The Spy Who Came for Christmas (26 page)

^{"Then fake my death,," Kagan had urged them. "The Russians won't suspect I was a mole if they think I'm dead." But his controllers had talked of new rumors, about plastic explosives, handheld missiles, and biological weapons being smuggled in via ports controlled by the Odessa Mafia. They'd reminded him of all the innocent lives he had an obligation to save.}

^{Meanwhile, he'd obeyed the Pakhan's orders to burn homes, break arms and legs, yank out teeth, and beat up women. More of his soul had disintegrated.}

^{Viktor and Yakov stepped from the hotel and looked both ways, staring at pedestrians in the shadowy snowfall. With a nod, they signaled to Mikhail to carry the baby outside. Andrei and Kagan followed.}

^{Kagan's cheeks felt cold. His stomach felt colder}

^{Too much,
he thought.
No more.}

^{The group passed between snow-covered cars parked along the curb. Headlights glowed in the street. Reaching the van, Viktor pulled its side door open. Yakov scrambled in. Mikhail approached with the baby. Andrei and Kagan followed.}

^{The baby squirmed in Mikhail's arms.}

^{I wanted to make the world better,
Kagan thought.}

^{The baby cried. Mikhail held it with one arm while using his free hand to grip an armrest in the van and climb in.}

^{"Don't drop it," Andrei warned.}

^{I wanted to fight the kind of men who made my parents afraid for so many years,
Kagan thought.}

^{The baby struggled as Mikhail sat next to Yakov opposite the side door.}

^{And now I'm no different from the people I set out to fight.}

^{Kagan let Andrei climb in next. With the middle seat occupied, Andrei was forced to squeeze toward the seat in the back.}

^{I've beaten. I've tortured. I've killed,
Kagan thought.
But by God, this is one thing I won't do.}

^{He leaned into the van, as if to reach for an armrest and climb all the way in. His heart pounding, he pointed in feigned alarm,.}

^{"What happened to the baby? It's bleeding!"}

^{"What?" Mikhail asked. "Where?" He opened his arms to examine the child.}

^{Kagan grabbed it, surged back from the open door, felt Viktor behind him, and swung. Something tugged violently at his coat, but only for a moment. With both arms gripping the baby, Kagan focused on his right elbow. He pivoted with such force that when the tip of the elbow struck Viktor's nose, he felt the bones crack. They shattered and propelled inward with such power that Kagan knew they'd pierced Viktor's brain.}

^{Hearing shouts of alarm coming from the open van, he charged up the street, veered between cars at the curb, reached the sidewalk, and shouted for pedestrians to get out of his way. All at once, his lef arm jerked, then became numb.}

^{He'd been hit by a bullet. The sound suppressor on the gun that had fired it prevented bystanders from knowing why glass had shattered in front of him.}

^{That's the last shot they'll fire,
he desperately hoped.
Andrei won't take the chance of a stray bullet hitting the baby}

^{As he hurried through the crowd, Kagan used his now-awkward left arm to pull down the zipper on his parka. The numbness changed to searing pain. Imagining Andrei, Yakov, and Mikhail scrambling from the van, he shoved the baby under his coat and pulled up the zipper to provide warmth.}

^{Andrei would immediately chase him, Kagan knew. Yakov and perhaps Mikhail would drag Viktor's body into the van before the pedestrians could realize what had happened and start a panic. Then the two killers would join the hunt.}

^{Andrei's voice shouted through his earbud.}

^{"Pyotyr, what the hell are you doing?"}

^{Kagan increased his speed, shouldering past people on the sidewalk.}

^{"Pyotyr, bring back the package!"}

^{Instead of answering, Kagan took deep breaths and rushed toward the cathedral that towered at the end of the narrow street. The baby nestled against him, warm and surprisingly calm against his stomach.}

^{I'll protect you,
he silently promised.
I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe.}

^{He looked for a police car, tempted to ask for help, but immediately he realized that during the time it would take to explain, Andrei and the others would catch up. They would shoot Kagan and the policeman in the head and take the baby.}

^{Phone for backup,
he told himself. Desperate to contact his controllers, he used his stiffening arm to reach for the cell phone in the left pocket of his coat. He felt dizzy when he discovered that the pocket was torn open, that his cell phone was missing, along with his spare ammunition. He remembered something tugging at the side of his coat. Someone must have lunged to try to stop him and snagged that pocket.}

^{Have a plan, a backup plan, and then a backup plan after that.
Kagan's instructors had hammered that into him
Visualize what you're going to do. Rehearse it in your mind, even if you can't rehearse it physically. Never do anything without knowing your options.}

^{But Kagan's decision to take the baby had been made on the spot. Even though he'd agonized about it that afternoon in front of the cathedral's manger, he hadn't made up his mind until the moment he'd leaned into the van and told Mikhail, "The baby's bleeding!"}

^{Where am I going?
Kagan thought in desperation.}

^{Ahead, he saw a crowd on the street to the right of the cathedral. Hundreds of people walked with purpose. Under his parka, the baby kicked him, as if urging him to follow.}

^{"Pyotyr!" Andrei's angry voice pierced through Kagan's earbud. "I found your cell phone! You're on your own! You can't get help! Bring back the package!"}

^{Breathing hard, wincing from the pain that now swelled his left arm, Kagan kept rushing, trying not to lose his balance on the slippery sidewalk. He heard someone in the crowd talk about Christmas lights on Canyon Road.}

^{The baby kicked him again.}

^{"Pyotyr, you won't like what I do to you,," Andrei swore.}

^{* * *}

^{THE BABY WHIMPERED.}

^{"Don't cry," Kagan murmured.}

^{"I'm doing my best to calm him," Meredith insisted.}

^{"I know," Kagan answered gently.}

^{Muscles tightening, he continued to stare out the window toward the falling snow. He couldn't suppress the suspicion that somehow the baby was warning him, as crazy as that seemed.}

^{Did I lose more blood than I realized? Am I so light-headed that I'm imagining things?}

^{The baby became quiet again. But Kagan's muscles didn't relax.}

^{"The rest of the story might not be suitable for Christmas Eve," Kagan said. Hoping to keep the boy intrigued, he added, "Parts of it are what Cole would call gross."}

^{"Then I want to hear it," the boy insisted.}

^{Kagan licked his dry lips. "Okay, but don't say you weren't warned.}

^{"The Magi felt overwhelmed by what the shepherds and Mary had told them. The startling similarities to the story they themselves had told Herod brought them to an extraordinary decision. They violated a primary rule of spycraft and exposed their mission, confessing to Mary that they were foreign operatives pretending to work for Herod.}

^{"'We wanted to drive him insane searching for an imaginary newborn king of the Jews,' they explained. 'But now we find that the story we invented is true. You can't stay here. Soon Herod will wonder why we haven't reported to him. If he learns about your baby from another source, his soldiers will come here and kill you all.'}

^{"What happened next proves that Mary and the shepherds weren't part of a rebel scheme. If they'd been rebels, they'd have realized that the Magi were on their side. They'd have admitted they were rebels and tried to join forces with the Magi to weaken Herod.}

^{"But they didn't. Instead the two groups separated and fled. The Magi chose a new route eastward toward home and acted as decoys. Meanwhile, Joseph hurried with Mary and Jesus southwest toward Egypt. He claimed that he'd had another dream, this one urging him to take his family and run. A spy would argue that the dream was a cover story to protect the Magi, in case Joseph was caught and questioned. It was believable because, as I mentioned, the house of David--to which Joseph belonged--had a tradition of respecting dreams and acting on them. For the same reason, the Magi claimed that they too had experienced a dream that urged them to return home. If questioned, they could maintain that they weren't being disloyal to Herod but were simply responding to the same dictates of their faith that had told them to follow the star.}

^{"Whether Herod would have believed either of these stories is debatable. But at least they had a backup plan.}

^{"Matthew's gospel notes that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled by night, something the Magi would have urged them to do, teaching them how to cross the desert in the darkness. The Magi themselves disappear at this point, as good spies should. But the man who told me this version of the Christmas story believed that the Magi eventually rejoined Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in Egypt, teaching them the tricks of trade- craft, such as how to spot signs that they were under surveillance, how to recruit operatives--or what the gospels call disciples--and how to detect double agents.}

^{"The last part makes me certain that Jesus knew Judas would betray him. Indeed, perhaps Jesus
ordered
Judas to betray him in order to fulfill a prophecy. The spy world is a complicated place. But this is a Christmas story, not an Easter one."}

^{Cole interrupted him. "You said you had a theory about why Joseph wasn't with Mary when the Magi talked to her."}

^{"Yes. Given his immense responsibility, Joseph became more a protective agent than a husband and father. While the Magi spoke with Mary, Joseph watched the street outside, on guard against Herod's soldiers. In the future, he would spend increasingly less time with Mary and Jesus because he was always arranging for their security. Like the Magi, he soon disappears from the gospels completely, as a good security officer should. Nowhere in the gospels is he quoted directly. He hovers invisibly in the background."}