Bob Lee Swagger #07 - Dead Zero by Stephen Hunter

Author:Stephen Hunter [Hunter, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-12-28T06:00:00+00:00

BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

CELL PHONE PARKING LOT

1900 HOURS

THE NEXT DAY

Vegas?” said Mick Bogier.

“Yep. Him and this chick. Pretty gal. Maybe the old coot has some Pez left in the dispenser after all. Off to Vegas for a weekend of whoopie. Been known to happen.”

It was Crackers the Clown who’d dogged Swagger, watching him check in with the young woman, head through security and on to a gate. Crackers had pulled a Baltimore police detective badge and gotten through security without a hassle from TSA and followed him all the way to the gate. Now he was on the cell to Mick and Tony Z.

“Unlikely,” said Mick, “this guy’s too duty-crazed.”

“I hate that kind,” said Crackers. “All work and no fun. What, he wants to be a saint?”

“Let me make a call.”

Even before he put the cell down, Tony handed him the Thuraya phone.

“This better be good news,” MacGyver said. “I’m about to make myself a martini.”

“We followed Swagger to the airport. He’s about to fly to Vegas with some young agent. I don’t know what it’s about.”

MacGyver considered.

“We could get the next flight out,” said Mick. “Then we pick up the signal in Vegas and we follow him there. But I don’t know what Cruz would be doing in Vegas or what Vegas would have to do with Cruz. Cruz is here, we know that.”

“I can find out,” MacGyver finally said. “But that’s going to take a while. No, I’d stay in DC. I’d set up somewhere in the vicinity of the talk show studios this Sunday and get ready to roll if there’s an incident.”

“Sure, but that’s thin. This Sergeant Cruz is really good. I mean, he’s fucking big league all the way. The chance of us nailing him before he nails Zarzi without Swagger bird-dogging him first are somewhere between thin and negative one million. Since he’s riding the action curve and we’re trailing it, we’ll be lucky to get there when the smoke is still in the air. And don’t forget there’s going to be about ten thousand cops in the area, somewhat complicating things.”

“I understand,” said MacGyver. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m out of answers.”

“MacGyver, your show’s going to be canceled if you can’t do better than that.”

“Hey, asshole sergeant, if I’m canceled you’re canceled, so you better pray for me. Oh, and I make the smart comments, I get to do the sarcasm, get it? Don’t go all Mick Bogier on me. Cowboys are cheap in this world.”

Bogier enjoyed lighting up the asshole like that. He knew it was expected that he would now apologize and show contrition, but he would not do it. Fuck him and the horse he came in on.

“Okay, here’s what you do,” said MacGyver. “Monitor the Four Seasons and the Afghan embassy. You guys have seen Cruz in action, you know his walk, his moves, you know what he’d have to wear to conceal a weapon. You may pick him up on a scouting mission, a recon, just from the way he moves.

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