"How about never? Is never good for you?"
I had some advice for him, and I said, "Don't drop your guard, Vince."
He had no reply to that, but he did extend his hand and said, "Thanks for being bait." He also said, "Have a good trip. Take it easy. Regards to Kate. We'll stay in touch." He added, "See you in a few months."
If not sooner.
Back in my apartment, with my Sunday afternoon Bloody Mary in hand, I went out to the balcony. They were gone-right? But a stupid ruse is often a cover for a smart ruse.
Or were they and Asad Khalil really on their way back to Sandland? Mission accomplished? Mission aborted? Or mission continues?
Asad Khalil came halfway around the world to cross names off his list, and he hadn't gotten to my name yet. Or Boris's.
And what happened to that big finale we were expecting? Have they already poisoned the water supply? Have they spread anthrax? Is there a bomb ticking somewhere?
This is one of those cases where the silence is deafening.
I looked down the street at the window that had looked back at me for two or three weeks. They weren't there any longer-but where were they? Where was Asad Khalil?
I didn't have much time left, so the ball was actually in his court. Make a move, asshole.
I spent the late afternoon packing, which made this trip finally real for me.
Time was slipping by, and I thought about working the phone, which is another way of saying bugging people who had less information about Asad Khalil than I did-and who didn't want to be called on a Sunday by an obsessed nutcase whose wife was in the hospital and who was under house protection with nothing to do.
Nevertheless, I decided to call Tom Walsh, hoping he'd come to his senses, or maybe he'd gotten eaten by a bear, clearing the way for me to come back to work Monday morning.
I started to dial his cell phone, but then I pictured him in some romantic lodge upstate with his girlfriend, trying on her clothes while she was napping, so I decided to text him: Discovery of safe house on E. 72nd changes the situation-let's discuss new strategy Monday A.M.
Sounds good. If I was a supervisor, I'd bite on that.
I also thought about going to 26 Fed to work the Automated Case System, and to see if there was anything new there in the Khalil file-something other than his name and rows of Xs. This is called clutching at straws.
Mostly, though, I waited for my phone to ring, hoping that something would break.
At about 5 P.M., I decided to call Boris again on the theory that if he was still alive, that meant that Khalil hadn't begun his final cleanup operation.
Boris didn't answer his cell phone, but neither did Asad Khalil nor a homicide detective, so I left another message with the maitre d' for Boris to call me. This time I said "urgent." I pictured Boris with some devitsa-that's a girl, right? Not a guy. And he was plying her with champagne and impressing her with his KGB exploits while the Red Army Chorus set the mood.
About ten minutes later, my house phone rang, and it came up "Anonymous Caller" so I answered it.
A familiar male voice said, "John, we are so delighted that you and Kate are coming to visit."
I said to Mr. Mayfield, "Hold on, sir, I'm just putting my gun in my mouth."
Actually, I said, "We're looking forward to it."
He inquired, "How does Kate look to you? Is she really feeling well?"
"I've never seen her looking better." I'm okay, too.
And so forth.
About twenty minutes later, my parents called from Florida-they were all in on this together-and it was my mother who was on the line, and she let me know, "It's hot and humid here, and it's going to be worse when you get here. Bring comfortable clothes. We have plenty of suntan lotion. You know how easily you burn. And you're going to eat healthy here-lots of fish and vegetables."
I reached for my Glock.
"Do you and your wife play Bingo?"
I chambered a round.
My father, in the background, yelled out, "Tell him I have plenty of Scotch."
I put the gun down.
At 6 P.M., I called for my ride to Bellevue.
PART VI
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Asad Khalil sat in a taxi in front of Svetlana. A text message appeared on his cell phone, and Khalil read it, then got out of the taxi and said to the driver, a fellow Libyan named Rasheed, "Wait here."
Khalil, wearing a suit and tie, and also a drooping mustache and glasses, entered through the front door of the nightclub, where he was greeted by a maitre d', who asked him in Russian, "Do you have a reservation?"
Khalil replied in the passable Russian he'd learned from Boris, "I am going only to the bar."
The maitre d' took him for a native of one of the former Asian Soviet Republics-a Kazakh, perhaps, or a Uzbek. The maitre d', Dimitri, did not like these people, and he would have turned him away if the man wanted a table. But it was more difficult to turn away someone who wanted to sit only at the bar to watch the floor show. The bartenders could deal with the man.
Dimitri motioned wordlessly toward the open doorway behind him and turned his attention to an arriving group.
Asad Khalil walked through the doorway and down a long corridor that was brightly lit and decorated with large photographs of past events at Svetlana-weddings and other happy occasions-accompanied by advertisements in Russian and English urging people to book their special events here.
He stopped at one of the group photographs that had caught his eye. Standing in the group was Boris Korsakov, whose smile, Khalil thought, was not sincere. "So," Khalil said to himself, "the great KGB man has sunk to this." Also he thought Boris had gained some weight.
Khalil continued on, and the corridor opened out into the big restaurant, where he could see the bar and lounge farther toward the rear. The restaurant, he noted, was half full on this Sunday evening at 6 P.M., and the stage was empty.
Khalil had never been here, but he felt he knew the place from the photographs and information given to him a few days earlier by a fellow Muslim, a man named Vladimir, a Russified Chechen who had been instructed a month ago to find himself a job here.
Khalil stood at the entrance to the restaurant for almost a minute, knowing that a security person would notice him, then he walked deliberately to a red-curtained doorway and entered the short corridor that led to a locked door.
Almost immediately, he heard footsteps behind him, and a man's voice in English said, "Stop," then in Russian, "Stoi!"
The man put his hand on Khalil's shoulder, and Khalil spun around and thrust a long carving knife into his throat, severing his windpipe.
Khalil held the man and let him slide into a sitting position against the wall, then withdrew the knife. He went through the dying man's pockets and found a keychain, and also a Colt.45 automatic pistol and a radio phone.
The man was still alive, but he was drowning in his own blood, and his larynx was severed, so he made no sound except for the gurgling in his throat.
Khalil glanced at the red curtain. No one had followed them, and he hefted the dying man over his shoulder, then went to the locked door, tried a key, then another, and the door opened.
Khalil found himself in a small room that contained an elevator and a steel door that Vladimir had told him led to the staircase. Vladimir had also texted Khalil that the other bodyguard, Viktor, was now sitting in the anteroom above, outside Boris's office, while Vladimir set the table for Boris and a lady who would be arriving shortly.
Khalil relocked the door to the corridor, then unlocked the steel door to the staircase and threw the bodyguard, who now appeared very close to death, onto the stairs. He relocked the staircase door and made his way quickly up the stairs.