The Project 02 - The Lance

table in a fit of coughing, her hand resting on the Glock.
    A movement in the mirror that shouldn't have been there. She half turned and stared into the barrel of a silenced automatic, held by a tall figure standing in the doorway. The man was dressed in dark clothing, his face bland and unremarkable, the face of an assassin. The hand with the pistol was unwavering.
    "Please do not move." His voice was soft, neutral, a hint of an accent.
    She stopped turning. "What do you want?"
    She knew what he wanted—to kill her. The hard black grip of her holstered pistol was cold under her hand. The assassin had come in while she was in front of the mirror. He couldn't have seen the Glock lying in the midst of the bottles and jars on the makeup table surface.
    Elizabeth knew there was little time. She would have only one chance. She closed her finger around the trigger. Had she chambered a round?
    "To help you," the man said. He moved closer.
    Elizabeth spun the Glock around with a swift, fluid motion and pulled the trigger as the intruder fired. She heard the soft sound of the silencer and felt the bullet strike her skull, a sharp, hammering pain that knocked her backwards off the low stool where she'd been sitting.
    The Glock bucked in her hand as she tumbled to the floor and she smelled the leather of the holster burning. The assassin staggered backwards as she fired again, then again. His pistol clattered onto the floor and he fell back into the hall. She could see his feet sticking through the doorway. As she slipped into unconsciousness Elizabeth saw that one of the soles of his black, shiny shoes was almost worn through.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

    Nick tossed and turned in his sleep.

    They come in out of the sun, low over the village, the beat of the rotors echoing in his helmet and hammering inside his head. It's Afghanistan again, back where he will kill a child, back where he'll feel the grenade try to tear him apart.
    The dream is different this time. This time, he knows he's dreaming. He tries to wake up but he can't and his Marines jump out into the dusty market street, as they always do in the dream.
    Megan is standing in the middle of the street.
    "Nick."
    He begins weeping. The dream changes, and now he and Megan are standing in front of a building on a street in a strange city, a place he doesn't recognize. Blocks of gray apartment buildings recede into the distance. People hurry past, their faces averted. Something is burning. A man walks by in a round, fur hat, dressed in black, with a beard and long ringlets of hair. He gives Nick a frightened stare as he passes.
    Israel. He's in Israel.
    "You have to stop it." Megan looks sad.
    "Stop what? I don't understand."
    Megan points at the building. There's a sign, but the letters keep changing and it's hard to read. He can see words. 'Jaff' then 'Arms', 'toilet', then a phone number in blue. It looks familiar, but he can't place it.
    "Call him. Look, Nick, here's a phone."
    She hands him a large, old fashioned black phone. It's ringing. He picks up the receiver. "Hello?" he says. "Hello?"

    His phone was ringing on the bedside table. He picked it up.
    "Yes." The clock on the dresser read 3:04 A.M.
    It was Stephanie. "Nick, someone tried to kill the Director."
    He came wide awake. "Is she all right?"
    "She's in Bethesda. The assassin is dead, she put three rounds in him but she was shot in the head. The bullet was a .22. They're operating as we speak."
    He watched the numerals tick over on the clock.
    "There's more. Elizabeth is ill. She's got some kind of rare disease. It's fatal. Nobody knew about it, but when they got her to the hospital they figured it out from the meds in her purse. They called her doctor and he confirmed it."
    He'd think about that later. "Have you called the others? Selena's not here, she's at her hotel."
    "You're the first. How shall we handle this?"
    "You're in charge, Steph. What do you want to do?"
    "I think we need to notify Rice and meet right away. Something bad is happening and we need to stop it."
    You have to stop it.
    "I'll be there as soon as I can."
    While he dressed he thought about the dream. There was something about that phone number. He'd seen it somewhere. The dream had seemed to be set in Israel. An Israeli number? Then Nick remembered where he'd seen it.
    On Ari Herzog's card.
    It was already past ten in the morning in Israel. Herzog was probably in his office. Nick looked in his wallet, extracted the card. What was he going