Page 54 of Silent Target

And he now knows exactly where I am.

10

EVIE

Caleb crawls into position behind his rifle.

I remain beneath the fallen pine, clutching my pistol and trying not to think about the bullet hole through my coat.

Or the blood spreading across Caleb’s side.

He insists the round only grazed him.

The dark stain says otherwise.

“Can you see the second sniper?” I ask.

“No.”

“Is that bad?”

“Yes.”

One word.

Terrifying question.

Somehow, I still feel better because Caleb answered it.

He peers through his scope.

“Two guards moving below us. Search team approaching from the north. Three men near the eastern fence.”

“How can you see all that?”

“I’m not only looking through the scope.”

Of course he isn’t.

Caleb doesn’t merely see the battlefield.

He feels it.

I crawl closer and use the binoculars to study the compound.

Walter Graves crosses the yard with two bodyguards.

I’ve seen him in the halls of Langley and at formal dinners. I’ve watched him reassure frightened lawmakers with one hand while burying intelligence with the other.

I’ve never seen him like this.

Here, he isn’t pretending to serve anyone.

This is Walter Graves without the mask.

“What are you going to do?” I ask.

“Change the battlefield.”