Riptide

to
    the New York detectives. Actually, I run an adjunct agency that's
    connected to the CIA. We do many of the same things we did during
    the Cold War. I'm based here now, though, and don't travel
    much abroad anymore to the hot spots."

"This photo of Krimakov," Becca said after nodding to her father,"!
    want to see it, study it. Maybe I'll see something that could
    help. Did he speak English, sir?"
    If Thomas noticed that she hadn't called him Father or Dad,
    he didn't let on. He had, after all, been a dead memory that had
    suddenly come alive and was now in her face. He'd also brought
    terror into her life. He also hadn't been around when her mother
    was dying, when her mother died. She'd been alone to handle all
    of it. The pain was sharp and so bitter he thought he'd choke on it.
    Soon he would tell her how he and her mother had e-mailed each
    other every day for years. Instead, he managed to say, "Yes, he did.
    He was quite fluent, educated in England. He even attended Oxford.
    Quite the ban vivant in his younger days." He paused a moment,
    then added, "How he despised us, the self-indulgent children
    of the West. That's what he called us. I always enjoyed locking
    horns with him, outwitting him, at least until that last time when
    he brought his wife with him to Belarus. The fool was using her
    as cover--picnics, hikes, pretending it was a vacation, when all the
    time he planned to kill the West German industrialist Reinhold
    Kemper."
    "Krimakov," she said, as if saying his name aloud would help her
    remember more clearly, picture him standing in the shadows, "he
    had a very light sort of English accent, more so on some words than
    on others. He was fluent in English. I don't think he sounded particularly
    old, but I just can't be certain. Krimakov is your age?"
    "A bit older, perhaps five years."
    "I wish I could say for certain that he was that old but I just
    can't. I'm sorry."
    Thomas sighed. "I've always thought it unfair that nothing's easy
    in this life. He's had years to plan this, years to think through every
    move, every countermove. He knows me, probably now he knows

me better than I knew him back then. When he finally found
    you--my child--then he was in business."
    "I wonder where he is," Becca said. "Do you truly believe he's
    still in New York?"
    "Oh yes," Adam said, no doubt at all in his voice. "He's in New
    York, planning how he's going to get to you in the hospital. He's
    licking his chops, absolutely certain that you'll be there with her,
    Thomas. He's got to believe that he's trapped you now. He's flushed
    you out and now he's got his best chance to kill both of you."
    "It was an excellent idea, Adam," Thomas said, "to let everyone
    in the media believe that Becca is still at NYU Hospital, recovering
    from internal injuries and under close guard. I pray he disguises
    himself and tries to get in."
    "I have no doubt he'll want to. I just hope he doesn't smell a
    trap. He's smart, Thomas, you know that. He might have figured
    we'd do exactly what we have, in fact, done."
    "I'm worried about the people at the hospital who are playing
    us," Becca said. "He's--" She paused a moment, trying to find the
    right words. "He's not normal. There's something very scary about
    him."
    "Don't be worried about the agents," Adam said. "They're professionals
    to their toes. They're trained, and their collective experience
    probably exceeds the age of the world. They know what they're doing.
    They'll be ready for him to make a move. Another smart thing
    done--the FBI has installed security cameras to record everyone
    who goes in and out of that room. They've scheduled doctors and
    nurses to go in there at given hours. Our guys will stay alert. Our
    undercover agent who's playing you, Becca, Ms. Marlane, won't take any chances if he does show up. She's got a 9mm Sig Sauer under her
    pillow."

    Thomas said, "Then there'll be that black government car

pulling up and a guy who looks remarkably like me getting out and
    going into the hospital."
    Adam said, "Yep. Twice a day. I hope Krimakov does try to get
    in. Wouldn't that be something if it all ended there, in the hospital,
    in New York? That would be a hell of a thing."
    Becca said, "He managed to down Chuck with no one the
    wiser. So far he hasn't failed at anything he's tried."
    "She's right, Adam," Thomas said. "Like I said,Vasili is smart; he
    improvises well. If there aren't any leaks, it's possible he'll sniff
    out the trap. But even if he's fooled into