Deadly Crossing (Tom Dugan 2) by R.E. McDermott

than a minute. There’s a taxi stand about four blocks away.”
    “Let’s do it,” Dugan said, and Anna nodded to Harry, who began pulling uniforms from a small cabinet mounted on the floor of the van and checking the labels for sizes.
    “I’ll ring Gillian,” Anna said, reaching for her phone. “I don’t want to alarm her, but she should know what’s going on, and I’ll tell her Tom is coming.”
    Five minutes later, Dugan was uniformed as a British Telecom repairman, pushing past the Russians to the rear door of the van when Harry stopped him.
    “Are you armed, Yank?”
    Dugan shook his head. “You folks aren’t big on concealed carry permits.”
    “Permits be damned. These blokes are nasty bastards.” He reached into another compartment and extracted a Glock and a spare loaded magazine. “The magazine in the gun is full,” he said, handing both the Glock and the spare magazine to Dugan, “but there’s not a round in the chamber.”
    Dugan nodded and slipped the spare magazine into his pants pocket and the Glock into his waistband. He adjusted his shirt to cover it and moved to the back of the van.
    “Wish me luck,” he said, hand on the door release.
    “Let’s wish you don’t need it,” Anna countered.
    Dugan flashed her a hesitant smile, then crawled out of the van.
    Club Pyatnitsa
London, UK
    Arsov pulled his vibrating cell phone from his pocket and looked at the caller ID.
    “Yes, Nazarov.”
    “We’ve spotted Tanya. She’s in the Kairouz house.”
    “Is she being held?”
    “No, she appears to be there willingly.”
    Arsov thought for a moment. “Too bad. That means we’ll have to take her by force. Who else is there?”
    “A woman I think is Kairouz’s wife and a servant. A cook, I think. She seems to spend all her time in the kitchen.”
    “And no one else?”
    “Not that we can see,” Nazarov said. “Kairouz and his driver left this morning, and we followed him to his office.”
    “And the others?”
    “The American and the Walsh women went to the office, and the two Spetsnaz stayed at the apartment. We did not see any of them leave either place,” Nazarov hesitated. “But…”
    “But what, Nazarov? Please do not tell me you couldn’t even perform a simple surveillance.”
    “A… a British Telecom repair van, possibly the same one, entered and exited the underground garage of both buildings. I don’t know for sure, but it seems too much of a coincidence…”
    “So what is the problem? You have plenty of men. Surely you dispatched someone to follow this van.”
    “W-we did not realize it visited both places until it was out of sight. I do not know where the van went or if anyone was in it.”
    Arsov suppressed a sigh of exasperation and collected his thoughts. Now why would the American and the Russians conceal themselves in a repair van, assuming, of course, that this idiot Nazarov’s suspicions were correct?
    “Hold a moment,” Arsov said into the phone as he moved from his office and into the club. The club wasn’t open yet, and he motioned to a large man restocking the bar. “Victor, go out front and have a smoke. Look up and down the street casually, and see if you see a white British Telecom van anywhere, but don’t be obvious.”
    The man nodded and moved from behind the bar and toward the door as Arsov reconnected with Nazarov.
    “If they are moving around in a van,” Arsov said, “perhaps they have decided to watch us. I sent Victor to check. However, it doesn’t really matter where they are at the moment. In fact, whether they have obligingly gone to work as usual or collected in a van to try to watch us makes no difference. They are not around Tanya. Pull all the boys off the other surveillance and bring them to the Kairouz house. How long will it take them to get to you?”
    “Not long. Both places are nearby. Ten minutes perhaps.”
    “Good. Leave two men watching the street outside the Kairouz place, and the rest of you go in and take