Riptide

continued, but she could nearly feel the strength
    of all that IQ power, all that experience, turned to her question.
    Her father took a drink of Pellegrino, then set the bottle down
    on the Japanese coaster at his elbow. "I can't be certain," he said.
    "But you're more in the public view now, Becca, what with your
    speech writing for Governor Bledsoe. I remember several articles
    about you. Maybe Krimakov read the articles. Naturally he knows
    the name Matlock very well. He must have checked into it, found
    out about your mother, seen her travel plans to Washington. He's a
    very smart man, very focused when he wants to be."
    "It makes sense," Sherlock said. "I don't have another more
    likely scenario."
    Sherlock was looking very serious, but one eye was on her small
    son. Becca remembered Adam saying something about Sherlock
    taking down an insane psychopath in some sort of maze. It was
    hard to imagine until she remembered Sherlock clipping Tyler on
    the jaw with no fuss at all.
    "No matter how he finally managed to find out who she was,"
    Adam said, "he did find out and then he set up this elaborate
    scheme."
    "Krimakov was always so straightforward," Thomas said, "back
    then. No deep, murky games for him." Then he sighed. "People
    change. It's frightening in this case. He's taken more turns than a
    byzantine maze."
    Hatch, just a bit of mozzarella cheese clinging to his chin, rose
    and said, "I'm going to go out and see what our guys are doing.
    They were eating their way through three large pizzas the last time

I saw them." His pepperoni pizza box was empty, not even a cold
    thread of cheese left.
    "If you smoke out there, Hatch, I'll smell it on you and I'll fire
    your butt. I don't care what you've found out, your butt's on the line
    here."
    "No, Adam, I swear I won't smoke."Then Hatch sighed and sat
    down again.
    Adam, satisfied, turned to Becca. "As for you, Becca, eat. Here's
    my last piece of pizza. I even left three olives on it. I didn't want to,
    but I looked at your skinny little neck and restrained myself. Eat."
    She took the pizza slice and sat there holding it, even as the
    cheese cooled and hardened. She picked off an olive.
    Savich said, smiling at everyone, perhaps preening a bit, "Oh, yeah, I've got something that's not supposition. MAX found Krimakov's
    apartment. It's just a small place in Iraklion. Mr. Woodhouse
    knows about it. He's sent agents in."
    Everyone stared at him a moment, gape-mouthed.
    Savich laughed. He was still laughing when the phone rang
    minutes later. "That's on my public line," Thomas said as he rose.
    "The tape recorder will automatically kick on and it will tell me
    who's calling." He saw Becca blink and smiled. "Just habit," he said
    as he picked up the phone.
    He didn't say a word, just stood there, listening. He was pale as
    death when he nodded and said to the person on the other end of
    the line, "Thank you for calling." Becca jumped to her feet to go to
    him. He held up a hand and said in a very low, contained voice,
    "The two agents guarding Becca's room are dead. Agent Marlane
    is dead. The agent posing as me is dead, shot through the head,
    three times. I shot Krimakov's wife through the head," he added
    unemotionally. "The security cameras are smashed. There's pandemonium
    at the hospital. He got away."

Chapter 23

    Adam came into Becca's bedroom at just after midnight to see
    her sitting up in bed, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring
    blankly at the wall. A single lamp was turned on and in the dim
    light he could see that she was pale, her face strained. She looked
    over at him and said, guilt weighing her down, heavy in her voice,
    "I still can't believe it, Adam. Four people dead and it's because of
    me."
    He quietly closed the bedroom door and leaned back against it,
    his arms crossed over his chest. Her feelings weren't unexpected
    but it still made him angry. "Don't be a damned fool, Becca. I'm
    the one who carries most of the blame because it was my fucking
    plan in the first place. What no one can figure out is how the bastard
    managed to walk right up to the guards outside the room,
    close enough to see the color of their eyes, and shoot them. Of
    course he used a silencer. Then he waltzed into the hospital room
    and kills the other two agents before they can react. To top it all off,
    he shot out the security camera. And poof--he's gone, escaped, and
    no one can figure it out.
    "Jesus, everyone knew he was coming, it was a trap,