Free London Bridges by James Patterson Page A

worth, all the prisoners are from the Middle East.
You
figure it out. Interesting puzzle, don’t you think?
    “You have four days to deliver the money
and
the prisoners. That’s plenty of time, no? More than fair? You’ll be told how and where. You have four days from . . . right . . . now.
    “And, yes, I’m perfectly serious. I also realize that I’m asking for a great deal of money and that it will be deemed ‘impossible’ to raise. I expect to hear as much. But don’t bother with the excuses or the whining.”
    There was a short pause.
    “That’s the fucking point of the call, Mr. Burns. Deliver the money. Deliver the prisoners. Don’t mess up again. Oh, and I suppose there is one other thing. I don’t forgive and forget. You
are
going to die before this is over, Director Burns. So keep looking over your shoulder. One of these days, I’ll be there. And
boom!
But for right now,
four days!
”
    Then the Wolf hung up.
    Ron Burns stared straight ahead and spoke through clenched teeth, “You’ve got that right,
boom!
One of these days, I’ll be there for you.”
    Then Burns’s eyes slowly went around the room, and stopped at me. “We’re on the clock, Alex.”

Chapter 35
    BURNS CONTINUED: “I’d like Dr. Cross to give us his impressions of the Russian maniac. He knows all about him. For those of you who don’t know Alex Cross, he came to us from the Washington PD. Their loss, believe me. He’s the man who put Kyle Craig away.”
    “And who let Geoffrey Shafer escape once or twice,” I spoke up from my seat. “My impressions so far? Well, I won’t belabor the obvious too much. There’s his need for complete control and power. I can tell you this: he wants to do things on a large scale, work a big stage. He’s a creative, obsessive planner. He’s an ‘executive type,’ meaning that he organizes, delegates well, doesn’t have problems making difficult decisions.
    “But most of all, he’s vicious. He likes to hurt people. He likes to
watch
people get hurt. He’s giving us plenty of time to think about what could happen. That’s partly because he knows we won’t,
can’t,
pay him easily. But also because he’s preying on our minds. He knows how hard it will be to catch him. Bin Laden is still free, isn’t he?
    “I’ll tell you what
doesn’t
track for me—the assassination attempt on the director. I don’t see how it fits his pattern. Not this early in the game, anyway. And I especially don’t like it that he missed, that he failed.”
    The words came out wrong and I looked at Burns, but he waved me off. “Do you think he missed? Or was Tom Weir the real target?” he asked.
    “My guess . . . Weir was the target. I don’t think the Wolf made a mistake. Not one this big. I do think he lied about what happened.”
    “Any idea why? Anybody?” Burns glanced around the room.
    No one spoke up, so I continued. “If Thomas Weir
was
the target, it’s the best clue we have. Why would he be a significant threat to the Wolf? What could he have known? I wouldn’t be surprised if Weir and the Wolf knew each other from somewhere, even if Weir wasn’t aware of it. Weir is important. But where would Thomas Weir have come across the Russian? That’s a question we need to ask.”
    “And then answer in a hurry,” said Burns. “Let’s get on it. Everybody—and I mean everybody—in the Bureau!”

Chapter 36
    THE MAN WHO had made the most recent phone calls for the Wolf had his instructions and he knew enough to follow them precisely. He was to be seen in Washington. That was his piece.
    The Wolf was to be seen, which would definitely cause a stir. Wouldn’t it?
    The phone calls he’d made to FBI headquarters and elsewhere would soon be traced to the Four Seasons Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was part of the current plan, and the plan had been nearly flawless thus far.
    So he calmly walked down to the hotel lobby and made certain he was noticed at the concierge desk and also by the