Page 91 of Gryphon

The tip of the spear.

73

“On the move,” Max whispered.

Holly shifted the TAC-50 rifle into position and settled her gaze on the scope. Three men stepped out onto the patio of the GIS building eight hundred meters away.

And stayed clustered together.

Pavle was supposed to separate himself from the others, but they were moving together in a line. Were the two on the ends about to throw the one in the middle off the rooftop to kill him? Or was the man in the middle a target but keeping Pavle in place with a hand on his shoulder?

Then Holly spotted it.

She left the rifle, raced to the other side of the parapet’s walkway and spotted Elene, still walking arm-in-arm with Mike through the monument.

“Elene! What color coat did Pavle wear this morning?”

“White with big red stripe! Georgia football team colors. I give to him as engagement present.”

Holly turned back as Max’s rifle cracked loudly.

He worked the bolt on his Orsis rifle before she even had the TAC-50 fully in her hands. She’d realigned the scope to her eye as the Orsis barked a second time.

A man in the dark blue of a NATO uniform was already down.

As she watched, a man in a black coat, halfway back to the door, jerked sideways, a hat tumbling from his gray hair as he fell.

The man in the white jacket with the red stripe, probably now sprayed with blood, turned very slowly to look up at them. There was no way to read his expression at this distance.

74

“Kommendör Holmgren, urgent radio call for you.”

“Patch it here.” She stood at the rear of the bridge, watching the AW109LUH helo lifting off the Karlstad’s rear helipad and circling wide to open the space.

Kerstin grabbed the handset by the deck commander’s station when the phone buzzed.

“Kommendör Holmgren.”

“Kommendör, this is NATO Général Pierre Vachon. We have reason to believe that you may be the target of an inbound Unmanned Little Bird helicopter armed with two American Mark 46 torpedoes.”

“I have a ULB inbound right now with proper authorization. Urgent medical supplies. I’ve just cleared my helipad so it may land.”

“Any authorization, it is forged. This is an attaque upon your ship. Le tirer. Shoot it! Shoot it now!”

Kerstin dropped the phone and snatched up a pair of binoculars.

“Distance to inbound?” She called out as she looked.

Even with the high-power binocs, it was little bigger than a ten-krona coin on the far side of her bridge.

“Seven kilometers and closing at one-seven-zero knots.”

She grabbed the handset once again and punched for another frequency. “Gripen overwatch. This is Karlstad. We have reason to believe we’re being targeted by approaching ULB Little Bird with twin torpedoes, heading nine-five degrees from our current position.”

“Roger, Karlstad. Initiating pass.”

She looked around for them, but couldn’t spot them anywhere.

---