side of the low embankment. "But for now, our friends over there are getting restless. And they'll be coming in
this direction in force very soon. I think we'd best break contact while we can. We need to find a place where we can safelv arrange new transport."
Smith nodded. That made good sense. By now, their enemies were sure to have found the cars they had brought with them from Andrews Air Force Base. Trying to retrieve the two vehicles would only mean walking back into the trap they had just escaped.
He felt the dressing on his left arm, checking to make sure it had not yet soaked all the way through. It was still dry on the outside. He turned back to the Englishman. "Okay, lead on, Peter. I'll keep an eye on the rear."
The two men turned and trotted north, fading deeper into the darkened countryside - keeping to the shelter of the trees and tall brush whenever possible. Behind them, the harsh, echoing rattle of gunfire slowly died away.
Chapter Thirty-One
The first burst of automatic weapons fire outside the farmhouse brought Kit Pierson to her feet in a rush. Drawing her service pistol, a 9mm Smith & Wesson, the FBI agent moved rapidly to the window, peering out through the narrow slit between the drapes. She could not see anything, but the sound of gunfire continued, echoing loudly across the low, rolling hills of the Virginia countryside. Heart pounding, she crouched lower. Whatever was going on had all the hallmarks of a pitched battle being fought close by.
"Trouble, Kit?" she heard Hal Burke say with a nasty edge in his voice.
Pierson glanced over her shoulder at him. Her eyes widened. The square-jawed CIA officer had drawn his own weapon, a Beretta. And he held it aimed right at her.
"What kind of game are you playing, Hal?" she demanded, holding perfectly still - all too aware that, drunk or not, he could not miss at this range. Her mouth felt dry. She could see beads of sweat forming on Burke's forehead. The muscles around his right eye twitched slightly.
"This is no game," he snapped back. "As I'm sure you know." He motioned with the muzzle of the Beretta. "Now I want you to put your weapon down on the floor - but carefully . . . very carefully. And then I want you to sit back down in your chair. With your hands where I can see them."
"Take it easy, Hal," Pierson said softly, trying hard to conceal her fear and her sudden conviction that Burke had lost his grip on reality. "I don't know what you think I've done, but I promise you that - "
Her words were drowned by another burst of shooting from outside the house.
"Do what I say, damn it!" the CIA officer growled. His finger tightened dangerously on the trigger. "Move!"
Feeling ice-cold, Pierson slowly knelt and put her Smith & Wesson down on the floor, butt first.
"Now, kick it toward me - but do it gently!" Burke ordered.
She complied, sliding the pistol toward him across the stained hardwood floor.
"Sit!"
Angry now, both at the other man and with herself for being so afraid of him, Pierson obeyed, slowly lowering herself into the lumpy, frayed armchair. She held her hands up, palms outward, so that he could see that she was not an immediate threat. "I'd still like to know what I'm supposed to have done, Hal - and what all that shooting is about."
Burke raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Why try to pull the innocent act, Kit? It's too late for that. You're not an idiot. And neither am I, for that matter. Did you really think you could sneak an FBI surveillance team onto my property without my knowing?"
She shook her head, desperately now. "I don't know what you're talking about. Nobody came with me - or followed me. I was clean all the way out from D.C. to here!"
'Lying won't get you anywhere," he said coldly. His right eye twitched again, fluttering rapidly as the muscles contracted and then relaxed. "In fact, it just pisses me off."
The phone on his desk rang once. Without taking his eyes or his pistol off her, Burke reached out and grabbed it before it could ring again. "Yes?" he said tightly. He listened for a moment and then shook his head. "No, I have the situation here under control. You can come ahead. The door's unlocked." He hung up.