Stone said, “Darko, baby. I can smell him.”

“Drive past, and drop me in front of the next house.”

Jon slowed enough for Pike to slide out. Pike glanced at the surrounding houses to see if anyone was watching, but all of the homes were still, and closed to the world.

Pike walked back to the gray house’s mailbox and found a thin stack of magazines and envelopes. He shuffled through, and saw that everything was addressed to someone named Emile Grebner.

Pike returned the mail, then set off after the Rover. It had turned around at the far intersection and was waiting at the curb.

As he walked, Pike phoned George Smith. George recognized the incoming number this time, and answered right away.

“My friends tell me you’re a one-man wrecking crew.”

“Your KGB friends?”

“Odessa is loving this. One of the brothers has a competing service station business with Mr. Darko’s operation.”

“I’m not doing this for Odessa.”

“It never hurts to be liked, my friend.”

“What does the KGB know about Emile Grebner?”

“Grebner-”

George thought for a moment.

“If this is the same Grebner, he works with Darko, yes. I do not recall his first name.”

“An authority man?”

George laughed.

“That’s what they call them. You’ll be speaking Serbian soon. Maybe Russian.”

“Meaning Grebner and Darko are tight?”

“Darko will have three or four like Grebner, each running three or four cells of their own down at the street level-the people who do the crime. Secrecy is everything with people from our part of the world, my man. They may not even know each other.”

The old KGB and Communist Party had been organized the same way as far back as Lenin, and Pike knew the earliest Soviet gangs had adopted the same system when the Party tried unsuccessfully to put them out of business. The Soviet gangs had outlasted the old Party members, and had spread their system throughout Eastern Europe and, now, America.

“A cell system.”

“Yes. Like these gas stations you hammered-they’re probably Grebner’s responsibility, so you’re his problem to handle. Is that how you know him? He sent people for you?”

“That’s how I know him.”

“Pity for them.”

Pike put away his phone as he reached the Rover.

Stone said, “Casa Darko?”

“Not Darko.”

Pike slipped into the Rover, and filled them in on what he had learned from George Smith. As he went through it, the front door opened and the two big men from the Navigator came out. They didn’t look happy, with the guy in front bitching out his friend, probably blaming him for their troubles. The Navigator squealed away in a wide, screaming U-turn.

Stone laughed.

“I guess those boys need their assholes stitched.”

Pike said, “How many were in the Beemer, Jon?”

“Two. Coupla pussies. I could tell by the way they drove.”

Stone said things like that.

Pike wondered if Darko was holed up with Grebner. Pike thought this unlikely, but knew it was possible. There might be only one or two men inside, but there could be a dozen, or a family with children.

Cole said, “So what are we going to do?”

“Take a look. Me and you. Jon, you’re outta here. Let us know if some one comes.”

As Cole and Pike slipped out, Stone said, “Want the M4? It’s ideal for urban assault.”

Cole frowned at Stone.

“You have an M4?”

“Shit, yeah, man. Suppressed. Frangible bullets so you don’t kill a buncha people in the next house. Straight from the Delta Armory.”

Cole looked at Pike.

“Is he kidding?”

“Let’s go.”

Pike jogged away, and Cole fell in behind him. They slowed as they neared the house, then lingered at the nearest side gate to let a car pass. Neither spoke, and neither needed to. Pike had been on missions as long as a week, and never uttered a word.

Pike went over first. He landed softly, then slipped along the side of the house without waiting. When he reached the corner, Cole was at his shoulder.

The backyard was small, but designed for sophisticated entertaining, with an outdoor bar, cabana seating around an elevated fire pit, and an infinity pool that stretched into space. The view past the pool encompassed the entire Los Angeles basin from downtown to the Pacific, and south all the way to Long Beach. The waterline at the edge of the pool seemed to simply stop, hanging at the edge of the sky. Views like this were why they called the development Mount Olympus.

Pike heard the steady drone of faraway voices, and realized he was hearing the television. ESPN, someone going on about the Lakers.

Cole touched Pike’s shoulder, and pointed. The service walk ran behind the bar to an area walled off for the pool equipment. Cole touched his shoulder again, then pointed at his own eyes, telling Pike the pool equipment would be a good vantage point.

Pike slipped past the bar to the pool, and squeezed in behind the pool equipment. Cole joined him a moment later.

The entire back of Emile Grebner’s house was open. Floor-to-ceiling glass sliders had been pushed into pockets, erasing the line between inside and out, and opening the house to air and light. Two younger men and a shorter, bulky man in his fifties were in the living room, but none of them were Michael Darko. The older man wore only baggy sweatpants cut at the knee, exposing a chest and back matted with gray hair. He was doing all the talking, so Pike decided he was Grebner. Grebner was angry, and making a big production of waving his hands.

One of the younger men made the mistake of speaking, and Grebner slapped him. The slap almost knocked him down, and the younger man scurried away. He came outside, where he lit a cigarette, and leaned against the bar. Sullen.

Grebner finally ran out of gas. He picked up a phone to make a call, and the other young man hurried into the kitchen. Grebner threw down the phone, then stalked into a bathroom off the living room. He slammed the door.

When the door slammed, the man at the bar held up his middle finger. Pike touched Cole, then pointed at the man in the kitchen-that man is yours. He touched himself, then pointed at the man by the bar-that one is mine.

Cole nodded, Pike returned his nod, and both moved without hesitation, Pike moving first to clear a path for Cole.

Pike slipped up behind the man at the bar, hooked his left arm around the man’s neck, and lifted.

Pike said, “Sh.”

A shape flickered at the edge of Pike’s peripheral vision as Cole passed, but Pike was focused on his target. The man struggled, but Pike lifted him higher, compressing the carotid artery to cut off the blood to his brain, and in a few seconds the man went to sleep. Pike laid him behind the bar, and bound his hands behind his back with a plasti-cuff.

Pike glimpsed Cole putting the other man down as he moved for the living room. He reached the bathroom and placed himself behind the door only a second before it opened, and Grebner stepped out.

Pike slapped him behind the right ear with the.357, and Grebner pitched forward. He hit the terrazzo hard on his hip, but didn’t go all the way down, crabbing away on his ass until he bumped into the wall. Pike hadn’t wanted him out. Pike wanted him awake.

Cole stepped out of the kitchen, glancing at Grebner but otherwise ignoring him.

“I’ll clear the house.”

Cole disappeared, leaving Grebner to Pike. You never knew-someone could be hiding in a closet.

Pike looked at Grebner. Grebner’s eyes went to the Python, to Pike’s arms, to Pike.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Pike opened his phone.

“ We’re good.”

Stone said, “I’m here if you need me, cocked and locked, brother man.”

Pike returned the phone to his pocket.

Grebner said, “I’m talkin’ to you, you better stop this.”

Pike could see he was scared, which was good. Outside, Cole dragged the man behind the bar out into the open. He tied the man’s ankles, then headed toward the kitchen.