American Assassin: A Thriller

by Vince Flynn

  "So you want me to confirm what you don't want to hear?"

  "I just want to know the facts so I can go back and brief Thomas. He needs to tell our embassy people, if they are in danger of reprisals, and anyone else who might get stuck in Ivanov's crosshairs."

  Hurley swore under his breath and finally said, "Yes, I took some of the bastard's money, and with any luck it'll be the beginning of the end of him."

  Kennedy took the news without comment and placed a small tape player between them. "Now ... you will be very interested to hear this brief conversation."

  Kennedy pressed play and the slurred voice of Mikhail Ivanov could be heard asking, "My package ... Is it ready? You haven't decided to negotiate with the Persians, have you?"

  "I am standing by our deal."

  Kennedy pressed the stop button. "You recognize the first voice?"

  Hurley nodded. "Ivanov."

  "Correct. The second voice?"

  "No."

  "Colonel Assef Sayyed."

  Hurley was impressed. "What the hell are they doing talking on an open line?"

  "They weren't, but you didn't hear that from me."

  "Then how'd you get it?"

  "I can't say." Kennedy pressed play again.

  "When can I expect it to be retrieved? I assume you are still sending someone."

  "Yes ... although I am considering coming myself. ... You did offer ... didn't you."

  "Absolutely."

  "Good. I will be there in three days. Maybe sooner."

  Kennedy hit stop. "There's more. Tapes of Ivanov and Sayyed and others as well. You'll want to listen to all of them, but Thomas does not want you bringing the tapes into Beirut."

  "Understood. Did you happen to pick up Badredeen or Mughniyah?"

  "Unfortunately, no, but we have a few others that I think will please you." Kennedy retrieved another folder from her briefcase and laid it before Hurley. "Tarik al Ismael."

  "Music to my fucking ears. Please tell me you IDed the prick."

  "Hiding right under our noses a few kilometers down the road."

  "Where?"

  "He's been working at the UN office in Geneva. Attached to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, if you can believe it. He lost a few pounds, cut his hair and beard, and ditched his contacts for eyeglasses. You have to admire his tradecraft." Kennedy fingered the old photo from his days when he was running operations for the Libyan intelligence service, and then the new photo. "It's a pretty good effort."

  "You sure it's him?"

  "Ninety percent on the photo and ninety-nine point nine on the voice ID. And he was calling about money missing from his account. If we hadn't had the big ears focused on these banks, I don't think we would have ever caught him."

  Hurley thought of their conversation last night and frowned. "So you want to send Rapp after him?"

  "Not just me. Ismael is near the top of Thomas's list."

  "I don't know, Irene," Hurley said with obvious reluctance. "Ismael could bite back. He's not some fat arms dealer. He's a real killer."

  "In a perfect world, Thomas would send all three of you after him, but we don't have that luxury right now."

  "Why? Let's put Beirut off for a few days."

  Like a Vegas dealer, Kennedy slid the gray file off to the side and moved the manila file front and center. "In the transcript, you heard Ivanov ask if his package was ready?"

  "Yeah."

  "He asked Sayyed if he was going to negotiate with the Persians instead..."

  "Yeah."

  "Remember what they did to Buckley?"

  "Remember--I think about it all the time. I was just telling Mitch and Bobby Richards about him."

  "Well, Thomas thinks the Schnoz is the package they are referring to."

  Everything stopped. Hurley didn't so much as twitch for a good ten seconds. He'd known the Schnoz for close to twenty years and there was a running shopping list in his head of all the operations he'd been involved in. After a quick assessment of the potential damage, he leaned back and dropped the F bomb. Cummins had worked in Moscow before Damascus. If the Russians got their hands on him, they would be screwed in some of their most sensitive operations. He shook his head to get over the shock and said, "We can't let that happen."

  "Thomas agrees. He has a source that says Schnoz is still alive. Emaciated and battered, but still alive."

  "Shit."

  "That's why he wants you and Richards to get to Beirut ASAP. As we discussed last night, Rapp will join up with you tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime, you two start poking around. If you can't find anything in forty-eight hours, Thomas wants you to use some of the new funds to negotiate for the Schnoz's release. Very quietly, though."

  "Of course." Hurley was still trying to calculate the damage. "What about backup?"

  "He's agreed to send a SOG team, but doesn't want to put them in-country until you have something solid."

  "Understood." SOG stood for Special Operations Group. There was a good chance Hurley would know the men. "Air cover?"

  "If you need it he'll get it. Last resort, though."

  Before Hurley could comment, there was a banging on the side of the plane and he realized it was time to go. Kennedy passed him two files. "Those are for you. This one," she said as she handed him a third, "is for Mitch. Make sure he knows to destroy it before he makes contact with Ismael."

  "Will do." Hurley stood. "Anything else?"

  Kennedy joined him in the aisle. She didn't want him to go, but he was a good soldier, so there was no stopping him. So much of their shared sorrow revolved around that once-beautiful city on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.

  Hurley could see that she was concerned, and he knew why. He gave her a hug and said, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

  "Yeah," she said, not really believing it herself and holding back the tears. "Beirut's still a nasty place." She stayed strong for him. There was no turning back now that he knew. The only thing to do was support him. She kissed him on the cheek and said, "Be careful."

  CHAPTER 45

  GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

  WHEN it was all done Rapp would swear that he felt the zip of the bullet as it passed his left temple. It was that close. The only thing that saved him was the awkward movement that the Libyan made as he drew his pistol. The fake was weak. He looked over his left shoulder a bit too dramatically and then swung back to his right, drawing his gun, his long overcoat flaring like a matador's cape. The other reason Rapp didn't fall for it was that mean old cuss Stan Hurley. It was the first time Rapp could honestly say he was grateful for all the shit Hurley had heaped on him. All of that damn methodical, shitty training paid off in the split second it took Ismael to draw his gun and turn on him.

  The fact that Rapp didn't want to kill the wrong man also contributed to the harsh reality that he was now cowering behind a Swiss mailbox, rounds of an undetermined caliber thudding into the metal receptacle at an alarming rate. And Hurley had been right, of course. He had told them that there were two ways to win a gunfight. Either land the first shot or find cover and conserve your ammunition. Hurley had put them in a situation so similar to this that it was now damn near calming to listen to his opponent mindlessly fire one shot after the next into a four-sided box of steel that had survived every change of season for the past fifty years.

  Back in the woods of Virginia the idea was to find cover while Hurley fired live shots at you. And mind you, he didn't fire them safely over the horizon. He liked to hit things close to you. Not rocks or anything hard enough to cause a life-ending ricochet, but soft things like dirt, sandbags, and wood. The object of the lesson was to teach you what it felt like to be shot at, so you could keep your head when confronted with the real thing. As a bonus, you learned to count not just the number of rounds you fired, but the number of rounds your opponent fired as well. At first, the exercise was unnerving, but after a while, as with most things in life, you adapted and got the hang of it.
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  Rapp squatted, his back pressed firmly against the mailbox, and counted the number of shots, which had been eight so far. He was waiting for the inevitable calm in the storm. There was a problem, however. While Rapp's pistols were equipped with silencers, the Libyan's gun was not. Eight extremely loud gunshots had rung out in a city with one of the lowest murder rates in the entire industrialized world. It might as well have been an artillery barrage.

  There was no telling how many extra magazines the Libyan had in his possession, but he doubted the man could match the seventy-two rounds Rapp carried. Rapp released the grip of his still-holstered Beretta and stabbed the big gray button on his Timex digital watch. Just as Hurley had taught him, it was set for stopwatch mode. The average response time for a police car in a city of this size was roughly three minutes. And that was assuming there wasn't one nearby. There were rules that were flexible, and there were rules that couldn't be broken, and killing a police officer was one of those unbreakable rules. Hurley had told them, "If you kill a cop I will kill you before they do."

  The first eight shots had come in rapid succession. By the sound they were 9mm or maybe .40 caliber at the most. Rapp never heard where the first one landed after it flew past his head, but the second shot had blown out the driver's-side window of the white BMW parked a few feet away, which was now chirping and beeping like a car with Tourette's syndrome. The next six had hit the mailbox. Not a smart move unless he had a second gun, and he was closing on him. Rapp though that unlikely. Ismael was spooked and on the run, which in itself bothered Rapp.

  The drive from Zurich had been easy. Just under three hours, counting a quick stop to call the answering service and confirm that the target was at his place of work. The file was straightforward. They were monitoring the calls he made at work, they knew where he lived and the make and model of his car. Hurley gave Rapp specific instructions. Tail Ismael after work and follow him to his apartment. If he comes out for an errand or an evening stroll and there's an opportunity, take him. If not, wait until morning and shoot him while he's getting into his car. Rapp had followed the instructions to the letter, and when Ismael bowed out of his apartment at ten-oh-nine that evening, Rapp watched him round the corner and then pursued on foot.

  A block later Rapp noticed that Ismael had a duffel bag slung over his left shoulder. It was at that point that the wheels started to turn in Rapp's head. He asked himself if it was normal to leave your apartment on a crisp winter night when you should be getting into bed. It wasn't unheard of for someone to head out after ten, but it was far from common. Especially on a Tuesday night. Throw in the overnight bag and you now had someone who might be running. That was pretty much what Rapp was thinking when Ismael pulled his lame matador move. That and wondering if he could rush him at the next intersection, shoot him in the back of the head, and be in France before midnight.

  Now, because he had failed to head Hurley's warnings, he was crouched behind a mailbox, counting bullets and wondering if Ismael had one or two guns. One more shot thudded into the mailbox and then there was a two-second pause. Rapp stuck out his gloved hand to see if he could draw a shot. He pulled it back as a tenth bullet whistled harmlessly past. It sparked off the stone sidewalk and skipped down the street. Rapp thought he heard the clank of a slide locking in the open position, but he wasn't sure. A split second later he heard the heavy footsteps of someone running. That was it. He was either reloading or out.

  Rapp drew the silenced Beretta from under his right arm and bolted between the two parked cars to his left. He stayed low, glancing over the roofs of the cars. He caught a glimpse of the Libyan as he took a left turn at the next corner. That put a smile on Rapp's face. Run all you want, he thought. The more distance we can put between us and those ten muzzle blasts the better.

  Rapp rounded the corner wide and fast, trying to keep the parked cars between himself and Ismael. They were on the Left Bank, or Rive Gauche, and Ismael was headed toward the Rhone. They had just turned off a street that was purely residential and onto one that was a mix of retail and apartments. The shops were all closed and fortunately the sidewalk was deserted. Rapp stayed in the street and broke into a full sprint. Geneva, because it was wedged between two mountain ranges on one end and a lake on the other, was even more cramped than your standard European city. The streets were barely wide enough for two small cars to pass. An American SUV was out of the question.

  Ismael was a good hundred feet in front of him. Not an easy shot standing still, let alone running and aiming at a moving target. Rapp kept the pistol at his side. Long black coat, black pants, black shoes, and a black gun. Black on black. Nothing to see. He was gaining on Ismael with every stride, staying low, the top of his head just barely visible over the roofs of the vehicles. And then Ismael saw him as Rapp passed from one car to the next. There was now no more than seventy feet of separation. Just over twenty yards. Either the man was really slow or Rapp was really fast, or probably both.

  Sixty feet and closing was the best Rapp could figure when they locked eyes. Rapp started to raise his pistol to fire, but before he had it leveled, Ismael was swinging the bag around and then all hell broke loose. The bag exploded, spitting red-orange flashes on the dark street. Rapp turtled, dropping behind a nice piece of German steel. Counting shots was not an option with whatever it was in the overnight bag. The rate of fire told Rapp that it was probably an Uzi or a MAC-10. To the uninitiated, a gun was a gun, but in his new line of work, caliber was every bit as important as rate of fire. Since the Mercedes had no problem stopping the rounds, Rapp concluded it was a 9mm Uzi. If it had been the MAC-10 he would have felt the punch of the .45 caliber rounds as they penetrated the body and rattled around the interior of the car.

  Rapp glanced at his watch as glass rained down on him from the blown-out windows. He could picture, in his mind's eye, the Libyan backing up as he laid down fire. The Uzi he was firing used either twenty-, thirty-two-, or forty-round magazines. The forty was unlikely because it probably wouldn't fit in the bag, and if it was twenty he would be done already, so that meant it was thirty-two rounds and he was almost out. And once Rapp heard the click it would be over. There was no way the guy could pull a weapon like that out of a bag and reload it before Rapp was on him.

  The bullets stopped, the noise replaced by a half dozen car alarms that were now chirping and beeping and screeching and flashing. Rapp came up with his weapon this time, his finger on the trigger, ready to fire. Ismael was gone. Rapp caught a glimpse of him farther down the block and tore off, again staying in the street so he could use the cars for cover. The clock in his head was marking time as he pressed his advantage. He closed again to within sixty feet. Ismael looked over his shoulder, raised the bag, and let loose another burst. Rapp went into a crouch behind a car but kept moving. Rapp couldn't be sure if it was a four- or five-round burst, but it had stopped and Ismael was on the run again. Rapp, thinking the gun was out of bullets, or close to being out, ran tall now, more worried about speed than cover.

  Ismael made it to the corner and turned left. Rapp stayed wide again, and when he cleared the corner, he came upon the unwelcome sight of Ismael standing there with his left arm wrenched around a woman's throat. Rapp didn't look at her. He didn't want to look at her. Old, young, fat, skinny, none of it mattered. Ismael's right hand was still in the duffel bag, gripping the Uzi, which might or might not be out of bullets. Ismael started screaming at him to drop his weapon or he would kill the woman. Rapp continued to close as he had been taught. His pistol was up, directly in front of his face, an extension of his left eye, which was attached to his brain, which was still counting the seconds and telling him to finish this and get the hell out of there.

  The woman was now screaming, and for the first time Rapp noticed she had a small dog on a leash that was yipping and snapping at Ismael's legs. He had no doubt that Ismael would kill the woman, but what purpose would it serve? If Ismael had any bullets left in that gun he would turn it on Rapp right now and
zip him with a nice burst to the chest. If he shot the woman, he was a dead man, and he didn't want to die, as he had proven very loudly over the last half minute. His only way out of this was to kill the man who had been chasing him. He was nicely shielded by the woman. All he had to do was swing the bag around and unload. Rapp stopped at twenty feet and decided that since Ismael hadn't taken aim at his chest, he was bluffing.

  In the end, it was the dog that tilted things in Rapp's favor. Ismael wisely tried to create some distance between them by stepping back. What he didn't know, because he hadn't bothered to look down, was that the little yipping dog had run a couple of circles around them, and his leash had formed a nice little lasso around the Libyan's ankles. Ismael stumbled and jerked to his left to catch himself. For a brief second, the side of his head was clearly visible. Rapp was now only twenty feet away. He squeezed the trigger once, and that was all it took.

  CHAPTER 46

  BEIRUT, LEBANON

  HURLEY stepped onto the roof, a bottle of Jack Daniel's in his hand, his thoughts already traveling back in time. The hotel was in a neighborhood called Bourj Hammoud. It was controlled by the Armenians, which was why Hurley had decided to stay here for the night. The Armenians were one of the few factions that had managed to stay neutral during the civil war. There had been a few shots fired between the Armenians and their Maronite neighbors, but no major battles.

  It had been a strange day--the meeting with Kennedy, the briefing with Rapp before sending him off, and the analysis of the intercepts. There was nothing like stealing a man's fortune to get him riled up. Voices they hadn't tracked in years had popped up. Beirut was going to be a very target-rich environment. Before they could leave, though, they had to look the part. He dragged Richards to one of Zurich's secondhand clothing stores, where they purchased some ill-fitting suits and dress shirts, well-worn shoes, and some beat-up luggage. Hurley added some gray to his hair and both men skipped shaving. They boarded a flight for Paris and then on to Beirut, just two men in a sea of travelers.