Separation of Power

chapter TWENTY-FIVE
"What in the hell are you doing!" snarled Rapp as he stood in the hallway, staring at the smoke wafting from the end of Donatella's silenced pistol. His own gun was aimed at her head, and he was holding the first-aid kit in his other hand with some towels under his arm. "Put your gun down right now, Donatella!"

Acting as if his request was tiresome, she tossed her weapon to the floor and sank back into the couch. Rapp crossed over to her and kicked her weapon to the other side of the room. He set the first-aid kit and the towels on the coffee table, looked at the man with the fresh bullet hole in the top of his head, and then turned back to Donatella. "What in the f*ck was that for?"

"We were going to have to kill him sooner or later." She looked away from Rapp and closed her eyes."I didn't want you to have to do it."

"The hell you did."

"I did you a favor."

"My ass you did." Rapp pointed his pistol at the man whose hands he'd just tied. "You knew him, didn't you?"

With her eyes closed and a grimace on her face, she shook her head.

"Bullshit, Donny."

"Stop your stupid arguing and give me a shot of morphine." She reached out for the kit with her good hand. For this exact reason Donatella possessed a military first-aid kit, complete with battle dressings, sutures, clamps, surgical staples, penicillin, morphine and much more. Rapp snatched the kit away from her and said, "I came all the way over here to help you, and you haven't given me shit. You better start giving me some answers."

"You didn't come over here to help me, you came over here to help yourself"

"Oh, is that right, you little ingrate? If I hadn't stepped in, the Agency would have grabbed you off the street and done God only knows what to you."

"For all I know, these guys were sent here by the Agency."

"Yeah, Donny, these guys were sent here by the Agency," Rapp said in a mocking tone. "That's why you executed this sap right here."

"I don't know them."

"Bullshit, Donny. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't have just executed this guy if you weren't afraid he'd have something to say."

"I don't know any of these guys." She grimaced as another wave of pain washed over her. "Give me some goddamn morphine."

"You might not know these guys personally, but you sure as hell know who sent them."

"Maybe."

"Maybe, my ass, Donny. I'm done f*cking around. You gonna tell me right now who hired you to kill Peter Cameron, or I'm walking out of this apartment and out of your life."

"I think you're walking out of my life whether I tell you or not."

"Fine." Rapp grabbed his mobile phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"The Agency. I'm done with you. I'll baby-sit you until they get some people over here to pick you up."

"Hey ... hey ... put the phone away for a second."

"Why? Give me a good reason."

"Because I need you. Because I saved your life once."

"Ain't that convenient. I've saved your life twice and tonight makes three. If you want to get the ledger out, I think it's you who owe me."

Donatella held her fist up against her forehead and closed her eyes as another wave of pain washed over her. "Just give me the kit, and I'll give myself the damn shot."

"Donny, what in the hell is wrong with you? I came here to help you. Why won't you trust me and tell me who hired you?"

"Give me the shot, and I'll tell you."

"Nope." Rapp shook his head.

"Fine." Donatella tried to get off the couch, but Rapp pushed her back down.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Mitch, either give me a shot, or get the hell out of my way."

"No way, Donny. You can either tell me who hired you, or you can tell one of the Agency's doctors." After letting out a moan, she said, "All right ... fine. Give me the shot, and then I'll tell you."

Rapp looked at her, trying to discern her sincerity. "Do you know who hired you?"

"Yes, dammit! Now give me the damn shot!"

Rapp finally relented and set the kit down. He opened it and found an ampule of morphine. He took the small glass container and held it in front of Donatella's face. "This is your last chance. I'm going to give this to you and then you'd better tell me who hired you to kill Peter Cameron. If you don't, you're going to wish you would have." Rapp stabbed the ampule into her thigh and the painkiller was released into her bloodstream.

It didn't take long for Donatella to begin to relax. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Rapp grabbed a pair of scissors from the kit and began cutting the sleeve from Donatellas bloodstained blouse. His biggest fear now was that she'd lose consciousness from the loss of blood. "Where do you want to start?"

"What do you mean?" Her eyes were getting glassy.

"Who hired you, Donny?"

"Oh ... we're back to that again."

"Yep." Rapp grabbed one of the towels and started wiping the blood away. "Who hired you, Donny?"

"Oh ... Mitch, I'm in a lot of trouble."

"I can help. I promise you I'll protect you." Rapp placed one of the towels on the couch. "Here ... lie down." He gently lowered her onto the towel. He began cleaning the wound. "Whatever kind of trouble you're in, I promise I can help you get out of it." Rapp doused the wound with iodine. Thanks to the morphine, Donatella never felt the sting.

"You have to promise me, Mitchell. You have to promise me that no matter how bad this gets you'll stand by me." Rapp tore open a packet of coagulant powder and sprinkled as much of it into the wound as possible. "Donny, do you trust me?" He looked into her beautiful brown eyes.

Donatella blinked. "Yes, but ... I'm warning you ... this is going to get very ugly."

Rapp shrugged and began packing gauze into the bullet hole. "It can't be any worse than some of the crap we've already been through."

"Oh, yes it can. You have to promise me that you won't leave my side until I'm safe. You have to take me to America." After thinking about it Rapp said, "That shouldn't be a problem."

He finished packing the wound and applied a field dressing to the front of her shoulder. Gently, he rolled her onto her side and started cleaning the entry wound. "I'm waiting, Donny."

Donatella was tired. Too tired to continue the fight. She owed much to Ben Freidman, but if he'd sent these goons to kill her, she owed him no more. She had neither the strength nor the assets to fight him on her own, and any hope of going to him and proving her loyalty was childish. Ben Freidman was a ruthless man who would do anything to save his own ass.

Donatella sighed and said, "It was Ben Freidman."

Rapp let her roll onto her back. He had to see her face. "You mean to tell me Ben Freidman, the head of Mossad ordered you to kill Peter Cameron?"

"Yes."

"Holy shit," muttered Rapp. He pushed Donatella back onto her side, and went back to work on the wound. He and Kennedy had ruled the Israelis out. As far as they could tell, there was no motive for them to try and kill Rapp. They must have missed something. Those in the know around Washington knew that no group was better at penetrating U. S. intelligence assets than Israel. In many ways they were America's most ungrateful ally, but they almost always worked toward the same goal when it came to counterterrorism.

"Was Cameron an agent for Mossad?"

"I have no idea."

"Then why would Freidman want him dead?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask the person who hired us."

"What do you mean, 'hired you?" You said Freidman ordered the hit."

"I'm free-lance now, but Freidman still handles my contracts. He sets everything up, takes care of the money and keeps a third of it."

"Cheap bastard. So technically Mossad has nothing to do with this."

"No. We're completely separate"

"Donny, I don't think you're very separate when you were trained by them, used to work for them and Freidman is the current director general."

"Mitchell, I'm telling you Mossad had nothing to do with this. Someone approached Ben with a rush job, and they were willing to pay a lot of money to have Cameron taken care of quickly."

"How much?"

"Half-a-million."

Rapp stopped what he was doing momentarily. Half-a-million bucks was a lot of money for a contract on a former civil servant. "Did you get the money?"

"Yes"

Rapp placed a field dressing on her back and then gave her a shot of penicillin. "How do you feel?"

"Fine." She smiled crookedly "I don't feel a thing." After helping her sit up, Rapp asked, "Do you think you can walk?"

"At your service."

"All right. I'm going to get you a new shirt from your room, and then we need to get out of here." Rapp stood. "Do you still have a bag packed?"

"Of course. Bedroom closet, bottom right side."

"If you can think of anything else, now's the time. You might not be back here for a while." Rapp hurried into the bedroom and reappeared less than a minute later with a bag over his shoulder, and a blouse and black sweater in hand.

Donatella looked at the dead bodies on the floor. "What are we going to do about these guys?"

"I'll make a call and have it taken care of."

Rapp helped Donatella change into her new blouse and sweater and then helped her put on her coat. He threw some of the medical supplies into the bag and grabbed her pistol from the floor. After finding her purse, he put in a fresh magazine and gave her the gun. Rapp grabbed Donatella with one hand and threw the bag over his shoulder. They left the apartment, locked the door and took the elevator down to the first floor. As they went out into the cool night, Rapp scanned the street for danger. They headed toward the hotel and he briefly wondered how he would explain Donatella to Anna. He tried to tell himself that she'd understand, but something told him it was wishful thinking.