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“Why are we following theed face asked

“Because you failed to capture the woorovich said

“We have helicopters and ja equipment,” Victor Kirov replied “And twenty trained commandos on board We could take her noith ease”

Gregorovich didn’t like having official Russian agents on his team, or even the Red Army commandos they’d sent him, but at least he could trust the soldiers With an ambitious GRU man like Kirov, that was not possible

“You’re lucky I allowed you to come aboard, Victor You’ve lost face with me in more ways than one”

Kirov bristled at the comment but didn’t respond

“Don’t you see?” Gregorovich asked “The Ah the waves at flank speed if they didn’t They are the hounds chasing the fox We are the hunters on horseback At this point, it’s best to shadow theranted us by the Kremlin to keep an eye on them from over the horizon When they settle on a final location, we’ll act”

Kirov snorted and shook his head “If Thero proves to have a workable weapon, the Ary bees Our little force will be no match for the before he tests it in a way that alerts the world”

“Take it?” Gregorovich said “So we have alternate plans now?”

“If soy can be recovered, we are to do so,” Kirov noted

“Those were not orovich said

“They’re mine,” Kirov replied

This was odd, Gregorovich thought, but not totally unexpected He shrugged it off, more concerned with the fact that he hadn’t been told than the actual task

“And what are we to do with the little toy you brought along?” He nodded toward a case secured to the far bulkhead A nuclear warhead lay inside A suitcase bomb The mother of all suitcase bombs, really

The Russian designation was RA-117H While h to vaporize several city blocks and perhaps devastate a square mile or so — the RA-117H yielded far more Nearly three times the power of the Hiroshima bomb