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cold-weather training and background," Duncan said, shaking his head. "This
isn't a horror movie. We just get the experts in and let them run wild. And to
get them in we send out a team with all the gear we can make or scrounge. If
they take a few hours, if they take all night, whatever it takes. I'm thinking
about what happens in the meantime."
"What if he attacks the team?" Barbara asked.
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"Hah!" Duncan laughed. "Let him. None of these guys learned about hiking by
taking happy little walks in the woods. They're all former military and
they'll all be armed. We've got, among the Rats present, at least six former
infantry, two former Special Forces and a SEAL. And before you ask, if he'sone
of them it won't matter. They will befully briefed. By Agent Donahue. There's
no way that he could take all of them out. Even if he's on the team. They go
to a phone, pass on Greg's message and HRT gets in here if it takes calling
out the National Guard with armored personnel carriers."
"Well, actually . . ." Barb said, cautiously, just as there was a furious
knocking on connecting room door.
"Miz Goldberg," Duncan said, raising his eyebrows at the slight Jewish woman.
"Where is she?" Goldberg said, striding past him and into the room. "You
stupid . . ."
"I know," Barbara said, shaking her head. "You don't have to beat me up, I'm
already doing that. All three of us are."
"Whose stupid idea was it to try to flush him?" Kay said, ignoring the
oblique plea.
"I think that throwing around recriminations is a bit late," Duncan said,
sitting back down in his chair after closing the door. "We need to get
ourselves out of this cleft stick andthen throw around recriminations. But,
never fear, the Wharf Rat Rangers are prepared to go as far as necessary to
find a phone. At which point we can call in a Hostage Rescue Team and we're
all saved."
"That's what you think," Goldberg said, looking at Barb. "Are you going along
with this?"
"I was just trying to figure out a way to explain," Barbara admitted,
sighing.
"It won't work," Kay snapped. "If he wants to take down your team he can. The
only reason he's not going straight to mass murder is either Barb or her
friend."
"Excuse me?" Duncan said, frowning. "Barbara's a charming person, but . . ."
"Shut your fool mouth, youngster," Goldberg snarled, her accent clearly
Hebrew. "You don't know what you're dealing with here."
"Clue me," Duncan said, seriously.
"Who are you?" Barb asked, looking directly at Goldberg.
"That's nobody's business, but . . ." Kay said, frowning.
"Barbara Everette," Duncan said, nodding in her direction and waving at
Goldberg. "May I make your acquaintance of Lieutenant Colonel Hega Moshen,
Israeli Defense Force and later Shin Bet. I believe your highest rank in the
IDF was, in fact, major, correct, Colonel?"
"You were acolonel in Shin Bet?" Barb asked, surprised. She'd thought the
tough little Jewish woman was probably a former sergeant or low-level Mossad
agent.
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"Yes," Kay said after a long pause. "I was the Shin-Bet commander for Israeli
Special Circumstances."
"Okay, I got all of that except that last bit," Duncan admitted, waving his
hand vaguely. "Hell, Iknew all of that except the last bit. What's Special
Circumstances? Serial killings?"
"Special ones," Kay said, looking at Barbara. "She's SC," she added with a
jerk of her chin at the home-maker. "American SC."
"Who was Goldberg?" Barb asked, quietly.
"Does anybody want to actually answermy question?" Duncan said, plaintively.
"My husband," Kay said, just as quietly. "He was our top adept."
"Ok-aaay," Duncan said, shaking his head. "I did not just hear you say that.
No, tell me I didn't just hear you actually say he was an adept. Please?"
"Special Circumstances is the term used for supernatural investigations,"
Barbara said, sighing and still looking at the old Jewish woman. "This person
isn't just a serial killer, he's a necromancer. The reason there aren't any
marks on Timson's body is that he ripped his soul right out. Pull the soul out
and the body stops working."
"Oh, I dunno," Duncan said, trying to catch up. "I had this manager one time
. . ."
"She is not joking," Kay said, brutally. "I am not joking. If you send out a
team, they would have no defense against the necromancer."
"They would if one of us went with them," Barb pointed out.
"You any good at hiking?" Duncan asked, smiling. "And if you're gone, who's
going to protectme ?"
"You'd accept me protecting you?" Barbara asked, grinning. "What was all that
about women and children first?"
"I also said something about if a woman is a warrior," Duncan said,
shrugging. "I'm still working on the assumption that you've both been smoking
too much peyote. But I'm also not willing to trust my skin on it. I'm attached
to it. Very attached."
"You would probably survive," Barb said, looking at him carefully. "You're .
. . you're not protected by your faith like I am, but you've got something.
I'm not all that experienced, but I can tell that you're powerful in some
way."
"You're just seeing my natural sexual charisma," Duncan said, avoiding her
eyes.
"What aren't you telling us?" Kay asked, sharply.
"It's stupid," Duncan said, shrugging. "I don't believe in hocus-pocus."
"Do you believe in God?" Barbara asked.
"Oh, maybe," Duncan said, shrugging again. "I'm more agnostic. But . . ."
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