Kill Shot

Kill Shot is the 12th published book in the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn and the second in chronological order. The book was published in 2012.

Description
For months, Mitch Rapp has been steadily working his way through a list of men, bullet by bullet. With each kill, the tangled network of monsters responsible for the slaughter of 270 civilians becomes increasingly clear. He is given his next target: a plump Libyan diplomat who is prone to drink and is currently in Paris without a single bodyguard.

Rapp finds him completely unprotected and asleep in his bed. With confidence in his well-honed skills and conviction of the man’s guilt, he easily sends a bullet into the man’s skull. But in the split second it takes the bullet to leave the silenced pistol, everything changes. The door to the hotel room is kicked open and gunfire erupts all around Rapp. In an instant the hunter has become the hunted. Rapp is left wounded and must flee for his life.

The next morning, the news breaks in Washington that Libya’s Oil Minister has been killed along with three innocent civilians and four unidentified men. The French authorities are certain that the gunman is wounded and on the loose in Paris. As the finger pointing begins, Rapp’s handlers have only one choice—deny any responsibility for the incident and pray that their newest secret weapon stays that way, avoiding capture and dying quietly. One person in the group, however, is not prone to leaving things to chance. Rapp has become a liability, and he absolutely cannot be allowed to be taken alive by the French authorities. But it will soon become clear that nothing is more dangerous than a wounded and cornered Mitch Rapp.

Prelude
Dr. Irene Kennedy is observing CIA recruits spar at the Farmhouse when she finds her mind wandering to Mitch Rapp. Rapp has been in the field for a year, targeting and taking down terrorists one by one. Irene finds herself jarred back into reality by a question from her colleague and staff psychologist Dr. Lewis. Kennedy and Lewis bicker about Kennedy's special interest in Rapp and whether Rapp might one day become a problem for the CIA.

Chapter 1
Rapp is in Paris, France, on the roof of a luxury hotel in the middle of the night, preparing to take out his next target. He reminisces briefly about his string of kills over the past year which has caused rumors and suspicions in the underground. This Paris job is to be his last since the multiple kills have caused too much attention among the terrorist networks and foreign intelligence agencies. As he monitors the target, a Libyan diplomat, asleep in his room below, he has a gnawing feeling that something is not quite right but he chalks it up to anxiety about this high-profile hit. He ignores the feeling and propels down from the roof to the Libyan's room using a rope. He shoots the target as he sleeps and is in the middle of removing the listening device from the nightstand when a group of men barge into the room, submachine guns blazing.

Chapter 2
Samir Fadi and his men are monitoring the Libyan diplomat's room from another hotel room down the hall. Samir is looking forward to confronting and eliminating the mysterious assassin who has been plaguing the terrorist networks. He thinks back to discussions among the international Executive Council of terrorist organizations. No one knew who the assassin was or even if it was just one man. The Spaniard was adamant that the assassin was one man, based on a very trustworthy source, and came up with the plan to lure the assassin by using the Libyan diplomat as bait. They investigate the crime scene.

Chapter 3
Rapp dives behind the bed for cover as gunfire rains down around him. The balcony he came in through is steps away but he knows he will never make it out alive unless he creates an opportunity. He begins firing back at the shooters, carefully counting his shots since he has limited ammunition. As he returns fire, he moves toward the balcony and dives off, desperately reaching out for the rope he left hanging. He feels a punch in the shoulder and knows he's been shot.

Chapter 4
Samir and his men move into the room, guns ablaze. Samir is towards the back of the group, busy calming his nerves and imagining his reward once the assassin is dead. He thinks to himself that there is no way a single man with a pistol could survive four submachine guns. Samir is about to enter the room when he figures something must be wrong because it is too quiet. The wall splinters behind him; he is under fire. From the hallway, he fires back into the room. In the calm that follows, he goes into the room and runs to the balcony only to see a man in black running across the street. Samir shoots at him from the balcony but soon runs out of ammunition. He goes back inside the room to reload and knows he must leave the scene. All his men are dead. As he leaves, shocked at the outcome of this foolproof plan, he shoots two hotel guests who have come out of the room to see what the commotion is about. As he leaves through the back alley, he shoots a hotel worker.

Chapter 5
Despite just being shot, Rapp recovers enough to grab and hold onto the rope and rappel to the ground. He picks up the gun he dropped when diving off the balcony and makes his way quickly toward the river. He continues to a hidden spot on a bridge he'd previously picked out. Sitting on the ledge of the bridge, he discovers he's been shot in the left shoulder but is relieved to find an exit wound. He quickly unpacks his small med kit and injects the wound with a series of syringes to stem the bleeding. He begins to hear police sirens and voices nearby and knows he must move on. He drops into the chilly waters of the Seine and floats on his back, slowly kicking with the current. As he makes his way through the water, he wonders how those men knew he would be in the Libyan diplomat's room that night.

Chapter 6
The French police arrive at the hotel room strewn with bodies. Commandant Francine Neville counted nine bodies; she had never seen anything like this in her 16 years as a police officer. There were two dead in bed, four men on the ground with submachine guns, two hotel guests down the hall, and a hotel worker in the alley.

Paul Fournier of France's General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) arrives, to Neville's dismay; they had dated 4 years ago. Neville wonders what he's doing at a local crime scene since his work is meant to be in foreign affairs. After toying with an increasingly annoyed Neville, Fournier informs her that the dead man in the bed was Libya's oil minister and the four men on the ground were his bodyguards. Fournier tells Neville he will be following the investigation closely. Before he leaves, Fournier quietly confirms his colleague has removed the rope that had been dangling from the roof before the police had noticed.

Chapter 7
Back in Washington, D.C., Thomas Stansfield was entrenched in the fallout as news of the Libyan diplomat's murder broke. He denied the CIA's involvement before slipping out to meet with Irene Kennedy and Stan Hurley at Langley.

Stansfield is concerned when Kennedy informs him that Rapp has not checked in at the appointed time. Hurley adds that his Parisian source said three innocent bystanders were also gunned down in the fray. Once it's clear Rapp is not among the bodies, Hurley and Kennedy argue about whether Rapp is responsible for the fiasco. Hurley thinks Rapp is Kennedy's golden boy and she lets him do whatever he wants. Kennedy thinks Hurley dislikes Rapp because he reminds Hurley of himself, but better.

Tired of the infighting, Stansfield directs Hurley to fly to Paris the next morning to see what he can find out. Kennedy asks to go instead but Stansfield says she doesn't have Hurley's contacts in Paris. Kennedy is further enraged to find out that Hurley has already sent one of his underlings, Victor, to Paris; Victor and Rapp hate each other and this situation is too precarious to insert such animosity. Stansfield disregards her concerns and focuses the pair on getting answers.

Chapter 8
Rapp exits the river after floating downstream for almost 2 hours. He is on the edge of hypothermia and figures an industrial yard with a large warehouse would be a good place to recover. It is early morning on a Saturday so no workers are in sight. Rapp sneaks into the empty warehouse and looks for food and a hot shower. He steals dry clothes from some workers' lockers and wonders how he (and the advance team) had missed the Libyan diplomat's security detail. He then becomes suspicious of his own team at the CIA and whether they could be trusted. Would they have set him up? He leaves the warehouse in search of medicine, a hotel, and a payphone.

Chapter 9
Paul Cooke, Deputy Director at the CIA, meets Secretary of State Franklin Wilson at Wilson's home in Georgetown. As they play pool in Cooke's soundproof basement, Wilson asks Cooke about whether he trusts Stansfield. Wilson confides in Cooke that Cooke is on the short list for the recently vacated Director's spot at the CIA. However, Stansfield is also being considered. Wilson tells Cooke he's pushing for Cooke to be Director but needs Cooke to handle Stansfield and make sure guys like Hurley really retire. Wilson also asks Cooke to figure out what actually happened in Paris and report back only to Wilson.

Chapter 10
Back in Paris, Paul Fournier meets with Samir Fadi, Max Vega, and Rafique Aziz in the crypt of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. Fournier has long used this spot for secretive meetings; he trusts Monsignor de Fleury, the head priest who oversees the church. The four co-conspirators bicker over what happened at the hotel room that night. Samir and Aziz think the assassin knew about the trap; Fournier blames Samir for throwing away a golden opportunity to kill the assassin. They begin threatening each other until Max steps in. Fournier demands Samir and Aziz leave the country since their presence is too risky in the wake of the hotel fiasco.

Fournier has provided some cover by framing the murders as the work of one man but believes this story will fall apart soon once the evidence is examined more closely. In the meantime, the assassin has become notorious and attracted attention among the foreign intelligence agencies. Fournier suggests monitoring the incoming stream of foreign agents to try and figure out who the assassin is.

Chapter 11
Stan Hurley drinks bourbon at a bar at Baltimore Washington International airport, lost in thought. He is not surprised that Rapp has finally caused such a mess as it was only a matter of time. He partially blames himself for not confronting Kennedy more strongly about Rapp, but he knows Kennedy is a weakness for him. His feelings for Rapp have not changed since he first met him; he considers Rapp arrogant and uncontrollable but is not sure whether Rapp is a traitor. He partially hopes Rapp is a traitor but also hopes that the situation just goes away. Hurley's man Victor arrives and they discuss logistics for their trip to Paris. When talk turns to bringing Rapp in, Hurley says they will give Rapp a chance to turn himself in but Victor relishes the idea of finally getting to kill Rapp.

Chapter 12
At the Basilica, de Fleury eavesdrops from a wooden confessional above the crypt where Fournier and his co-conspirators meet. He does not trust these men. He is troubled to hear the men are involved in the hotel murders. De Fleury considers who he might contact with this information.

Chapter 13
It is a Sunday morning and Mitch Rapp wakes up in his hotel room after nearly 12 hours of sleep. After leaving the warehouse, Rapp decided to stay in France since he assumed the police would be closely monitoring the country's borders after the hotel murders. After picking up his backpack from a locker at the Gare de Lyon station, he changes clothes and calls his girlfriend Greta from a payphone. They were supposed to meet that day but Rapp tells her cryptically that there has been a change in plans. He asks if she can drive to meet him in Paris on Sunday. As he hangs up the phone, his wounded shoulder throbbing in pain, he hears Greta tell him she loves him for the first time.

In his hotel room, Rapp considers the small list of people at the CIA who knew about his mission and whether any of them would turn on him or be a mole. The list is comprised of his handler Irene Kennedy; Rob Ridley, who is in charge of the advance team; Stan Hurley; and Thomas Stansfield. There may be others who had been brought into this inner circle without Rapp's knowledge. Rapp briefly considers going on the run but decides he doesn't want to spend his life looking behind his shoulder. He decides he has to contact Kennedy to find out who he can trust.

Chapter 14
A worried Greta shows up at the hotel and examines Rapp's injuries. She helps him clean and re-bandage the wound. He confides that something went wrong in his last assignment and he still needed to figure out why. Greta guesses that Rapp was involved in the hotel murders. She knows innocent people were shot and hopes Rapp was not responsible. Rapp tells her that the news stories don't have all the facts right.