Glad that he was able to keep his distance, Matt watched Yana as she stared at the seat ahead of her. His anger toward her had cooled, but he preferred not to talk with her unless absolutely necessary.

Willing himself to look away, his thoughts drifted to his talk with Sarah that morning. Things were still quiet in D.C. He had had several texts from Rene reassuring him that there had been no new activity, but it was good to hear Sarah's voice. She was close to meeting her deadline with the graphic artist, so he hoped she would not be working late much longer. It was difficult not to tell her about the overdose, especially when she told him she had awakened in the middle of the night to pray for him. It was probably right in the midst of everything. He longed to be near her.

The scent of roses came to mind and he closed his eyes, remembering the sensation of her hair against his cheek as they had danced in her living room that night. Then that embrace and her soft lips on his. He thought of their kiss in the den that day after running. Touching her leg, he had thrilled at the feel of her smooth skin under his hand and started to imagine what would have happened if the doorbell had not rung just then. He wondered if Sarah was used to men touching her in that way. She had been with Jeff for so long. Yet there was such an innocence about her. Could she guess that he had never done that with a woman before? So much in their relationship was new to him. Especially the way they kissed now, and their embraces…he felt drawn to showing his affection for her in a physical way. Perhaps she expected to sleep with him sometime soon. Opening his eyes, he knew that he could not let himself go any further with those thoughts. They would become a distraction later, when he most needed to concentrate.

Glancing over, he saw Yana watching him, but she quickly turned away. Matt closed his eyes once more and this time went to sleep.

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Lee and Amanda scanned the area with binoculars from behind some crates, while Matt lounged against a warehouse wall. He was making sure that Yana fulfilled her promise to bring her brother and the other two men to the American team, which at the moment still consisted of only the three of them plus Arman. Having been delayed, Besetti and Cartwright would not arrive until later that day. He tapped his collar.

Lee's deep voice came through his earpiece. "All is still clear, Granger."

Yana watched as Alexei, Sergey, and Gyorgi made their way off the boat to the dock. Alexei was the first to reach her. "My Yana! I did not expect to see you here. You are a sight for sore eyes." He took her in his arms and kissed her hungrily. Sergey looked away, embarrassed. After a moment, Yana pulled back.

"What is wrong? It has been so long…" Alexei tried to look in her face.

Yana was glad to be able to speak in Russian. Arman had forced her to use English with the others. "There has been trouble. Nirjan and his people have changed the game plan. They have C4, and they intend to cause an explosion at the cosmodrome. They want to kill an American astronaut, not just get the Russians' attention." Before the others could break in, she held up a hand. "There's more. We saw what we thought were American agents nosing around our neighborhood. We were trying to lure one away from the others to find out for sure who they were, but I almost killed him." When Sergey gasped, Yana rushed to finish her story before he could interrupt her. "We accidentally overdosed him with a drug—it is a long story. But, they have agreed to help stop Nirjan and the others."

"Where are they?" Gyorgi searched the area with his eyes, wanting to take charge.

"They are waiting near the warehouse. They do not trust us, and I cannot blame them. But they need our help finding Nirjan."

"So, what do we do with the guns?" Alexei began to pace.

"The Americans will not let us pass them off to Nirjan. If we do not give the Americans the arms, they will tell the SVR what we have done. We will take all the blame—Nirjan and his team will go free."

Gyorgi was impatient. "This is ridiculous. Kill the Americans, and we join Nirjan. We cannot abandon our cause. Nirjan will kill us."

Yana held her ground. "We cannot kill the Americans. Their superiors know what is going on. They have additional agents joining them—indeed they may be here already. Besides, Nirjan and his people will spark an international incident that would not further our cause. Causing a rift between the Russians and Americans and between the Russians and Kazakhstan would probably strengthen the Russians' desire to bring back the Soviet Union. We have no choice but to cooperate with the Americans and make sure Nirjan has no chance to cause further trouble." She looked at them knowingly.

Sergey went to stand by his sister. Placing a hand on her arm, he looked in her eyes. "Yana, we are not killers."

"We have connected ourselves with killers. We need to help stop them." She looked down. "Indeed, I almost killed a man myself."

Sergey put his arm around her. "It was an accident. Gyorgi, you must see Yana's point. She is right."

Alexei nodded his agreement as well. "She is right. And I am not just backing her up because she will soon be my wife."

Gyorgi looked from face to face. "Why not just turn over Nirjan and his men to the SVR? Let the Russians fix everything?"

Yana tried to be patient. "The Americans do not trust the SVR to do their work for them. They have some kind of past history with the Russians. They want to be sure the American astronaut is safe. They believe they can do a better job disarming the bomb Nirjan will have placed at the cosmodrome."

Gyorgi thought for a moment. Finally he acceded to Yana's logic. "Take us to them, Yana. We will cooperate."

As they picked up their bags, she stopped them. "Please be cautious with the younger one. His name is Matt Granger. He is the one I nearly killed. He is quite angry with me and we do not need to cause more problems for ourselves by provoking him. I am told he will be the one disarming the bomb."

Alexei stared at her for a moment and his expression darkened. "How did you give him the drug, anyway? Did you sleep with him?"

Protectively, Sergey drew near his sister. "Yana would do no such thing. She is an honorable woman."

Yana looked down, hurt by Alexei's accusation. "And the American is honorable as well. He played a game with me to try to get information about us, but he did not do anything. I played the game, too, but... We did not even kiss. I am certain he has his own lover at home. I have watched him, and heard things."

Alexei looked mollified. Sergey cast an angry glance his way and took Yana's arm as they headed to the train station.

Yana brought the three men to Matt. Not sure what to make of the muscular American dressed all in black and wearing dark glasses, they were wary, careful to speak only English in his presence. They waited for the container, which had already been transferred to a truck chassis, to be removed from the boat. Alexei kept his eye on Yana and Matt, noticing that the young agent made every effort to avoid Yana.

Arman approached Matt, whispering in his ear. Matt tapped his collar, and Lee came up to watch Yana and the other three Kazakhs. Amanda stayed in her position, keeping an eye on the area around the warehouse. Arman went to join her as Matt disappeared around a corner.

Several minutes later a semi tractor pulled up to the container and chassis. Matt jumped out and hooked the tractor up to the chassis.

Gyorgi turned to Lee. "What is he doing?"

"He's going to take charge of the arms and make sure they don't get into the wrong hands."

Matt climbed into the rig and pulled it up alongside the warehouse, while Lee ushered the Kazakhs inside to wait for Besetti and Cartwright. Inside were monitors displaying various views of the area around the warehouse. The truck was featured prominently on one of the screens. Matt, Amanda, and Arman joined Lee and the Kazakhs inside.

Lee took charge of the interrogation. He addressed Sergey alone. It was clear to him that he would be the most willing to share information. "When and where are you to meet Nirjan and his men?"

"They have already arrived in Baikonur and will plant the bomb tomorrow. The plan was for us to dump the extra crates of pipes and go there with the arms on a, uh, rented plane Sunday morning."

Lee raised a hand to interrupt. "Do you mean a chartered plan? You have paid to use a private aircraft?"

Nodding, Sergey smiled politely. "Yes. Sorry. Chartered plane." He continued with the plans. "We are meeting them at the Cosmodrome after night comes. The security is weak that day, and very much at night. We will get in by acting—we will say we are a supplier for the missile launch facility. When the bomb goes off, we fire upon the Americans and whoever comes to help them. That is what Nirjan thinks we will do."

"We will be on that chartered plane, and we will have the crates." Lee was stern. "But the arms will not be with us. And we will not fire on the Americans."

Sergey nodded, but his face was grave. "Of course, but Nirjan and his men may kill us."

"We will see about that. They must not get a hold of those arms."

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Rene was weary. After spending the week shadowing Sarah until as late as eight or nine o'clock at night, he was ready for a rest. It was Saturday, after all. She had managed to keep him on his toes. He had talked her out of going for a run with her friend Christina. And she had unhappily agreed to let Agent Tanaka get her groceries, telling him that only a woman would get exactly what she wanted. He assumed there were personal items on the list as well.

Now he was driving Sarah to her brother's house, keeping an eye out for tails the entire time. Sarah was determined to keep her date with Jessica—they had planned a Disney movie marathon. But instead of Phillip and Amy going out for the evening, they would stay home, with Grace Tanaka and Brad Smith watching the house.

Rene was no-nonsense with Sarah. "Tanaka and Smith will be taking you tonight and keeping an eye on things after they bring you home. Please don't go anywhere until I get here in the morning. And I'm sleeping in, too."

Sarah did not like the idea of missing church. Matt had not called yesterday; he had texted to say he might not be able to talk for a few days. She was worried about him and her parents. Going to church would help her feel closer to Matt. She hated lying to Rene, but nothing had happened all week. Besides, why would Phillip leave her with Jessica if there was any real threat? She had probably imagined everything.

She merely nodded at Rene, who looked at her sharply. "You have my phone. Text me if you need to go somewhere. I'll be at your house at ten." He pulled into Phillip's driveway.

Smiling agreeably, Sarah patted Rene's arm. "Thanks. See you tomorrow, Rene."

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Matt backed the semi slowly down the road that led to the dock with Besetti was waving him on. It was hard to see, but the moonlight helped. Finally Besetti signaled for him to stop. He could hear Besetti opening the container as he climbed down from the cab and joined him at the back of the truck. This would not take long, since the container was now mostly empty; most of the crates had contained only pipes, and they had been unloaded at the warehouse. Neither man spoke as they began moving the crates used to smuggle the guns as quietly as possible to the boat that Lee had pulled up the dock. Lee helped them move the last of the crates—all except the one that they had singled out and left locked up in the truck.

They prayed no one had heard the repeated splashes a quarter mile from shore in the quiet of the early morning hour as they drove back to Atyrau. They would refill the boxes with pipes from the other crates at the warehouse. Each of the crates had false bottoms for the guns, with the pipes stored in the top compartment. But they were noticeably lighter without the arms inside them. It would not do to have Nirjan and his men suspect them until the Americans knew the exact location of the bomb.

"Well, Granger. I have to say I'm grateful to whatever commanding officer insisted you learn how to manage a semi."

"Actually, I volunteered. I was riding along in convoys in the Afghan mountains on one of my Intelligence assignments—sometimes they were short on semi drivers. I figured it was better than mooching rides between the bases."

Lee looked over at Matt and grew sober. "Yeah, I heard about why they were short on drivers."

Matt did not answer, and Lee did not expect him to. He had his own list of things he did not like to discuss.

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Amanda nudged Lee and reached over the seat back in front of her to shake Matt's shoulder. She looked out the window once again. Like much of the landscape in the area, the steppe was barren around the airport. She could not see many vehicles on the tarmac.

"Lee, it looks like this airport is fairly deserted. We should be able to unload our cargo without too much trouble."

Lee nodded, fighting back the urge to drift back off to sleep. He hoped he could crash at the hotel before they had to get to the Cosmodrome. He was grateful Amanda had been able to sleep in the hotel in Atyrau. He knew she would not rest until this part of the operation was over.

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Later that evening, Matt was driving a small truck from the town of Baikonur towards the main gate of the Cosmodrome. Also dressed in black, with a light colored vest sporting a piping supplier logo, Arman rode shotgun with Sergey sandwiched between them. Matt wanted Arman to be able to get out easily and talk with any officials that might stop their truck.

A mile behind them in the rental car, Lee was driving. He hoped he could pass himself off as part of the American team. The falsified identification papers Jamie had overnighted to Atyrau were tucked safely in his pocket. Amanda sat tensely in the seat beside him, while the three remaining Kazakhs were crowded into the back seat. Besetti and Cartwright were in another vehicle not far away, running communications for the group. Each of them had a wire and a tiny earpiece. Lee ran a hand through his hair and started to tap his fingers on the steering wheel, then stopped himself.

Amanda put a hand on his arm.

Briefly, he put his hand over hers. He remembered their earlier conversation at the hotel. He had slept for a few hours, then after trying to eat, had started pacing. Amanda had tried to calm him then, too.

"I know, I'm uptight. It's just that everything is riding on these terrorists believing we have their guns stowed in our truck—and that we're willing to aid terrorists so the American astronauts will go back to NASA and not use the Cosmodrome. They'd kill us in a second if they knew almost all the guns were rusting at the bottom of the Caspian Sea."

"I think we'll all be glad to have this operation over." Amanda heard her phone vibrate and picked it up off the table. "Sarah just got home from Phillip's house. She sends her love to both of us."

Lee blew out his breath. "It's kind of surreal, getting messages like that from the 'real' world. Not like the old days."

Lee pulled himself to the present and put Sarah and the rest of the family at the back of his mind. In the seat next to him, Amanda watched as the familiar look of determination came over his face. She knew he was distancing himself emotionally for the time being. Scarecrow was on a mission.

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Francine could not sit down for long. She paced about the "war room" as Phillip monitored his phone and the computers about him. Dava, one of the assistants, brought them coffee and sat down next to Narelle to help monitor communications.

"How long until we have the satellite feed, Phillip?"

"Another hour. Why don't you take a break for a bit? We should have a visual of their operation once they begin to move."

Francine hesitated. She had not slept well the night before. Perhaps a quick doze on the couch in her office would help ease the tension for her and everyone else.

"I'll be in my office. Get me immediately if anything happens."

"Will do." Phillip turned back to the monitors for a moment, and then took a bite of his donut. He leaned back to wait.

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Lee and Amanda knew from Matt's microphone double tap that his truck had cleared the entrance gate. Soon it would be their turn. Lee prayed that nothing would go wrong.

A few minutes later, Lee was presenting his counterfeited papers to security. Amanda prayed silently as the guard looked them over carefully and waved them into the immense complex. Lee hoped that Besetti and Cartwright could maintain their signals as they followed at a discreet distance with their own falsified papers. He felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as they entered the Russian-run facility.

A few miles in, they saw the truck's taillights as it turned into a parking area not far from the dormitory where the Americans were staying. A car's headlights approached the truck from across the parking lot as Lee turned off the road. They waited in their car until Arman and his people emerged.

In the truck, Matt did not move to get out, but rolled down the windows of the truck. He pulled out his gun and covered Lee and the others as they stepped from the car and joined the other Kazakhs. Arman followed suit. Sergey hunched down in his seat, trying to stay out of the way. Soon Lee, Alexei, and Yana brought the others to the back of the truck. Amanda scooted over to the driver's side of the car, while Gyorgi slipped out and trained his gun on Nirjan and the others once they had turned away.

Gyorgi left the door open and whispered to Amanda. "He has brought his woman with him. Her name is Nadia. She is evil and highly trained. The two others are guards. Your men could probably outfight them with their hands, but maybe not with Nadia. If anything happens, we must kill her before she kills one of us."

Startled by the confidence, Amanda kept her eye on the group at the back of the truck. After watching Nadia for a while, she did not doubt Gyorgi's word. Even if Nadia was not ruthless, it would be best to err on the side of caution. Besides, he doesn't seem the type to share information unless it is critical.

Alexei stepped inside the truck and opened a crate, carefully removing the pipes so they could look at the guns in the false bottom. Lee stood by outside, praying that the terrorists would only check the one box that actually contained arms. Nirjan checked each of the guns and examined the ammunition as Alexei loaded each weapon. Nirjan did not see that two of the guns were loaded with empty clips.

Lee could not make out all of the conversation, but his Russian was good enough for him to know that Nirjan did not trust him. However, Nirjan did seem to buy the story that he and Amanda were making arrangements for more arms to come their way and that they were serious about their goal to stop Americans from going into space with the Russians. Alexei had done a good job convincing Nirjan that the cartel deal did not go well. Finally satisfied, Nirjan insisted that Nadia ride in the cab with Matt and Arman. Sergey and Alexei would ride with Nirjan and his two men, while Lee would drive the others in their car. The bomb was already in place by the building's generator. The blast would not only knock out the electricity to the complex, but destroy a good portion of the building as well.

Lee prayed his plan would be the one that worked instead. He would have his team out of the complex with the bomb disarmed and Nirjan and his men hanging out to dry before any harm could come to the American astronaut and the team assisting him.

Amanda slid back to the passenger seat as Lee opened the driver's door. After he whispered the location of the bomb quickly to her, she texted the information to Phillip and the others monitoring them at the Agency. Consulting the site map, Phillip texted the location of the generator to Matt and Amanda.

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Sarah ran from the house and jumped in her car. She saw Tanaka and Smith's car parked one house down. Hoping they were snoozing after their long night, she counted on them not seeing her leave until it was too late. After she backed out quickly, she saw they still had not moved by the time she turned left at the corner. Trying not to call attention to herself and start the neighbors squawking about her driving habits, she maintained the legal speed and made several turns before heading in the direction of Fairfax. The Agency vehicle was nowhere in sight.

She had failed to notice the other car follow her from the side street as she turned off Maplewood.

"We've got her, and she's managed to shake her babysitters. This will be perfect. Head west and join up with us once we know for sure where she's going."

One block over, another car pulled out from the curb and headed west. Further down the street, it was joined by a van.

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At the American dormitory, the Americans and Kazakhs emerged from their vehicles. Matt and Arman threw their light colored vests back in the truck so they could not be easily seen in the dark. A weak glow was cast over the parking lot by the few street lamps there. The dormitory complex was isolated from the other buildings in the facility. As was typical of the steppe, the darkness enveloped the area surrounding the complex. Only a few lights twinkled in the distance from the nearest structures. A few security lamps illuminated the entrances to the dormitory, a squat, two-story building with plain, non-descript architecture. All was quiet as they waited for the astronaut and his team to return from a scheduled banquet.

Sergey worked his way over to Matt. "So, I am to shoot you with a gun. I don't like this. I have never shot anyone."

"It won't look authentic unless one of your team does it."

"Why not Alexei? He is her fiancé."

Matt glanced over at Alexei and back at Sergey. "Because he really is jealous of me. We need someone with a cool head."

"What if the gun doesn't have… uh… blanks?"

"It will. Just in case, I'm wearing a vest." Matt prayed there was no mix up. He remembered Rene on the rooftop. They could not afford to have him disabled for even a few minutes. He spotted one of Nirjan's men looking their way.

"Pretend you are angry with me. Do it now."

Sergey saw Nirjan's thug and did not hesitate to go along with Matt. He gave Matt an angry shove and raised his voice so he could be heard by the others. "I will teach you to look at my sister that way."

Matt took on a defensive stance. He growled out a reply. "I will do as I please."

Amanda picked up on the interchange and moved to help "break up" the altercation. She put a hand on Matt's arm, and spoke quietly to him. The others looked away once more.

Matt whispered to her before she drew away again. "He's nervous, Amanda. I hope he follows through."

"I can't blame him. Just pray it all works as planned. Nirjan still has not asked to see the other crates—thank God those guns are already loaded."

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Dava rushed across the bull pen to the Francine's office. "Chief! We have a situation."

Francine was up off the couch almost at the same time her eyes opened. It was a handy trick when she was a field agent, then later as a mother. She decided that it would be helpful in her role as the new section chief. She followed Dava to the war room.

"What is it?"

Phillip did not look up as he worked on the computer. "We just had a call from Tanaka. It seems that Sarah snuck out of the house and drove off. They've lost her. I'm trying to bring up her GPS locator now."

Francine never swore, but she felt like it. "What is your sister thinking?"

"She was pretty antsy about being cooped up last night. I told her to be cool, but she doesn't listen to me."

Francine started to pace. If she hadn't understood Billy's need for Tums back in the day, she did now. "How soon until the satellite pictures of Baikonur?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"It gets worse, Francine."

"What?"

"They saw at least one car follow her."

This time Francine did swear, although it was under her breath. "Do you have any idea where she could have gone? What's happening with the GPS tracker? If she is being followed, she could be in deep trouble. Put the helicopter team on alert."

"It looks like I'm getting a GPS signal for her, but she started out taking evasive maneuvers. I do know she usually goes to church on Sundays."

"Do you think she went? I want to get some backup out there for Tanaka and Smith."

"I don't know. I guess we have to start somewhere. It's in Fairfax. I'll call Jamie and get the name of the place. If he doesn't know, Jennifer will."

"Do it quickly. We need to keep an eye on Kazakhstan, too."