anything. He has no Social Security number recorded. No one visited his house in the limited time I watched Yuri. He has no hangouts. He is very careful about anyone following him and drives always within the speed limit. I have no doubts this man is an experienced professional.”

Anita said, “This guy is not coming to this meeting alone. He’ll bring a shooter to cover him with instructions to kill whoever he is meeting. There will probably be an ‘okay shoot’ signal. Kathy and I will be able to handle the hidden shooter. I’ll take the high position on the hillside with Kathy lower on the slope and closer to you. And Kathy, remember if in doubt, shoot.”

Kathy said, “Thanks Anita. I know this is my first time shooting from ambush but with radio contact between us, I’ll be okay.”

Kathy showed Jack the note she had drafted to lure Yuri to a meeting. Jack read the note aloud:

Hello Yuri,

I know who you are and what you are doing. I haven’t told anyone yet. I just want some of the money. I’ll be calling you in a few days to tell you where to meet me. Come alone. No second chances.

An old friend.

Anita said, “Good note. I don’t see how he can ignore it.”

Jack said, “Nice job, Kathy. Put it in his mailbox.”

The next morning Yuri left his house at 9:30. Kathy, dressed in casual winter clothes, began delivering made up flyers on global warming to houses along the street. At Yuri’s house the envelope was put in the mail box along with the flyer. Kathy continued delivering the flyers along the street. If Yuri asked his neighbors if anyone had been seen delivering anything to his mailbox, they might say nobody except the young woman delivering the Global Warming notice. In fact, the consensus was Yuri would not ask any of his neighbors about how the note got into his box.

From her position a full block down the street, Kathy saw Yuri pull into his driveway. Fifteen minutes later, she saw Yuri’s car coming out of his driveway. She thought, he’s seen the note and is now going for help.

As he drove down M Street, Yuri’s heart was pounding. Who possibly could write that note? He had killed the only person who seemed to be interested in him. He was sure the man was his Kalin, the renegade KGB terrorist specialist. No one from his past knew his name or address. Not even the key members of his network knew how to get in touch with him. To contact him they had to place a personal ad in the New York Times. No way could it be traced to him. No, it had to be Kalin’s people. Could they be part of a Russian or American counter-intelligence group?

It didn’t seem as though the American authorities were involved. They would have simply arrested him and searched his house. Was he being followed? He didn’t think so. But he was long retired from street work, and some kinds of surveillance were very difficult to spot. Yes, it pained him to admit it, but he could have been followed by someone who was quite good. This had to be a singleton operation. Nothing about it smacked of organizations. He began to refocus. First, concentrate on making sure no one is following him. Then, get Jason here immediately. He had to eliminate this threat. There wasn’t enough money to share with anyone. One more year and he was done with these high-risk operations.

Forget it, focus on the present. His old operational training directed him to place calls from different public call boxes. They were getting harder and harder to find. He had to break the rules and use the same phone more than once. He liked the phone booths in the Four Seasons Hotel. They were downstairs from the lobby and virtually out of sight.

Turning his car over to valet parking, Yuri headed for the downstairs phone booths. He dialed Jason’s cell and held his breath while the phone rang. On the fifth ring Jason picked up. Yuri identified himself by a code name, he changed with the month. He had to make the call short. Yuri told Jason, “Drop everything and come immediately to Tysons Corner. Check into the Holiday Inn at Tysons Corner under the same name you used at the last hotel meeting. Bring your tools, put your motorcycle in the van and park in the hotel garage.”

Yuri hung up with a sense of relief. Jason was a very resourceful asset. He seldom made mistakes and was totally loyal. Now to go back to his house and get ready for the promised telephone call.

At 2:15 Jack picked up a pay phone in Tysons Mall and dialed Yuri’s AKA William Armstead’s number. Kathy was listening beside him. Yuri picked up the phone on the second ring. Jack said, “Mr. Armstead?”

Yuri said, “Yes. Who is calling?”

Jack said, “Yuri, you got my note. Listen carefully. Be in the parking lot of the Fisherman’s Inn on MacArthur Boulevard today at 4:30. Come alone. I will only wait for five minutes. I will be in a white Jeep Cherokee.”

Yuri broke in and Jack heard him saying, “Wait, who are you?” as he hung up.

Kathy said, “He bought the scam. Nicely done. Let’s go!”

Jack dropped Anita and Kathy in a wooded area near the restaurant’s parking lot. As they got out of the Cherokee, Anita said, “I’ll contact you when I see you arrive in the parking lot. We’ll be in position long before you get here. Good luck!”

Jack’s plan had several options, depending on how the meeting with Yuri played out. If any of Yuri’s shooters turned up to cover the site, Anita and Kathy would kill them. No one expected they could capture Yuri. Even if they could, they could not hold him. Yuri and any of his people who showed up would be dead a few minutes after 4:30. They would be left with their weapons on the brush covered hillside. If anyone saw the action, they would have to adjust to the circumstances.

Jack returned to the apartment where Kathy had laid out the materials he needed to age himself. He grayed his hair, put shadows under his eyes and donned rimless glasses. His father’s one remaining suit that had survived the fire by being in the cleaners and one of Jack’s fighting canes completed his disguise. He was sure Yuri would be thrown off balance by seeing his father back from the dead. With Yuri, he could use every edge.