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"LET'S REHEAT THE COLD WAR"

A comedy/adventure "Shareware Novel" by

L. JON LINDSAY

       2629 Cason
       Houston, TX  77005

       Internet: [email protected]

Copyright - 1994 - L. Jon Lindsay - All rights reserved.

Please name this file lndsay01.txt, or lndsay01.zip
if compressed.

============================================================
SHAREWARE AND LEGAL NOTICE:

THIS FILE IS A SHAREWARE NOVEL.  IT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC
DOMAIN.  THEREFORE, YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO POST COPIES OF IT TO
YOUR FAVORITE BBS's AND INTERNET FILE SITES AND TO SHARE IT
WITH YOUR FRIENDS, BUT ONLY A LIMITED LICENSE TO REPRODUCE AND
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TO PREPARE DERIVATIVE WORKS BASED ON THIS WORK, TO PERFORM
THIS WORK PUBLICLY OR TO DISPLAY THIS WORK PUBLICLY WITHOUT
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GRANTED HEREUNDER TO ANYONE TO REPRODUCE THIS WORK OR
DISTRIBUTE COPIES OF THIS WORK FOR PAYMENT OF ANY MONEY
WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.

If it will help you to enjoy this story, you are permitted to
print out a copy of it, provided that the entire text,
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printout and give them to other people; again, provided the
text, including any notices, is not altered in any way and
provided no compensation is paid for the copy.
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The Story:


This story is a comedy-adventure about good spies and bad
spies from both sides of the former Iron Curtain.  It is a
particularly timely story due to the ongoing power struggle in
Russia.  Recent events in Russia have prompted many editorial
comments that the cold war may not be over, but may in fact
heat up significantly if the conservatives in Russia manage to
regain power.

This story takes advantage of these fears of a renewed cold
war, and turns them into laughter.  In the story, bad spies on
both sides are trying to maintain the fires of the cold war by
waging a counterintelligence disinformation campaign against
each other.  This campaign could potentially cause a major
flare-up in the cold war, but the powers-that-be don't want to
be bothered with it, so the good spies on both sides must go
outside the normal channels to thwart the efforts of the bad
spies.  In the story, a young CIA agent has been set up as the
pawn of the bad spies from both sides.  He's caught in the
middle with people trying to kill him.  He doesn't know why he
can't get help from his own side.  The good spies are a couple
of old-timers from both sides of the old cold war.  They have
been against each other many times throughout the past, but
are glad to see the cold war end.  Now, they must work
together to rescue the young agent before a major
international incident occurs.  In the midst of the mayhem,
with all the spies fighting each other, chasing each other,
shooting at each other and capturing each other, the young
agent manages to meet a girl and fall in love.  Go figure.

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NOTICE and Author's Request for Acknowledgement:


This story is a shareware novel.  To register your copy of
this story, all you have to do is send me a letter or postcard
telling me what you thought of it.  There is no money
required.  Send to:

     2629 Cason
     Houston, TX  77005

     Internet: [email protected]

Be sure to include the title of the story in your letter,
since I hope to eventually write other shareware stories.
Also, please tell me where you got this story.  If from a BBS,
please tell me the name and number of the BBS.

I originally wrote this story as a motion picture screenplay
several years ago.  Unfortunately, the screenplay writing
business is the most competitive writing field in the world,
so it is almost impossible for a new writer, like me, to get a
break.  The greatest difficulty faced by us new writers is
getting someone in the motion picture industry to read our
scripts in the first place.  No one in Hollywood will read a
script by a new writer unless it comes to him/her with a
recommendation from a friend or credible script analyst
(someone who has been paid a lot of money just to read it).
However, I feel that if these analysts (so called "script
experts") really knew how to recognize a good script, then
they would be writing their own (and making lots of money)
instead of critiquing others.  Rather than wasting my money on
one of these "experts," I have decided to go straight to the
people who really know whether my script would make a good
movie - YOU.  I believe that if I want to get a credible
recommendation for my script, then I have to go to those
people whose only interest in the script is to get to watch
the movie.  Therefore, I have turned my screenplay into a
short novel for your enjoyment.  If you would like to see the
movie, then please send me a letter or postcard telling me so.
If I get enough letters, then I will be able to go back to all
those people who refused to read it the first time and say,
"This many people can't possibly be wrong."  Then maybe they
will read it (and buy it).

Also, if I get enough letters, I promise to write a sequel.
============================================================




"LET'S REHEAT THE COLD WAR"




CHAPTER 1



Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Boris
Yeltsin's rise to power in Russia, the following events may
have actually happened.  You have no way of knowing that I'm
wrong.


In a private veterinarian's office in a small town in Texas in
the middle of the day, Max Lang entered the room to find Dr.
Joseph, the veterinarian, nervously wringing his hands.

"Who are you!?" Joseph demanded.

"I believe that we have something for each other," Max
responded.

"You're late!".

"I thought I was early," Max said quietly, trying not to
appear at all confused.

"You idiot!  It's a wonder I don't get caught!"  Joseph threw
an envelope down on the desk.  "Here!  You have something for
me!?"

Max pulled an envelope out of his pocket.  "Of course."  He
acted very casual about the whole exchange.

Joseph snatched the envelope out of Max's hand and quickly
picked the other envelope back up off of his desk and shoved
it into Max's hand.  He immediately tucked his new envelope
away in a drawer in his desk and slammed the drawer shut.  Max
tried not to show any surprise at Joseph's behavior.

A little relief began to creep into Joseph's attitude.  "Now
get out of here before you're seen!"  But not much relief.

"Thank you," Max said with a smile and a quick three-finger
salute.  He then turned and walked back out of the room.

Max practically skipped down the hallway of the building to
the exit.  His first assignment may not have been very
exciting, but he felt that he handled it brilliantly.

As he left the building, Vladimir and two men with him, Vassy
and Aram, entered.  Max cheerfully held the door open for
them.  Vladimir, without pausing for a second and with the
trained eye of many years of experience, scrutinized Max's
every feature and movement.  After sizing up Max in an
instant, Vladimir and the other two men continued into the
building.  Max merely smiled at them.

Vladimir, Vassy and Aram entered Joseph's office.  Startled,
Joseph jumped out of his seat.  He wasn't expecting another
visitor so soon.

"Joseph?" Vladimir inquired.

"Yes?" responded a suspicious Joseph.

"Sorry we're late.  You have something for us?"

"Damn!!!" Joseph shouted and ran to the window to pear out
through the shades.

"What's wrong?" Vladimir demanded as he, too, went to the
window.

Out on the street, Joseph could see Max spring up onto the
curb on the other side of the street.  "That guy got here
first!"  He pointed out the window nearly breaking the window
as he bashed his finger into the glass.  "I thought he was
you, and I gave him your documents!"

Vladimir carefully looked out the window just in time to see
Max turn the corner and disappear from sight.  Then Vladimir
turned and shouted orders to Vassy.  "The man who came out
when we went in!  Get him!"  Vassy dashed out of the room.
Vladimir reached over, grabbed Joseph by the collar and pulled
him to within an inch of his own face.  "If this is a double-
cross, you will pay dearly for it!"  Then he shouted orders to
Aram.  "Take him to the house!"

"No!  You can't do that!  It was an accident!" Joseph
protested as Aram dragged him from the room.

Outside, Vassy barged out of the building, and ran to a car
where two other men, Yevgeny and Anton, were waiting.  "A
young man came out when we went in!  We have to get him!"
Vassy shouted at them.

Vassy left them and ran up the street in the direction that
Max went.  Anton jumped out of the car and followed Vassy on
foot, while Yevgeny followed in the car.  They ran to the town
square, but did not see Max.  Vassy motioned to Anton to split
up.

Back at the vet's building, Aram led Joseph out to another
car.  Joseph tried to struggle, but to no avail.  Vladimir
kept a watch for witnesses, but the streets of the small town
were empty at this time of day.  Vladimir and Aram stuffed
Joseph into the car.

Vassy and Anton quickly scoured the nearby streets and all of
the open stores.  Yevgeny circled the square in his car.

Max emerged from an ice cream store.  He was not carrying the
envelope anymore.  He was, instead, licking a dip of ice cream
on a cone.  He was not watching where he was going, and he ran
into Vassy, spilling ice cream on Vassy's suit.  "Oh, hey!
I'm sorry!" Max apologized.

Vassy quickly pulled a gun.  "Struggle and you die," he said
as he stuck the gun into Max's ribs.

"I said I was sorry!" Max protested.

Yevgeny quickly pulled the car up beside them.  Vassy shoved
Max into the back seat, and slid in beside him.  Anton came
quickly, jumped into the car and shoved a gun into Max's other
side.

Max was bewildered.  "It's just an ice cream stain!?"

They all quickly drove out of town, without anyone in the town
knowing what had happened.  It was just as well that no one
knew of these events, because if they had known, they probably
would have run home, locked their doors, loaded their shotguns
and made ready for an invasion.



CHAPTER 2



In the second floor room of a farm house far from any major
city, Vladimir shoved Max into a chair, and Vassy tied Max to
it.

"What did you do with my documents?" Vladimir demanded.

"What!?" Max said incredulously.

"He had nothing on him when we picked him up," Vassy explained
to Vladimir.

Vladimir restrained his temper.  "Someone has done something
with my documents, and someone is going to tell me what it
was."  Vladimir stomped out of the room.  Vassy positioned
himself by the window to keep an eye on Max.

"Come here often?" Max said, not really feeling as glib as his
remark suggested.


"What the hell kind of a mess have you got us into now!?"
Lacken shouted at the three men who had come into his office
at CIA headquarters in Langley to spoil an otherwise pretty
day with a crazy story of how a simple operation had been
screwed up.  Now the three men stood in front of him like
three school boys in trouble.

The first man, Pucker, leaned forward to try to explain.  "Our
operative was supposed to pick up documents that were meant
for us!  Instead, he got there early and accidentally picked
up the documents that were meant for several former KGB
agents!"

"Wait a minute!" Lacken interrupted.  "What are you babbling
about!?  Are you saying that there's an informant in a small
Texas town that's dealing information to both us and former
agents of the KGB?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's the damnedest thing I ever heard!"

Pucker remained calm and tried to explain.  "Sir, these former
KGB agents are using this informant as a channel for sending
false information to us, and we are using him to send false
information to them."

Lacken turned to the second man.  "Finch, did you make any
sense out of that?"

"Yes, sir," Finch replied.

"Then you're as crazy as Pucker!"

"You see, sir," Finch interjected, "the KGB originally set up
this guy in an out-of-the-way place, so he could easily send
information that they wanted out of the United States."

"That's right, sir," Pucker continued, irritated at Finch's
interruption.  "However, they decided to be tricky with this
setup.  They had him come to us and say that he could get us
information from the KGB.  That way, whenever he met with the
KGB couriers, we were supposed to think that he was GETTING
information FROM sources friendly to our side, instead of
GIVING information TO people who were definitely not friendly
to us."

"It worked pretty good for them," Finch interjected,
irritating Pucker again, "until we found out that the
information we were getting was fake, and we got suspicious."

"Then why the hell are we still dealing with this guy!?"
Lacken shouted.  "Haven't you idiots heard that the cold war
is over!?  We won, and the damn KGB is dead!"

"Of course, sir."  Pucker tried to pacify Lacken and glanced
suspiciously at Finch, expecting another interruption.  "But
as we all well know, many former KGB officers still hold
considerable power in the former Soviet states and are
fighting Yeltsin every step of the way to freedom.  These
people still pose a very serious threat to our national
security, and are still involved in major espionage efforts
right under our very noses."

"Do you know what a moron you sound like?" Lacken demanded.

Pucker ignored Lacken's insult.  "Sir, the fact that these
people are still using this informant to pass bogus
information to us is proof positive that they are still a
threat.  Only now we have managed to see to it that all of the
information that he passes back to these former KGB agents is
also fake!"

"It's part of a disinformation campaign, sir," Finch added.

"Disinformation!?" Lacken shouted incredulously.  "Dammit!
I'm sure glad that this is the first time I ever heard about
this stupid operation.  I'd hate to think that I approved of
such a lame-brained idea.  Haven't you two heard what I said!?
The cold war is over!?  Finito!  Kaput!  Now get over it!"

"Yes, sir," Pucker persisted.  "But these people on their
side, who are still part of their old guard, are still a major
force in their country.  Haven't you seen the headlines coming
out of that country, sir?  Didn't you see what happened in
their first free elections?  These same people are regaining
power and are the ones who stand in Yeltsin's way.  They are
the ones that we have targeted with this campaign."

Frustrated, Lacken turned to the third man.  "Boggs!  Are you
part of this crazy scheme, or are you here for something
else!?"

"Uh - I - uh - I -," Boggs stammered.

"What's the matter?  Don't you know nothing?  Or do you just
work here?"  Lacken was becoming increasingly irritated.

"He is the immediate supervisor of our agent who has screwed
up our operation," Pucker interrupted.  "Up to now, we have
fed these former KGB agents a series of false documents that
have totally confused them, but the documents that were picked
up today were supposed to be the final touch that would cause
them to be chasing after shadows for the next ten years!  We
NEEDED them to have that information in order to complete the
scheme!"

Lacken was growing weary of the situation.  "So what the hell
do you want from me!?  Just make another copy of it and send
it to them!"

"It's not that easy," Pucker explained carefully.  "It's got
to come from this source in order to be credible for them.
That means we have to let them get the information back from
our man who screwed up and got it first."

"Sir!  He's talking about sacrificing an agent!" Finch warned.

"Is he right!?" Lacken demanded.  "Are you asking me to
officially sanction sacrificing an agent!?  Do realize how
much that can hurt this agency if the press ever found out?
Our damage-control guys have had enough trouble from all those
LSD tests we did thirty years ago!"

"It won't be like that!" Pucker insisted.

"This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard!  Sure, ten
years ago it would have been easy to dangle another one of our
own guys in front of the KGB.  And with a Republican
President, we could have easily covered up any messes that the
press found out about, but times have changed.  That new
jackass in the White House won't let us hide things like this.
We even gotta pretend like we're trying to help those bastards
over there.  So I don't want to hear any more!  Pucker, you
got us into this mess, so you get us out!  I don't care how
you do it, but don't you dare drag this agency into any
trouble!"  And with that speech, Lacken washed his hands of
any future involvement.

"Yes, sir!  Absolutely, sir!  I'll take care of it, sir!"
Pucker ass-kissed, as he began to back out of the room.

"Get out!" Lacken continued to yell.

"But, sir -!" Finch tried to protest.

"Out!" Lacken cut him off.  To Lacken's relief, Pucker, Finch,
and Boggs finally turned and left.

Outside of Lacken's office, they stopped, and Pucker gave his
orders to Finch and Boggs.  "Max is going to have to call in
for help!  When he does, I want to know about it!"  Pucker
quickly turned and walked away.

"Are we just going to let him throw Max to the sharks?" Boggs
worried.

"Do you want to be known as a whistle-blower?" Finch responded
with a dejected sigh.

"I guess not."  They both grudgingly turned and went to their
offices to do as they were told.


Back at the farm house, Vassy kept watch over Max in the
second floor room.  Max's hands were still tied behind him.
Joseph's screams came from another room as Vladimir brutally
interrogated him.  Vassy calmly smoked a cigarette, while Max
tried not to flinch with each scream.



CHAPTER 3



In a public park in Arlington, Virginia, two old-timers,
Nicholas and Samantha, approached a park bench from opposite
directions and sat down.  They pretended to ignore each other.
Nicholas pulled a bag of popcorn from his overcoat pocket and
began feeding the pigeons.  Neither one of them looked at the
other when they spoke.  Instead, their eyes constantly scanned
their surroundings and the people who came into view.

Samantha began the pleasantries.  "Hi, Nick, how's it
hanging?"

"Heavy and to the right," Nick responded with a heavy Russian
accent.

"To the right!?" Sam exclaimed.  "And you call yourself a
communist?"

Nick was quick to correct her.  "I am not a communist!"

"They would have shot you for that in the old days."

"The old days are over." Nick wiped his brow with relief.

"Yeah, but they were great old days," Sam said with some
longing.

Nick emphasized each word as he responded.  "No they weren't."

"Oh, come on!" Sam teased.  "Didn't you enjoy chasing after
each other on opposite sides of the iron curtain?"

"That was boring.  I always caught you."

"In your dreams!"

"Vladivostok,  1969!"

Indignant, Sam finally looked at Nick.  "You didn't catch me
then!"

"I did to!" Nick insisted.

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"You fell into my trap!" Sam pleaded in her defense.  "That's
what happened!"

"I did not!"

"You did to!"

"Did not!"

"You're just afraid to admit in front of our men that you fell
into my simple trap."  She pointed around them at the many
places where someone might be watching.

"A simple trap is all you ever set up, and you never caught
anybody!"  He threw some more popcorn to emphasize his words.

"Ha!!" she retorted.

"And besides - my agents are the only ones here."  Nick held
his head high with an air of superiority and looked down his
nose at her.

"Bullshit!" Sam responded with her usual lack of subtlety.
"My men followed me here."

"No they didn't."  Nick continued his superior demeanor.

"Yes they did!"  Sam was not going to let Nick get the best of
her.

"No they didn't."

"See that van!?"  Sam pointed to a large van in a nearby
parking lot.  "My men are in there listening to us right now."

"Wrong as usual.  That van is empty, and my men are listening
to us from the next van."  A second van sat in the same
parking lot.

"No way!"  Sam squinted at the second van.

"Mikhail!" Nick called to the van.  "Wave to Sam."  A hand
reached out of an open window of the second van and waved.

"Well, I'll be damned," Sam conceded.  "Hey, Olaf!  Are you in
there, too!?"  Another hand reached out of the van and waved.
"Are you still gay!?"  The same hand reached back out of the
van and pointed its middle finger into the air.  "So's my
husband!  You two should get together sometime!"

"I thought you were separated," Nick said.

"We're back together," Sam admitted.  "He's gay, but he's a
good fuck.  I thought you knew that."

"Of course, we know everything."  He threw more popcorn.

"What about Helsinki, 1965?" Sam shot back.  "You had to stop
and ask us how to get to your own safe house."

"We were leading you around by the nose!"  Nick defiantly
threw more popcorn to the birds.

"You had to.  We had your balls in a vice grip.  And quit
feeding the damn birds!  They're shitting on my shoes!"

"We stopped to make sure you didn't lose us like you usually
did when we were leading you around!"  Nick lost some of his
composure, but regained it quickly.  "That's what happened to
your men today on the way over here."

"So where are my men?"

"We easily tricked them into going to the other side of town,"
Nick replied matter-of-factly.

"Dammit!  Can't anybody in the CIA follow a tail!?"

"Only when it's attached to a pretty girl, and even then they
wouldn't know what to do with it once they caught it."

"You can say that again!  I'd much rather fuck a KGB man, even
an ex-KGB man.  Wouldn't you, Olaf!?"  The same hand as before
reached back out of the van and extended its middle finger
again.  "Yeah, right," Sam said sarcastically.

Nick moved on to business.  "So what can we help you with this
time?  Or did you just invite me here to reminisce?"

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing," Sam admitted sheepishly.

"You should be used to that by now," Nick patronized her.

"It's about my nephew."

"Your brother's kid, Max?"

"Yes," Sam said, embarrassed at having to admit a problem.

"Did he get lost in a Leningrad whorehouse like you did in
1972?" Nick said with half a smile and one raised eyebrow.

"I wasn't lost!"  Sam regained some of her fighting spirit.
"I was moonlighting."

"You'd go broke at that, too."

"Ha!  I made a killing!" Sam said with considerable pride.
"You guys were desperate for a good woman.  Except you, Olaf!"
The same hand as before reached out of the van window and
extended its middle finger.

"The only killing you made was the East German general who
died of a heart attack in your bed," Nick reminded her.

"And that was a blessing.  He didn't get hard until rigor
mortis set in."

"So what happened to Max?" Nick asked.

"Apparently he was exchanging some info in a small Texas town
when he got caught by some former KGB guys."  Nick began to
laugh so hard that he nearly fell off of the park bench.
"It's not funny!"  Sam became indignant again.

"You can't even take care of your own people in your own small
towns!"  Tears began to come to Nick's eyes as he couldn't
stop laughing.  The same hand as before reached out of the van
window and shook its fist in victory.

"Oh!  Just see if I share anything with you ever again!"  Sam
wanted to crawl away and hide in embarrassment.

"And now you need us to rescue you from us in your own
country!"  Nick laughed so hard that he finally fell out off
of the bench.  The birds were startled and scattered away.

"I knew I shouldn't have come to you.  You're so damned
fucking insensitive."  Sam sat and simmered.

"Oh, don't worry," Nick said, wiping the tears from his eyes
and slowly climbing back up onto the bench.  "I'll help you
rescue your little lost sheep.  Which one of us has him?
Since the KGB was broken up, there are so many little splinter
groups that they're hard to keep track of."

"If I knew which one of your worthless wimps had caught him,
I'd go get him myself!" Sam said, still outraged in spite of
Nick's conciliatory tone.

"I'll find out who has him, and I'll send someone to bail him
out.  It seems that getting caught is a family trait."

"I never got caught!!"  Sam's fury flew unchecked now.

"Vladimir caught you in Prague in 1978!"  Nick shook his
finger at her to scold her for not remembering this event.

"He did not!"  Sam was indignant again.  "The whole time he
was trying to get info from me I was pumping him for info."

"You were just lucky to get away alive!" Nick warned her.

"Vladimir was a pussy-wimp!"

"Vladimir - was a butcher."



CHAPTER 4



Back at the farm house, Max remained tied up in the chair.
Vassy sat in the window sill while calmly puffing away at a
cigarette.  A pile of cigarette butts on the floor at Vassy's
feet indicated that they had been waiting for a long time.  No
sounds came from the rest of the house.

Max's buttocks and legs had fallen asleep from inactivity.  He
looked at Vassy cautiously and then cleared his throat and
tried to stand.  Vassy's hand immediately went to his gun
under his coat.  Max froze.  Vassy smiled and raised an
eyebrow at Max, who was duly intimidated.  Without taking his
eyes off of Vassy, Max slowly rose to his feet, trying not to
accidentally make any moves that might be mistaken by Vassy as
aggressive.  Vassy settled back into the window sill and
continued to puff on his cigarette.

Max tried to shake his legs back to life.  He slowly walked
back and forth along the wall farthest from Vassy and tugged
at the ropes that bound his wrists.

The silence was suddenly shattered by the door opening.  Max
froze again.  Vladimir entered the room.

"Well, it seems that Joseph was telling the truth," Vladimir
admitted.  "Too bad.  He'll never tell the truth again.  So,
young man, are you prepared to tell the truth?"  Vladimir
caught sight of his own hands.  "Oh, look at that.  There's
still some of his blood on my hands.  I must be getting old,
Vassy.  I used to be able to do that without making any mess
at all."  Vassy smiled.  Max freaked.

Suddenly, in a desperate move, Max struck out and kicked
Vladimir in the gut.  Vladimir doubled over in pain.  Vassy
reached for his gun, but Max ran directly at him.  Stunned by
Max's charge at him, Vassy could not react in time.  Max ran
head first into Vassy's chest, and together they crashed
through the window and fell outside from the second story
window to the ground below.

Vassy landed flat on his back with Max on top of him.  Vassy
gasped for air as Max rolled off of him and picked up a piece
of broken window glass in his mouth.  Max struggled to his
knees and then to his feet and ran toward a nearby forest.

Vladimir appeared in the window and shot at Max just as Max
dived behind some bushes and disappeared into the forest.

Inside the house, Aram, Yevgeny and Anton dashed into the
upstairs room to find Vladimir bent over in pain at the
window.

"He's in the woods!" Vladimir shouted at them.  "Get him!"

Aram, Yevgeny and Anton ran out of the house.  Vassy struggled
to get to his feet while still gasping for air.  Aram and
Yevgeny ran around Vassy, but in his haste, Anton crashed into
him.  They both landed sprawled out on the ground.  Vladimir
looked down at them from the window in disgust.  Anton
scrambled to his feet and followed the others into the forest
leaving Vassy still struggling to his feet.

In the forest, Max zigzagged between the trees, stopping
momentarily to look and listen.  Then he ran again, each time
in a different direction.

Aram, Yevgeny and Anton ran through the forest with their
handguns ready.  Vladimir hobbled out of the house and shouted
at them, "I want him alive!"

Max wriggled underneath some thick bushes.  He stopped and
listened for a moment.  His breath came heavy and hard, and he
feared they would hear him.  Then he dropped the glass from
his mouth and wriggled around until his hands could feel the
glass.  He worked quickly.

Aram, Yevgeny and Anton stopped together.  They listened to
the forest, but heard nothing.  Aram waved the other two in
opposite directions and they split up.

With the glass in his hand, Max carefully began to cut the
ropes from his wrist.  Suddenly, with a rustle of leaves,
Anton walked by.  Max could see Anton's feet and he prayed
that no part of himself was visible to Anton.  Max remained
absolutely motionless until he could no longer hear Anton's
footsteps.  Then Max continued to cut the ropes with the
glass.

In a moment, Vladimir limped nearby, and Max stopped again.
Vladimir stopped, too, and listened very carefully.  Max lay
very quiet.  In a moment he felt a strange sensation on his
legs.  Was it a hand that slowly reached up and grabbed him?
He carefully turned to look at his feet.  His eyes bugged out
at the sight of a snake slithering across his ankles.  Max
held his breath, squeezed his eyes closed, and waited for what
seemed an eternity while Vladimir looked around slowly and
then limped away.  The snake slithered off of Max.

Max opened his terror-filled eyes and carefully exhaled.  With
a determined pull at his wrists, he broke free from the
remaining strands of the rope.  He put the glass back between
his teeth and crawled carefully out from under the bushes.

Aram looked around carefully in his part of the forest.  It
appeared to him that Max had disappeared.  In another part of
the forest, Anton also looked around very slowly and
carefully.  In still another part of the forest, Yevgeny
looked around slowly and carefully and saw nothing.

Stealthily, Max stepped out from behind a tree a few yards
away from Yevgeny and threw the piece of glass at him.  It
stuck in Yevgeny's arm like a knife.  Yevgeny dropped his gun
and screamed in pain.  He screamed so unexpectedly loud that
it startled Max.  "Damn!"  Max feared that the others could
hear Yevgeny.  He glanced around quickly, but saw no one.  He
dived for the gun that Yevgeny dropped, but a shot rang out
and struck the gun.  Max jumped for cover behind a tree.

Vladimir stood on a hilltop above them with his gun aimed down
at them.

From their respective parts of the forest, Aram and Anton
heard the shot and came running.


Vladimir waited for a moment, but Max did not move from behind
the tree.  Yevgeny plucked the glass from his arm and screamed
again.

"Yevgeny!" Vladimir called out.  "Get him!"

"Ouch!" was Yevgeny's only response as he held his bleeding
arm.

Vladimir tried to run forward, but stumbled since he still
hurt from the kick to his gut.  Max darted from behind his
tree and dashed behind a bush and down a narrow animal trail.

"Anton!  Aram!" Vladimir shouted into the forest.

Anton and Aram ran quickly through their respective parts of
the forest.

Max ran wildly along the narrow trail through the forest.
Suddenly, Anton appeared in front of him running toward him on
the same trail.  "Shit!" Max exclaimed, and he turned and ran
back the opposite direction.  Anton saw him and stopped for a
moment to fire a shot, but missed Max.

Suddenly, Aram appeared in front of Max running toward him on
the same trail.  Max stopped.  Anton kept running from behind
Max.  Max was caught in between them.  Aram stopped and aimed
his gun at Max.  Aram fired a shot just as Max quickly jumped
off the trail between two thick bushes.  The shot narrowly
missed Max, but it hit Anton in the shoulder.  Anton fell on
the trail.  "Damn!" Aram shouted.

Max ran totally gracelessly in a blind dash through bushes,
trees and tall weeds.  Aram chased after him.  Together they
made enough noise to scare away every animal within miles
around them.

Their run took them within sight of Vladimir, who shot at Max
several times, but missed each time as Max bobbed and weaved
quickly through the thick brush.  Max disappeared, and
Vladimir saw Aram running after him.

"Where's Anton!" Vladimir shouted.

"I shot him!" Aram replied dodging branches and dashing around
bushes.

"You what!?" Vladimir shouted, losing his cool for the first
time.

"Sorry!" Aram responded meekly as he ran out of sight.

Vladimir regained his senses and tried to chase after Aram and
Max.  He ran much better now, having recovered somewhat from
the kick to his gut.

Max ran out of the forest and onto a narrow country road.  Not
far ahead of him, however, he could see a small gas station
with a single car at the pumps.  His heart leapt as he hoped
for help, and he ran toward the station.

As Max ran, Terry, a young woman, came out of the station.
She went to the car at the pumps and slid into the driver's
side.

Aram ran out of the forest and onto the road.  He saw Max and
the station and realized that Max might get away.  Max looked
over his shoulder and saw Aram closing in on him on the open
road.  In a blind dash in a state of total panic, Max ran for
the passenger side of Terry's car.

Terry, oblivious to the chase going on behind her, calmly
inserted her keys into the ignition and started the car.  At
that moment, Max jumped into the car on the passenger side.

"I need your help!" Max screamed at Terry as he tried to hide
down in the seat of the car.  "Get me out of here fast!"

Enraged, Terry shouted back, "What the hell do you think
you're doing!?"

Aram, in desperation, fired a shot at the car.  The rear
window shattered spraying glass over Max and Terry.  Max
ducked further down onto the floorboard of the car.  Terry
quickly glanced out the rear window at Aram and then ducked
down, too.  She reached under her seat for something.

"Just drive!" Max screamed.

Terry pulled a large caliber handgun out from under her seat,
popped back up, and fired three quick shots out her rear
window at Aram.  Aram slid to a stop, almost losing his
balance, and then dived into the ditch on the side of the
road.  At that moment, an old man walked out of the station,
but thought better and immediately turned and walked back in.

Terry then turned her gun on Max.  "Get out of my car!" She
ordered.

Looking down the barrel of what was virtually a cannon, Max
was infinitely agreeable.  "Oh, sure.  No problem."  Max
quickly flung open the car door, practically fell backwards
out of the car, slammed the door, and jumped away just in time
to keep from getting hit by the car as Terry drove away
quickly, her tires squealing.

Max looked back at his pursuers in time to see Vladimir come
out of the forest.  Aram, too, had crawled out of the ditch.
They were both running at Max.  Not wanting to get lost in the
forest again, Max started running down the road in the same
direction Terry went.

Angrily, Terry threw her gun down on the seat next to her.
This was not what she had planned on today, and the last thing
she wanted was to have someone involve her in a major problem.
Her father would have a fit if he ever knew.  Terry sped away
from the gas station, but when she looked back in her rear-
view mirror, she could see Max running down the middle of the
road.  Then Aram came into her view, and she knew she couldn't
leave Max, even if she was very angry at him.  She slammed on
her brakes, screeched to a halt, and threw her car into
reverse.  She slammed on her brakes again when she reached
Max, who barely managed to avoid being hit by her car.  "Get
in!" Terry ordered.  Max grabbed the door open and jumped into
the car.  Terry threw her car back in drive and sped away.

Aram stopped, took careful aim, and shot at the car, but he
was exhausted and his aim was wide.  The car kept going.
Exhausted and gasping for breath, Vladimir watched the car
disappear down the road.  He vowed to himself that he would
not lose this one.

A couple of miles down the road, Terry slammed on her brakes
again and screeched her car to a halt.  She picked up her gun,
looked at Max and demanded, "Get out!"

They had stopped in the middle of a completely deserted
stretch of road.  "Here!?" Max complained.  There wasn't even
the gas station here.

"Look!" Terry reasoned.  "I don't know you!  For all I know,
they could have been the good guys and you are the bad guy!
So just get out of my car now!"

"Please take my word for it!" Max begged.  "I'm the good guy,
and they are the bad guys!"

"Well, now you're safe, so get out!"

Max gestured to the barren road around them.  "Can't you take
me to a city or something!?"

"Hey, you're just lucky I came back for you!  Those guys were
shooting real bullets!"

"And so were you!  But they backed down because you had the
only cannon!"

She pointed with her gun.  "So now you can count your
blessings while you hitchhike to the next town!"

Max knew she was his only hope, so he had to tell her the
truth.  "Hey!  Please!  I'm with the CIA!  Those guys had
Russian accents and were trying to kill me!  I need to get to
a phone so I can call in and get help to get back to
Washington!"

"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"  So much for truth.

"Would I make up something like that!?"

"How would I know!?  I don't know you!  All I know is you're
dangerous, and I don't want to be around you!"  And that was
definitely the truth.

"But you can't just leave me here on a deserted road!  The
next car to come by will probably be them!"

Terry's father would really have a fit if he found out what
she did now.  "All right.  I'll take you to a phone."  She
started to drive again.

"Thanks," Max said considerably relieved.  "I really
appreciate this.  I won't be any more bother to you.  I
promise.  One phone call and I'll be gone.  You better turn at
the next highway - whatever it is.  We need to make sure they
can't follow us."  Terry did not respond.  "Okay?" Max
inquired, but still Terry did not respond.  "Hey."  Max tried
to get her attention and waved his hand in front of her.

Taking her eyes off the road for a second, she said, "I'm
sorry.  Are you talking to me?"

"Well - uh - Yes."

But Terry continued as if she hadn't heard him.  "Because if
you are, don't bother.  I can't hear, and I can't drive and
read your lips at the same time."

Max was speechless.  "Oh.  Never mind then."



Chapter 5



A jazz band blared its lively music on a small stage of an
otherwise quiet restaurant on the edge of Washington, D.C.
Nick enjoyed the music with his eyes closed.  Olaf sat with
him watching the patrons of the restaurant.  Watching people
was a habit he could not break after so many years in the spy
business.  Nick, on the other hand, rejoiced in the luxury of
being able to relax now that the tensions of the cold war had
subsided.  Sam burst into the room, frowned at the band,
ignored the head waiter, and went to sit with Nick and Olaf.
Olaf grimaced at the sight of her.

"Hi, Nick.  Hi, Olaf.  Why are we meeting here?  You know I
can't stand jazz."  She said it all as if it were one long
word.

Pretending to conduct the band with his eyes still closed,
Nick said, "I'm trying to teach you to appreciate the finer
things in life."

"What!" Sam yelled.  She couldn't hear over the band.

Nick yelled back, "I said I'm trying to get you to appreciate
the finer things in life!"

"Finer things in life?  Scraping my fingernails on a
chalkboard is finer than this stuff!"

Nick still enjoyed the music.  "Jazz happens to be the only
contribution to world culture ever made by your country."

"What!" she yelled again.

"Just listen and enjoy!"

"Sounds like Ilamas in heat!" Sam sneered.

Finally, Nick opened his eyes and, with a considerable air of
superiority, he said, "I try and try to bring a little culture
into your life, but you are just so crass and rude that you
just can't appreciate it."

"What!"

"I said, you are just completely unable to appreciate art!"

"Hey!  I appreciated the photo exhibit in that artsy-fartsy
place in Paris five years ago!"  Sam reached for one of the
crispy breadsticks on the table and began munching, usually
with her mouth open.

Nick was disgusted.  "A photo exhibit for Playgirl magazine is
not culture."

"It was in Paris!" Sam insisted.  "How much more cultured can
you get?"

Olaf had been observing the conversation with extreme boredom.
"Are you two married to each other?"

"Shut up, Olaf, and pay attention to the drummer!  He's
winking at you!"  Sam added a big gob of butter to her
breadstick.

Nick waved Sam away.  "You're a hopeless cause."

Ignoring Sam's comments and trying to get down to business,
Olaf said, "Are you going to tell her what you found out?"

"What?  That you're engaged to a smart young man from a nice
family?"  Sam's sarcasm was never-ending, but Olaf seemed not
to hear it at all.

"It's about Max," Nick said.

Eager to hear the news, Sam began munching faster.  "Oh, did
you get him out?"

"No," was Nick's slightly embarrassed response.

"No!?  What!?"  The band was loud and distracting, which
irritated Sam even more now that she worried about Max, too.
"What's the problem?  This was just supposed to be a simple
favor."  Nick and Olaf looked uncomfortably at each other.
Sam didn't like their silence.  "What's wrong!?"

"It turned out not to be so simple," Nick tried to explain.

"What!"

"It turned out not to be so simple!"

"Why -?"  Sam was getting very angry at the band.  She
couldn't concentrate.  "What the -!  Where is -!  God dammit!
Shut that fucking screeching off!  Can't you find him?"

Nick reassured her, "We found him with no problem."

Sam had to lean very close to Nick to hear him.  "What!  So
what's the hold up?"  She became increasingly irritated.

Nick let out a long breath and said, "Vladimir has him."

"What!?  Who!?"  But she heard him clearly.  Sam, too, took a
deep breath.  "Damn," she whispered.

Nick shook his finger at her.  "So now you don't think
Vladimir is such a wimp anymore, huh?"

"What's that son-of-a-bitch still doing working for you
guys!?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders.  "There are many powerful groups
of old conservatives still battling with Yeltsin, as you are
well aware.  Vladimir has always been a favorite with that
crowd.  I think they keep him around for sentimental reasons."

"Sentimental!?  There's nothing sentimental about Vladimir.
Why can't you guys just make him disappear?"

Nick just shook his head.  "We can't do that anymore," he
complained.  "Since we disbanded the KGB, Yeltsin won't let us
eliminate our own people anymore.  I think we're on the verge
of getting something called due process."

Sam sympathized.  "Heaven help you."

"What I don't understand is why your people haven't killed him
off yet!" Nick demanded to know.

Sam defended herself.  "We never had a chance!"

"Yes you did!"

"We did not!"

"You did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"When!?"  The band stopped playing.  "When did we have a
chance to kill him!?"  Embarrassed, Sam was too afraid to look
around at the other patrons.  All eyes in the room stared at
her.  Nick and Olaf hid their faces.

Looking at Sam's table out of the corner of his eye, the band
leader said to his audience, "We're going to take a short
break, but don't anybody go away because we'll be right back."
He shook his head as he walked off the stage.  "So much
violence," he whispered to himself.

Still embarrassed, Sam waved to the band.  "Take your time,
guys."

Nick lowered his voice.  "You once said that you had Vladimir
in your gun sight in London in 1982.  Why didn't you shoot
then?  Huh?  Why?"

Sam answered very quietly, pretending not to even move her
mouth and faking a smile.  "I couldn't."

"Why? Did somebody suddenly hit you with a conscience?  Why
did you let him get away?"

Sam became even more embarrassed than before.  "I was out of
bullets.  Okay?  Are you satisfied?"

"Out of bullets!"  Nick almost couldn't contain himself.  "The
richest country in the world, and you can't even afford
bullets?"

"Budget cuts!  Okay?"  Sam was ready to rip Nick's face off.

"I'm glad I'm going to retire soon.  This is getting to be too
absurd," he said with a sigh.

"You guys don't retire.  You just disappear."

"No.  It's Yeltsin's new policy.  We're allowed to retire
without having to disappear.  Everybody's doing it now."

"So what about Max?" Sam wanted to know.

Shaking his head, Nick said, "I can tell you where he is, but
you'll have to get him yourself."

"No problem.  Just get me out of here before that band starts
playing again."



Chapter 6



In the evening, Max and Terry arrived at Terry's trailer home
in a trailer home park.  When they entered the trailer, Terry
just dumped her purse onto a chair.

"May I use your phone?" Max asked.  Terry had her back to Max,
but she turned to walk into the rear of the house.  Max had to
repeat himself as she looked at him.  "May I use your phone?"

"That was the deal wasn't it?"  Terry went into the next room.

"Thanks," Max said a little tired.  He picked up the phone and
dialed the number.

In his office at Langley, Boggs answered his phone.  He had
been waiting for several hours in hopes that Max would call,
and he was beginning to fall asleep.  "Hello," he said, having
to clear his throat.

"Boggs?  This is Max Lang."

Suddenly wide awake, Boggs responds, "Max!  Uh - we've been
worried sick about you!"

"I'm okay now.  I just don't have any money to get back home.
And how did you guys already know what happened to me?"

Boggs was uncomfortable lying, so he ignored the question.
"Uh - don't worry.  Uh - we can make the arrangements to get
you back.  Are you someplace where you can stay until we can
take care of it?"

Max was too tired to push the question.  "Yeah.  I think I can
stay here for a bit."  He looked toward the back room,
wondering if Terry would really let him stay.

"Great.  Just tell me where you are."


At Sam's home, in the middle of the night, Sam's phone rang.
She was spreading some peanut butter on some crackers for a
snack, and she had already bitten into one of them.  She
answered the phone.  "Hello?" she tried to say, but her tongue
stuck to the roof of her mouth since it was covered with
peanut butter.

"Sam?"  It was Nick.

She answered in a muffled voice trying to swallow the peanut
butter and cracker as quickly as possible, "Yes?"

To Nick, she sounded as if she was gagging.  "Are you sure
this is Sam?"

She swallowed hard and shouted, "Yeah!"

"Sam, are you okay?"

She finally finished clearing her mouth.  "Yes.  What's up."

"Sam, this is Nick."

"Nick!  You'll never believe this!"

"You'll never believe this, either!"

"What?"  She wanted to hear his news first.

"I found out that Max has already escaped from Vladimir!"

"That's great!"  Sam was elated.

"Not really."  Nick didn't sound very reassuring.

"Why not?"

Nick responded a little embarrassed.  "It appears that Max had
some very important information that some very important
people in my country were supposed to get, so - well -"  He
hesitated before saying it.  "I need him back."

"What!?"  Sam was outraged, and Nick jerked the phone away
from his ear.  "You expect me to deliver Max back to you after
he escaped!?"

"No!  No!  No!  No!  No!"  Nick tried to calm her down.  "All
we need is the information!"

"Well, here's the part you won't believe!  I found out that
we're not going to let Max come back!"

"What?  I don't understand."

"I don't either!"  Sam shrugged her shoulders.  "Max's own
people seem to be treating him like a leper!  They're going to
let Vladimir get him back!"

"This doesn't make any sense!"

"Tell me about it!"  Sam threw up her hands.

"I mean, if Max really has some important information, why is
your side letting us get it?"

"I don't know!  But Pucker is the fellow in charge!  You
figure it out!"

"Pucker!?"  Nick was very familiar with the name.  "That idiot
has been trying to single-handedly restart the cold war ever
since the Berlin Wall fell!  Why is he still with the CIA?"

"The military seems to like him."

"They would," Nick agreed.  "Wait a minute!  If he wants us to
get Max's information, then the information must not be
legitimate!"

"Huh!?  You mean Max is carrying around bogus info, and Pucker
wants your side to have it, but Vladimir doesn't know it's
bogus, so Vladimir is trying desperately to get it back!?"

"Sounds crazy!  Doesn't it?"

"Not if Pucker's in charge," Sam admitted.  "We have to get
over there and try to pull Max out of that mess before
Vladimir and Pucker destroy all east-west relations!"

"Agreed!  I'll pick you up at your place in an hour!  I'll
bring Olaf and Mikhail."

"I'll bring a couple of my men, too."

"You're not going to bring Bart are you?  He farts a lot."


At about the same time that Sam and Nick had their phone
conversation, Pucker was giving instructions to Finch and
Boggs.  "Okay.  It's ten P.M. here.  That means it's nine
where Max is.  That's good!  He won't get suspicious if we
make him wait until morning to catch a plane.  And that will
give us time to leak his location to the other side, so they
can get to him."

Finch was disgusted.  "You're really doing this?"

"Hey!"  Pucker lashed out at any insubordination.  "If you
have a problem with that, then I'll get someone who doesn't!
Now are you on this team or not!?"

Finch was very reluctant.  "I'm on."

"Good!"  Pucker then turned to Boggs.  "I want Max's location
leaked to the KGB."  Boggs didn't move.  "Now!  Boggs!  Do
it!"

"But, sir -."  Boggs tried to complain.

"No buts, mister!"

"He's my best and brightest new agent!"

Pucker was not sympathetic.  "If your best screws up, then
your best has to pay for it!"  Pucker waited for Boggs to
move.  "Well!?"

Finch took Boggs by the arm and reluctantly led him out of the
room.  "We'll take care of it, sir."



Chapter 7



At the airport, later that night, Sam waited for Nick to get
off the phone.  Mikhail and Olaf waited, too, while constantly
scanning the people around them.  Ralph and Bart, Sam's
agents, were also with them.  When Nick finally hung up the
phone, Sam grabbed him.  "What's the latest news?"

"I found out where Max is," Nick answered triumphantly.

"Wait a minute!"  This news concerned Sam greatly.  "How did
you find out where he is!?  I thought he got away from your
people!"

"I wouldn't exactly call them my people."

"Whatever.  What happened?"

"Well, he did get away.  But apparently he called in to his
supervisor, and somehow our side found out about it!"

"God damn that Pucker!"  Sam was ready to shove a dirty knife
into Pucker's cold heart.  "Hey!  If you know where he is,
then Vladimir must know, too!" She reasoned.

"That's right, so I got the phone number where Max is
staying."  Nick barely had time to hold up the piece of paper
with the phone number before Sam snatched the paper out of his
hand.  Nick looked at his empty hand.  "I had the phone
number."

"Give it here!"  Sam reached for the phone and began dialing
like a maniac.

The phone rang at Terry's home, and a light flashed next to
the phone.  Max instantly became alert on the sofa, where he
had been dozing.  He saw that Terry was getting a drink of
water at the kitchen sink and could not see the flashing
light.  Should he answer the phone for her?  If he did, would
she bite his head off?  Max felt a little intimidated by her,
and wanted to remain as unobtrusive as possible.  Finally,
Terry turned and saw the flashing light.  She picked up the
phone.  "Hello?"

Sam was frantic.  "Is Max still there!?"  A machine next to
the phone displayed Sam's words on a small computer screen.

"Yes."

"Get him out of there!"

"Who is this?"  Terry was confused, and Max sensed that
something was wrong.

At the airport, Sam practically screamed into the phone.
"Never mind!  Just get Max out of there!  Fast!  Do you hear
me!?  Get him out!  ... Hello!  Hello!  Damn!  The line has
been disconnected!"

"Our plane leaves in five minutes!  Let's go!"  Nick ordered.

Sam called to the others.  "Come on, guys!"  Sam and Nick
started running through the airport.  Mikhail, Olaf, Ralph and
Bart followed them.

"Stick with us," Olaf said to Bart.  "We'll show you how this
is done."

"Shove it, Olaf."

"And no fighting in the back seat, kids!" Sam yelled back at
them.

Mikhail sniffed.  "Who farted?"


Back at Terry's trailer the machine next to Terry's phone
still displayed, "Just get Max out of there!  Fast!"

"This is weird.  Come look.  The phone seems to be dead now."

Max sprang up off the sofa and went to the machine.  He looked
at the display and immediately pulled Terry down onto the
floor.  "What did you do with that gun?"

"It's still in my car."

"Damn!  They are probably outside now!  We have to get out of
here!"

"But I have another one!  Come on!"  Terry led Max to the next
room.  There, they ran into the closet.  Terry closed the door
and turned on the light.  Then she took a gun off of a shelf
covered with guns and ammunition.  She gave the gun to Max.

When Terry turned to face Max, he said, "What IS this!?  Are
you paranoid!?"

Terry reached for another gun and extra bullets.  "No, but my
father is.  When I moved out he made sure I had plenty of
protection.  The gun is loaded.  Put these bullets in your
pocket."  She handed him a box of bullets.  "Until I met you,
I never thought I would need any of this stuff.  Step back."

Max stepped back, and Terry reached down to the floor and
pulled open a trap door.  "Thank god for paranoid parents,"
Max said, as he reached to turn off the light.  They both
dropped down through the trap door.

Max and Terry crawled underneath Terry's trailer.  Max
replaced the trap door above them.  The trailer had a picket-
fence type of border around its base.  Through the slats of
the picket-fence border they could see Vladimir and his men
parked on the side of the nearby road.

Vladimir and Anton waited in one car.  Vassy and Yevgeny
waited in a car behind Vladimir.  Aram came running up to
Vladimir.  "The phone is cut.  The house is isolated," Aram
reported.

"Let's go," Vladimir commanded.

They got out of their cars, being careful not to slam their
doors, and started to approach Terry's trailer.  Yevgeny's arm
was bandaged.  Anton's arm was in a sling and his coat was
draped over his shoulder.  Vladimir motioned to Vassy and
Yevgeny to go around back.

"That's him," Max whispered.  "That's the son-of-a-bitch
Russian who had me!"

Terry couldn't see his lips.  "What?  What'd you say?"  She
also couldn't tell how loud she spoke.

Max had to face Terry.  "Shhhhhh."

Aram and Anton walked together toward the trailer house.
"This time - duck when I shoot," Aram instructed.

Anton pointed to his arm.  "When this gets better, you're
going to pay for it."

Vassy and Yevgeny went around the back of the trailer.  Max
watched them go.  Terry watched Max for his reactions.  Max
pointed to the rear of the house.  Moving as little as
possible, Terry faced the rear and readied her gun at the two
pairs of legs she could see.  Max watched the front.
Vladimir, Anton and Aram's legs could be seen going to the
front door.  Suddenly, a look of terror came across Max's
face.  He looked down at his arms to see a snake slither
across them as they were resting on the ground.  Max held his
breath and squeezed his eyes shut tight.  Then, from seemingly
nowhere, Terry's hand grabbed the snake and tossed it away.
As quietly as he could, Max heaved a very heavy sigh of
relief.

Vladimir, Anton and Aram took up positions on either side of
the front door.  Vladimir motioned to Aram.  Aram went quickly
and quietly to the door and began to pick the lock, while
Vladimir and Anton watched for passersby.  In a moment, Aram
smiled and nodded at Vladimir.  Vladimir put his hand on the
doorknob, looked at the others, and then quickly opened the
door wide.  They quietly dashed inside with their guns ready.

Max watched the floor of the trailer above them.  Terry's eyes
darted back and forth from the trailer to Max.

Inside the trailer, Vladimir motioned to Aram to go to the
next room.  Vladimir followed him.  Together, they entered the
next room.  Anton was right behind them.  Vladimir motioned
for them to go to the last room in the trailer.

Underneath the trailer, Max kept his gun pointed in the
direction from which the sound of footsteps came.  Terry
watched Max and tried to keep up.

Inside the trailer, Anton and Aram entered the last room.
Aram looked back at Vladimir and shrugged his shoulders.
Vladimir looked at the closed closet door in his room and
started to go to it.

Under the trailer, Max followed the sound of footsteps coming
near the trap door.  Terry saw Max's attention go to the trap
door.  Max  could feel his blood pressure rise and his heart
pound in his chest as he followed the sound of the footsteps
getting closer to the trap door.  Terry could sense Max's
tension.  Her eyes darted back and forth from the trap door to
Max faster and faster as she saw Max pointing his gun at the
floor near the trap door.  Max's eyes were wild with fear now.

Inside the trailer, Vladimir swung the closet door open.  He
saw the extra ammunition on the shelf.  Then he looked at the
floor for a moment.  Aram came to the room and reported.
"They can't be far away.  The car is right outside.  The
lights were on in here.  They must be coming back."

"Then have Vassy and Yevgeny set up watch on the east end of
the road.  You and Anton will watch from the west end.  Stay
out of sight."  They started to leave.

Under the trailer, Max began to breath easier as he followed
the sound of the footsteps away from the trap door.  Terry saw
Max's relaxation, but she didn't know what was happening and
her eyes kept darting around.

Vladimir, Anton and Aram quickly came out of the trailer.  Max
and Terry watched each of the pairs of legs.  Aram and Anton's
legs ran around to the rear.  Vladimir's legs went back to the
cars.  Then Yevgeny, Vassy, Aram and Anton's legs ran back out
to the front where Yevgeny and Vassy ran one way while Aram
and Anton ran the other.

Exhausted, Max put down his gun and lowered his head as he
breathed heavily.  Terry did the same.  "You sure fucked up my
day," she said.

Max raised his head again.  "Sorry.  Where'd they go?"  He
wriggled up closer to the edge of the trailer.

"What?  If you're talking to me, you have to look at me, so I
can see your lips."  Terry wriggled up closer to the edge of
the trailer, too.

Max carefully peered out through the slats.  He could see them
setting up their watches.  "Damn!  They're not leaving."

"What?  What are you saying?  Dammit.  I told you to look at
me."

Max turned to Terry.  "They're still out there.  They're
watching the house."

"Are they just out front?"  She tried to see them.

"Yes."

"Then follow me."  She wriggled around to the rear of the
trailer.  Max followed her example.  Terry knocked out a
section of the picket-fence type border and crawled out from
under the trailer.  Max crawled out, too.

They stood up for a moment but pressed against the back wall
of the trailer house.  "If we stay down, we can get to the
rear of the trailer park without being seen from out front,"
Terry assured him.  They got back down on the ground and
started to crawl around the next trailer in the trailer park.

A woman came out of the next trailer to shake a rug from her
front steps.  She looked down at the oddity of Max and Terry
crawling on the ground, and she eyed them curiously.  Max
tried to smile and waved at her, but she just frowned.

Vladimir sat in the front seat of his car and watched the
trailer.  He looked carefully for a moment, and then put a
pair of binoculars to his eyes as Anton and Aram entered the
car.  Through the binoculars, Vladimir could see the woman
looking curiously at the ground.  Her gaze seemed to move as
whatever she was watching also moved.  Tall weeds, however,
obscured Vladimir's view of the ground.  "Stay here," Vladimir
instructed as he picked up a small two-way radio.  "But stay
in touch."  Vladimir got out of his car and went toward the
trailer.

Max and Terry were still crawling away.  Terry stopped and
looked behind them.  "Okay, we can get up," she said as she
stood up.  "They can't see this spot."  Max stood up, too.
"Now what do we do?" she asked.

"Now we find a phone."  He dusted himself off.

"Okay.  This way."  Terry led Max into a small area of trees
at the rear of the trailer park.

Vladimir stepped around the corner of Terry's trailer at the
instant that Max and Terry disappeared into the trees.  He
went to the rear of the trailer.  He saw the knocked-out
section of the picket-fence-type border around the bottom of
the trailer and immediately became suspicious.  He quickly
looked around to see if anyone was near.  He could see the
trees at the rear of the trailer park.

Max and Terry came out of the trees next to the parking lot of
a large shopping mall.  "There's a phone in the mall," Terry
said.

"Good.  You better hide that gun."  Max stuck his gun between
his belt and stomach and covered the gun up with his shirt.
Terry did the same with her gun, and they started walking
quickly toward the mall.

Vladimir began walking toward the rear of the trailer park,
the same direction in which Max and Terry went, stopping to
look in every direction as he went.

In the mall parking lot, Max suddenly stopped between a row of
cars.  "Damn!"  A realization had just come over him.

"What happened!?"  Terry was frightened.

"That son-of-a-bitch!"  He wasn't looking at Terry.

"Did you call me a bitch!?"

"No!  I've been trying to figure out how they found us!"

"Hey!  If you're talking to me, you have to look at me!"

He turned to Terry.  "I kept trying to figure out how they
were able to follow us!  But that wasn't possible!"

"So?"

"So the only person who knew where to find me was Boggs, my
boss!"  His anger peaked at the mention of Boggs' name.

"You're own boss turned you in?"

Max flew into a rage.  "Damn!"  He flailed out in anger and
kicked the nearest car, but the owner of the car stood nearby.

"Hey, watch it, buddy!  That's my car!"

Without thinking, Max pulled out his gun and pointed it at the
car owner.  "Do you mind!?  I'm not in a very good mood!"

"Hey.  Sure.  No problem."  And the car owner backed away.

Terry grabbed Max by the arm and dragged him away.  "Are you
crazy!"

Vladimir stopped at the edge of the small area of trees,
looked around, and then went into the trees.

In the mall parking lot, Max and Terry walked faster.  "When I
get Boggs on the phone -," Max was too angry to finish the
sentence.

Terry stopped with a sudden realization.  "Damn!"

"What's wrong with you?"  Max thought he was the only one who
was angry right now.

"My gun just fell into my underwear."  She squirmed around
uncomfortably.

"Well you can't whip it out now."  He pulled her to keep her
walking to the mall entrance.

"You did."  She limped along with him.

Vladimir finally came out of the small area of trees next to
the parking lot.  He looked around and saw Max and Terry
entering the mall.  He quickly shouted into his radio, "Come
quickly!  Go all the way to the back of the trailer park and
through the trees to the shopping mall!  I'll meet you there!"

Back at their cars, Yevgeny, Vassy, Aram and Anton got out and
started running to the rear of the trailer park.

As they entered the mall, Terry was experiencing extreme
discomfort.  "Ouch!  How do you guys manage to walk all the
time with something between your legs?"

"Well, sometimes it's hard."



Chapter 8



Inside the mall, Max and Terry found a public pay phone.  "I'm
going to make this a collect call, so I only need one
quarter."  Max held his hand out to Terry.

"So what are you looking at me for?  I don't have any money."

"What?"

"We ran out of the house too fast!" she explained.

"Oh, great!"  Nothing was going right.  He approached a woman
in the mall.  "Excuse me.  May I borrow a quarter?"  But the
woman just stared at him and walked on.  "Thank you!"  Next,
he approached a man in the mall  "Excuse me.  I need to make a
phone call.  May I borrow a quarter?"  The man just stared at
him and walked away, too.  Max felt helpless.  "What is this?
New York?"

"Now what?" Terry asked.

Max decided to try a different approach.  "This is ridiculous.
Come on.  I need your help."  He led her down the mall.

Vladimir entered the mall and began to carefully look around
for Max.

Outside, Vladimir's men came out of the small area of trees
and ran toward the mall.

Inside the mall, a man walked passed a store at the same time
that Terry came out of the store.  With a great flair, she
bumped into the man and fell down.

"Ouch!"  Terry grabbed her knee and began to sob.

The man felt terribly embarrassed and tried to help her up.
"Are you okay, honey?"  He reached down to Terry.  At that
moment, Max passed very close behind the man and then walked
away as he appeared to tuck something into his shirt.

The man tried to be friendly, and for a moment he thought that
this was a tremendous stroke of good luck.  "You have to be
more careful, honey.  A pretty thing like you could get hurt.
Let me help you."  He tried to grab Terry to help her up.

Terry quickly stood up on her own.  "Thank you.  I'm much
better now because of your kindness.  Thank you.  Bye."  She
walked away quickly, glad to be away from the man's groping
hands.  The Man just sighed and shook his head as he watched
an opportunity walk away.

Max entered a small store.

Vladimir's men ran into the mall.  Vladimir joined them.  "Two
of you go all the way down to the left.  The other two go to
the right."

Terry joined Max in the small store.  Max pulled a wallet out
of his shirt and took a dollar out of it.  "I'll go get change
for a dollar.  You take this to the main office.  There should
be some kind of lost-and-found there."  He handed Terry the
wallet.

"You mean we go to all the trouble to steal this and we only
take a dollar?"

"Good grief.  I'm a spy, not a thief.  And I suppose you can
get that gun out of your underwear now."  They were hidden
among the clothing racks.

"That's okay.  I'm starting to like it."  They split up
outside the small store.

Yevgeny and Vassy walked passed Terry in the mall, but did not
recognize her.  They turned the corner.  Terry stopped and
looked back in their direction.  She shook her head and went
on.

Max found a phone and dialed Boggs' number.  When he got the
operator, he said, "I'd like to make this a collect call from
Max."

Somewhere else in the mall, Yevgeny and Vassy came to a place
where they had to split up and go in different directions.

Back at the telephone, Max managed to get through to Boggs.
"What the hell did you do!?  Dammit!  I called you and the
next thing I know is those guys showed up at my door!  What
happened!"

Boggs was terribly flustered.  "I don't know!  Honest!  I
don't!"

Yevgeny turned a corner and saw Max on the phone.  He stopped
and then moved over against a wall.

"Well, then you better find out what went wrong," Max yelled
into the phone, "because I'm not putting my ass on the line
again until I know what happened!"

Terry returned from the mall office and stopped in the middle
of the mall when she saw Yevgeny.  This time she recognized
him.  She saw Yevgeny reach into his pocket and pull out his
radio.  Terry began to frantically reach into her underwear
for her gun.

A mother and child walked passed Yevgeny.  The child said, "I
want a walkie-talkie like that one!"  To which the mother
replied with what sounded like a programmed response, "Yes.
Yes.  We'll get one later."  The mother and child walked away.

Yevgeny looked at them with disdain.  "Damned spoiled American
brat."  He held the radio with his bandaged arm and raised it
to speak.  Finally, Terry pulled out her gun and very quickly
shot Yevgeny.  She hit him in his already injured arm.
Yevgeny dropped the radio, screamed and slumped down in pain.
The people in the mall began screaming, and Max dropped the
phone and ducked behind a wall.

From their respective places in the mall, Vladimir and Vassy
turned and began to run toward the shot.

Terry looked around and saw all of the people running around
wildly.  "Oops!"  She ducked behind a large sign in the mall.

At the phone, Boggs' voice could still be heard.  "Max!  Max!
What happened!?  Max!!"

Suddenly, a very large woman ran screaming passed Max's hiding
place.  Max darted out from behind the wall and ran beside the
large woman using her as a shield.  From the other side of the
woman, all that could be seen were the large woman and two
pairs of legs.  When they reached Terry's hiding place, Max
stopped, the large woman kept running, and Max grabbed Terry
and pushed her into the nearest store.

Two security guards appeared, and ran to Yevgeny.  Vassy ran
into the area and stopped when he saw the two security guards.
He surveyed the scene, but hung back away from Yevgeny.

Max and Terry ran to the rear of the store passed the store
clerk.  "What happened out there!?  Sounds like a party!" the
store clerk yelled.  Max and Terry did not stop, but ran into
the back storage area of the store.  "Hey!  You can't go back
there!"

Out in the mall, Vladimir arrived at the scene of the mayhem.
The two security guards were helping Yevgeny.  Vassy saw
Vladimir and went to him.

Inside the store, the clerk followed Max and Terry to the rear
of the store.  "Hey!"

"We're FBI!" Max responded quickly.  "We're investigating the
shooting that just occurred out there!"

"Cool!"  The clerk was impressed.

Max ordered, "Don't let anyone in here while we work out our
plan to capture the perpetrators!"

"Right!  I got you covered!"  The clerk ran back to the front
of the store.

Terry was miffed.  "CIA?  FBI?  Which is it?"

"The CIA has a bad reputation, so I usually tell people I'm
with the FBI," Max explained.

Out in the mall, Vassy and Vladimir get together.  "What
happened?" Vladimir demanded.

"I don't know.  We split up.  But the police have Yevgeny."

"Too bad."

Vladimir and Vassy stood near the entrance to another store.
Vassy used his body to shield Vladimir's activity.  Vladimir
pulled out a gun and screwed a silencer onto it.  Then, poking
the gun out from around Vassy, Vladimir shot and killed
Yevgeny.  Yevgeny fell to the ground.  The security guards
quickly spun around to look down the mall, but the entire mall
area was now deserted and deathly quiet.

Vladimir and Vassy passed through the store and stopped at the
rear of the store.  Vladimir ordered, "Get the others.  Meet
back at the cars."  They split up as they exited the mall.

In the other store, Max and Terry were standing at the rear
exit.  Max was looking out the door.  He turned to Terry.
"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble.  Wait five minutes
after I'm gone and then take off."

Terry was outraged.  "What!?  Are you crazy!?  Thanks to you,
these guys know where I live!  Where the hell am I supposed to
go!?"

"Go to the cops," Max suggested, but then changed his mind.
"No, that's a bad idea.  You'd have to tell them about me."

"Well, I can't just run and hide!  I'd never know when those
guys will show up again!"  Terry was furious at Max.

Max looked out the door again and saw Vladimir walking quickly
through the parking lot.  "Damn!"  He closed the door quickly,
yet carefully.

"Now what?"

Max realized that he still needed Terry's help, and she was
still in danger, so it would be best if they stayed together.
"All right.  Do you have a place where we can hide out for a
while?"

"How about my father's house?  He's in Europe for the next two
weeks."

"Great.  What's the address?"

"5501 Lakeview.  It's on the lake."

"Good.  Wait five minutes, and then go straight there."

"But what are you going to do?"

"I don't know exactly, but I'm tired of being the chasee."  He
carefully opened the door, saw that Vladimir could not see
him, and ran out of the door.  Terry was left to wait an
agonizing five minutes.

Vladimir walked quickly across the parking lot, through the
trees, and passed the trailer park.  He got to his car, and
opened the door.  Max stepped out of the bushes and fired his
gun at Vladimir.  He hit Vladimir in the leg.  Vladimir began
to fall, but Max immediately shoved him into the car and got
in with him.



Chapter 9



At CIA headquarters later that night, Boggs and Finch reported
to Pucker.

Pucker queried Boggs, "Could you, or could you not, tell from
the sound on the phone whether they actually caught him?"

Boggs was very distraught.  "No.  I couldn't tell.  But I'm
very worried.  I heard a shot, and then he was gone."

"Then we have to assume that they haven't caught him, yet,"
Pucker decided.

Finch had just about enough of Pucker.  "Are you ever going to
be satisfied!?"

Pucker snapped back, "Not until he makes up for having screwed
up my operation!"

"Does he have to make up for it with his life!?"

"All right!  That does it, Finch!  You're out of this
mission!"  When the going gets tough, the bosses start firing
people.

Finch felt relieved.  "Well, thank god for that!"  He stormed
out of the office.

Pucker turned back to Boggs.  "As for you, Boggs, I want you
to find out what the scuttlebutt is!  Did they, or did they
not, capture Max!?  If not, then I want you to leak to the
other side that he's running scared, and we are trying
desperately to get him back."

Heavily intimidated, Boggs meekly complied.  "Yes, sir."  He
turned to leave.

"And don't you screw up, too!" Pucker called after him.


At the Intercontinental Airport of Houston, Sam and Nick
called back to their respective offices on the airport phones
while their agents waited for them.  Sam and Nick hung up at
the same time.

"I don't understand," Nick seemed perplexed.  "Not only can't
I find out whether Vladimir caught Max, but I can't find
anybody who knows where Vladimir is."

"I'm confused, too," Sam added.  "Word is that Max is running
scared and we are trying desperately to bring him in.  That's
not what was happening when we left Washington."

"Maybe your people have changed their minds," Nick suggested.
"You Americans have always been very fickle, especially during
the Carter administration."

"No, something is still fishy.  Remember, Pucker is in
charge."  She curled her lips at the thought of Pucker.

"What I don't understand is why Vladimir hasn't figured out
that something fishy is going on," Nick puzzled.

"Oh, he's such an idiot.  He can't even figure out his own
dick."

"I don't think he has one."

"Maybe not, but he's got balls."

Nick was at a loss.  "Now what do we do?"

"Now we check into a hotel, set up a command post, and keep
trying to find out what happened."  She started walking to the
exit.

"I just hope the hotel has cable."  Nick followed her.  Their
four agents ambled along with them.  "Who farted?"


Terry's father's house was immediately adjacent to a lake.
Terry had been there for several minutes and had kept her gun
ready by her side.  She was looking out the window when Max
arrived.  She ran to the door and opened it.  Max shoved
Vladimir into the room.

Terry was shocked.  "My god, what have you done!?"

Max replied, "I caught a big fish."  He shoved Vladimir into a
chair.  "Get some rope.  We'll tie him up."

"What?"

Max turned to look at Terry.  "Get some rope," he repeated.
Terry went looking for rope.

"Don't bother," Vladimir called after her.  "I won't be here
long."  His attitude annoyed Max.

"You won't be so smug when I get through with you," Max tried
to be as menacing as he could.  He kicked Vladimir in the leg
where he had shot him.

Vladimir didn't even flinch.  "You don't know the first thing
about pain, boy."

Max was new at this intimidation game.  "Well, then I'll just
kill you and all my troubles will be over."

"Your troubles are just starting."  Vladimir's stare made Max
very uncomfortable.  What had he gotten himself into?

Terry came running back into the room with some rope.  "This
is all I could find."  She handed the rope to Max.

"It's enough," Max assured her, but he was really trying to
reassure himself.  "He's already immobilized from pain.  He's
just afraid to show it."  He began to tie Vladimir's hands
behind the chair.

"What?"

Max turned to look at Terry.  "Just watch out the window."
Vladimir watched them with interest as he realized that Terry
was deaf.

Terry ran to the window.  "You mean you were followed!?"

"No.  It's just a safety precaution," he said, but he could
see that Terry wasn't looking at him.  He sat down beside
Vladimir.  "Okay.  Now you're going to tell me what's going
on."

"They're here!" Terry shouted.

"Who's here!?" Max jumped up and ran to the window, too.

Outside, Vassy, Aram and Anton got out of their car.

"Dammit!  How'd they find us!?"  Max almost panicked.

"Are you kidding?" Vladimir pointed out.  "You left a trail a
blind man could follow."

Max grabbed Terry's arm.  "Come here!"  He kicked Vladimir
backwards and knocked him to the floor.  He then shot out the
front window.

Outside, Vassy, Aram and Anton dropped to the ground.

This delay gave Max just enough time.  He dragged Terry to the
rear of the house.  He flung open a door.  It was a closet.

"What do you want in there?" Terry asked.

"I want the back door!"

Terry pulled Max to the back door.

Vladimir shouted through the window, "They went out the back
door!  Go around!"

Outside, Vassy, Aram and Anton jumped to their feet.  Aram
instructed the others, "Go around!"  Vassy and Anton ran
around the house.  Aram ran into the house.

"Untie me!" Vladimir ordered.

In the backyard, Vassy and Anton looked around quickly, but
there was no one in sight.

Inside the house, Aram untied Vladimir.  "Let's get out of
here!  That shot he fired will draw a crowd!"  Vladimir and
Aram ran out of the house with Vladimir limping.

Out in the backyard, Vassy and Aram gave up and ran back to
the front of the house.

Max and Terry hid in the water next to the edge of the lake up
underneath a grassy overhang.  "Do you get the impression that
I'm incompetent?"  Max was feeling very tired and unsure of
himself.

"What?  It's too dark.  I couldn't hear you."

He looked at her.  "Do you have any place else where we can
hide?"

"No.  I'm all tapped out."  Terry shook her head.

"Then does your father have a car we can borrow?"  In spite of
his failures, Max still wasn't giving up.

"Not here," Terry answered.  "There's just the motorcycle and
the boat."

"That'll do."



Chapter 10



Boggs and Pucker fell asleep in Boggs' office.  It had been a
long night waiting for word about Max.  When the telephone
finally rang, the ring startled Boggs, but he woke up slowly.
Pucker, on the other hand, came instantly awake and sprang
over to Boggs at Boggs' desk.  "If that's Max, agree to
anything he asks for!  Just get him to tell where he is!"  It
took Boggs a moment to get his bearings, and the microsecond
delay irritated Pucker.  "Answer the phone!"

Finally, Boggs picked up the phone.  "Huh? ... Uh, yeah.  I'll
- I'll accept the charges!  ... Max! Are you okay!?"
Realizing that it was Max, Boggs came fully awake.  Pucker
pulled the phone back from Boggs' ear, so he could listen,
too.

Max called from a pay phone in a park next to the lake.  He
was not a happy camper.  "Yes, dammit!  And no thanks to you!"

"Max, you have to believe me!" Boggs pleaded.  "I had no idea
what happened!  Are you okay!  Where are you!?"

"Ha!" Max retorted.  "The last time I told you where I was, a
bunch of Russian guys showed up at my door!"

"Max!  Honest!  That wasn't my fault!  I just want to help
you, but I can't if I don't know where you are!"  Pucker urged
Boggs to get on with it.

"You want to help me!?" Max demanded.

Boggs tried to sound as sincere as possible.  "Yes!"

"You want to help me my way!?"

Boggs acted unsure.  He didn't know what "my way" meant, but
Pucker urgently motioned for Boggs to say yes, so Boggs
complied.  "Uh - Yes!  Of course!  Anything!  You name it and
it's yours!"  Pucker motioned for Boggs to lay off a bit.

Max cooled down some.  "Then I want you to come here."

Boggs really didn't want to do this.  "Uh -."  Pucker,
however, frantically motioned for him to say yes.  "Uh - Yes,"
Boggs finally responded.

Max listed his demands.  He wanted Boggs to bring enough money
for a plane ticket to get back home.  He also wanted Boggs to
meet him at the water fountain at the running track at the
park next to the lake at exactly noon tomorrow.

Boggs quickly scribbled the instructions.  "Okay."

"See you there."  Max hung up.

Pucker was delighted.  "Good!  You get ready to go!  I'll see
to it that those Russian guys find out where this place is!"

Boggs felt uncomfortable about the prospect of going to
Houston.  "But where do I get the money for Max's plane
ticket?"

"Don't be stupid!  You won't need the money."  Pucker left in
a hurry.

"But I'm not a field operative," Boggs meekly complained.  "I
haven't been out of the office in fifteen years.  Where's my
medicine?"  He fumbled in his desk drawer.

Finch stealthily slipped into the room.  "Well?"

Boggs was practically in tears.  "He wants me to meet him in
Houston.  Pucker is going to set him up again.  I can't go to
Houston.  I'm not a field operative."

"Don't worry.  I'll have two agents assigned to cover you."
He slipped back out of the room, being careful to make sure
that Pucker was not out in the hallway before he left.

Boggs popped a pill into his mouth and swallowed it.



Chapter 11



Max and Terry sat in Terry's dad's boat in the middle of the
lake, while Max carefully watched the park through a pair of
binoculars, while Terry stared at nothing in particular.  "I
don't get it," Terry said.

Max didn't move his eyes from the binoculars.  "Get what?"

"What?  Did you say something to me?"

He lowered the binoculars and looked at Terry.  "What don't
you get?"

"What we're doing out here now.  You told the guy to meet you
here tomorrow," she complained.

"I'm looking at the types of people that come here during
their lunch break.  Then tomorrow I'll be able to spot the
people who are after us, because they will look different and
out of place," he carefully explained and then returned to
watching the park.

"Oh."  Terry stared at the shore for a moment.  "So what kind
of people come here?"

"Please!  I'm trying to concentrate!"

"I'm sorry!  Excuse me!  So maybe I'm a little bored and tired
and miserable!  This has not been a wonderful experience!"

"Well I'm not doing this just because it's fun!"

"What?"

He turned to her.  "I said I'm not doing it just because it's
fun."  He returned to watching the park.

"So why do you do it?"

Max became irritated.  "I told you!  So I can see who comes
here!"

"No.  I mean, why do you even work for the CIA?"

Max calmed down, looked at Terry.  "Oh - well - seemed like a
good job."  He went back to watching the park.

Terry reached over to Max's shoe with her bare foot and untied
his shoe with her toes.  Max turned, looked at his shoelace,
and frowned.  Terry seemed very smug.  Max looked at her.  She
wasn't bored anymore.


Sam and Nick had set up their headquarters in adjoining hotel
rooms.  Their respective agents were with them playing cards -
and cheating.  Sam hung up her phone and dashed to Nick's room
just as he hung up his phone.  "Guess what!?" Sam
enthusiastically shouted.

Nick beat her to the punch.  "Max has made contact!"

"Yes, and guess what else?"

"His supervisor, that wimp named Boggs, is going to meet with
him to bring him in."

"And -."

"And Vladimir is going to intercept them at their rendezvous
in a park at a lake here in Houston tomorrow at noon."

Sam's enthusiasm waned.  "Why do I even bother to find this
stuff out when you can get it, too?"

Nick psychoanalyzed her.  "Because you have this need to feel
useful.  It's brought on by an inferiority complex resulting
from working for a second-rate intelligence agency."

"Second rate!?  You are the ones who up-graded your entire
agency computer system right before the KGB was disbanded by
stealing one little personal computer!  And it wasn't even a
Compaq."

"And that was a mistake," Nick admitted.  "We had asked for a
Nintendo."

"So are we going to stake out the park tomorrow?"

Nick's lip curled at the thought.  "I hate stake-outs."

Sam paced back and forth.  "Vladimir will probably follow
standard KGB practice and show up an hour before the meeting
to set up his own stake-out," she reasoned.

"That stopped being standard practice years ago.  These days,
the agent in charge is allowed to improvise."

"Yeah, well, Vladimir is so stupid he probably will stick to
the old way anyway."

"That's true," Nick agreed.  "So if we get there a half hour
before that then we'll probably be okay.  And maybe I won't
get blisters on my butt from sitting and watching all day.  I
hate it when that happens."


Out on the lake, Max and Terry's boat floated seemingly
deserted in the water.  Max no longer watched the park.  The
binoculars rested on the driver's seat.  All was quiet to any
observer, but on the floor of the boat, Max and Terry
intertwined their arms, legs and lips in a passionate embrace.
So that's what people do when they get bored out of their
minds from being chased and shot at by homicidal ex-KGB agents
who don't know that the cold war is over.



Chapter 12



Sam and Nick sat in their car at the park.  They watched the
cars and people coming and going.  There weren't very many
such people.  "So it's eleven o'clock!  The show starts in an
hour!  Where is Vladimir!?"  Sam grew impatient.

They had only been at the park for half an hour, but Nick's
butt was already getting sore.  "Oh, shut up."

Sam ignored Nick's whining.  She picked up a small radio
transceiver and pressed the button to talk.  "Are you boys
paying attention?"

Ralph and Bart hid behind an out-house in the park.  "We're
here," Ralph answered.  "Can we move to a better location?"

"No, you already have the best spot."

"But it stinks here," he complained.  Bart nodded his
approval.  "We're behind an outhouse."

Back at their car, Nick took the radio from Sam.  "Olaf,
Mikhail - see anything yet?"

Olaf and Mikhail stood behind some trees.  "No, not yet," Olaf
reported.

Sam grabbed the radio back from Nick.  "Olaf, quit playing
with Mikhail and watch for Vladimir."

Olaf was getting tired of Sam's remarks.  "Fuck you."

"But I'm not your type.  Remember?"

Mikhail said to Olaf, "You know, that outhouse is probably
clean.  Ralph is just smelling Bart's farts."

"No shit," Olaf agreed.

Vladimir and Vassy drove up in their car.  Nick saw them
arrive and grabbed the radio from Sam again.  "Vladimir is
here!  Keep a watch for Max."

Sam began fumbling inside a bag that she brought with her.
"Good.  Now we get to see some action."  She pulled out a gun
and cocked it.

Nick looked at her gun with extreme displeasure.  "I hate
guns.  They're too loud."

Sam then took out a pair of binoculars and looked into
Vladimir's car.  "I see he has Vassy with him.  Where's
Yevgeny, Anton, and Aram?  Don't all those fools ride
together?"

"Yevgeny is dead."

"Oh, too bad.  Vladimir probably shot his own guy."


At the Intercontinental Airport of Houston, Boggs prepared to
disembark from the airplane.  He stopped beside two other
passengers, Alice and Bill.  "You two are going to follow very
close.  Right?"  Boggs wanted some reassurance.

Alice tried to give him that reassurance.  "Don't worry.
Finch told us everything.  We'll have you covered the entire
time."

"Good," Boggs said, but he still moaned with the frightened
anticipation of what might come.  He continued off the plane,
leaving Alice and Bill to follow.

Alice's true feelings came out.  "Paranoid little wimp.  Isn't
he?"  Bill nodded his head.  They both looked at each other,
rolled their eyes up inside their heads and sighed a heavy
sigh.

Inside the terminal, with beads of sweat on his forehead,
Boggs walked passed Aram and Anton.  He didn't recognize
either of them, but they recognized him.  Aram motioned to
Anton for them to follow Boggs.  Alice and Bill spotted them
and followed behind Aram and Anton.

Bill recognized them at once.  "Hey.  Isn't that Vladimir's
men, Aram and Anton?"

"You're right.  Damn.  This is more serious than I thought."
Alice and Bill exchanged worried glances.  What had they
gotten themselves into?


Boggs arrived at the park in his car.  Aram and Anton arrived
immediately afterward in another car.  Alice and Bill also
arrived in another car.  Boggs got out of his car, nervously
looked around, tried hard to swallow, and slowly went to the
water fountain next to the running track.  He shook with fear
the entire way.

Sam picked up her radio and said in a low voice, "Okay.  It
looks like all of the players are here.  Pay very close
attention."


Out on the lake, Max looked through the binoculars at the
park.  Terry sat in the boat with him.  A motorcycle sat in
the back of the boat.  Suddenly, Max became terrified.
"Shit!" he exclaimed, and slid down onto the floor of the
boat.

Terry was startled.  "What's wrong!?  What happened!?"  She
quickly scrambled to the floor of the boat, too.

"I don't believe it!"  Max was still distraught.

"What!?" Terry demanded.

"What the hell have I done to deserve this!?"  Max was
virtually in tears now.

"What!?  What happened!?"

"I count at least nine people out there!  Who knows how many I
missed!"

Terry tried to cheer him up.  "Well, maybe they're not all
here for you!  Maybe they're here for someone else!"

"Who else are they going to be here for!?  Besides, they're
all watching Boggs!  They must be here for me!"  Max felt
entirely helpless.

"Maybe some of them are on our side!"

"Bullshit!  Nobody but the bad guys have shown up at my door
so far!  They're not going to change their minds now!  This is
crazy!  We have to get out of here!"  Max quickly pulled
himself into the driver's seat of the boat.

"Wait a minute!  Are we just leaving!?"  Terry couldn't
believe that they were giving up.

"I'm not going up against that many people!" Max insisted.

"But our plan could still work!"

"No way!!"  He gunned the engine of the boat.

"It's a good plan!"

"What?"  Max couldn't hear her over the roar of the boat.

"I said it's a good plan."

"What?"

"What are you?  Deaf!?"  She tried to shout.

Max turned off the engine.  "Look," he said, "it's too risky!"

Terry couldn't believe what she was seeing.  "So now because
of you, I have to be on the run from these guys for the rest
of my life!"

"You can go to the police!"

"Oh, right!"  Terry became sarcastic.  "And what am I going to
tell them!?  That the ex-KGB is out to get me!?  They'll lock
me up!  I don't know who these people are!  I can't even prove
that they have committed a crime!  What can the cops do for
me!?"

Max began to calm down.  He paused for a moment and just
looked into Terry's pleading eyes.  "You know this is crazy."

Terry calmed down, too.  "Maybe.  But I think it'll work.  At
least we'll be able to find out what's going on."


Back at the park, Ralph spotted Alice and Bill.  Ralph turned
to Bart and said, "Hey, isn't that Alice and Bill over there?"

Bart looked confused.  "Who?  Finch's people?"

"Yeah."

Bart looked carefully at Alice and Bill's car.  "Well, I'll be
damned.  It is."

Ralph took up his radio.  "Hey, Sam."

Sam quickly picked up her radio.  "Do you see Max?"

"No, but I see a couple of Finch's people."

Sam and Nick looked at each other and responded
simultaneously.  "Finch's people!?"

"Yeah," Ralph said.  "Alice and Bill are in the blue four-door
in the corner."

Sam grabbed the binoculars and looked for their car.  She
spotted them.  "I see them!"

Nick tried to figure it out.  "Maybe they really are trying to
bring Max in."

"No.  Finch has been kicked off the team.  They're probably on
their own on this thing.  I wonder what their orders are?"
She spoke into the radio again.  "Hey, Ralph, aren't Alice and
Bill living together?"

"No.  They broke up last month."

"No shit?  Why?"

"Alice got mad when she came home and found Bill in bed with
another woman.  Bill swore that she meant nothing to him and
that he still only loves Alice, but Alice doesn't know if she
can still trust him.  Unfortunately, Alice thinks that she may
be pregnant, but she's afraid to go to the doctor to make
sure, and she doesn't want to tell Bill because she's afraid
that he'll just want to come back for the baby so she'll never
know if he really came back for her.  Meanwhile, Bill is
sweating it out because the other woman is also a week late
for her period."

"You're kidding!?" Sam exclaimed.

Nick was irritated.  "What is this!?  A damned American soap
opera!?"

"I have to find out what they're doing here."  Sam announced
and opened her car door to get out.

"Don't let Vladimir see you!" Nick called after her.

Sam slid out of the car and, hiding behind all of the other
cars in the parking lot, she ran to Alice and Bill's car.  She
hopped into the back seat of their car startling them.

"Sam!"  Alice was surprised.  "What are you doing here!?"

"What am I doing here!?  What are you doing here!?"

Bill answered, "Finch sent us."

"Are you bringing in Max?"

Alice answered, "We're supposed to take care of Boggs, but if
we can help Max, we're supposed to go ahead and do it."

"What is with Pucker!?" Sam demanded.  "Why is he setting up
Max!?"

Bill shrugged.  "Beats me."

"I think it's because Pucker made a pass at Max, and Max
rejected him," Alice suggested.

Sam sneered.  "We should introduce Pucker to Olaf."

Bill looked confused.  "Nick's agent?"

"Yes.  They're here, too."

Bill and Alice were really confused now.  "What are they doing
here?" Bill asked.

"They're helping me."

"But what are YOU doing here?" Alice asked.

"I'm helping Max."

Suddenly, Max arrived on a motorcycle.  He stopped in the
parking lot, removed his helmet and looked around.  Vladimir,
Nick and all of their agents spotted him.  Sam, on the other
hand was still talking to Alice and Bill.  "So what do you
say?  Tell me the truth.  Are you two still living together?"

Bill turned away.  "I don't want to talk about it."  His lower
lip stuck out and he began to pout.

Alice spotted Max.  "There's Max!"

Sam had other things on her mind now.  "Fuck Max!  What's the
scoop!?"

Max quickly replaced his helmet and sped away on the
motorcycle.

Nick responded quickly and efficiently.  He shouted into his
radio.  "After him!"

Olaf and Mikhail and Ralph and Bart ran for their cars.  Nick
quickly started his car and followed Max.

Sam saw the activity.  "Now what!?"

"They're following Max!" Alice pointed out.

"I have to get back to Nick!"  Sam jumped out of Alice and
Bill's car.

"We're with you!" Alice called after her, forgetting about
Boggs.

Sam ran toward Nick, but Nick sped away in the car without
seeing her.  "Damn!"  She ran toward Ralph and Bart, but they
sped away without seeing her, either.  Sam turned and saw Olaf
and Mikhail speed out of the parking lot, too.  Alice and Bill
were right behind them.  She was left standing in the middle
of the parking lot feeling very left out.  "Hey, what about
me!?"

Boggs stood alone in the middle of the park near the drinking
fountain.  He had been too far away from the cars to see that
they had all left.  He waited.

Out on the streets, Max dodged in and out of traffic.  All of
the cars following him tried to do the same.  Nick came very
close to hitting several other cars.  "Dammit!  Kid!  I'm too
old for this!"

Max turned onto a bridge and crossed the lake.  The other cars
followed with a lot of noise and commotion left in their wake.
After crossing the bridge, Max turned onto a road that went to
the lake shore.  The other cars still followed dodging in and
out of traffic.  Innocent bystanders were slamming on their
brakes and screeching to a halt all over the road.  Max
suddenly turned off the road and headed across a field to a
small pier where the boat was tied.  The other cars screeched
to a halt up on the road.  Max drove out onto the pier, jumped
off the motorcycle, rolled it into the boat, and jumped into
the boat.

Up on the road, Nick quickly got out of his car and ran toward
the pier.  "Wait!" he shouted to no avail.  Max untied the
boat, and gunned the engine.  The boat started quickly, much
to Max's relief, and he sped away from the pier.  Nick slid to
a stop and turned around.  He ran back up to his car.  By this
time, all of the others had arrived and were getting out of
their cars, too.  Nick waved them back.  "Go back!  The little
fart double-backed on us!"

Back at the park, Terry quietly came up behind Boggs.  "Hey."

Sam saw Terry and quickly hid behind a car to watch.

Boggs was startled.  "Huh!?"  Terry briefly showed Boggs her
gun and then hid it.  Boggs' eyes bulged out.

"Max sent me," Terry informed Boggs.

"Huh?"

"I believe you have something for Max.  Give it to me."

"Huh?"

"The money for a plane ticket!" Terry became irritated.

Boggs stammered a moment.  "Uh - well - not really."

"What!?"

Boggs acted extremely apologetic.  "I didn't bring any money.
I'm so sorry.  It's not my fault."

"You were supposed to!"

"Well -."

Terry grew outraged.  "You mean this was another set up!?  You
son-of-a-bitch!"

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Vladimir limped into view.
"Your little decoy didn't work."

From her hiding place, Sam's eyes lit up when she saw
Vladimir.  "Bastard," she whispered.

Terry saw Vladimir, but did not see him say anything.  "Oh
shit," she said.  She turned around and saw Anton and Aram
approach from the opposite side.  Boggs began to cry, and a
wet spot in his crotch showed that he wet his pants.

"You will come with us," Vladimir ordered.

Boggs fainted and fell to the ground.  Aram and Anton grabbed
Terry and took away her gun.  Aram pointed to Boggs.  "What
about him?"

"Leave him.  That's Boggs.  We couldn't trade him for shit.
The girlfriend is enough."

They dragged Terry away.

Sam was confused.  "Who the hell is she?" she whispered again.

Out on the lake, Max quickly stopped the boat in time to see
Terry being shoved into a car.  "No!!"

Aram and Anton took Terry in one car.  Vassy drove the other
car with Vladimir.  They all quickly left the park.

Boggs' head popped up and he looked around.  He apparently
faked his faint.  He scrambled to his feet and ran to his car
to get away.

Vladimir and the others exited the park.  They followed a road
that went along the side of the lake.

Out on the lake, Max roared the engine to full throttle and
quickly tried to parallel them in the boat.

Boggs jumped into his car.  Sam jumped in beside him.  "Follow
them!" she ordered.

Boggs was stunned.  "Samantha!?"

"Just follow them!"  She waved at him to go.

Vladimir and his men drove quickly along the lake's shore.
Max bounced along in the boat.  He swerved to avoid hitting
floating debris.

Boggs and Sam left the park.  "But I don't even know which way
they went!" Boggs complained.

"They went that way!"  Sam waved him in the general direction
that Vladimir and the others took.  They continued along the
lake's shore.

Max sped under the bridge.  On top of the bridge, Nick was
stopped at an intersection with all of the others behind him.
"Damn kid doesn't know who's trying to help him," Nick
muttered.  Suddenly, Vladimir passed the intersection in front
of him.  Nick looked up.  "Was that Vladimir?" he asked
himself.  Then Aram and Anton passed.  "That was his men."
Boggs and Sam passed, too.  "And that was Sam!"  He grabbed
his radio.  "Follow, me!"

They still had a red light, but Nick and all of the others
quickly turned in front of other cars in the intersection and
followed Sam and Boggs.  Chaos reigned at the intersection
with all of the cars turning in front of everybody else.
Several cars rear-ended each other in a chain reaction, but
remarkably, none of the agents following Nick got hit.  When
they finally got straightened out on the road, Nick couldn't
see Sam anymore.  "Where did they go?"  He shouted into his
radio again, "I saw them go this way!  Spread out!  They can't
be far!"

Vladimir and his men still sped along parallel to the lake.
Out on the lake, Max became desperate.  He swung the boat out
wide on the lake and then headed directly toward the shore.
He braced himself for impact.  His boat bashed against the
shore, and then bounced and slid across the ground until it
screeched to a halt in the middle of the road directly in
front of Vassy and Vladimir.  Max had fallen onto the floor of
the boat, so the boat appeared empty.  Vassy slammed on his
brakes.  Vladimir crumpled up into the dashboard of the car
with his head mashed into the windshield.  Aram and Anton
almost crashed into their rear end, but managed to screech to
a halt.  Terry was thrown forward and her head broke off the
rearview mirror.

Vladimir fell back into his seat and pointed to a side road.
"Turn here!"  Vassy turned onto the side road.  Aram and Anton
followed.  Vladimir held his forehead in his hand.

Boggs and Sam were falling behind.  "Faster!  Faster!  You're
losing them!" Sam yelled.  Boggs struggled keep up.  He turned
the corner to go down the side street, and Sam looked back at
the boat.  "What the hell was that boat doing there?"

Slightly dazed, Max staggered to his feet.  He tried to shake
the daze from his head and then grabbed the motorcycle to put
it over the edge of the boat, but the front tire had been
badly bent.  "Damn!" he yelled realizing that this meant he
was going to lose Terry.  He dropped the motorcycle, jumped
out of the boat, threw off his helmet, and ran in a blind dash
after the cars.

Vassy and Vladimir sped passed another side street.  These
streets were completely deserted.  Not even houses had been
built next to them.  Aram and Anton quickly followed.  Boggs
fell further behind.

"Will you hurry up!?"  Sam whacked Boggs in the shoulder.
"You're losing them!"

"But I'm not a field operative!"

Max was falling further and further behind them.  He had no
hope of catching up.

Back at the boat, Nick pulled up and stopped his car.  He
scratched his head.  "That's one you won't see in Moscow."

The street curved left, and as Vassy made the turn, he reached
a dead end.  He slammed on the brakes.  This time, Vladimir
braced himself for the stop.  "Go back!" Vladimir ordered.
Vassy spun his car around.  Aram and Anton had to swing wide
in order to miss him.  They went off onto the shoulder and
spun their tires trying to get back on the street.  Then they
all headed back the way they came.

Boggs, who had hoped that they were losing them, saw them
coming and slammed on his brakes.  "Oh, shit."

"Oh, good!"  Sam was elated.  "Now we've got them!"

Vassy and Vladimir stopped.  Aram and Anton followed suit.
All of the cars just sat there for a moment with their engines
humming.  Then Sam opened her door and squatted down outside
the car using her door as a shield.  She had her gun ready.
"We have a dozen more agents right behind us!  Give us the
girl!"

Vladimir and Vassy opened their doors and squatted down
outside their car using their doors as shields, too.  They had
their guns ready.  Aram and Anton did the same.  They all left
their engines running.

Boggs slid down into his seat and tried to hide.  "But I'm not
a field operative."  He squeezed his eyes shut tight and
prayed for life.

Max ran up to the other side road.  He looked both ways and
saw nothing.  Tears appeared in his eyes.  He was exhausted
and could barely stand.  Feelings of complete helplessness
came over him.  Which way did they go?  He started to run the
wrong way.

Back at the cars, Vladimir shot at Sam.

Max spun around.  He heard the shot.  With renewed energy he
ran toward the shot.  Only a man foolishly in love would run
TOWARD the sound of gunfire.

Sam looked at the bullet hole in the door next to her.  "Quit
that!  You're messing up my hair!"

Terry, meanwhile, was still sitting in the middle of the front
seat of Aram and Anton's car.  They had not had time to tie
her up.  She looked at Aram squatting outside the car.  He was
carefully watching the cars in front of him and paid no
attention to Terry.

"Get out of the way!" Vladimir shouted back.  A standoff of
was brewing between mini-titans.

Terry looked at Anton on the other side of the car.  He, too,
was carefully watching the action unfold in front of them and
paid no attention to Terry.

Sam continued her bluff.  "Okay, Boggs!  Get the bazooka
ready!"

"Huh?"

Terry grabbed the gear shift, threw the car into drive, mashed
on the accelerator, and burned rubber as she squealed away
from Anton and Aram, leaving them squatting alone in the
middle of the road.  They just jumped back and then looked at
each other as if to say, "I thought you were watching her."
Terry whipped around Vassy and Vladimir's car on Vladimir's
side.  Vladimir jumped into the car immediately before Terry
crashed into his door.  She sped away on the shoulder of the
road passed Sam and Boggs.

Sam quickly climbed back into her car.  "Great!  She got away!
Let's get out of here!"

Boggs sat back up in his seat and put the car in gear.  The
engine immediately quit.

"Start the car Boggs," Sam said.  Boggs tried to start the
car, but it wouldn't start.  "Start the car, Boggs!"  He tried
again, but it still wouldn't start.  "Start the car, Boggs!!"

Vladimir poked his gun through the window.  "Don't start the
car, Boggs."

Max barely managed to jump out of the way as Terry's car
careened passed him.  Terry was completely surprised to see
him.  She slammed on her brakes and squealed to a halt.
"Max!"  Max ran and jumped into the car.

Back at the boat, Nick, Olaf, Mikhail, Ralph, Bart, Alice and
Bill were standing around scratching their heads.  "So where
did they go?" Bart asked the obvious question.

Olaf answered, "I don't know."  Everybody shrugged his
shoulders.  Olaf sniffed.  "Who farted?"

Ralph pointed down the side road.  "Maybe they went that way."
Everybody shrugged his shoulders again.

Terry's car came into view.  She sped toward them.  Nick saw
the car and frowned at it.  "Is that them coming back this
way?"

Terry took the corner around the boat very quickly.  The car
practically came up off two wheels.  The others nonchalantly
got out of her way.  Max, however, recognized Nick.  "Stop!
Stop!"  Max grabbed Terry's arm to get her attention.
"Stop!!"  Terry screeched the car to a stop.  Max poked his
head out of the window.  "Nick!?  What are you doing here!?"

"If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't be here!  Where's
Sam!?"

"Aunt Sam!?"


Nick, Max, Terry, Alice, Bill, Olaf, Mikhail, Bart and Ralph
all approached Sam and Boggs' car.  The car was deserted in
the middle of the road.

Terry pointed to the last spot where she saw Vladimir's car.
"The other guys had another car over there."

They looked around, but saw nothing.

"Damn woman," Nick muttered.



Chapter 13



In the hotel rooms where Nick and Sam had set up their
headquarters, Max, Terry, Olaf, Mikhail, Ralph, Bart, Alice
and Bill waited while Nick talked on the phone.  "Right ...
Okay ... He's got them both? ... Good."  He triumphantly
slammed the phone down.  "I found them!"

"Where are they!?" Max was very anxious to help his aunt.

"In a house on the east side of town."

Mikhail was ready for more action.  "I say we go get them!"
He turned to Olaf.  "Right!?"

"I say we leave them there and go home," Olaf said.  There is
general agreement among the others to go get them.  "Well, if
we have to," Olaf grudgingly went along with the crowd.

"Good!  Does anyone want out?"  Nick waited.  They all looked
at each other, but no one answered.  "Let's do it then!"


Vladimir's new safe house extended out over one of the many
bayous that ran through the city and the surrounding
countryside.  This particular two-story house sat semi-
isolated among some other houses.  No people stirred on the
streets nearby.  It was the middle of the night.  Inside the
house, on the second floor, Vladimir, Vassy, Aram and Anton
had Sam and Boggs tied to two chairs.  Vladimir pulled up
another chair and sat down in front of them.  Boggs was
petrified.

"Hey, Vlad, long time - no see.  Where've you been?"  Sam
acted coy.

"Around."  Vladimir responded equally pleasant.

She eyed his body.  "You're looking fit."

"Thank you.  So are you."

"I know."  She looked at the bandage on his leg.  "What
happened to your leg?"

"That damn kid shot me."

"That clumsy boy."

"You know - he has been causing me a lot of trouble."

"Yes, but he's young, and he means well."

"Are you going to tell me where my information is that he took
from me?"

"No.  So now do we go a few rounds with razor blades and
rubber hoses?"  She nods towards Boggs.  "Start on him.  I'm
sure he'll talk."

"Huh!?"  Boggs was aghast.

"No no.  We've done that before.  Haven't we?"

"Yeah."  Sam remembered fondly.  "You were the best, Vlad."

"Still am," Vladimir insisted.

"Nah."  Sam shook her head.  "It's a new game, and us old
fogeys aren't invited."

"Don't be so sure it's all over.  We can still heat things up
again."

"What?  Reheat the cold war?  Nah.  Nobody is interested
anymore."

"Don't be so sure.  Just look at what's been happening to that
fool Yeltsin.  He can't possibly last much longer."  Vladimir
sighed.  "Are you really not going to tell me what I want?"

Sam shook her head.  "You'll just have to beat it out of us.
Don't worry - he'll crack in a second."

Boggs was still horrified.  "Huh!?"

Vladimir shook his head.  "If he knew anything, he would have
already told us."

"I would!  I really would!"  Boggs nodded insisting that he
would betray his country in an instant.

Sam was already tired of his whining.  "Shut up."  She turned
back to Vladimir.  "So how are we going to do this?"

"I've invented a newer more subtle form of interrogation."
Vladimir looked very pleased with himself.  He got up and
limped over to a closet.

"Why?  Are you mellowing out in your old age?"

"You might say that."  He opened the closet door to expose a
bomb with its timer set for ten minutes.

Sam looked at the bomb like a nymphomaniac looks at a pro-
athlete.  "Oh, my."

Boggs' eyes bulged out.  "Huh!?"

Vladimir explained, "After I start this bomb, if you have
anything you would like to tell me, I'll come back and turn it
off for you.  If you don't have anything to say, then - well -
at least we'll be rid of you."

Sam was impressed and delighted.  "A whole bomb just for me!
I'm so glad I get to share this!"

Boggs was not so glad.  "Huh!?  But I don't know anything!
Tell them what you know!  Hurry!"

Vladimir continued, "But don't wait too long to yell, because
we'll be leaving in - nine minutes."  He motioned for his men
to leave.

"Well, Vlad," Sam began to say good-bye, "it's been real, and
it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun."

"Shall we see you again in say - eight minutes?"

"Is that when Satan has to put on a fur parka?"

Boggs became feverish, "No!  Wait!  I'll tell you something!
Anything!"

Vassy, Aram and Anton left.  Vladimir reached down to start
the timer.  He stood back up and smiled at Sam.  Sam smiled
back, and Vladimir exited and closed the door behind him.  Sam
immediately began to struggle with the ropes around her
wrists.

Boggs just whined.  "But I'm not a field operative!  Oh shit!
This is terrible!  This is terrible!  What am I doing here!?
I should be at home with my wife and my five screaming kids!
Well, actually I should be at a bar right now."

"Oh, shut up!"  Like an expert escape artist, she slipped free
from her ropes.  "Ha!  That damn Russian never did know
anything about bondage."

Nick, Max, Terry and all of the others got out of their cars a
little distance up the road from Vladimir's safe house.  They
began assembling the equipment that they would use in their
raid of the house.

Max turned to Terry.  "Stay back.  Okay?"

"0kay."

Nick spoke in a hushed voice.  "We're going to take them by
surprise, so everyone keep quiet."

Mikhail pulled a tear gas launcher out of the trunk of his
car.  Ralph recognized it as being American.  "Where'd you get
an American tear gas launcher?"

"We stole it from Iran."

"Figures."

Sam freed Boggs of his ropes, and then ran to the window to
survey their options.  The window looked out over the water.
It was at least a twenty-foot drop to the water.

"Now what do we do?" Boggs insisted, stamping his feet
impatiently.

Sam tried to open the window, but couldn't budge it.  "Damn.
It's stuck."  She looked out the window and tried to judge how
deep the water was.  Unfortunately, the water was very murky,
and she couldn't see very well in the dark of night.

Downstairs, Vassy watched out a front window while Vladimir
and the others waited.  "I see someone!" Vassy announced.

Vladimir ran to the window.  "Who is it?"  He looked out the
window, but he could see no one.

"I don't know!"

"Where are they?"

"They just ducked behind those cars!"

Several cars were parked on the opposite side of the street
from the house.  Vladimir looked carefully under the cars and,
sure enough, he could see several pairs of feet.

Nick and the others were crouched behind the cars.  They each
carried a gas mask.  "Get that thing ready."

Mikhail began to get the tear gas launcher ready.

Vladimir was still at the window.  "Aram, check the back
door!"

Upstairs, Sam pulled Boggs next to her.  "Come here.  I have
and idea."  She positioned Boggs in front of the window.
Boggs just stood there like an idiot with no idea of what Sam
was going to do.  Sam went to the other side of the room.  She
stopped, turned around, and ran full tilt at Boggs.  Boggs'
eyes bulged out and his jaw hit the floor, but he was
petrified and could not move.

Downstairs, Vladimir and Vassy were still looking out the
window.  "How many were there?" Vladimir asked, but just as he
finished asking they heard a crash, a scream and a splash.
Immediately, Vassy and Anton ran up the stairs.  Vladimir ran
as quickly as his bum leg would let him.  They ran into the
room.  The window was shattered.  Vladimir pushed his way
passed the others and limped to the window.  He looked down at
the water.  Debris floated in the water.

Aram ran into the room.  "I saw no one out the back door!"

"Quick!  Get to the car!" Vladimir ordered.

Vassy, Aram and Anton ran out of the room.  Vladimir limped to
the closet and the bomb.  There were six minutes left on the
bomb.

Outside, everyone quickly put on a gas mask.  Olaf turned to
Mikhail.  "We should keep these masks for when Bart farts."
Mikhail nodded and pointed the tear gas launcher at the house.

"Do it!" Nick commanded.  Mikhail fired the launcher.  A shell
shot through the front window.

Max motioned Terry to the side.  "Wait over by those trees!"
Terry complied, and Max put on his gas mask, too.

Aram, Anton and Vassy ran out the back door.

Terry ran to the trees.  She looked around and could see the
back door and a row of bushes leading away from the back door,
but no one was there.

Aram, Anton and Vassy ran behind the row of bushes.  They were
completely out of view of Nick, Max, Terry and the others.

Back in the house, Vladimir pushed a button on the bomb and
the timer reset itself to one minute.

Out in the water, Sam pulled herself to shore, dripping with
foul-smelling water.  Boggs struggled in the water behind her.
"Help!  I can't swim!"

"Oh, shut up!  You made it this far!"

Nick, Max and the others ran up to the front of the house.

Inside the house, Vladimir quickly limped through the
downstairs holding his breath.  Tear gas sprayed everywhere.

Nick, Max and the others were ready at the front door.  "Now!"
Nick yelled, and Bart kicked in the front door.

Vladimir ran out the back door.

From her vantage point, Terry could see Vladimir run out of
the back door and run behind the row of bushes.  "Hey!"  Terry
tried to warn the others, but it was too late.

Nick, Max and the others ran into the house.

Sam saw them run into the house.  "Where the hell are they
going!?"

Terry still tried to get somebody's attention.  "Hey!"
Everybody, however, was in the house by now.  "Oh, damn!"  She
pulled out her gun and ran to head off Vladimir at the other
end of the row of bushes.  Vladimir limped as fast as he
could, wiping the tear gas from his eyes.  Terry ran along the
other side of the row of bushes.

Ralph and Bart burst into a room downstairs.  "There's nothing
here!" Ralph shouted.

Terry ran around the end of the row of bushes and came out in
front of Vladimir.  "Freeze!!" she shouted with her gun
pointed directly in Vladimir's face.  Vladimir stopped
immediately and had to blink several times because of the tear
gas.

Olaf and Mikhail burst into another room.  "There's nothing
here!" Olaf shouted.

Terry held Vladimir at gunpoint.  "Turn around!  We're going
back!"

Anton appeared behind Terry.  He had his gun pointed at her.
"I don't think so."  Terry did not respond.

Vladimir knew that Terry could not hear Anton.  "She's deaf,
you idiot!"

Terry thought Vladimir was trying to pull a trick.  "Oh, you
don't think I'm going to fall for that!"

Alice and Bill burst into another room.  "There's nothing
here!" Bill shouted.

Anton poked his gun into the back of Terry's head.  Terry
realized that it was no trick.  "Damn," she said and lowered
her gun.

Nick and Max burst into the upstairs room.  "There's nothing
here, either," Max said.  Nick ran to the shattered window and
looked out.  Max looked at the closed closet door.  "Hey!"
Nick turned, and Max pointed at the door.  They both went to
the closet.  Nick put his hand on the doorknob, and Max
readied himself.  Nick flung the door open, and Max pointed
his gun in the closet.  The bomb had five seconds left on its
timer.

"There's something here!!" Nick and Max screamed together.
They came running down the stairs shouting in unison, "It's a
bomb!!  It's a bomb!!  Get out!!"  Nick and Max burst out of
the house followed quickly by all of the  others.  The bomb
exploded right behind them and blew out every window of the
house.  Nick, Max and the others fell to the ground.  Debris
landed on top of them.

Terry, as she was being lead away by Vladimir and Anton, saw
the light from the explosion.  Frightened, she turned to look
back, but Vladimir and Anton laughed and pushed her away.

Sam ran up to Nick and Max.  "Don't you know better than to
run into a building with a bomb in it!?"

"Aunt Sam!" Max shouted as he lifted his head.  Debris from
the house fell off either side of him.

"Save it, kid!  Let's get out of here before the cops get
here!"

Nick scrambled to his feet.  "Good idea!"  They all scrambled
to their feet, shook the debris from their clothes, and ran to
their cars.

Max looked over at the trees where he had sent Terry.
"Terry!"

Boggs came running up behind them.  "Wait for me!"

Max looked around in every direction.  "Terry!"

Running to his car, Nick called to Max, "Max!  Come on!"

Max did not follow.  "Where's Terry!?"

"I don't know!"

Everyone except Max jumped into a car and started to speed
away.  Max ran up the street the other way.  He began to
panic.  "Terry!!"  The cars left in a hurry, and Max ran back
down the street.  "TERRY!!!"



Chapter 14



At their makeshift headquarters, Sam, Nick, Boggs, Bart,
Ralph, Olaf, Mikhail, Alice and Bill were sprawled out
wherever they could in order to get some sleep.  They were
tangled in each others' legs.  There was a knock at the door.
Nick instantly became alert, but he couldn't get up since
Mikhail's foot laid on Nick's chest.  Sam climbed to her feet,
stumbled over to the phone and picked it up.  Her voice
croaked, "Hello?"

Nick pointed at the door and shouted, "It was the door!"

Still groggy, Sam stumbled over to the door.  She opened it.
A very tired Max appeared in the doorway.

Sam woke up.  "Finally!  Now we can get out of here!"

Everyone started to wake up and untangle themselves as Max
came into the room.

Nick was concerned about Terry.  "What about your friend?"

Max leaned against a wall for support.  "I couldn't find her.
They must have her."  He began to crumple to the floor.

"No problem," Sam said.  "They want the info you accidentally
picked up, so we can just trade them."

Nick approved.  "Good plan!"

Max was confused.  "What do they want that for?  It's just
bogus information that they were trying to feed us."

"No, kid," Sam explained.  "You picked up the bogus
information that we were trying to feed them, and they want to
get it back."

"And Pucker has been trying to make sure that they get it from
you," Nick added.  "I mean - that we get it from you  - or
rather - that Vladimir gets it from you.  This is so damned
confusing!"  He put his hands on his head and laid back down.

Max stood back up.  "You mean that Pucker has been setting me
up all this time!?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sam said.  "So where's the info?"

"That son of a bitch!!"

"Look if you don't want to get the girl back, that's fine with
me."

"No, no!  I want her!"

"Good!  Then where's the info?"

Max hesitated.  He was a little embarrassed.  "It's probably
in my mailbox in Virginia by now."

Sam just looked at him.  "Why would it be there?"

Max put his hands in his pockets, looked down and shuffled his
feet.  "Because I mailed it there."

"You what!?"  Sam couldn't believe what she just heard.

Max defended himself.  "It was supposed to be worthless
information!  So I thought, 'Why carry it with me?  I'll just
mail it on ahead!'  So as soon as I got it, I put stamp on it
and mailed it."

Nick sat back up.  "So you gave it to the US Postal Service!?
It could be anywhere by now!  It may be in Alaska!"

"Of all the stupid stunts!" Sam scolded him.

Max backed away.  "I'm sorry!"

"Great!" Sam said.  "You're sorry!  Well that's just fucking
dandy.  But now what do we do!?  We don't have time to run
back to Arlington, check your mail, and then run back here!"

A timid voice spoke up.  "Finch could pick it up."  It was
Boggs.

Everyone turned to Boggs.  "What?" Sam asked.

Boggs was very unsure of himself, but he had spoken up, so now
he was committed.  "I said, we could get Finch to pick it up
and bring it here.  And in the meantime we could leak another
story to the KGB that the explosion sent everybody into such
disarray that now Max is on his own again, so Vladimir may try
to contact him to trade the girl."

Sam, Nick and Max looked at each other dumbfounded.  "It might
just work," Nick shrugged.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.  "Vladimir has been stupid enough to
believe everything so far."

Max was incredulous.  "You mean - set myself up on purpose
this time?"

"Why not, kid?" Sam asked.  "Everybody else is doing it to
you."

A moment later, Boggs was on the phone to Finch.  "Yes, Finch.
We need your help."

Finch was taking notes.  "Yeah ... Yeah ... No problem....  I
can get it done without Pucker knowing a damn thing."  He
slammed down the phone and ran out of his office.

In Pucker's office, an angry Pucker carefully hung up his
phone, too.  "Want to bet?"


That afternoon, Finch approached the mail boxes at Max's
apartment.  He looked around to see if anyone was watching
him.  Then he pulled a small crowbar out of his overcoat and
broke open one of the mail boxes.  He reached in and pulled
out a large manila envelope.  "There you go, Max.  The Post
Office actually came through."  He took the envelope and
started to walk away.

In a nearby car, Pucker snapped a photograph of Finch.
"Interfering in an official operation.  You're in big trouble,
Finch."


Back at their headquarters, Sam, Max and all of the others sat
around waiting for something to happen.  They were all clearly
bored except for Max, who sat alert by the phone.  Olaf dozed.
Ralph tickled Olaf's nose with a feather.  Mikhail tried to
reset his digital watch and was having fits with it.  Olaf
sneezed.  Alice and Bill were in the adjoining room having a
"meaningful" conversation.  Bart relaced his shoes - and
farted.  Olaf woke up.  "Dammit, Bart."

Sam built a house from a deck of playing cards.  Nick stepped
out of the bathroom with a towel drying his hands.  "I'll be
down in the gift shop if anything happens," Nick said to Sam.

"You're so sweet.  You're always buying your wife presents
when you go places."  She carefully placed another card on the
house.

"How come you never buy your husband anything?"

"Because if I did, he would think that I was feeling guilty
for being unfaithful or something."

"But you HAVE been unfaithful."

"Yeah, but I don't feel guilty about it."

Nick chuckled and then leaned over and blew down Sam's card
house.  Nick went to the door while Sam threw down her last
two cards and laid her head on the table.  Nick was about to
close the door behind him when the phone rang.  Everyone
became instantly alert.  Nick dashed back into the room.  Max
put his hand on the phone.  It rang again, and Max picked it
up.  "Yes?"

Max could hear Vladimir's voice.  "Let's do this the easy way.
I'll trade you the girl for the information."

"You son-of-a-bitch!  I'll kill you if you hurt her!"

Vladimir didn't even slow down.  "Be at the phone booth at
Tuam and Fannin in fifteen minutes."

"I want to talk to Terry first!"

"She's deaf, you idiot."

"Oh, that's right."  Vladimir and Max hung up.

Nick was anxious to hear.  "Well?"

"He wants to make the trade," Max reported.

"Ha!"  Sam jumped to her feet.  "Vladimir is so stupid it's
pitiful!"

"Finch isn't here with the envelope, yet," Max reminded them.

Nick took charge.  "We'll have to use a fake."

Max was really confused.  "You mean - fake bogus info?"

"Right.  Unfortunately, now he'll know the difference.  We
could have just made the trade and run away, but now we'll
have to kill him.  You have to be positive you can do this."

Max took a deep breath and exhaled.  "I can do it."

"Then as soon as you make the trade - duck!  We'll be there to
handle the rest.  What did the envelope look like?"

Max searched his memory.  "It was a Ietter size manila
envelope with no writing on the outside and maybe a dozen
papers inside."

Nick started giving orders.  He turned to Bart and Ralph.
"You two run down to the gift shop and prepare our fake, bogus
info."

"Right!"  Bart and Ralph ran out of the room.

Nick turned to Olaf and Mikhail.  "You two get a van ready for
us and a car ready for Max."

"Right!"  Olaf and Mikhail ran out of the room.

Nick turned to Alice and Bill.  "You two wire Max up with a
microphone so he can talk to us."

"Right!"  Alice and Bill ran out of the room.

Sam was turned on.  "You're so sexy when you take charge like
that."

"My wife likes it, too."

"That old bat!?"

"She's a very nice woman!"

"She's an Olympic weight-lifter."



Chapter 15



Sam, Nick, Olaf and Mikhail waited while Alice and Bill wired
Max with a hidden microphone.  Bill checked the receiver with
a set of headphones he was wearing.  Everyone stood next to
the van.  Bart and Ralph ran up carrying a manila envelope.

Sam snatched the envelope out of their hands.  "You sure took
your time."

"We couldn't find an envelope," Bart pleaded their defense.

Sam pointed to the microphone.  "Is this thing turned on?"

"Yes," Alice answered.

"Test it," Nick ordered.

"Say something," Bill said to Max.

"Hello!!!"

Bill quickly pulled off the headphones.  "Ouch!"

Sam was satisfied.  "Good.  It works.  Okay, kid, you take the
car.  We'll be in the van.  They may be watching for someone
to be following you, so we'll hang back out of sight.  You
just tell us where you're going with the radio."

Max was impatient to get started.  "I know!  I know!"

Nick went to the driver's side of the van.  "Let's go then!"

Max ran to the car.  All of the others piled into the van.
Nick was driving and Sam was in the front passenger seat.
Bill was still shaking his head.  Mikhail and Ralph sat next
to each other.

"Hey, move over!" Ralph complained.

Mikhail wouldn't budge.  "You move over!"

"He's touching me!"

Sam yelled back at them, "Shut up, kids!"

Max drove away and the van followed.


Max pulled up next to a curb, stopped and got out of the car.
The van stopped far behind him.  Max acted very nonchalant as
he tried to speak without moving his lips.  "All right.  I
hope you can hear me."  He looked around the deserted street
and at the phone near him.

Back at the van, Bill listened to Max.  "I can hear him
clearly."

"Good," Nick said.  "I'm worried about that equipment.  It's
made in America."

Sam was miffed.  "Hey, we know how to make electronic stuff!"

"The best listening devices in the world are made by
Russians!"

"Ha!"

Ralph's voice floated up from the back of the van.  "No
fighting, kids."

"Fuck off!" Sam shouted.

Back at the phone, Max looked around nervously.  The phone
rang.  Max jumped at it.  "Hello!"

Vladimir spoke.  "Go to the phone at the corner of West Gray
and Shepherd."

"Hey, what's with this telephone tag business!?"  Vladimir
hung up.  Max banged the phone down and went back to his car.
"Telephone booth at West Gray and Shepherd."  Max drove away.

The van started to follow.  Bill reported Max's instructions.
"He's going to a telephone booth at West Gray and Shepherd."

Nick sneered.  "Another telephone booth?"

Sam was not impressed either.  "How original."

"He's seen too many American movies.  Where is it on the map?"
Nick kept driving.  Olaf and Bart studied the map.

Olaf said, "We go north."

"South!" Bart corrected.

Nick threw up his hands.  "Good grief."

Sam waved toward Max.  "Just follow Max."


Max pulled up into a parking lot.  The van stopped far away.
Max got out of the car and went to the phone.  The phone rang.
Max grabbed the phone.  "Are we going to every phone booth in
Houston!?"  A car drove by.

Vladimir remained calm in spite of Max's yelling.  "Do you see
that car driving by?"

Max looked around.  "Yeah."

"Follow it."

"Where are we going!?" Max demanded, but Vladimir hung up.
"Hey!"  The car turned a corner.  "Oh, shit!"  Max threw down
the phone and ran to his car.  Max jumped into his car and
started to follow the other car.  Into his microphone, he gave
instructions.  "I'm following a car!  It just turned left on
.. on!  Hell, I can't read the street sign!  Just follow me!
Come down here and turn left!"

Back at the van.  Nick already began to follow.  Bill reported
on Max's progress.  "He's turned left up there!"

Sam asked, "Where are they going?"

Bill shrugged.  "I don't know!  He's just following a car!"

Max caught up with and followed the other car very closely.
The van turned the left corner and followed very quickly.  The
other car turned again.  Max followed.  "We turned left on ...
on!  Dammit!  I can't read these damn street signs!"

Back at the van Nick tried to keep Max in sight without
getting too close.  Bill tapped on the radio and frowned.
"Either he stopped transmitting, or this thing isn't working
anymore!"

Sam became instantly alert.  "What!?"

Nick shouted, "I knew it!  We never should have used your
radio!"

"Shut up and turn!"

"Where!?"

"Anywhere!"

Nick careened the van around a corner.  Everyone got smashed
into the side of the van.  "Get off me!" Olaf shouted to Bart.

"Get off yourself!"

The other car turned another corner.  Max followed.  Max kept
trying to talk to the others in the van.  "We just turned left
on ... Kirby!  Ha!  Finally!  I could read that street sign!"

Back in the van, however, all was in chaos.  "Where are we!"
Nick demanded.

Sam desperately looked out the window.  "I don't know!  I
can't read these damn street signs!"

Bill still did not have very comforting news.  "He's still not
transmitting!"

Totally frustrated, Nick gave up and changed the subject.
"Well, it's a very nice neighborhood."

Sam yelled back at Bart and Olaf, "Where are we on the map!?"

"Beats the shit out of me!" was their answer.

Sam looked around.  "Turn!"

Nick took his hands off the steering wheel.  "Where!?"

"Don't ask me!"

Nick careened the van around another corner.  The tires
squealed loudly.  Nick was finally fed up.  "Where are we!?"

"I don't know!"

Nick slammed on the brakes and the van screeched to a halt at
an intersection.  "Someone figure out where we are!"

"What does the street sign say?" Sam inquired.

Nick squinted at the street sign.  "I don't know.  I can't
read it."

"All right!  Who has the map!?"

Olaf was miffed.  "Bart is hogging it."

"I am not."

Sam turned around.  "Do I have to reach back there and
separate you two?"

At that moment, the other car, with Max following it, drove
passed the van.  Max was surprised to see them there.  "Hey,
you guys sure have a weird way of following someone."

In the van, however, everyone except Nick studied the map.
Sam stretched out over the front seat trying to read the map
with the others.  Nick calmly watched Max drive by.  Nick
pointed.  "Hey, isn't that them?"

Sam turned around so quickly that she hit her head on the roof
of the van.  "Ouch!  Yes!  Follow him!"  Nick threw the van
back into gear. and the van's engine immediately quit.  "Start
the van, Nick."  Nick tried but the van wouldn't start.
"Start the van, Nick!"  It still wouldn't start.  "Dammit!"

"Don't blame me!  It's Japanese!"

Boggs mumbled, "Oh my god.  Deja vu.  Oh my god."

"Shit!"  Sam jumped out of the van and ran after Max.  "Max!!
Stop!!"

The other car and Max turned a corner and disappeared.  Max
was still unaware of the problem in the van.  "You guys have
to show me how to follow a tail like that sometime.  We just
turned onto ... Allen Parkway.  This car is just leading me
around."  At least he could read the street signs.

Nick tried one more time and the van finally roared to life.
"Ha!  It works!"  He drove quickly to catch up to Sam, who
jumped into the van while it was moving.  "Which way!?" Nick
asked.

Sam pointed.  "Turn right up here!"

Nick turned, but the street was deserted.  "Now what!?"

"Fan out!"

"What?"

"Just hurry up!  He's got to be up there somewhere!"

Max and the other car turned another corner while Max
dutifully continued to report on his progress.  "Okay.  We
went down five blocks and turned left at another one of these
damned streets where I can't read the street sign."  The other
car came to a stop.  "He's stopping."  Max slowed down, too,
making sure to keep sufficient distance between them.
Suddenly, the other car sped up quickly and careened around a
corner.  "He's going again!  He's trying to get away!"  Max
sped up, too, and careened around the corner.  "He
disappeared!  We went six blocks and turned right!"  Max sped
up some more.  He passed a parking lot next to a bayou and saw
the car stopped with its door hanging open.  "Wait!  I see it!
It's in a parking lot!  I don't see the driver!  Approach with
caution!"  Max pulled up next to the parking lot, stopped his
car, grabbed his gun, opened his door, slid out of his car and
hid behind it.  He carefully eyed the parking lot.  Several
cars had been left in it during the night, but no people were
near.  Above and beyond the bayou was a freeway with several
cars speeding on it.

Nick still drove the van around wildly.

Bill reported in.  "Still nothing!"

Nick was getting frustrated again.  "Now what!?"

Sam threw up her hands.  "Turn somewhere!"

"Well, it worked last time!"  Nick squealed the tires as he
turned another corner.

Max ran up and hid behind another car in the parking lot.  He
looked around and saw a lone car driving on the street.  He
also saw some kids walking on the other side of the street.
The cars on the freeway sounded very loud.  Suddenly, he heard
a whistle.  Max spun around and saw Vassy turn and disappear
down under a bridge over the bayou.  "I saw one of them.  He's
trying to get me to follow him down into the bayou."

Under the bridge, two large pipes stretched across the bayou
suspended on supports from the underside of the bridge.  Vassy
ran across the pipes to the other side of the bayou.  He went
up to Vladimir and Aram.  They were underneath the far side of
the bridge.  Aram had Terry handcuffed to himself and he had a
gun in her ribs.  Terry was blindfolded and gagged.  They
waited for a moment.  A car could be heard driving overhead on
the bridge.  "Where is he?" Vladimir asked.

Vassy was puzzled.  "I don't know.  I know he saw me, and he
looked like he was going to follow me."

"Well, he didn't.  Get back over there and do it right."

Vassy ran back across the pipes.   He climbed back up to the
parking lot.  There was no one in sight.  Looking around, he
walked between two cars.  Suddenly, Max jumped out from behind
one of the cars and high-kicked Vassy in the throat.  Vassy
staggered back gasping for breath, and Max hit him in the head
with his gun.  Vassy spun around and banged his head into one
of the cars.  He fell unconscious.

Max was visibly shaken.  He breathed hard, fast and heavy.  He
knelt down and stopped for a moment so he wouldn't
hyperventilate.  His hands shaking, he put his gun away.  When
he finally collected himself enough to speak, he whispered,
"Okay.  I've taken out one of them.  I'm about to go down and
meet with the others.  I hope you guys are close."  Max
steadied himself and stood up.

Out on the streets, the van's occupants were still in chaos.

"Where the hell are we now?" Sam demanded irritatedly.

"I don't know," Nick answered just as irritated.  "I can't
read these damned street signs."

Ralph's quiet voice floated up from the back of the van.  "I
saw a street sign a few blocks back."

"Could you read it?" Sam asked.

"No."

Max walked under the bridge and saw the pipes.  Cars passed on
the bridge overhead.  He called out, "Vladimir!"

Vladimir looked about, but could not see Vassy. He shouted at
Max, "Did you bring it!?"

"Yes!  Did you bring Terry!?"

"Yes!"

"I want to see her!"

Aram and Vladimir pushed Terry out from behind a column under
the bridge.  She was still blindfolded and gagged.  Max
stepped down to the pipes.  They stood at opposite ends of the
pipes.

Max whispered, "We're on a couple of pipes under a bridge.
I'm counting on you guys to be able to see us down here."

"You came alone!?" Vladimir asked.

"Maybe!"  Vladimir and Aram look around.  "Let her talk to
me!" Max demanded as he cautiously moved out onto the pipes.

Vladimir pulled the blindfold and gag off of Terry.

"Ouch!  You son-of-a-bitch!"  Terry's period had started that
morning, and boy was she pissed.

Vladimir pulled her to him and spoke directly into her face.
"Your boyfriend is here."

Terry quickly looked around.  Anton silently appeared behind
Max slowly raising his gun toward him.  "Max!  Look out!"

Max spun around and lost his footing on the pipes.  He fell
onto the pipes and became lodged between the them at the
instant that Anton fired at him.  The bullet struck Aram.
Anton was stunned by his mistake long enough for Max to steady
himself and to shoot Anton.  Anton collapsed, and as Aram fell
to the ground, Terry fell on top of him.

Nick screeched the van to a halt at the sound of the shots.
They were not far off.

Back at the bridge, Max scrambled to his feet and spun back
around just in time to see Vladimir shoot at him.  He was hit
in the shoulder.  Max dropped his gun.  It landed wedged
between the pipes.  Max fell back onto the pipes.

Out on the streets, the van's occupants panicked.  "It came
from that way!" Sam shouted pointing right.

"No!  It came from that way!" Nick shouted pointing left.

Back under the bridge, Vladimir stomped out onto the pipes
towards Max.  Max looked at his gun.  Max tried to reach for
it, but he was wedged too tightly between the pipes to move.
Vladimir came closer.  Max tried to scramble to his feet.  He
tried to get his good arm up over one of the pipes to lift
himself, but his hand kept slipping, and his other arm was
limp from the shot.  Vladimir was just two steps away from Max
when Max finally got a good hold on the pipe and raised
himself up.  With the butt of his pistol, Vladimir punched Max
in his injured shoulder.  Max screamed in pain, lost his hand-
hold and fell back wedged between the pipes.  He tried to
stretche for his gun, but still could not reach it.

"That was for shooting me in the leg!"  Vladimir kicked Max in
the stomach.  "And that was for kicking me in the gut!"
Vladimir bent down and hit Max again.  Max could not defend
himself.  He couldn't get a good hand-hold or foot-hold on the
pipes.  Every time Max managed to raise up, Vladimir hit him
back down again.  Vladimir stood up to take a breath before
continuing.  Finally, with a tremendous lunge, Max flung
himself onto his gun, grabbed it, rolled over the edge of the
pipes, and fell twenty feet into the muddy water of the bayou.

Vladimir quickly took hold of one of the supports that held up
the pipes and leaned out with his gun pointed at the water.
Max was nowhere to be seen.

A shot was fired.

The occupants of the van heard the shot.  "You were right!  It
came from that way!" Sam shouted as she pointed left.

"No!  You were right!  It came from that way!" Nick shouted
and pointed right.  Again, he careened the van around a
corner.

Back at the pipes, Vladimir straightened himself up and found
blood coming from his side.  He looked at Terry.  Terry was
lying prone on top of Aram with Aram's gun aimed at Vladimir.
She tried to fire again, but the gun jammed.  Vladimir laughed
an evil laugh and coldly and calmly raised his gun at Terry,
who was suddenly terrified.  A shot was fired.  Terry looked
surprised.

Vladimir fell backwards and grabbed another one of the
supports holding up the pipes.  His feet slid off of the pipes
and he dangled by one hand.  Down in the bayou, Max stood in
the water with one arm hanging limp at his side and the other
arm pointing his gun at Vladimir.  Max fired again several
times.  With the shock of each shot, Vladimir's body jerked
and his grip on the support lessened.  With the final shot
Vladimir let go of the support, and fell into the muddy waters
of the bayou.

Exhausted, Max struggled to the bank of the bayou.  "Where the
hell are you guys!?"

Terry couldn't see Max.  "Max!  Max!  Are you there!?"

"Yes!" he shouted not very loudly.  Vladimir's body floated
next to Max.  Startled, Max kicked and scrambled, trying to
get away from it.  He reached the edge of the bayou and clawed
his way out of the water.

"Max!!"

"Oh, shut up.  You can't hear me, anyway."  He fell onto the
ground.

At that moment, Sam, Nick and the others run up to the bayou.
"Max!?  What happened!?" Sam shouted.

"Where the hell were you!?"

"Right behind you all the way, kid!  You did great!"



Chapter 16



Max walked slowly down the hospital corridor.  He wore a
hospital gown and had his arm in a sling to keep his injured
shoulder from moving.  Sam, Nick and Boggs tried to talk to
him.

"So just think it over," Boggs was saying.  "When you come
back, we can have you transferred to a better section."

"Hey.  I'm going to be out for a rather long time, and I don't
want to think about it at all."

Sam pointed to Max's bandage.  "Well, that ought to be a
pretty good scar.  I have a few of those."

"Where?" Nick asked.

"None of your damn business."

Finch came running up.  "Boggs!  Max!  I hear that I'm too
late."

Sam punched him gently in the shoulder.  "You heard right."

"Are you okay?"

Max continued to slowly walk along.  "No, but I'm getting
better."

Finch held up the envelope.  "Well, I guess you don't need
this any more."

Nick reached for it.  "Why don't I take that?  I can pass it
on to the right people, and keep you out of trouble."

Finch held out the envelope, but Pucker came running up.  He
carried a camera.  "Hold it right there!"

Sam turned away.  "Where's the fan?  Here comes the shit."

Pucker waved his finger at Finch.  "You are in big trouble,
buddy!  Big trouble!  I got you on film interfering with an
official operation!"

"Pucker?" Max asked.

"What!?"  Pucker turned to Max.

Max kicked Pucker in the groin.  Pucker fell to the floor in
pain.  Sam, Boggs, and Finch turned away to hide the smiles on
their faces, while Nick casually took the envelope from Finch.
"Oh, never mind."  Max walked away.


Max entered his hospital room.  Terry was waiting for him.
She sat up when she saw him.  "Well?  Are you staying or
going?"

"Staying," Max announced.

Terry screamed with delight.  She ran to Max, threw her arms
around his shoulders, and hugged him tightly.

"Ouch! - Let go! - Terry!"

Terry lessened her grip and looked into Max's face.  "I'm
sorry.  Did you say something?"

Max crumbled to his knees, grabbing his injured shoulder.



Chapter 17



On an island paradise, Nick and a very large woman, his wife,
relaxed on lounge chairs on the beach.

"But, Nick," his wife asked, "how can we afford this on just
your pension?"

"Don't worry, dear.  I had some savings.  From now on we can
relax and not worry about anything."  He settled into the
chair very comfortably and closed his eyes.

From down the beach, Sam's friendly voice came floating up.
"Nick!"

Nick suddenly became alert and very agitated.  He looked down
the beach and saw Sam approaching followed by a very dopey-
looking man, her husband.

"Hi, Nick!"  Sam waved.

"Damn," Nick muttered.

"Who is that?" Nick's wife asked.

Nick reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a money clip
with several dollars in it.  "Here.  Go shopping."  She took
the money and ran away.

When Sam reached Nick, she turned to her husband.  "Go get us
something to drink, dear."  Her husband left.  Sam sat down in
the empty lounge chair next to Nick.  "Hi, Nick!  Fancy
meeting you here!"

"What do you want?"

She leaned back in the chair.  "Oh!  I'm retired!  Isn't this
wonderful?"

"It was."

She sat back up as if she just remembered something very
important.  "Oh, Nick, the strangest thing happened."

"You got religion."

"No.  You won't believe it.  After you took that bogus
information.  We expected to see it turn up in the hands of
all those former KGB guys who are giving Yeltsin such a hard
time, but it never showed up!  Imagine that!  And then you
disappeared, and we got very worried that something might have
happened to you.  I mean, after all, in the old days you guys
disappeared all the time never to be seen again."

Nick started to sulk.  His lower lip stuck out like a pouting
baby.

Sam grabbed Nick's arm in excitement.  "And then the really
strange part happened.  The very same bogus info showed up on
the international market!  Someone was selling it to the
highest bidder!  Imagine that!  Whoever sold it made a couple
of million bucks on bogus information!  Wow!"

"What do you want?"

"We're going to have fun in our retirement.  Aren't we, Nick?"

"I hate you."


Remember, all of this might have actually happened, as far as
you know.


============================================================
NOTICE: Reminder

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Be sure to include the title of the story in your letter.
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I originally wrote this story as a motion picture screenplay
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business is the most competitive writing field in the world,
so it is almost impossible for a new writer, like me, to get a
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However, I feel that if these analysts (so called "script
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they would be writing their own (and making lots of money)
instead of critiquing others.  Rather than wasting my money on
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Also, if I get enough letters, I promise to write a sequel.

This story is the first of three shareware novels that I have
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===================End LRTCW=======================

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