The "drunkard" still held the skeleton handle that protruded from his target's coat, then he twisted it.
A burning sensation exploded in Hussein's throat. His heart was on fire.
Their faces were close enough to feel each other's breath. The last thing Hussein saw as a crimson supernova flared against black oblivion was the eyes of his executioner. They were icy blue.
Diamond hard.
And totally unforgiving.
* * *Lawrence Wetherby had served in the American intelligence community on four continents, and Rio Santos was by far the best posting.
Leisurely lunches in open-air cafe's had something to do with it. Wetherby appreciated fine food and the passing parade of lush South American pulchritude. He topped up the wineglasses even while he kept a surreptitious eye on the raven-haired beauty being seated in the corner of the cafe.
"Before we discuss the business at hand, we must toast your recent promotion," suggested Marc Goldenberg.
The new station head accepted the Israeli agent's congratulations with a gracious nod.
The two men were about to discuss the fate of the elderly gentleman who sat toying with a veal cutlet at the far end of the restaurant; and sitting there, surrounded by a fragrant backdrop of vivid tropical foliage, Gunther Boehm looked like nothing more than a kindly grandfather. Both Wetherby and Goldenberg knew better. They had to decide what action to take should the authorities refuse the latest request for extradition. Wetherby resisted the impulse to turn for another glance at the man who would soon be at the center of an international controversy, whatever happened.
Goldenberg could keep his eye on Boehm and his young bodyguard.
"It's difficult to believe that that old man was such a monster," remarked the American, draining his second glass of chilled white wine. The Israeli said nothing. He had tracked down other war criminals. None of them had horns and a tail; but with his thin white hair growing wispy over his loose collar and those soft pink jowls, Boehm looked the least harmful of them all.