Faithless in Death (In Death, #52)(98)

She started her runs, pumped more information to Reo.

A really big anthill, she thought, and yes, they’d lose some in the scatter. But if they played it right, they’d get the bulk, the influencers, and break the back of the order.

Then once Nadine, and the rest of the media, got their teeth in it?

Game over.

She looked up when Teasdale came to the door.

“I got your memo requesting I attend the meeting at the PA’s office.”

“It would be very helpful.”

“I’m on my way there now.” As always, Teasdale radiated calm and efficiency. “Agent Conroy will be sending you the intel we have on the farm system as soon as possible. I’m authorized to tell you the bureau is fully prepared to join the NYPSD and Interpol in this operation. While the bureau welcomes your input and will coordinate with you, given the multiple states and jurisdictions involved in the order’s farm system, we will take that area of this operation.”

“Not only is that no problem for me or this department, I was counting on it. My only caveat is timing. We have to coordinate the timing.”

“Very well understood. Question: Do you actually plan to launch this multiagency, global, many-armed operation tonight? Essentially within hours?”

“Around ten, eleven hours for the main hits, yeah. It has to be now, Teasdale. If we delay, a lot of ants are going to have deserted the hill before we kick it. We can’t keep Mancini and Metcalf’s rescue under wraps much longer, so we have to hit the block in Tribeca today. Cops have been inside the Piper crime scene. We’ve only got time because the neighborhood women can’t communicate, but it only takes one person coming home from work or one person figuring out how to get word to HQ to blow it up before it begins.”

“You’ve got eyes on that block.”

“I do. Anyone coming in or going out gets picked up. But we can’t hold it indefinitely.”

“Again, understood. Bureaus are, after all, bureaucracies, and as such and by nature, their wheels roll slowly.”

Teasdale might look like a bureaucrat in her FBI suit—and she might actually be one, Eve thought. But Eve knew she was also solid law enforcement.

“I appreciate you convincing those wheels to move fast.”

“I’m glad to have a part in it. And in the interest of time and speed, I’ll let you get back to work.”

Eve was deep into that work when Roarke came in.

“I’ve got what you need on the HQ.”

“All of it?”

“Drone and satellite views of the compound, various blueprints—even such a place must follow building codes, procedures. These may, of course, have changes not reported, but you’ll have the sense. And more, I think, as I have the schematics on their security system.”

“Yours, right?”

“It is, yes, and they spared no expense. You’re a bit limited in here to view it as a whole, but I can set it up.”

“Let’s take it to the conference room. Reo’s getting a mountain of warrants,” she told him as they headed out. “Teasdale’s at the meeting there, and let me know the FBI’s all in, and will handle the hits on the farm system. I’ve got cops on Po, the halfway house, and on the Tribeca block.”

“Busy day. The electronics from Dawber and Metcalf are in house and being gone over minutely. I was on this area so I can’t tell you precisely, but there’s a lot of movement and a great deal of fizzy consumption in EDD right now.”

“That’s a good sign.”

“Give me a minute or two to set this up. Did you eat?” he asked.

“I had a burger.”

He paused, and looked mildly annoyed. “A burger? Why didn’t I think of that before I had that very dubious sandwich from Vending?”

“Damn good burger. You want coffee?”

“I’ve had a tankerful, and most of it cop coffee. I’ll take water, thanks.”

She opted for water herself.

“Here are your drone views. Better, I think, than the satellite imagery.”

When he put them on-screen, she slipped her hands in her pockets, studied them. “Big place.”

“Slightly more than forty-two acres. Some of the buildings, such as the main house, were already there when purchased. As were these smaller houses you see here, here.”

He used a laser pointer.

“Like a small neighborhood. Staff housing—high-level staff. Those low-rise apartment-type buildings, that’s for the working stiffs. Roads all over, except that farming area. Are those cows? Why are there always cows?”

“Milk, butter, cheese, I’m thinking.”

“They’ve got the farm system for that, but yeah, easy access. And I bet for training. You’ve got to keep training in all areas. Apartments, houses here and here, too. Segregated, that’s what. You’ve got your sections. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, like that, and all well away from the grandeur of the main house. Woods to the east, shielding the main house property and gardens.”

She moved closer. “Okay, okay, you’ve got a stream running through the woods, and that chapel-type building. Other buildings—medical, schools.”

She held out a hand for his pointer.

“There and there and there—schools, we saw students. Playground areas. I’m betting some sort of storage buildings—see those loading docks? You bring in supplies there, log them in, divide them up. Very self-contained, very tidy. What it is? It’s freaking Wilkeyville. His own town, and he’s mayor and sheriff and supreme ruler.”