Page 112 of Close Pursuit

“How does wiping out two villages do that?”

“The arrival of an American doctor in the area had to freak out whoever was sponsoring the uranium smuggling. I might’ve spotted the signs of uranium toxicity in the locals. Katie and I were moving fast, going from village to village and laying low. Local pregnant women and their husbands were hiding our tracks, which would have made us hard to locate.”

“I can vouch for that. My own bro—my own people had a hell of a time keeping tabs on you.”

Alex continued. “For all the Russians knew, I already was onto them. I might already have reported back to Doctors Unlimited that I was seeing uranium poisoning among the locals. They had no choice but to wipe out the physical evidence.”

“By killing all the locals?”

Alex nodded. “If D.U. is highly connected. If it filed a formal report, the International Atomic Energy Agency and/or the United Nations would’ve immediately sent a team out to test the blood and tissue of the locals for evidence of illegal uranium mining.”

Both of them knew that, in the game of global nuclear brinksmanship, the lives of a few hundred natives in a place no one had ever heard of were meaningless. Governments wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter local villagers to protect a secret this big.

“Why haven’t they killed you?” Ian demanded.

“Oh, they’ve been trying. But I’m a slippery bastard.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Ian replied dryly.

Alex grinned briefly and shrugged. He wouldn’t apologize for stabbing the guy. McCloud been following them and pulled a knife when jumped.

Ian said soberly, “The Russians need to kill my sister, too, don’t they?”

“She’s a nurse. She, too, might spot uranium poisoning—” He sucked in a sharp breath as his mind made the next leap.

“What?” McCloud demanded sharply.

“Not only do the Russians have to kill the two of us, but they alsohaveto kill Dawn. And furthermore, they have to dispose of her body.”

“Why the kid?” Mike asked.

“She’s the only survivor from the Karshan Valley massacre. If her mother was exposed to uranium, she absorbed it across her mother’s placenta.”

“Sonofabitch,” Ian breathed.

“She’s the only remaining evidence of illegal uranium mining and smuggling.”

“So you’re telling me the whole fucking Russian government is out to kill one baby?”

“At least a powerful faction within it. A faction that would like to see Iran become a nuclear power. If Tehran nuked Israel, the U.S. would have a gigantic mess on its hands for decades to come.”

Ian added, “And the price of oil would go sky high. Russia would make a fortune.”

“Not to mention, this faction would love to see the U.S. quaking in its boots over the possibility of Iran lobbing a nuke at Washington.”

“Jesus,” Ian breathed.

“It’s possible I’m wrong,” Alex said.

“You’re not.”

The two men traded worried looks. Where was Katie? She had no idea the danger she and Dawn were in.

20

Natasha’s penciled-on brows sailed upward. “Of course, we can speak in private.” The woman said something in Russian to her henchmen that made their gazes dart quickly to Katie and then away.

Natasha snapped in English, “Let me out.”

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