RainStorm

considering. "I can't imagine
    the gate would already be open, not in the middle of the night.
    The car would have to at least pause outside it."
    "Probably, but not definitely. Belghazi could call en route. His
    contact could be waiting for him with the gate open. In which case
    he drives right through. Plus, once the car turns in, you're looking
    at the vehicle's rear. If you start shooting but don't hit the driver,
    he'll floor it, blow through the gate, and we'll lose them."
    "Yeah, that's true. Well, there's the approach along Cheung Fi.
    That's a quarter mile, so I'd have, say, fifteen seconds to take out the
    driver there. The problem is--"
    "How are you going to know you've got the right car."
    "Yeah, I'd hate to take out the pizza delivery man, I really would."
    "So what we need to do is, I'm the spotter, positioned on the
    slope above Cheung Fi, but close to the road. I've got binoculars, I
    see the car coming. There won't be much traffic at that hour, and I
    guarantee you Belghazi will be arriving in something stylish,
    whether or not it's armored. It shouldn't be hard for me to confirm
    that it's him."
    "What if the glass is smoked?"
    "It might be, I know. But if I see a car like that heading toward
    Terminal Nine at oh two hundred on the same day Kanezaki tells us
    Belghazi is on his way, I'll be confident enough to take out the tires,
    and maybe the windows, and see what happens next. Also, it's possible
    they'll stop outside the gate, maybe roll down a window. In which
    case, even if I can't see what I need to, I might get to hear it. I'm going
    to ask Kanezaki to send a parabolic mike, compatible with the rest
    of the communications gear I want--earpieces and lapel mikes."
    "I never used one of those parabolics," he said. "They really
    work?"
    I nodded. "A good one will bring in conversation from three
    hundred yards out. The new ones fold up small, too. I'll be able to
    talk to you on one channel, then switch over and listen in on whoever
    arrives, then switch back."
    "All right, so either visual or auditory or both, now you've got
    positive ID."
    "Now I let you know, from my lapel mike straight to your earpiece."
    "At which point--"
    "At which point, you take your first clear shot. Any place between
    where I confirm that the target has arrived and the entry
    gate. In fact, earlier would be better. If this goes down right in front
    of the entry gate, we might have terminal security personnel to
    deal with, too. I don't want to take out bystanders, and the fewer
    witnesses, the better, anyway."
    "Makes sense. I start with the driver, then just work my way
    through."
    "Right. Count on a total of at least three--Belghazi, one bodyguard
    driving, one bodyguard passenger--but maybe more. And
    while you're shooting from up high, I'll be assaulting on foot with
    a sidearm. Anyone you've missed, I take out at close range."
    He grinned. "Partner, marine snipers don't miss. By the time
    you reach the vehicle, all that'll be left is for you to reach through
    the shattered glass and retrieve a bag stuffed with cash, all right?"
    And all that'll be left for you to do is take one last shot, I thought. Then the cash will be all yours and you can walk away clean.
    I needed to find that opportunity to test him before the main
    event. I hadn't managed it yet.
    I nodded and said, "Sounds like a plan."
    our gear arrived the next day. We had contacted Kanezaki independently with our requests for materiel, some of which was
    for commo gear and all of which was bound for Hong Kong, and
    he must have suspected that we were working together. But if he
    had any questions, he didn't ask. The Agency had moved it all
    through the diplomatic pouch and had left it in a golf bag at a prearranged
    dead drop. I had to admit, they could move fast when they
    wanted to.
    Dox had asked for a Heckler & Koch PSG/1, semiautomatic,
    with a twenty-round magazine, tripod, 6x42mm illuminated mil-dot
    reticle scope, and integral suppressor. In the same package was
    a 7.62mm Tokarev for me. I wanted us to be using identical ammunition,
    to make it more difficult for the authorities to piece
    together what had happened afterward, where the shots had come
    from, what kind of weapon had fired them, even whether there
    had been more than a single shooter. Unless Dox had to switch to
    armor-piercing ammunition, we would both be using frangible
    rounds, with relatively low penetration power but devastating results
    at the range from which we would be