24: Deadline (24 Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

out of his window to shout at him. The taxi driver stabbed a finger at the road ahead and the growing gap where the traffic had finally started to shift. “Where you going, man?” he demanded.
    “Home,” replied Jack.
    *   *   *
    “These orders come directly from President Suvarov,” said Bazin, and he paused to allow that statement to bed in. Ziminova said nothing, but he could see that the three other men in the room were all on the cusp of saying something. He made an accepting motion with his hand. “Speak up. I have little tolerance for those who stay silent out of fear of challenge.”
    Predictably, Yolkin was the first to give voice. “Suvarov authorized this personally?” Thin and wiry, Yolkin had cold blue eyes and spoke in a flat monotone that droned around the room. “Today?”
    “Less than an hour ago. The killing of an American citizen, yes.” Bazin nodded. “Was I unclear?”
    “Not just a citizen.” Mager was the next to speak up. He was perhaps the most average of men that Bazin had ever known, so nondescript that you could lose him in a crowd and a moment later struggle to recall his face. “A highly trained soldier. A federal agent.”
    “ Former federal agent,” corrected Ziminova. “He is a wanted man now. Their law enforcement agencies have been mobilized to arrest and detain him.”
    “Why not let them do so?” Ekel finally decided to offer his question from the depths of the cockpit leather chair where he slouched, one hand forever toying with a length of his oily black hair. “Would it not be easier to let Bauer find his way to a prison and then pay some murderer to smother him in his cell?” He held up his hands. “We would stay clean in the matter.”
    Yolkin grunted in a vague approximation of a chuckle. “This is not about staying clean, pretty boy. This is about sending a message.”
    Bazin nodded. “As usual, Yolkin cuts to the meat of it. Yes. The motivation for this directive is retribution, pure and simple. President Suvarov is angry at this Bauer. It seems he was directly responsible for derailing certain operational plans, and beyond that, the man also had the temerity to think he could strike directly at members of the Russian government.”
    “Out of revenge,” Mager noted. “That idiot Tokarev shot Bauer’s woman.”
    “Tokarev was made to pay for that,” said Ziminova. “He was sliced open, like a pig.”
    “He wasn’t the only one,” Bazin added, his jaw hardening as he thought of the other murders.
    Ziminova went on, picking up the thread of her commander’s briefing. “Bauer is also responsible for the deaths of Minister Mikhail Novakovich and his protection detail. Eight men in total.”
    Bazin had personally known three of those men. He had trained them in counter-terror tactics, back in the days when the SVR had still been the KGB, and the American had seen them all to their graves. It was one more reason for him to be leading this operation, for a settling of that score. He leaned forward in his chair. “Make no mistake. This is a question of respect . A question of offense made and reparation to be paid. President Suvarov himself would have been in Bauer’s sights had circumstances played out differently. The American cannot be allowed to live after committing these acts.”
    “That would be weakness.” Yolkin nodded. “It would make Suvarov appear foolish if he does nothing.”
    “That ship has sailed,” muttered Ekel.
    Bazin shot him a look. “What do you mean by that?”
    Ekel colored slightly, then straightened. When he spoke again, he lowered his voice, as if he were afraid that Suvarov might hear him from wherever he was in the consulate building. “It is just … They are saying that the telephone lines are burning up between here and Moscow. The prime minister and his cabinet have called an emergency meeting of the Federal Assembly. There is talk that the president will be said to be involved in the Hassan