The Big Bad Wolf

IT TOOK ME another day at Florence, but I finally negotiated a name out of Kyle. Now, could we believe him? The name was checked and rechecked in Washington, and the Bureau was becoming confident that he had given us the Red Mafiya leader. I had doubts - because it came from Kyle. But we had no other leads. Maybe Kyle was trying to blow me up or embarrass the Bureau. Or maybe he wanted to demonstrate how smart he was, how well-connected, how superior to us all. The name, the person's position, made the arrest controversial and risky. If we went after this man and we were wrong, the embarrassment would stick to the Bureau. So we waited for nearly a week. We checked all of our information again and did several interviews in the field. The suspect was put under surveillance. When we had completed the due diligence, I met with Ron Burns and the director of the CIA in Burns's office. Ron got to the point. "We believe he's the Wolf, Alex. Craig is probably telling the truth." Thomas Weir from the CIA nodded my way. "We've been watching this suspect in New York for some time. We thought he'd been KGB back in Russia, but there wasn't conclusive evidence. We never suspected Red Mafiya, never the Wolf. Not this man. Not given his position with the Russian government." Weir's look was intense. "We increased the levels of audio surveillance to include the apartment where the suspect lives in Manhattan. He's making arrangements to go after Director Burns again." Burns looked at me. "He doesn't forgive and forget, Alex. Neither do I." "Is that it? We go to New York and arrest him?" Burns and Weir nodded solemnly. "This should be the end of it," said Burns. "Go and take down the Wolf. Bring me his head."