A Cold Dark Promise (Cold Justice #8.5)(22)
A door banged on the boat.
“We’re leaving? You promised Taylor she could go riding tomorrow. What should I tell her?” Josette’s voice came through the speakers. She sounded a little breathless.
“Tell her I’ll buy her a pony when we get home. After this trip, I can buy her an entire stable if she wishes. But I didn’t come here to talk about Taylor.” Masook’s voice grew low and husky.
Josette laughed. “But your dinner guests just arrived.”
“They can wait. I can’t.”
There was a bump and indistinct rustle of material being moved aside and heavy breathing. Then grunting as two people had fast, rough sex against thin cabin walls.
“I guess that answers the question about the nanny.” Killion grimaced.
Alex glanced at Frazer. “Sounds like he’s celebrating a sale.”
“What about Taylor?” Jane demanded loudly.
Alex held her gaze. “We’ll get her back.” But things had become a lot more complicated. A lot more dangerous.
“Here’s an image of the person we believe Masook was just talking to,” Logan interrupted. “Noah says he’s now on deck with the other dinner guests sans biological weapon unless it’s small enough to fit in his jacket pocket, which it could be. He’ll try to get a better shot. I’m sending the first picture to your cells.” Logan pressed a button.
Alex downloaded it onto his phone. Despite the shadows, Noah had managed to isolate an image of a swarthy, good-looking guy with a sharp nose and an elegant demeanor. He wore a hat and sunglasses even in the gloom—effective at fooling facial recognition programs, but not humans.
Alex never forgot a face.
Hatred rose inside him like smoke and bile. Charles Salamander. The guy Alex had been ordered to assassinate by the US government years ago. Unfortunately, Alex had frozen when the man’s young daughter had walked into the room, and he couldn’t go through with it. Alex had been captured and imprisoned, the US government cutting ties and denying any association. Salamander had extracted some excruciating personal revenge in that Moroccan jail, revenge Alex still wore on his skin today.
No one here knew of the connection between Alex and Salamander though Killion had also recognized the man’s face and was cursing.
“That motherfucker is bad news. Interpol has issued several Red Notices for his arrest.”
“So, there are at least four people in Antibes tonight who have active warrants out on them. Whatever is in those canisters has a lot of people taking some serious risks,” mulled Frazer.
“Are we assuming the supplier is Ranich?” Logan put in.
Alex slowly shook his head. “If it’s a new biological Ranich could as easily be a buyer as a seller. We need to take a look at Masook’s computer. We need to figure out who is supplying this stuff to Masook.”
“We need to know what it is,” Frazer added.
And they needed to know now. Before that canister disappeared.
“We don’t have the manpower or authority to arrest all these people without spooking the others,” said Alex. They had five FBI agents on the ground, but none of them had powers of arrest in a foreign country.
“I’ll talk to Interpol,” said Frazer. “As long as they know where the bad guys are they can grab them using local cops when we tell them to. They can take the credit. This will be a big scoop for them and they could do with some good publicity when it comes to crushing terrorists.”
“We need to spring this simultaneously, and we’ll need eyes on each of the players,” said Frazer. “Killion watch Salamander. Lucas can take the Indian contingent, Logan the Hezbollah representative, Noah can monitor the Russians from Ascension, Matt the Israelis. I’ll follow the Al Qaeda contact. Alex takes Masook.”
Alex shook his head. “I’ll need Matt in a boat. Let’s get Scarlett up here and she and Ashley can run comms and keep up the remote surveillance to warn us of any unexpected developments,” he said. “We can’t watch everyone, but if we monitor critical points we should be able to spot most of the players if they try to leave Antibes. I go in first. As soon as I have the weapon in hand, the kid, and Masook’s computer, you give Interpol the word to go. Everyone rendezvous on Ascension when we are done.”
“How are you going to achieve all that without Masook seeing you?” Frazer asked sardonically.
Alex looked at Jane. “Easy. We’re going to create a diversion. Jane’s going to help.” He watched her face turn ashen, and she swayed slightly.
He was asking her to face her greatest fear.
Reilly stepped forward, wearing a dark frown. “How exactly is Jane going to cause a distraction?”
“She just has to make a scene,” Alex said.
“I don’t like that plan,” said Reilly.
“Why not?” asked Alex.
“I’ve spent the last few days keeping her away from that asshole,” Reilly said bluntly.
It was one of the things Alex liked about him. Jack Reilly was a no bullshit kind of guy.
“Masook isn’t going to harm Jane in front of witnesses, and she’s going to stay firmly on the quay and not get on the boat. While Masook is looking at her, and likely panicking if he hasn’t made the exchange of the bioweapon for money yet, I’m going to be below deck, grabbing the bioweapon and computer, which I’ll pass over the side to Matt who is going to immediately bring them back here. As soon as they are off the boat I’ll grab Taylor.”