"I have some scut work for you. Pays very well," he said to the woman who answered. "Fifty thousand dollars for just an hour or so of your time."

"Well, then, I'm your scut," said the woman, who happened to be one of the world's very best snipers.

Chapter 28

The meeting with the "subcontractor" took place just before noon in the food court at the Tysons Corner mall. Colonel Shafer met Captain Nicole Williams at a small table directly across from a Burger King.

They had burgers and sodas laid out in front of them, but neither ate what Shafer referred to as "godawful Yankee artery cloggers."

"Nice wheels," Captain Williams said with a smirk when she saw him arrive in the wheelchair. "You have no shame, do you?"

"Whatever works, Nikki." He returned her smile. "You know me well enough by now. Whatever the job takes, I get it done."

"Yeah, I know you, Colonel. Anyway, thanks for thinking of me for this."

"Wait until you hear about the job before you thank me," he said.

"That's why I'm here. To listen."

Actually, Shafer was already a little concerned; he was surprised that Nikki Williams had let herself go so much since the last time they'd worked together. He doubted that she was five foot six, but she must have weighed close to two hundred pounds now.

Still, Nikki Williams exuded the confidence of the highly skilled professional Shafer knew she had always been. They'd worked together for six months in Angola, and Captain Williams was very good at her specialty. She'd always delivered what was asked of her before.

He told Nikki Williams only her part of the job and repeated the fee, which was fifty thousand dollars for less than an hour's work. The thing he liked best about Nikki was that she never complained about the difficulty of any job, or even its risks.

"What's the next step for me? When do we go?" were her only two questions after he had detailed the basics, though not the actual target.

"Tomorrow at one you'll to be at Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia. An MD-530 helicopter will set down there at five past the hour. We'll have an HK PSG-1 on board for you."

Williams frowned and shook her head. "Unh-uh. If you don't mind, I'll bring my own. I prefer the Winchester M70, with 300 Win Magnum hollow-point boattails. I've field-tested them, know they're best for this kind of job. You said that glass has to be penetrated, right?"

"Yes, that's right, Captain. You have to shoot into an office building."

Shafer didn't object to the change in weapons. He had worked with plenty of snipers and knew they were always idiosyncratic, had their own peculiar way of doing things. He'd expected modifications from her and was surprised there weren't more, actually.

"So who's going to die tomorrow?" Nikki Williams finally asked. "I need to know that, of course."

Shafer told Captain Williams the target, and to her credit, she never raised an eyebrow. Her only reaction was "My price just went up. It just doubled."