Consent To Kill

"I'm starving," Rapp blurted out.

Her husband was a big eater. She reached out and ran her fingers through his thick black hair. "We'll have to stop and get something on the way home."

The door opened and a petite nurse entered. She was wearing blue surgical scrubs and black clogs. She held a clipboard a few inches in front of her face. "Mr. Mitchell Rapp?"

"That's me."

She flipped through the chart. "We've got you scheduled for a vasectomy this morning."

Rapp stared back at the woman, speechless. Before he could form a sentence, the woman said, "Just kidding. My name is Deb, and I'm going to get you ready for surgery."

A

"You must be Mrs. Rapp." The nurse stuck out her hand.

"A

"Where'd you find a big stud like this? Look at these shoulders." The nurse stepped back and sized him up like he was a piece of beef.

"It wasn't easy. I had to go through a lot of guys."

"I'll bet."

Rapp laughed.

"Okay," the nurse returned her attention to Rapp. "The right knee, right?"

"No." Rapp looked alarmed. "The left."

"I know, I know." She waved her hand at him. "I'm just kidding. Trying to get you to relax, you know? You look so tense. Here, sit all the way up on the table." She took out a big black marker and wrote NO on Rapp's right knee and YES on his left knee.

"Dr. Stone is the best. He did the vice president's knee last year."

"I've met the vice president. I'm not impressed."

"Me neither," she whispered and rolled her eyes. "Kind of an ass if you ask me. Anyway…Dr. Stone handles all the hockey players on the Capitals. Big strong guys like you." She grabbed him by the shoulders. "Come to think of it…you two look familiar. Are you someone important?"

"I'm nobody," answered Rapp, "but she's important."

The nurse put her hands on her little hips and looked at A

"I'm the White House correspondent for NBC. A

"That's right. My husband loves you."

"Doesn't everyone's," said Rapp dryly.

A

"Is he worried?" the nurse asked without looking at Rapp.

"I think so."

"I'm hungry," moaned Rapp.

"Well, then, we'd better get things moving. A

They both stood. A

"I love you too." Rapp turned and limped toward the door.

A

Rapp lowered his head and shook it at the same time. A

37

Gould had found the pickup truck the day before at a small used car lot on the outskirts of A

Gould left the car lot and found a big auto center a few miles down the road. He dropped another twelve hundred bucks on new tires, belts, filters, an oil change, and a new battery. The car salesman had told him everything was in great shape, but Gould knew better than to trust him. With so much on the line it wasn't worth leaving the dependability of the vehicle to chance. The next stop was Home Depot, where he picked up an extension ladder, a chain and lock, a set of tools, an extension cord, two high-pressure hoses, five different types of tape, a roll of clear plastic, a utility knife, six five-gallon gas cans, two forty-gallon propane tanks, and a few other odds and ends. The final stop for the night was Radio Shack where he purchased a remote switch. Gould went back to the hotel, locked everything up in the truck, and chained the ladder to the truck bed.

He then went about briefing Claudia on the plan. Any anger he felt toward her over what had happened earlier that day was now mitigated by the news that Mitch Rapp would be going under the knife in the morning. Since Gould had first learned about the knee problem that morning things had only gotten better. Rapp's wife unwittingly gave Gould a constant stream of updates as she called friends and family and told them in detail that Rapp was going in for arthroscopic knee surgery in the morning. She had given away the entire timetable. When they were supposed to be at the hospital, and what time she expected to get back to the house. Gould had at minimum a seven-hour window to get things ready.

In almost all matters tactical, Claudia deferred to Louie. In this instance she made only one request-that he avoid killing the woman. She was not part of the contract. Gould had expected this, and it was one of the reasons that he had withheld from Claudia the fact that Rapp's wife was pregnant. He would make an effort to keep the woman out of it, but he would not let it compromise the mission. Rather than argue with her, though, he promised her that Rapp's wife would be fine.

Gould took the opportunity to lay down the law to Claudia. He didn't want her leaving the hotel until her new morning ritual was over. He couldn't have her out in public drawing attention to herself by throwing up every thirty minutes. Claudia agreed. She would stay back at the hotel and monitor the position of A

At 6:00 a.m. Gould left the hotel, and stopped at a gas station midway between the hotel and Rapp's house. He was wearing a pair of Carhartt blue jeans, brown work boots, a blue and gray fla

He'd picked out his spot the night before and pulled into the strip mall parking lot at exactly 6:22 in the morning. He checked the tracking device and noted that Rielly's car had not moved. He looked east and then west down the highway and wondered for the twentieth time what the odds were that they would take Rapp's car instead of hers. There wasn't much he could do at this point other than wait and see. Gould turned off the truck, went into the Starbucks and grabbed a black coffee. He came back out a few minutes later and settled in for what he hoped would be a short wait. He started reading the paper and tried to take his mind off what lay ahead. At 6:31 the device beeped, telling him that her car was moving. Gould breathed a sigh of relief. This was going to be much easier if they knew exactly where Rapp and his wife were.