Still, they followed as the parts were carefully layered in. The choppers weren’t airborne yet, but when they were, they would hang in the air about a half mile behind the zone, which was that part of the arc 1,847 yards out in Queens that fronted on the new building over Roosevelt Drive and the East River. The Mogul sub was suiting up in Level IV Kevlar for his shot at glory; Mogul himself would arrive shortly. Teams were locked, loaded, and in place all over, the various Raytheon marvels needed for the intercept in place and tested.

Meanwhile, in Queens, SWAT units had parked during the night on blocks not far from the potential shooting sites—one of twenty-three buildings on the arc—and could get there almost as fast as the choppers. The plan was to hurl them to the newly identified shooter’s building simultaneously with the arrival of the choppers—a classic pincer move.

Swagger had little to say. As much as he hoped it would work, he didn’t believe it would. Juba was too good. Juba was better than he’d ever been. You couldn’t match ordinary brains against his and expect anything good to come of it.

“Cheer up, Bob,” said Nick. “We do this thing, have a couple of days of Mogul love and an open bar, and it’s back to Idaho and the front porch. I’m sure the deer and the antelope have missed you.”

“May I say something?” said Mr. Gold.

“A breakthrough?” asked Nick.

“Not exactly,” he said.

“Well, go ahead anyway.”

“I believe we have made an astute analysis of the evidence, and the plan itself is sound and well staffed, no half measures—and I know, from experience, that half measures are frequently catastrophic.”

“Okay,” said Nick.

“However—”

“Here it comes,” said Neill.

“It does occur to me that in one respect, hard as we have worked, we are all Juba amateurs. We’ve been in the game only a few months.”

“Yes?”

“There is only one Juba professional in the world. We are here only because of her efforts over long years. She has been tracking, imagining, stalking this fellow for over a decade.”

He paused as they all took it in.

Finally, Nick said, “Go on.”