Harvath quickly spun into a sitting position and raised the bat above his head with both hands, ready to come down hard on the intruder. Then he saw what he had tripped over. He set the bat down and hopped up onto his feet. Sitting on the floor in front of him was his bag from the Jerusalem Hotel. He quickly glanced around his room and noticed that his bed had been turned down. On his pillow was a smiley face with two Hershey’s chocolate Kisses for the eyes and four Sam Adams bottle caps for the smile.

“Asshole,” Harvath said out loud.

He knew it had to have been Morrell who had gotten into his apartment and placed his bag in the bedroom. Out of all the many distasteful things he remembered about the former Navy SEAL turned CIA assassin, was that he was a fiend for candy. The smiley face was his calling card, all right. On top of getting his ass kicked, Rick Morrell now owed Harvath a six-pack of Sam Adams.

Harvath was just about to unpack his bag when he heard a knock at the front door. He pulled his SIG Sauer from underneath his nightstand and held it behind his back as he approached the front door.

“Who is it?” he asked as he stood to the right of the doorframe.

“Special courier. I have a delivery for Mr. Scot Harvath,” said a man’s voice.

Harvath stepped in front of the peephole and peered out. Standing in the hall was a tall, blond kid about twenty-five years old. Harvath was only in his early thirties, but any young CIA hard-ons, which this one obviously was, were referred to by guys in the Special Operations community as snot-nosed CIA kids. Harvath opened the door.

“Do you have any ID?” Harvath asked the kid, who, now that he could see him full on, looked more like a muscle-bound southern California surfer than a CIA operative.

“Yes, sir,” replied the young man, who was wearing a briefcase chained to his right wrist. With his free left hand, he reached inside his suit coat for his wallet. That’s when Harvath swung his gun around and pointed it at the kid’s forehead.

“Dumb move, dude,” said Harvath. “You should never let your guard down like that. Those are very important documents in there. What if I was here to steal them from you?”

At that precise moment, the CIA kid swung hard with the titanium briefcase at Harvath’s head, but missed him by a mile. Harvath was much too fast for him and had moved out of the way when the kid telegraphed his intent with his eyes. Harvath answered the assault with a quick blow to the kid’s solar plexus. He fell to the floor with the wind knocked out of him.

“That was an even dumber move,” said Harvath, offering his hand to help the kid off the floor, but he waved it away, still trying to catch his breath.

Harvath helped himself to the kid’s breast pocket and removed his identification.

“Gordon Avigliano,” he said, reading the name off the driver’s license. “Well, Gordy, what do you have for me?”

Harvath offered the kid his hand again and was once again waved off. The young man struggled to his feet and, with his wind back again, asked, “Can we do this inside, please?”

“Sure thing, Gordo; just no funny business. I’ve already seen you do dumb and dumber, but if you go for stupid, you’re gonna leave through the window. Understand me?”

The young man nodded his head. Harvath showed him inside and pointed toward one of the two chairs next to the small table in the kitchen. The CIA courier put his briefcase on the table and looked up.

“Can I see some ID please, sir?” he asked.

Harvath, who was rummaging around inside the refrigerator, blindly pointed his pistol over his shoulder at the courier and said, “Tell your boss that Agent Harvath wasn’t home, but his buddy Samuel Adams signed for the papers.”

“But, sir, I really do need-”

The courier stopped mid sentence when Harvath cocked the hammer of the SIG Sauer.

“They told me this might be difficult, and I said, ‘Difficult? Naw, it’s just a routine delivery.’ Why do I get all the bad jobs?” the courier said to himself.

“Unless you have a nice cold six-pack in that little case of yours, I suggest you give me what you’ve got and clear out. I am not in the best of moods.”

“I can see that.”

“What was that, Gordo?” said Harvath, who withdrew his head form the fridge and shot the kid a look.

“Nothing, sir. Nothing at all.”

“I didn’t think so. Let’s get on with it. I’ve only got ten minutes until Oprah.”

“Until Oprah?” the courier asked, confused.

“Yeah, you heard me. Oprah.”

“Okay, then, I just need to ask if you’ve had your domicile swept for bugs recently.”

“Bugs? Here do it yourself,” said Harvath as he reached next to the fridge for a fly swatter and threw it at the kid. “I don’t talk in my sleep, nor do my lips move when I read. I plan on digesting what you have in your lunch box there, and then I will shred and burn all of it.” Harvath had no fear of bugs as he had his apartment swept regularly by a friend who was a former FBI agent and now one of the East Coast’s top security consultants.

The courier began to reach into his breast pocket, and Harvath pointed the gun back between the young man’s eyes. “Ah. Ah. Ah. Remember what I said about leaving by the window.”

“It’s just a release form, honest. Jesus, this has been hard enough already. Besides, if I was going to pull a gun on you, I would have done it while your head was in the refrigerator.”

“Good point,” said Harvath as he slowly released the hammer and put his pistol on the kitchen counter. He accepted the form and signed it as he said he would, “Samuel Adams.”

“Wait a second,” said the courier. “I was told I could only release these documents to Mr. Scot Harvath.”

“And you have.”

“But the name here-”

“Will be perfectly clear to your superior when you report back. Now pop the top and give me what you got.”

The courier deactivated the locking system and withdrew a thin manila envelope, which he handed to him. It was sealed and stamped, “Top Secret. Agent Scot Harvath U.S. Secret Service Eyes Only.”

Harvath walked the young man into the hall.

“So, are you going to be graduating to real fieldwork soon, Gordo?”

“I already have.”

“Well, just try not to get any of the wrong people killed, okay? You have a good day now,” replied Harvath as he turned back into his apartment and kicked the door shut behind him.

He sat down on his couch and spread the contents of the file on the coffee table. There was a brief history of Abu Nidal followed by a series of photos from scenes of terrorist attacks attributed to his son. Theories and possible strategies occupied the space of a two-page “brainstorming” memo that was long on speculation and short on actual facts.

Lawlor had been right; there wasn’t much in this file that Harvath hadn’t already been told. At least, though, he was now truly operating off the same page as everyone else. After reviewing the material for a fifth time in as many hours, he ran it through his shredder and then burned the remains in a metal garbage can he had placed in his bathtub.

As Harvath got ready for bed, he thought about Ari Schoen. What role did he really play in all of this? Could he be useful? Was he involved with the Hand of God? Was Schoen telling everything he knew? Was the CIA? That was the trouble with this business. You never could tell who was telling the truth and you never knew whom to trust. Everyone was suspect.

Harvath gathered the bottle caps off his pillow and threw them into the garbage can beneath his desk. He unwrapped and ate one of the chocolates before climbing into bed. He was dead tired and looked forward to a good night’s sleep. As he crawled beneath the covers, his feet came to an abrupt halt.

Morrell had short-sheeted his bed.