Hunter by Andrew Macdonald

Author:Andrew Macdonald
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Published: 1988-08-15T04:30:00+00:00

XX

Oscar pulled into the south parking lot an hour before the appointed time and chose a parking slot a good hundred yards from the southwest corner, where he could wait inconspicuously in a row of other cars yet still have a clear view of both the designated corner and the most probable avenue of approach to it. Being farthest from the Pentagon, the corner and the area around it were vacant at this time of night, except for the trash which had piled up even more densely there than on the rest of the vast expanse of cracked and litter-strewn asphalt. A light drizzle had begun, and he had to keep his side window down in order to prevent the inside of the windshield from fogging.

He spotted Ryan’s car driving down the outside lane of the lot at ten minutes before ten. He picked up the binoculars which had been beside him on the seat and focused on the moving vehicle as it passed between him and the pole-mounted floodlight at the edge of the asphalt. The car had only one occupant. Ryan drove past the corner and slowly made a full circuit of the lot. Evidently he failed to spot Oscar’s car, because he returned to the southwest corner, turned off his lights and waited. He was being cautious too, it seemed.

Oscar had no way of knowing what was on Ryan’s mind tonight, but the uncharacteristically friendly tone of the man’s telephone call this morning had put him on his guard. He waited another five minutes, checked his pistol to make sure that it was free in its holster, then silently left his car and walked toward Ryan’s, remaining concealed by other parked cars as long as possible. Ryan saw him coming when he was 50 feet away and leaned over to open the passenger door. Before Oscar entered the car he took a quick look into the space behind the front seat to make sure no one was hiding there.

Ryan’s trained eye caught the movement. “What do you think, Yeager — that I invited you here to take you for a one-way ride?” He chuckled. “Actually, I’m quite pleased with you. If it weren’t for your very professional work, the President’s appointee to head the Committee for Public Security would undoubtedly be someone of the Hebrew persuasion, instead of yours truly.”

“Was that just an unconscious slip on your part, Ryan, when you used the word ‘committee’ just now instead of ‘agency’?”

“Jesus! Did I say that? I’m really going to have to watch myself. You know, I had nothing to do with the choice of the name, and I was amazed when they picked something which was so suggestive of the Soviets’ Committee for State Security, better known by its Russian initials, KGB. It’s been on my mind all day.”

Ryan’s fleeting frown disappeared, and his barely contained exhilaration returned. “The similarity in names is appropriate, believe me. I’ve been in conferences with the big shots in the Congress, with the Director of the Bureau, and with the President’s staff all week.

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