Revenge Prey

The latest installment in John Sandford's long-running Prey series follows Deputy U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport as he confronts a Russian assassination team targeting a defector on American soil.

Near Owatonna, Minnesota, a blond woman and a dark-haired spotter practice with a high-powered rifle, speaking in Russian. Meanwhile, Lucas and fellow Deputy U.S. Marshal Shelly White arrive at a secluded house in Orono, Minnesota, to provide security for a Russian defector entering the Witness Protection Program. A convoy soon delivers the defector family and their handlers: Derrick Beard, a marshal from Washington, and John Sherwood, a CIA agent with cold green eyes and icy calm. The defectors are Leonid Sokolov, a sixty-year-old former FSB (Russia's Federal Security Service) colonel using the alias Leonard Summers; his wife, Masha; and their son, Bernard. Sherwood recruited Leonid during a diplomatic conference in Syria and explains that Sokolov was a brutal counterintelligence officer who tortured and executed suspected Western spies. In Washington, Sokolov provided the names of four Russian spies in the Pentagon. The Russians want revenge and to deter future defections.

As the group inspects the kitchen, Leonid bends to pick up a dropped cigar. A rifle slug passes inches above his head and strikes Masha in the face, killing her instantly. Lucas and White scramble outside and fire dozens of rounds into a fleeing blue Jeep Wagoneer. They find the vehicle abandoned at a nearby motel, where security video shows the wounded shooters transferring to a second car. Sherwood identifies the core problem: Somebody leaked the Sokolovs' identity and location, indicating a serious intelligence breach.

The Russian team comprises Katerina Abramova, the on-site director and driver; Lev Nikitin, the sniper; and Matvey Orlov, the spotter. All three are wounded by Lucas and White's gunfire. Their logistical support comes from Melor Titov, a Russian sleeper agent living in Chicago under the name Leon Jackson, who provides false documents, weapons, and safe houses. Among the team's smuggled equipment are silenced Beretta machine pistols, a Sig Spear rifle, and a modified ChapStick tube containing Novichok, a nerve agent.

To treat the wounded, the team raids a small-town emergency room, kidnapping Dr. Carolyn Juarez at gunpoint. Juarez determines Orlov needs surgery she cannot perform and treats Nikitin's lesser wounds. Titov drives Orlov to a Milwaukee hospital; the Russians later extract him and fly him to Russia. After her release, Juarez provides investigators with timing and descriptions that narrow the search area.

Abramova regroups independently, disguising herself with auburn hair dye and moving Nikitin to a La Quinta Inn near the Mall of America. Lucas and Sherwood trace her rental car's GPS to the area and check motels. At the La Quinta, Abramova spots them in a hallway and opens fire, hitting a desk clerk multiple times and wounding Sherwood. The Russians escape. St. Vincent, the FBI agent in charge, orders Lucas off the case.

Kuznetsov, a Moscow-based intelligence handler, orders another attempt on Sokolov. When the FBI brings Sokolov outside a Minneapolis apartment building, Nikitin fires from a car. The bullet strikes Sokolov's ceramic armor plate; fragments penetrate near his heart and into a lung, but he survives. Abramova destroys Lucas and Sherwood's Porsche with machine pistol fire before escaping. Lucas leaks surveillance video to a television journalist, hoping media exposure will flush the team out. He also enlists Del Capslock, an undercover BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) agent, to locate Russian criminal contacts assisting the assassins.

The Russians shift tactics. Abramova proposes using the Novichok rather than risking another sniper attempt. Titov tapes the prepared ChapStick under a paper towel dispenser in a hospital restroom. The inside asset turns out to be Bernie himself. During a visit to his father's room, with the FBI bodyguards' backs turned, Bernie drags the Novichok across Leonid's bare leg, kisses his forehead, and whispers a curse.

Lucas connects the pattern of intelligence leaks to Bernie's access. His daughter, Letty Davenport, who works for the Department of Homeland Security, uses an NSA (National Security Agency) contact to trace suspicious phone signals from a single burner near the Sokolovs' locations. Lucas and Sherwood search Bernie's apartment and find a burner phone inside a Faraday bag, a metallic pouch that blocks electronic signals, hidden in his ski jacket. They share the discovery with the FBI's counter-intelligence team.

Sherwood and Lucas confront Bernie at the hospital, accusing him of being the leak and hoping to panic him into contacting the hit team. Bernie's backstory reveals his motivations: Leonid told him they were going shopping in Istanbul, and the CIA snatched the entire family. From infancy until age twelve, Leonid beat him weekly, sometimes so severely Bernie could not walk. Masha never intervened. Bernie had received basic FSB tradecraft training before the forced defection, which explains his covert capabilities. In Washington, he stole a phone and contacted a friend in Poland, who relayed a message to the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service. The Russians asked him to help kill his father, and he agreed. When FBI agents searching his room make a critical error, reseating his burner's battery instead of pulling it, Bernie realizes he has been discovered and sends a prearranged emergency signal.

At the White Ducks club, Bernie runs out the back door toward a waiting pickup. Nikitin fires at pursuing FBI agents, killing two and critically wounding a third. The surviving agent shoots Nikitin, then executes him with a shot to the forehead. Sherwood disputes the agent's claim that Nikitin was reaching for his weapon, but Lucas backs the official story.

The remaining team members flee with Bernie. That night, Titov calls Lucas and offers to surrender Abramova and Bernie in exchange for witness protection. Sherwood is electrified: A sleeper agent who moves Russian NOCs (spies operating without diplomatic cover) through the U.S. would be an extraordinary intelligence prize. The CIA provides written guarantees.

Lucas's team meets Titov in Hayward, Wisconsin, during the annual Birkebeiner cross-country ski race. The CIA wants Abramova captured or killed while Titov escapes with Bernie, preserving Titov's cover. Titov separates Abramova from the group, sending her alone in a red Ford while he and the disguised Bernie continue north in the van. When Abramova spots White approaching with a drawn gun, she abandons the Ford, carjacks a Bronco, and flees onto rural roads, shooting a bystander. Lucas and Sherwood commandeer a pickup and give chase. After Abramova abandons the Bronco at a lakeside cabin and flees on foot, Sherwood runs along a ridge, closes on her, and shoots her with an AR-15 after she fires twice and misses. He then fires a final round into her heart.

Titov delivers Bernie to a Canadian smuggler near the Pigeon River border crossing. Bernie is transported across the frozen river and flown to Toronto, then onward to Moscow on an Irish passport. Titov confirms the handoff to Sherwood, then meets Lucas and FBI counter-intelligence agents, who assume custody of the relationship.

In the aftermath, Leonid Sokolov dies from the combined effects of the gunshot wound and the Novichok poisoning. Titov receives a Russian commendation for extracting Bernie, his cover intact. Lucas and Sherwood construct a cover story to protect Titov's role. Six months later, Sherwood calls Lucas from London to report that extraordinary intelligence has emerged from the operation. Lucas remains an unacknowledged hero, while Sherwood has become an acknowledged one within the CIA.