Kill Shot

Chapter 45
THEY rode back to the Embassy in the black Mercedes sedan that Kennedy had been driving. There was a brief, heated exchange over who would drive, but Rapp had won out when Stansfield intervened. He was trained to drive very aggressively if need be. Rapp wasn't crazy about taking Greta back to the Embassy, but Stansfield would have it no other way. The man was unusually shaken by the revelation of their relationship. Rapp and Greta had both argued that Greta could easily drive back to Switzerland and no one would be the wiser.

Stansfield was vehement. "I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do to your grandfather. He is not going to be happy. He would never forgive me if something happened to you, and I would never forgive myself. The safest place for you is at the Embassy. When things have settled down I will take you back to Zurich personally."

They stopped at Greta's car, grabbed their bags, and were on their way. A few minutes out from the Embassy Kennedy called the watch desk, gave them their ETA, and told them to have the gate open. Paris wasn't Moscow, but considering how often Paul Fournier's name had been popping up, it was worth taking a few extra precautions. They rolled through the big gate without incident and proceeded into the Embassy's underground parking garage.

After Rapp and Greta had grabbed their bags from the trunk, Stansfield said, "Irene, would you please take Greta to see Gene? Tell him I said to make her comfortable. She might be staying the night." Gene was the CIA station chief.

As they entered the small underground lobby off the parking garage, Greta stopped and asked Mitch, "When am I going to see you again?"

Rapp glanced at Stansfield and said, "We have some work to do. I'm sure I'll see you tonight if not sooner."

Greta got on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. "Be careful." And then, turning to Stansfield, she said, "If anything happens to him, I am going to be very upset."

Stansfield gave her a disinterested nod. "Mr. Rapp is quite capable of taking care of himself."

The men watched as the ladies entered the elevator. Kennedy had Rapp's bag. When the doors closed Stansfield said, "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"Downstairs." When they were both in the stairwell, Stansfield asked, "How long have you been seeing her?"

Rapp followed two steps behind. "Almost a year."

"Do you love her?"

"That's kind of personal, boss."

Stansfield stopped in the middle of the next landing and turned to face Rapp. "There are literally billions of women on the planet, and you chose to fall in love with her."

"I never said I was in love with her."

"Well, she's most certainly in love with you. That much is obvious."

"Sir, I'd like to keep my personal life personal."

"If only it were that easy," Stansfield grumbled, and started down the next flight. "You have no idea the problems you have caused me."

Rapp followed in silence, not wishing to explore his personal life any further. The stairs emptied into a small vestibule with a single elevator and a secure door. Stansfield pressed a button next to the door and turned his head toward the camera. There was an electronic buzz and Stansfield grabbed the door and opened it. A long hallway was in front of them. Stansfield went straight for the second door on the right. Three men were inside. Two of them were Dr. Lewis and Rob Ridley whom Rapp knew fairly well. The third one he'd never met before.

Stansfield asked, "How is it going?"

The man whom Rapp didn't know looked up from his equipment and said, "Much better. Stan's got him on the ropes. Victor's starting to slip up a bit, but he's sticking to his story."

"How are the readouts?" Stansfield asked, pointing at the polygraph machine.

"He's keeping his responses within the parameters, but my personal BS detector says he's lying through his teeth."

Rapp looked through the big viewing window and saw Victor and Hurley. His entire body tightened into a knot of energy. The first thought to cross his mind was how much he wanted to kill Victor. The second was that he wouldn't mind taking Hurley out at the same time.

They were both smoking. Victor was in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. The cotton fabric was stretched tightly over his massive arms. Leaning back in the chair, he was trying to look as casual as possible.

"I know we have to play this game, Stan. I can tell you don't like it any more than I do. We both know Rapp is a piece of shit. Let's get this over with so we can go hunt him down and put the bastard out of his misery."

Every eye in the observation room looked at Rapp. Mitch turned to Stansfield and said, "I think we both know who needs to be put out of his misery."

"In due time."

Lewis approached Rapp's side. "I know this isn't easy to hear, but you need to - "

"Shut up, Doc," Rapp said, without taking his eyes off Victor. "No offense, but I don't want to listen to any of your bullshit right now."

Hurley stabbed out his cigarette. "You know what I think . . . I think you're full of shit. I think you're lying through your f*cking teeth. I told you to pull the plug last night. Head back to the hotel and get some sack time, and you disregarded my order."

"I didn't disregard anything. We were getting ready to leave when he sent in his decoy. McGuirk and Borneman went to cover the front door and that was when Rapp jumped them."

"And where was this decoy?"

"I don't know. I never saw him again."

"You're full of shit." Hurley leaned back and shook his head. "So full of shit."

Victor smiled. "I know you're just trying to do your job, but this is a waste of time. Let's wrap this up and go kill the little shit. I know you hate him just as much as I do."

"Just because I don't like him doesn't mean I want to kill him. There are a lot of people I don't like."

"Do a lot of those people gun down two of your operatives and compromise a safe house? Do they blow a mission in the middle of Paris and turn it into an international f*cking embarrassment? Nine f*cking bodies!" Victor banged his knuckles on the table and then pointed at Hurley and said, "And don't forget the two DGSE guys he plugged."

Hurley bobbed his head as if he was agreeing with him and then said, "About those two DGSE agents . . . I heard an interesting story. I have two witnesses who came on the scene shortly after you'd left Borneman's body on the street in your rush to save your own ass."

"I already told you Borneman fell out of the van. There was nothing I could do about it."

Hurley ignored him. "These two witnesses positively ID'd Rapp."

"There you have it. They put him at the scene."

"Take a guess what he was doing when they came upon him?"

"I don't know . . . running away?"

"No . . . that would be you. You were the one running away."

Victor leaned over the table. "You would have done the exact same f*cking thing."

"You have no idea what I'd do, so shut your f*cking mouth before I break your jaw. Now get back on point. What do you think Rapp was doing when these two guys walked up on him?"

Victor leaned back and folded his arms defiantly. "I don't know."

"He was giving first aid to one of the agents. One guy was hit in the face and the second was hit in the chest. These two witnesses I've worked with for almost two decades say Rapp was patching up the guy with the chest wound."

Victor shrugged as if it meant nothing.

"Tell me why in hell Rapp would shoot a guy and then try to save him."

"I don't know. He's a total nut job, and when we can catch him we can ask him all of these questions. But this," Victor said, throwing his hands out, "is all a bunch of bullshit and you know it."

One of the phones in the observation room rang and Ridley answered it. He listened for a half minute and then said, "Nice work. Stick with it. I'll call you as soon as we're mobile." Ridley set the phone back in the cradle and looked up at Stansfield with a big grin on his face. "Waldvogel got it done. We're wired for sound and we have a beacon. Guess who picked Cooke up at the airport?"

Stansfield was too fixated on Victor to change gears so quickly. "I have no idea."

"Paul Fournier."

"His name seems to be popping up a lot these days."

"Waldvogel says they're stopping for lunch and then they have a meeting. Fournier said, and I quote, 'They are very excited to meet you, but they expect the rest of the list, and they want to know the name of the assassin.' "

"What did Cooke say?"

"He said he didn't fly all the way to Paris just to have lunch."

Stansfield turned away from Ridley and looked through the glass. Tapping Talmage on the shoulder, he said, "Tell Stan to take a break. I need to talk with him."

Rapp walked over to Stansfield, and in a voice that only he could hear, said, "Give me five minutes with him. I'm the last guy he expects to see."

Stansfield was in the midst of considering it when Hurley came into the room looking as if he wanted to punch someone. He froze in midstride when he saw Rapp standing next to his boss. "What in hell is he doing here?"

"Easy," Stansfield warned. "His story checks out. He's not the problem," Stansfield said, nodding at Rapp. "He is." Stansfield pointed through the glass at Victor, who was looking rather smug considering the situation he'd landed himself in. "Come here," Stansfield ordered Hurley. The two of them huddled in the corner, where Stansfield relayed everything he'd learned in the past few hours.

"Greta?" Hurley asked in shock at one point.

Stansfield quieted him down and finished. The two of them came out of the corner. Stansfield looked at Dr. Lewis and said, "Tom, Mitch would like to go in there and ask Victor a few questions. I'm running short on time. It appears our deputy director is in the midst of committing treason, and before I do anything about it, I'd like a little more proof."

"Can you keep your cool?" Lewis asked Rapp.

Rapp frowned. "I don't think keeping my cool is going to get us anywhere at this point. I watched that f*cker kill four people last night. Not one of them was a terrorist. Two of them you knew pretty well. He's a piece of shit . . . a sick dog, and you guys should have put him out of his misery a long time ago. Now isn't the time to get weak in the knees." The last person Rapp expected to support him was Hurley.

"He's right. Victor thinks he has us outsmarted. The best way to knock him off his game is to send Rapp in."

"If Mitch walks into that room," Lewis said, "there's going to be violence."

Rapp drew his silenced Glock and said, "You're damn right there is."

Lewis looked pleadingly at Stansfield. "This isn't the way to do this. What if he kills him before we get the answers we need?"

"I promise I won't kill him, Doc. At least not before we get the answers we need." Rapp didn't want to wait around for permission, so he started for the door.

Hurley caught him in the hallway. He grabbed Rapp by the arm.

Rapp spun around with pure anger on face. "Keep your f*cking hands off me."

Hurley held up his hands and said, "This isn't easy for me, but I wanted to say I was wrong and I'm sorry."

Rapp took the apology with a nod and said, "Fine, now if you want to help me, make sure you don't let anyone into that interrogation room until I'm done with him. I don't care what you hear, you keep that door closed. Can you do that?"

"Yeah. I can do that."