Private Wars (38 page)
Authors: Greg Rucka
“Tell me! You tell me! Tell me that you wouldn’t have killed the man who murdered the father of
your
child.”
Chace brought the Makarov up, holding it in both hands, placing the sights high on Ruslan’s body, as far away from his son as she dared.
“I did kill him,” she answered.
He wasn’t looking at her now, looking instead past her, focusing on where the Sikorsky would rise into sight. The noise of the helicopter went from faint to suddenly much louder, and without needing to turn and look, Chace knew it was off the ground. The window was open for his shot, would only remain so for a few more seconds.
Ruslan looked down at his son, still clinging tightly to his legs, then to Chace. He hoisted the Starstreak back into firing position on his shoulder, turned his face to settle his right eye against the sight.
“You are the mother of a child,” Ruslan Mihailovich Malikov reminded her. “You will not shoot me in front of my son.”
“You’re wrong,” Chace said, and then she shot him four times in the chest.
CHAPTER 54
London—Camden—Chace Family Residence
1 September, 0033 Hours GMT
She’d sent a message from Mazar-i-Sharif before she
and Lankford had caught the transport to Turkey, telling Val that she was on her way home, and that she hoped to see her and Tamsin in London on her return. It was a break in protocol to send any such communication while on a job, and if Crocker had known about it he’d have gone into fits, but after seeing Stepan back to Uzbekistan and returned to Sevara Malikov-Ganiev’s care, Chace didn’t really give a damn. They had the last Starstreak back and Ruslan Malikov was no longer a problem for anyone except perhaps his son.
If that didn’t make Crocker happy, Chace had no interest in performing whatever task would.
The little boy had looked at her with eyes devoid of any comprehension or soul when she’d pulled him from his father’s body. There had been no more tears and no more sobs, there had been no sound at all. There had been nothing because, Chace suspected, Stepan Malikov no longer had anything.
She told herself that he would forget, that he would recover, and on the plane to Frankfurt, Lankford tried to tell her the same thing.
Both of them knew it for the lie it was.
Her
house was quiet and still and the lights were all off when Chace came through the door, and she wondered if Val had received the message. She shut and locked the front door behind her, hung her coat on the stand, dropped her go-bag at its foot. She would have to replace its contents, substitute clean clothes for the dirty, replace those things she had used.
Then she saw her mail piled neatly on the table beside the couch.
She checked in the guest room, parting the door just enough to confirm that Val was indeed asleep there, then made her way to the bedroom. She stripped, changed into pajamas, and then went to look in on Tamsin, finding her sixteen-month-old daughter awake and on her feet in her crib, waiting quietly in the darkness.
“Mama,” Tamsin said.
“That’s right,” Chace agreed, taking the child in her arms. “Mama.”
GLOSSARY
Article Five | Referring to NATO signatories; Article Five declares that an attack against any one of the member nations is an attack against all of the signatories; further, that member nations shall, in the instance of such attack, render assistance and aid to fellow members. |
BOX | Used to refer to the Security Services, more commonly known as MI-5 (U.K.) |
C | Head of SIS; also Chief of Service |
CAO | Cultural Affairs Officer |
CENTCOM | United States Central Command, oversees U.S. security interests in 25 Middle Eastern and Arab nations |
Chancery | The principal office of an Embassy, housing the Ambassador’s office |
CIA | Central Intelligence Agency (U.S.) |
CIS | Confederacy of Independent States |
COB | “Close of Business” |
COM | Chief of Mission (U.S. State Department); generally refers to the Ambassador |
conops | Concept of Operations—official document describing parameters and goals assigned to a prospective operation, and securing necessary permissions to pursue the undertaking |
COS | Chief of Station (CIA) |
CQC | Close Quarters Combat |
D | Deputy Secretary of State (U.S.) |
D-Int | Director of Operations (SIS); sometimes Director Intelligence |
D-Ops | Director of Operations (SIS); sometimes Director Operations |
DC | Deputy Chief of Service (SIS); also Deputy Chief |
DCM | Deputy Chief of Mission (U.S. State Department) |
DOO | Duty Operations Officer |
DPM | Deputy Prime Minister, DPMs plural |
EIJ | Egyptian Islamic Jihad, |
FCO | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (U.K.) |
FSB | Forward Support Base (U.K. Military) |
FSO | Foreign Service Officer (also FO); indicates a career State Department Officer (U.S. State Department) |
GSPC | Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et la Combat |
GWOT | Global War on Terror |
Hizb-ut-Tahir | The Islamic Party of Liberation, a banned Uzbek opposition party seeking greater religious freedom in Uzbekistan |
HOS | Head of Station; also Station Number One (SIS) |
IMU | Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, responsible for terror attacks in Uzbekistan. Often confused with |
JI | Jemaah Islamiyah |
JIC | Joint Intelligence Committee (U.K.) |
LNG | Liquefied Natural Gas |
LS | Landing site |
MANPAD | Man-portable air defense system; a surface-to-air missile capable of being launched by a lone individual |
MCO | Mission Control Officer (SIS); Ops Room post responsible for oversight of actual mission execution; also Main Communications Officer (SIS); responsible for recording and coordinating communications between the Ops Room and the field |
Mission | Generic term used interchangeably with “post” or “embassy,” referring to the entirety of the official representation made to a host country (U.S. State Department) |
MOD | Ministry of Defense (U.K.) |
NCTC | National Center for Counterterrorism (U.S.) |
NVG | Night-vision goggles |
PA | Personal Assistant |
PRC | People’s Republic of China |
PUS | Permanent Undersecretary |
RSO | Regional Security Officer (U.S. State Department) |
RV | Rendezvous |
S | Office of Secretary, Department of State; Secretary of State (U.S.) |
SAS | Special Air Service (U.K.) |
SIS | Secret Intelligence Service (U.K.) |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GREG RUCKA has worked at a variety of jobs, from theatrical fight choreographer to emergency medical technician. The author of
A Gentleman’s Game, A Fistful of Rain
, and five previous thrillers, he resides with his family in Portland, Oregon. He is currently working on the next Atticus Kodiak crime novel,
Patriot Acts,
which Bantam will publish in fall 2006.
ALSO BY GREG RUCKA
Keeper
Finder
Smoker
Shooting at Midnight
Critical Space
A Fistful of Rain
A Gentleman’s Game
PRIVATE WARS
A Bantam Book / November 2005
Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005 by Greg Rucka
Map by Robert Bull
Bantam Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rucka, Greg.
Private wars / Greg Rucka.
p. cm.
1. Women spies—Fiction. 2. Americans—Uzbekistan—Fiction. 3. Illegal arms transfers—Fiction. 4. Uzbekistan—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.U2968P75 2005
813'.54—dc22
2005050115
Published simultaneously in Canada
eISBN: 978-0-553-90209-9
v3.0
