Page 273 of Silent Target

When he answered, the control was gone from his voice.

“They’re not trying to kill you, Kate.”

A bullet struck the wall beside my head.

I ran faster.

“What do they want?”

“They want you alive.”

“Why?”

“Because you found the pattern.”

I reached the next level and turned toward the roof.

Michael’s next words followed me into the smoke.

“And they need you to finish it.”

62

FANTOM

Two attacks.

Four thousand miles apart.

Launched within seconds of each other.

That wasn’t coincidence. It was coordination.

The men attacking our Alaska headquarters weren’t trying to breach the command center. If they’d wanted inside, they would have brought explosives capable of tearing through the reinforced doors.

Instead, they’d opened fire from the east dock and forced us to divide our attention.

They wanted me watching Alaska while their men took Kate Collins.

It almost worked.

“Three hostiles moving toward the roof,” Sniper said from the console beside me. “A fourth is holding the northern stairwell.”

He wasn’t talking about our building.

We had taken control of the parking garage cameras after the explosion, and Sniper was moving from one feed to another, following Kate through smoke, fire, and intermittent darkness.

Rook and the others were outside dealing with the assault on the dock.

I stayed with Kate.

“You have thirty seconds before they reach the ramp,” I told her.

Her breathing came hard through the phone, but there was no panic in it.

“You said your man was coming for me.”

“He was.”