The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(103)

“How do you do that?” she said.

He shrugged. “It’s just a neck crank.”

She sensed he knew she was asking about something else. “That’s not what I mean. You didn’t show anything. Anything. The way you’re not showing it even now.”

He didn’t respond.

She knew he was reluctant, and that her intensity probably wasn’t the right way to persuade him. But she badly wanted to know. “Will you teach me?”

He started to say something, then stopped and looked away. After a moment, he said, “If you want.”

She heard several vehicles pass on Sand Hill. One turned onto Manzanita, but the sound wasn’t right, and they stayed put.

A minute later, she heard the rumbling of multiple wheels turning off Sand Hill. The rumbling stopped just ahead of the bridge. Livia glanced around the side of the concrete wall and saw the truck and the horse trailer.

The back doors opened, and Carl, Diaz, and Kanezaki jumped out. They were wearing tactical street clothes: cargo pants, chest rigs under zip-down jackets, light boots, gloves. All in woodland colors, and with body armor underneath. Diaz had insisted on coming, and when Livia couldn’t talk her out of it, she’d made sure Diaz was carrying. A Glock 19, simple to operate. They’d gone over the basics, just in case.

Diaz and Kanezaki vaulted over the side of the bridge. Carl tossed a pair of duffels to Rain and Livia, then shouldered a third and came over himself. Evie, who was behind the wheel of the truck, drove off.

Carl set down his duffel and glanced at the body on the ground. “Well, that had to hurt. Maybe better to move him under the culvert. Little less visible. Tom, give me a hand?”

“Sentry?” Kanezaki said.

Rain said nothing, but the question—which could as easily have been stated, You sure you didn’t just kill some innocent bystander?—pissed off Livia. “Yes,” she said. “But if you have any doubts, how about next time you take care of it yourself?”

Rain looked at her, and she thought she detected the trace of a smile.

There was a pause, then Kanezaki said, “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”

Rain unzipped one of the bags—the same clothes and equipment the others were wearing. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “And no, no intel on him. Just a burner, turned off.”

Carl and Kanezaki dragged the body under the overpass, where to see it a passerby would have to come down from the road. Then Carl unzipped the second bag, pulled out Livia’s armored vest, and started helping her into it. “You know,” he said to Rain, “spandex becomes you. I don’t know why you don’t dress this way more often.”

Rain chuckled, and Livia could tell Kanezaki’s faux pas had been forgotten. “Maybe I do,” Rain said. “Just not around you.”

Carl laughed. “Well, at least now I know what to get you for Christmas.”

Livia glanced at the third bag. “Rifle?”

Carl smiled. “HK762A1, OSS suppressor, Leupold scope, twenty-round mags. Be still, my beating heart. And Manus has a suppressed HK UMP in nine-millimeter with thirty-round mags. Just in case. I didn’t like the way we were outgunned at that Lake Tapps house.” He glanced at Kanezaki. “We get to keep the toys when we’re done, right?”

Kanezaki shook his head. “Delilah has to return the Porsche, and you and Manus have to return the HKs.”

Carl patted the bag. “Hopefully unused. But we’ll see.”

Livia glanced at her watch. “Less than an hour until three,” she said. “Starting to get a little tight.”

“Just about good to go,” Carl said. “Should be plenty of time.”

Livia knew there should be—if things went smoothly. But nothing had gone smoothly yet.

They each affixed wireless earpieces, about the size of a pair of AirPods and connected to belt-mounted radios. Kanezaki had explained that the range would be enough for their purposes, but with less risk of being tracked than a cellphone.

“I hate these earpieces,” Carl said. “They’re so snug you can’t get ’em out without a damn screwdriver.”

“Everyone online?” Rain said, and one by one they checked in. “Delilah and Larison,” he said. “You’re in position?”

“We are,” Livia heard Delilah say. “When you’re ready, just say go.”

“Five minutes,” Rain said. “Tom, did you confirm—”

“Of course,” Kanezaki said. “Other than the guards and Grimble himself, no cellphones on the property. Which tracks with the intel—no gardeners allowed except when Grimble is off the compound.”

Rain glanced at Livia and gave her a small smile, as if to say, Okay, I micromanage. She gave him one back to indicate that she didn’t mind at all.

When they were done suiting up, one by one they came out from behind the wall, crossed the street, and eased into the trees. First Rain, then Kanezaki, then Livia, then Diaz, then Carl. Livia looked around and saw no houses or other signs of habitation. Whoever owned the land here, it was sprawling enough to feel they were in the middle of a forest. “Stay close,” she said to Diaz.

After a few minutes, they came to the edge of the tree line and stopped. Beyond it, Livia could see a long, curving stone road, beside which was perched an elaborate complex of wooden structures, some with tiled roofs and others of thatch, the corners upturned in the traditional Japanese style. And beyond that, an expansive garden with arrangements of granite boulders of various sizes, carefully raked sand, and moss-covered hillocks, all of it winding along the edge of an enormous pond crossed by several delicately arched bridges and buttressed at the far end by a waterfall. The only sounds were of the water and the birds in the surrounding trees. Given what had just happened, and what they were here for, the utter serenity of the place was suddenly surreal.