Page 68 of Dead Fall

“Look at you,” said Fields. “You’re piling up more tips than a hooker at a leper colony.”

Taylor ignored her and kept his focus on Carolan. “I’m done talking. Now get away from my door before I call the cops.”

“I don’t think you want to call the cops, Mr. Taylor.”

“And why’s that?”

Carolan removed a copy of the order of protection from his jacket pocket and asked, “Do you know what this is?”

Slowly, Taylor nodded.

“Part of the investigation into Dimitri Burman’s death required that we examine security camera footage from other buildings in the neighborhood. Your former fiancée lives not too far from Burman’s place, doesn’t she?”

Once again, Taylor nodded.

“After you got done taking pictures at Mr. Burman’s, did you happen to walk past your ex’s building? Did you maybe use that long lens of yours to try to see if she was home? If she was upstairs alone or with someone?”

Taylor didn’t respond.

“Because you know,” Carolan continued, “that would be a violation of the protective order. You could be in some serious trouble.”

“Look,” said the redheaded man, “I don’t want to go back to court.”

“You wouldn’t just be going to court. You’d be going to jail.”

“But on the bright side,” interjected Fields, “a guy like you would be on the receiving end of a lot of tips. If you know what I mean.”

This time, Taylor did look at her. Then he quickly shifted his nervous gaze back to Carolan. “Can we talk? Off the record?”

The FBI man nodded. “If it’s truly off the record—no recordings and none of this gets published—then yes.”

Taylor pulled his iPhone from his sweatpants pocket. Holding it up for both agents to see, he stopped the recording and then fully deleted the file.

CHAPTER 20

KHARKIVOBLAST

With Harvath’s help, the Ukrainians back at the school were victorious, defeating the last of the Russians who had been attacking their position.

In the immediate aftermath, they topped up their ammo and assessed their situation. The news about Oleh’s death hit hard. He had been well-liked among his comrades. He was one of the youngest in their group, and they had seen it as their duty to watch over him. They understood that there had been nothing that Harvath could do. They didn’t blame him. More to the point, they appreciated that Harvath had finished the sniper off on Oleh’s behalf. A small team prepared to retrieve Oleh’s body.

The bulk of the soldiers carried out the task of sweeping the village, searching for any Russian soldiers who might still be alive.

They found an old barn where the Russians had set up camp. There were a few supplies there, enough to hold them over until they could be reinforced, which wasn’t going to happen until the day after tomorrow at the earliest.

“What do you mean ‘reinforced’?” Harvath asked.

“Our orders are to hold the bridge,” replied Givi, their APC driver, who had managed to raise superiors via his field radio.

“Not to get these men to the front?”

Givi pointed at all the dead Russian soldiers in the street and said, “This is the front now.”

While not happy with the change of plans, Harvath understood the situation. It was the nature of war. Bridges were valuable. If any others in the area had fallen under enemy control or had been destroyed, this bridge might be the only one left connecting the Ukrainians with the larger battlefield. They couldn’t let the Russians have it. But that left Harvath with a problem.

“I can’t wait for your reinforcements to get here,” he said. “How do I get to my men? It needs to be tonight.”

Givi thought for a minute. “Obviously, our APC is not available because you blew it up.”