Games of State - Tom Clancy [145]
"Don't move another foot!"
Jody stopped.
"Lift your arms."
Jody did.
"Take two steps to your left and remain facing away."
Jody obeyed. She listened as Karin Doring walked forward. The German was breathing heavily. Jody started as the woman put three bullets into the back of the wheelchair. The dead body fell forward.
"God-- god!" Jody gasped.
Karin circled the girl. Even in the dark the terrified young woman could see her angry expression. She also saw the SA knife.
"You dared come to my camp as you did!" Doring screamed at her. Her voice was angrier than it had been earlier in the day. She kicked the wheelchair out of her way. "You dared to challenge me, to insult me!"
"I'm sorry," Jody said, trembling. "You-- you would have done the same, wouldn't you?"
"You are not me!" Karin said. "You've paid no dues!"
Suddenly, three shots flashed in the trees. Karin lurched but remained standing as they struck her in succession. She looked up as Bob Herbert stirred in the lower branches. Karin dropped to her knees, blood oozing from the wounds.
Herbert dropped his gun to the ground, then lowered himself from the branch. He hung there from his powerful arms. "Right about now I'll bet she's glad she's not you, Karin."
Karin struggled to keep her eyes open. She was shaking her head slowly, trying to raise the gun. It dropped to the ground. A moment later, she followed it.
Jody refused to look at Karin. She kicked away the body of the dead policeman they'd placed in the wheelchair. Then she ran over to Herbert. He dropped into the seat. Jody leaned against the tree.
"You had to do it and you did it like a pro," Herbert said. "I'm proud of you." Herbert started to reach for the gun he'd dropped. "Let's get the hell--"
Before he could finish, a hulking figure screamed and charged at him from the dark. His knife raised-high, the enraged Manfred Piper brought the knife down hard toward Herbert's chest.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Thursday, 10:06 P.M.,
Toulouse, France
After putting the phone back in his jacket, Hood made his way back up the grassy slope. Though the group was still standing beside the trees, Stoll had moved a few yards away, toward the bridge. There, he had an unobstructed view of the river and the opposite bank.
As Hood approached, he heard Ballon talking to Nancy.
" if they do see us, they can go to Hell. I don't care. It was the same when I walked in on my former wife and her lover. Not liking what you see won't make it go away."
"That wasn't what I asked," Nancy said. "I asked if you hope that someone from Demain sees us. And if they do, what you think will happen."
"We're on public land," Ballon said. "If they see us, they can do nothing. In any case, I don't think Dominique will pick a fight. Certainly not now, with his games downloading."
Hood stopped beside Hausen. He was about to take him aside when Ballon walked over.
"Is everything all right?" the Colonel asked.
"I'm not sure," Hood said. "Matt, have you got everything under control?"
"More or less," Stoll said. He was sitting with his legs straight out. The computer was resting on his knees and he was leaning into it, typing furiously. "What's the word for anal?"
Ballon answered, "Fidele is retentive--"
"I'll accept that," Stoll said. "Our boy is certainly fidele. The first game came on promptly at ten. And I mean promptly: 10:00:00. I saved it on the hard drive. I've got the T-Bird covering about thirty-eight degrees with each picture, so I should have a complete sweep in about ten minutes."
"And then?" Hood asked.
Stoll said. "I have to start playing the game and get to different screens, different landscapes."
"Why don't you download it to Op-Center?"
"Because what I'm doing is just what they'd do," he said. "I'm writing a small modification to the MatchBook program so it can read images from the T-Bird. Then it's in the lap of the gods. If I don't screw up too