London Bridges

"You do nice work," he said, and laughed.

He opened the briefcase and pulled out a Beretta with silencer. He shot the astonished nurse in the face, twice, then turned to Dr. Levine, who had hurt him so much.

"Any other things I should or shouldn't do?" he asked. "Any last bits of advice you wish to impart?"

"My children. Please don't kill me," the doctor begged. "You know I have children."

"They'll be better off without you. I think so, bitch. I bet they would agree."

He shot her through the heart. A mercy killing, he thought to himself, especially after the way she'd tortured him. Plus, he just didn't like her, the humorless bitch.

Finally, the Wolf left the office and walked to his Range Rover. He was thinking that no one knew what he looked like now. Not a single person anywhere.

And that got him laughing, almost uncontrollably. This was his piece of the puzzle.

Chapter 116

"There he is-has to be."

"He's laughing! What's so fu

"He looks like he was scalped, then had his skin flayed," Ned Mahoney said when the heavily bandaged man in a gray overcoat emerged from the brownstone. "He looks like a goddamn ghoul."

"Don't underestimate him," I reminded Ned. "And don't forget, he is a ghoul."

We were watching the Wolf-at least, the man we believed to be the Wolf-as he left a plastic surgeon's office on the East Side of Manhattan. We had just gotten there, less than sixty seconds before. Almost missed him again.

"Don't worry, I'm not underestimating him, Alex. That's why we have half a dozen teams getting ready to pounce on him. If we'd gotten here sooner, we could have grabbed him inside the doctor's office."

I nodded. "At least we're here. It was a complicated negotiation in England. Klára Lodge and her children are somewhere in northern Africa now. She did her part."

"So the Wolf has had a tracking device under his shoulder blade since he came out of Russia? That's the story?"

"We're here, aren't we? According to Klára, Martin Lodge knew where he was all along. That kept Lodge alive."

"We're ready to go, then? We take him?"

"We're ready. I'm ready." Jesus, was I ready. I wanted to take this bastard down so badly. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face.

Mahoney spoke into the mike attached to his headset. "Close on him now. And remember, he's extremely dangerous."

You got that right, Neddo.

Chapter 117

The black Range Rover was stopped at a light on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. Dark sedans pulled up on both sides. A third car blocked off the intersection. Agents jumped out of the cars. We had him!

Gunfire suddenly erupted from a white Hummer in front of the Range Rover. The doors of the Hummer flew open. Three men with automatic weapons came out firing.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Mahoney yelled into his mike. "Everybody down!"

We were already out of our car and ru

Meanwhile, the Wolf was out of the Range Rover and ru

More gunmen appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. More of his bodyguards. He had certainly brought backup. Had we brought enough?

And then the Wolf ducked into a store on Fifth. Mahoney and I followed him. I didn't even notice what store it was. Upscale. Glitzy. Fifth Avenue, for God's sake!

The Wolf did the unthinkable then. Although nothing he did completely surprised me anymore. His right arm shot forward and released a dark object into the air. I watched it start to tumble.

I shouted, "Grenade! Everybody down! Get down! Grenade!"

A powerful explosion at the front of the store blew out two massive picture windows. Shoppers were hurt. The smoke was very thick and dark. Everybody inside the store was screaming, including the clerks behind nearly every counter.

I never lost sight of the Wolf, never lost my focus on him. No matter what he did, no matter what the danger, he couldn't be allowed to get away this time. The cost was too high. This was the man who had held the world hostage. He'd already murdered thousands.

Mahoney ran down one aisle and I took another. The Wolf appeared to be headed for an exit onto a side street. I'd lost track of where we were. Fifty-fifth Street? Fifty-sixth?

"He doesn't get out!" Ned shouted over to me.

"You've got that right."

We were getting closer and I could see the Wolf's face. With all the bandages, the bruising and swelling, he looked fiercer than I could have imagined. Worse, he looked desperate, capable of anything. But we already knew that.

He yelled, "I'll kill everybody in the store!"

Neither Mahoney nor I answered; we just kept coming. But we didn't doubt what he'd said.

He grabbed a small blond girl away from what looked to be a na

We kept coming.

He held the toddler against his chest. His blood was dripping all over her. The girl was screaming, squirming wildly in his arms.

"I'll kill -"

Ned and I fired at almost the same time-two shots and the Wolf stumbled backward, letting go of the girl. She fell to the floor, then got up screeching and ran to safety.

So did the Wolf. Out the nearest side door and onto the street.

"He's wearing a vest-has to be."

"We'll shoot him in the head," I said.

Chapter 118

We chased him east on Fifty-fifth Street, along with a couple of our agents and two fleet-footed New York City policemen. If any of the Wolf's bodyguards had survived the bloody shoot-out on Fifth Avenue, they'd lost track of their boss in the shuffle inside the store. They were nowhere to be seen now.

Still, the Wolf looked as though he knew where he was going. Was that possible? How could he have pla

We had him in our sights. He was right there in front of us.

Suddenly he turned into a building, redbrick, eight to ten stories high. Did he know someone there? More backup? A trap? What?

There was security inside; at least, there had been. But the uniformed guard was dead now, shot in the head, lying facedown and bleeding on the glossy marble floor.

The elevators were all busy, red lights flashing the floors-eight, four, three-all going up.

"He's not getting out of here. That's settled," Mahoney said.

"We can't know that, Ned."

"He can't fucking fly, can he?"

"No, but who the hell knows what else he can do. He came in here for a reason."

Mahoney assigned agents to wait for all of the elevators, then to systematically check the floors from bottom to top. Reinforcements were on the way from the NYPD. There would be dozens of cops here soon. Then hundreds. The Wolf was in the building.

Mahoney and I took to the stairs in pursuit.

"Where do we go? How far?"

"The roof. It's the only other way out of here."

"You really think he's got a plan? How, Alex?"

I shook my head; I had no way of knowing. He was bleeding, had to be weak; maybe he was even delirious. Or maybe he had a plan. Hell, he'd always had a plan before.