Page 138 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

“Like you said, let’s stop playing games.”

Minutes earlier, Vesna, Stone, andthe Strategic Services team had rappelled down the elevator shaft and landed softly on top of the elevator car at the bottom.

The trapdoor in the ceiling was quickly found and opened.

Vesna went through first and dropped softly into the car. Strauss and one of his people followed.

Once they had the doors pried open, the others came through the hatch.

As soon as Vesna stepped out of the elevator, the audio feed from Teddy’s mic went active. From Stone’s reaction, he was hearing it, too.

They moved down the hallway until they reached adoor with the number one painted above it. Muffled voices from the other side matched the voices coming over the feed.

As Braun was telling Teddy that he knew Teddy worked for the CIA, Vesna tested the door handle. As expected, it was unlocked.

In the room, Braun said, “You worked for them when you killed my father.”

Vesna clicked her mic to let Teddy know she and the others were there.

Braun laughed, deep and loud.

Teddy merely looked at him blankly.

“Of all the people associated with Golden Hour, you were the one I’d wanted to eliminate the most. Since you were dead, I thought that chance had been denied me. But here you are in the flesh. I have never been so pleased to be wrong in my life.”

“I’m happy for you,” Teddy said.

“You should be. I’ve worked hard to reach this point.”

Teddy shrugged skeptically. “Have you really?”

“The fact that you’re sitting in a room from which you will never leave alive is proof of that.”

“You sayfact. I say unlikely possibility.”

Braun tutted. “Try to delude yourself however you want, but we both know how this will end.”

“I’m going to have to disagree with you about that, too.”

“I would think an intelligent man like yourself would be able to work it out on your own. But if you wish to playignorant, I’m happy to spell it out for you. Tonight, Operation Golden Hour officially comes to an end.”

“Is that so?”

“I have assassins in place near all the remaining agents associated with your vile mission. As soon as you’re eliminated, they’ll finish everyone else off.”

“Thanks for sharing, but you appear to have misunderstood what I meant when I said I disagreed with you. I’m not the one who doesn’t understand how this will end.”

Braun snorted. “You just don’t know when to give up, do you?”

“It’s not in my nature.”

“Nothing you can do about it, I suppose. Fine. Think what you will. That won’t change what’s about to happen to you.”

“I want to make sure I have this right. You kill me, then give your assassins the word and they kill the rest of my team. Andthenyou go after the director of the CIA and the president of the United States. Or will you wait a bit before you attempt to kill them?”

Braun’s mood darkened, but he kept his mouth shut.

“I just ask because I’m curious,” Teddy said. “If you don’t want to share, that’s fine. It’s never going to happen anyway because they already know.”

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