The Cardinal of the Kremlin - Tom Clancy [205]
Here was the difference between an instinctive warrior and a trained soldier, the Archer admitted to himself. The Major knew better than he how to measure hazards one against the other. "I don't know about the guard towers, though. What do you think?"
"I'm not sure. I-" The Major pushed his commander's head down. A moment later an airplane streaked down the valley.
"That was a MiG-21, reconnaissance version. We are not dealing with fools." He looked to make sure that all his men were under cover. "We may just have had our pictures taken."
"Did they-"
"I don't know. We'll have to trust in God for that, my friend. He has not let us come this far to fail," the Major said, wondering if that were true or not.
"So where are we going?" Gregory asked in the parking lot. "Meet me at the mall, south side of the lot, okay? I just hope it'll fit in the car."
"See you there." Gregory walked to his car and drove off.
Bea waited a few minutes before following. There was no sense in having anyone notice that they left at the same time. She was excited now. To combat this, she tried driving slowly, but it was so out of character that it merely fed her excitement, and as though by its own accord the Datsun seemed to work its way up through the gears and change lanes. She arrived in the mall parking lot twenty minutes later.
Al was waiting. He'd parked his car two spaces away from a station wagon, well out from the nearest store. He'd even picked more or less the right place, Bea Taussig noticed as she pulled in alongside his car and got out.
"What kept you?" he asked.
"No real hurry."
"So now what?"
Bea didn't really know. She knew what was to happen, but not how they planned to do it-in fact, she didn't even know for sure that it was a they doing it. Perhaps Ann was going to handle the thing all by herself. She laughed to cover her nervousness.
"Come on," she said, waving for him to follow.
"This must be some birthday present," Gregory noted. Off to his right, he noted a car backing out of its place.
Bea noted that the lot was crowded with cars but not people. The afternoon shoppers had gone home for dinner, the new arrivals were just beginning their activity, and the movie crowd wouldn't come for another hour or so. Even so, she was tense as her eyes scanned left and right. She was to be one lane over from the movie entrance. The time was right. If anything went wrong, she almost giggled to herself, she'd have to pick out a large, bulky present. But she didn't have to. Ann was walking toward her. She carried nothing but a large purse.. "Hi, Ann!" Taussig called.
"Hello, Bea-oh, it's Major Gregory."
"Hi," Al said, while he tried to remember if he knew this woman or not. Al didn't have much of a memory for faces, so occupied was his brain with numbers.
"We met last summer," Ann said, confusing him all the more.
"What are you doing here?" Taussig asked her controller.
"Just some quick shopping. I have a date tonight, and I needed-well, I'll show you."
She reached into her purse and pulled out what to Gregory looked like a perfume dispenser-or whatever they called those little spray gadgets, he thought while he waited. He was glad Candi wasn't like this. Ann seemed to spray some of the stuff on her wrist and held it up to Bea's nose as a car came down the lane.
"Candi would love it-what do you think, Al?" Bea asked as the dispenser came up toward his face.
"Huh?" At that moment he got a face full of chemical Mace.
Ann had timed it perfectly, spraying Gregory just as he was taking a breath, and aimed it to get under the glasses into his eyes. It seemed that his face had been set afire, and the searing pain went down into his lungs. In a moment he was on his knees, hands to his face. He couldn't make a sound, and couldn't see the car stop right beside him. The door opened, and the driver only had to take half a step before