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One hundred and twenty aze had never once left the club’s brick façade Through the large front s he could see the efficient swirl of folks who cradled their drinks and murmured in low, conspiratorial tones

Okay, it was time for business

He gave the street another quick scan Not a soul was looking his way Over his career he’d found they never were Seagraves waited patiently until the target walked through his crosshairs for the last tier He didn’t particularly like firing through a pane, though it wouldn’t interfere with the flight of the ordnance he was using

Thwap! This was followed instantly by a tinkle of glass and the heavy thud of a pudgy dead hly polished oak floor The Honorable Robert Bradley had felt no pain at all with the impact The bullet had killed his brain before it could tell his o, actually

Seagraves cal the DC police uniforht with him and marched down the stairs to the rear door When he exited the building, he could hear the screams from across the street Only nineteen seconds had passed since the shot; he knew because he’d counted the ticks off in his head He now moved rapidly down the street as he continued to time the action in his head The next ine as the carefully choreographed scene was played out Now he began to run all out, pulling his pistol as he did so He had five seconds to get there He turned the corner in time to almost be hit by the sedan as it raced by him At the last instant he leaped to the side, rolled and came up in the middle of the road

People across the street shouted at hiun with both hands and fired at the sedan The blanks in his gun sounded sweet, just like the real thing He placed five shots and then sprinted hard down the asphalt for half a block and slid into what appeared to be an unmarked police cruiser parked there; it raced after the fast-disappearing sedan, its siren blaring and grille lights flashing

r />The car it was “chasing” turned left at the next intersection, then right, and headed down an alley, stopping in the reen VW Beetle parked in front of his in the alley and drove off

Once out of sight of the club, the other car’s grille lights and siren stopped as it peeled away from the hunt and headed in the opposite direction The raves never once looked at him as he climbed into the backseat and stripped off the police unifor one-piece jogging outfit; black sneakers were already on his feet In the floorboard of the car was a muzzled six-month-old black Lab The car whipped down a side street and turned left at the next corner, stopping beside a park deserted at this late hour The back door opened, Seagraves climbed out and the car sped off

Seagraves held the leash tightly as he and his “pet” coht at the next corner, four police cruisers flew past the pair Not one face in the cop convoy even glanced at him

A minute later, in another part of the city, a fireball raced into the sky It was the rented and fortunately empty town house of the dead nited Yet combined with the murder of Bob Bradley, the federal authorities would seek out other explanations, though they wouldn’t come easily

After running for three blocks Seagraves abandoned his pet, a waiting car was climbed into and he was back at his hoovernment would have to find another Speaker of the House to replace the recently deceased Robert “Bob” Bradley That shouldn’t be too hard, Seagravesof Bradley’snewspaper After all, the damn town is full of bloody politicians Bloody politicians? That’s an apt description He pulled his car to the security gate, displayed his ID badge and aved through by the aruard there who knew him well

He strode through the front door of the sprawling building in Langley, Virginia, passed through additional security gauntlets and then headed to his eight-by-ten-foot cluttered cookie-cutter office He was currently aa liaison between his agency and the incompetent and brainless on Capitol Hill who’d so as his old job here, and represented a bone thrown his way for o, the CIA let its “special” ee where reflexes slowed a bit and enthusiasm for the work diminished

As Seagraves looked over some tedious paperwork, he realized howHe supposed people who had once ot over that bloodlust At least last night had given hilory back

That was one problem out of the way, but another one would probably soon take its place Yet Roger Seagraves was a creative troubleshooter It was just his nature