“You were our inside contact?” asked Reggie in amazement.
“Damn,” added Whit, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I didn’t know what Rice had discovered until it was too late. I went with him to the church thinking I might be able to help you somehow.” He looked at Shaw. “Then he showed up and you no longer needed help from me.”
“You wanted Waller dead?” asked Reggie.
“He was Fedir Kuchin when my mother knew him. I’m Greek and he visited us there on holiday from Ukraine when I was little.”
“You knew him when you were a boy?” asked Katie.
“You could say that. He was my father, though he was never much of a father. And he left my mother to die with nothing. We Greeks do not forgive or forget that. He believes I do not know who he really is. He does not think I am smart enough to figure it all out. He thinks I believe he simply came to Greece and rescued a poor orphaned boy. It’s true he gave me food and shelter and trained me. But he still is the reason my mother died, and so nothing he did could ever make up for that.”
Shaw looked down at the gun. “What is this for?”
“So you will have a chance.”
Whit called out, “Why don’t you just kill him yourself?”
“I have my reasons. And he is my father. I will take care of the others. And the dogs too. You take care of him. Good luck,” he added curtly.
The next moment Pascal was gone.
They all eyed each other.
“What do you think?” said Katie. “Do you believe this is legit?”
Shaw fingered the gun. “Legit enough for him to give us a real weapon and a communication line. And let’s just take care of that right now.” He punched in a number. Frank’s sleepy voice answered.
“I’ve got one minute to explain, Frank, and then I need you to move like you’ve never moved in your whole damn life.”
Shaw told Frank what he needed to hear and then clicked off. He fingered the gun and glanced at Katie. “You and Reggie stay here with Whit. I’ll take the gun and kill the guy. Then I’ll come back for you.”
“It’s not just him, Shaw, he has other people,” said Reggie. “You may need help.”
“You heard Pascal, he’ll take care of the others.”
Whit shook his head. “Yeah, but he’s only one guy. They might kill him. And then there’s the bleeding dogs. I can go with you. The ladies can stay here and wait for us to come back.”
Reggie said, “We’ve been together this whole time. I don’t see any reason to break us up now.”
“I agree,” said Katie. “All or none.”
“Tactically, that makes no sense,” retorted Shaw. “If we’re all together it just makes his job that much easier.”
“Or harder,” said Reggie. “Depending on your perspective.”
“Okay, why can’t we all stay here and wait for Frank to come?” asked Whit.
“Because if we do Kuchin will just come to us. Even by plane or chopper it’ll take Frank awhile to get here.”
“We can ambush him here.”
“The ground here is not good. We’re sitting ducks. Look how easily that guy snuck up on us. If I go back there where he’s expecting us, but hit it from a different angle, I may be able to get the jump on him. And he’s not expecting me to have a gun.”
“We’re not staying behind, Shaw,” said Katie. “I finally found you, so I’m not letting you go that easily.”