London Bridges

negotiation in England. Klára Lodge and her children are somewhere in northern Africa now. She did her part.”
    “So the Wolf has had a tracking device under his shoulder blade since he came out of Russia? That’s the story?”
    “We’re here, aren’t we? According to Klára, Martin Lodge knew where he was all along.
That
kept Lodge alive.”
    “We’re ready to go, then? We take him?”
    “We’re ready. I’m ready.” Jesus, was I ready. I wanted to take this bastard down so badly. I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face.
    Mahoney spoke into the mike attached to his headset. “Close on him now. And remember, he’s extremely dangerous.”
    You got that right, Neddo.

Chapter 117
    THE BLACK RANGE ROVER was stopped at a light on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. Dark sedans pulled up on both sides. A third car blocked off the intersection. Agents jumped out of the cars. We had him!
    Gunfire suddenly erupted from a white Hummer in
front
of the Range Rover. The doors of the Hummer flew open. Three men with automatic weapons came out firing.
    “Where the hell did they come from?” Mahoney yelled into his mike. “Everybody down!”
    We were already out of our car and running toward the gunfight. Ned fired and took down one of the Wolf’s bodyguards. I hit another, and a third bodyguard opened up on us.
    Meanwhile, the Wolf was out of the Range Rover and running down Fifth Avenue, staying out in the street with the cars. The condition of his face made him look as though he’d already been shot, or maybe badly burned in a fire. People on the sidewalk were hitting the pavement because of the gunshots coming from everywhere. Several were screaming uncontrollably. How far did the Wolf think he could get, looking the way he did? In New York City, maybe far!
    More gunmen appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. More of his bodyguards. He had certainly brought backup. Had
we
brought enough?
    And then the Wolf ducked into a store on Fifth. Mahoney and I followed him. I didn’t even notice what store it was. Upscale. Glitzy. Fifth Avenue, for God’s sake!
    The Wolf did the unthinkable then. Although nothing he did completely surprised me anymore. His right arm shot forward and released a dark object into the air. I watched it start to tumble.
    I shouted, “Grenade! Everybody down! Get down! Grenade!”
    A powerful explosion at the front of the store blew out two massive picture windows. Shoppers were hurt. The smoke was very thick and dark. Everybody inside the store was screaming, including the clerks behind nearly every counter.
    I never lost sight of the Wolf, never lost my focus on him. No matter what he did, no matter what the danger, he couldn’t be allowed to get away this time. The cost was too high. This was the man who had held the world hostage. He’d already murdered thousands.
    Mahoney ran down one aisle and I took another. The Wolf appeared to be headed for an exit onto a side street. I’d lost track of where we were. Fifty-fifth Street? Fifty-sixth?
    “He doesn’t get out!” Ned shouted over to me.
    “You’ve got that right.”
    We were getting closer and I could see the Wolf’s face. With all the bandages, the bruising and swelling, he looked fiercer than I could have imagined. Worse, he looked desperate, capable of anything. But we already knew that.
    He yelled, “I’ll kill everybody in the store!”
    Neither Mahoney nor I answered; we just kept coming. But we didn’t doubt what he’d said.
    He grabbed a small blond girl away from what looked to be a nanny. “I’ll kill her. I’ll kill the little girl. She’s
dead!
I’ll kill her!”
    We kept coming.
    He held the toddler against his chest. His blood was dripping all over her. The girl was screaming, squirming wildly in his arms.
    “I’ll kill —”
    Ned and I fired at almost the same time—two shots and the Wolf stumbled backward, letting go of the girl. She fell to the floor, then got up screeching and ran to safety.
    So did the Wolf. Out the nearest side door and onto the street.
    “He’s wearing a vest—has to be.”
    “We’ll shoot him in the head,” I said.

Chapter 118
    WE CHASED HIM east on Fifty-fifth Street, along with a couple of our agents and two fleet-footed New York City policemen. If any of the Wolf’s bodyguards had survived the bloody shoot-out on Fifth Avenue, they’d lost track of their boss in the shuffle inside the store. They were nowhere to be seen now.
    Still, the Wolf