Hunt Them Down(72)

“Body armor?”

“Yes, we got that too. Light body armor only, though. But we got the Ops-Core FAST helmets and NODs you asked for. We had to buy the Nikon, the binoculars, and all the other electronic items Pierce wanted.”

“Transportation?” Carter asked, taking notes.

“We rented a compact SUV through Hertz and used the same IDs we used to reserve the apartment on Airbnb. The Land Cruiser is ours to use too.”

“Do you have any info regarding the Black Tosca’s mansion?”

Abigail shook her head but kept her mouth shut. Dante ran his fingers through his hair.

“What is it?”

“We don’t know much,” Dante confessed. “A couple of agents tried to fly a drone over the mansion a few months ago, but it got shut down.”

“How the hell do you shut down a small drone?” Carter asked.

“There are devices that detect drones using radio frequency methodology. It’s effective up to about twenty-five hundred feet. And it’s quite difficult to circumvent. The most expensive systems—which I’m sure the Black Tosca has—automatically detect and disable incoming drones.”

“So where does that leave us?” Carter asked.

“We have a few shots that were taken by a satellite a few years back, but they won’t be of much value. Having said that, the Mexico City office arrested a midlevel member of the Black Tosca’s cartel three weeks ago.”

“I doubt he said anything of importance. These guys prefer to do time rather than talk to us.”

“You never worked in Mexico, did you?” Abigail asked.

Carter narrowed his eyes, wondering what she meant.

Dante jumped in and said, “We do things differently here, Simon. Our methods are, let’s say, a little more invasive than they’d be back in the States. You know what I mean?”

Carter knew what invasive meant. Whatever intelligence the DEA got from the cartel member, they wouldn’t be able to use it in a court of law.

“Okay, so he talked to you. Anything I should know?”

Dante handed Carter a file containing the satellite pictures and drawings of the perimeter surrounding the residence.

“He said that the grounds of the residence were patrolled twenty-four hours a day by half a dozen heavily armed guards, and that wasn’t counting the two at the guardhouse outside the main gate.”

Six guards. That wasn’t a good start. That was a lot of enemy personnel.

Dante continued, “He also said that security cameras were set up strategically around the property with infrared motion detectors.”

Shit! What did you expect, Simon? You knew Valentina Mieles would be a hard target to get to. That didn’t change the fact that it would be almost impossible to breach the perimeter during broad daylight.

“Tell him about Nicolás,” Abigail said.

“Who’s Nicolás?”

“Nicolás is her lead bodyguard.”

That was good to know. “What’s his background?”

“Since we don’t have a last name for him, we’re not sure.”

“But you did find something?”

“It’s only a guess—”

“Ah, c’mon, Dante, it’s more than a guess. He fits the physical description that was given to us.”

“Anyway,” Dante continued, ignoring his wife, “I wouldn’t put too much thought into this if I were you, but there’s a Nicolás Gomez born in 1981 who was dishonorably discharged from the Fuerzas Especiales for leaking intelligence to a known drug cartel associate.”

“The Mexican navy special forces?”

“Yes. Supposedly they’re a tier-one unit, but I doubt they really are.”

“Still, he’s someone we’ll need to be careful about.”

Carter ran his hands over his face. His three-day beard was beginning to itch. “How many road access points are there?”

“That’s the good news,” Abigail said, stopping the Land Cruiser to let an old woman cross the street with her dog. “There’s only one.”

Carter was still studying the satellite pictures when they reached the Airbnb rental twenty minutes later. The rental was a small but charming three-story house.

“We’ll drop you off here,” Abigail said. “You’ll find everything you need on the kitchen table. It’s apartment number one, and the code to unlock the door is four-nine-two-three-four.”

“You’re not coming in?”

“We each have our own place,” Dante said, tossing a mobile phone to Carter, “so if one of us gets caught, the whole thing won’t collapse.”

“Check your gear, take what you need, and we’ll link up in thirty minutes,” Abigail said, unlocking the doors. “Dante’s number is the first contact. I’m the second, and the Guadalajara DEA office is the third one.”

Carter climbed out of the Land Cruiser and watched the SUV as it smoothly accelerated away before coming to a stop at an intersection packed with shoppers, commuters, and tourists. Carter stretched and arched his back a few times to loosen up before he made his way to the rental unit. He punched in the five-digit code Abigail had given him, and the door unlocked. He opened it and slid inside.