The man clad in black scaled the underside of the bridge slowly, transferring his weight carefully and keeping the rifle high and out of view. He used a simple wooden plank to bridge the girders, clearing one span at a time and then sliding the plank forward to the next gap. The end result was a completely invisible approach, save for anyone who was actually underneath the bridge, and when he reached his desired perch the assassin made sure the board was secure and left it in place.

He looked down and saw his firing position—a flat steel beam three feet wide, with a flange on one end that would perfectly support his forward hand. He supposed there had never been a more stable shooting platform on earth. The assassin checked his gun one last time, ensuring that nothing had been damaged or altered during his traverse. He then glanced at his watch. Six minutes, more or less. He would begin his vigil in three. That was when he started taking chances. Logically, once he lowered himself to put his eyes on the target area, it meant that others could put their eyes on him. But in this he felt secure, confident that the bridge’s dark shadows would grant him the few minutes he needed. The only way they will see me, he thought, is if they know exactly where to look.

He breathed deeply and tried to relax, his muscles tense after the awkward positioning maneuver. As he waited for his target to appear, the man pulled out a stick of chewing gum and popped it into his mouth. By feel, he then reached back with his hand to put the wrapper in a side pocket.

*   *   *

“There!”

Behrouz stiffened when the warning came through his earpiece. He pressed the bud to his ear.

“Under the third span!” the same voice said over the tactical frequency.

Behrouz was standing on Entrepreneur’s gangway as guests arrived en masse for the ship’s departure. He whipped his head around and looked intently at the bridge.

The irritated voice of the tactician in charge bristled over the frequency, “Who is reporting? Use your call sign!”

“Six! This is position six! I saw something fall from the third span. It was tiny, but there was definitely something. I think I saw movement there too, in a small gap.”

Another voice, “Position four—I saw it as well. It could have been a feather.”

“Should we intervene?” asked the commander over the radio, his taciturn voice making any use of his own call sign redundant.

He was posing this question to Behrouz, and there was a heavy pause on the frequency as everyone waited for an answer. Behrouz had seen nothing himself. He looked anxiously at his watch—the motorcade bringing Hamedi would arrive in a matter of minutes. Yes, he thought, it was just as Rafi had said: A lone assassin will shoot from underneath a bridge … two hundred meters away.