Deep Cover

PROLOGUE

Downtown Baghdad

A VIVID BLUE EYE calmly gazed through the high-powered scope, its crosshairs centered on the forehead of a dark-haired man. Surrounded by bodyguards, he was walking from a building at the end of the block to a waiting black Mercedes Benz. The sniper unhurriedly squeezed the trigger of the fifty-caliber rifle before dropping beneath the window and departing the barren room, purposely abandoning the instrument of death. Disguised to blend in with the local populace, the tall figure was on the streets within minutes, mingling with a large gathering of people that had begun to surround a prone body on the sidewalk. Verifying the kill, the sniper then disappeared among the growing crowd.