In the end, though, Rapp had decided there was no reason to kill the man. His attacks weren’t personal—they’d been carried out at the orders of the Russian government. With his former masters dead, Azarov’s only interests were anonymity and a Californian surf instructor he’d met. Last he’d heard, the Russian had married, gained twenty-five pounds, and developed a fondness for high-quality weed.
“Are you still there?” Claudia said.
“Yeah.”
“Can I take your silence to mean you think I should handle Anna on my own?”
“No. I agree that it’s better if we both do it.” The letters continued to pulse on-screen. Relentless, like the man they represented had once been. “Listen, I’ve got a call coming in. Can we continue this later?”
“Sure.”
She disconnected and he picked up the other line. “Problem?”
“Not for me,” came the accented response. “For you.”
From most people, that would have sounded like a threat. But not from Azarov. He wasn’t the type.
“What are we talking about?”
“I recently received a dossier on one of my old email accounts. It contains a significant amount of information on Claudia. The fact that she’s really Louis Gould’s former wife, her current alias, a photo, her address in South Africa, a description of her car, the places she shops, Anna’s school… You get the point.”
“Do you know where it came from?”
“An anonymous Gmail account. I imagine untraceable.”
“What’s the offer?”
“None. Just a single line asking me if I would be interested in taking her out. My assumption is that whoever sent this is counting on me holding a grudge against her for a run-in I had with her husband years ago. He caused me a lot of problems with Moscow and I had every intention of killing him. But he slipped through my fingers and then your friend Stan Hurley beat me to it.”
“When did the message come in?”
“Maybe three weeks ago?”
Rapp’s jaw clenched. “How many days exactly?”
There was a short pause before the Russian spoke again. “Nineteen.”
“Shit,” Rapp muttered, counting backward. That was the day after he’d killed Gustavo Marroqui. Someone with serious intelligence capability had taken note of the fact that the Guatemalan had been neutralized and moved down the list of Claudia’s enemies. Any hope that the attack on the house was a coincidence or bad luck had just imploded. This had Darren Hargrave’s name written all over it. And that boot-licking son of a bitch didn’t take a dump without Anthony Cook’s blessing.
“I didn’t want to get involved, Mitch. But Cara made the point that if our positions were reversed, you’d pick up the phone. It took a while, but this morning, I decided she was right.”
“Did you respond to the message?”
“I’m sorry. I told them no.”
“Same day that you got it?”
“Yes.”
A string of curse words in no fewer than five languages went through Rapp’s mind, but this time he kept his mouth shut. If Azarov had remained silent as to whether he was interested, it could have bought some time. But with a hard no, Hargrave would have already moved on to the next person who wanted Claudia dead.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Grisha. I appreciate the call. If you ever need anything, I’ll remember you made it.”
“I’ll forward you the dossier. Good luck. To both of you.”
The line went dead.
Rapp grabbed the handles of the empty wheelbarrow and sent it careening across the grass. “Fuck!”
CHAPTER 23
SOUTHWESTERN UGANDA
THE sun was up, but still low on the horizon when the chopper landed. Rapp jumped down to Nicholas Ward’s helipad with a duffel slung over one shoulder. Claudia and Anna were looking on from a safe distance and the young girl raised her arms as he approached. Rapp took the hint and scooped her up as the aircraft lifted off again.
“I didn’t think you were ever coming back. We’re going to see gorillas! Do you want to come? I bet there’s room still. It’s a big truck and we rented like the whole thing.”
“Sounds fun, but I’m going to have to skip this one. I’ve got some work to do.”
“Mom says she’s going to see if Ahmale can come next weekend. Nick isn’t ever even here and he says we can use his pool anytime we want. He works even more than you. I saw him on TV yesterday. He’s really boring when he’s on it. Not like in real life.”