End of Days (Pike Logan #16)(63)
He started to build his device, then heard his tablet buzzing on his desk. He snatched it up, seeing an alert from Raph.
He opened the messaging app and a picture appeared. The two “State Department” personnel were meeting with a woman and a man in Piazza di Spagna, just up the road from the palace. The text said, “They walked up here and are meeting these two for dinner. What do you want us to do? Doesn’t seem that threatening.”
He zoomed in on the picture, ignoring the “State Department” hippie and black man who’d visited the palace, focusing on the other two. When the image resolved, he almost dropped his tablet. It was the same two who had shown up at the crime scene. The predators who had come to talk to the inspector.
He texted back, “Did you get the scooter and limpet mine?”
“Yes, we did. Why?”
“The men will come back to the car here, at the palace. When they do, trace them and kill them.”
He could feel the alarm even as the return text didn’t describe the emotion. Raph said, “Why? Why would we do that?”
Garrett couldn’t very well say that the other two had been at a crime scene he’d created after killing four other women. As much as he’d have liked to, he could not.
He texted, “I just finished with the Lieutenant of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. There is a threat here to our mission. I need you to eliminate the threat. Those men are close to determining our status.”
He waited, then Raph came back, texting, “The scooter is up the street. The limpet mine is in the saddle bag. We can do it, but are you sure? Maybe we should follow the other two. See who they are.”
That wouldn’t do. It would probably lead them to the police investigation resulting from his littering of bodies. It would be up to him to eliminate that threat, which is why he’d asked for the explosives.
He texted, “No. Kill these State Department guys and we cut it off. Just do it. You and Leonardo are leaving tomorrow for Beirut, and Michelangelo and I are headed to Israel with the Grand Master. We’ll all be clean. Make it one more Keta’ib Hezbollah hit. If we do it right, it’ll be a benefit.”
Chapter 41
Knuckles exited the Magisterial Palace and waited for the doors to close before saying, “You believe any of that shit?”
Brett chuckled and said, “What part?”
“All of it. That fucker knows more than he’s trying to sell us.”
Knuckles’s phone dinged and he read a text from Pike. He stopped walking to the car and said, “Pike’s up the road at a bistro. Wants to talk.”
They shifted course and went to the guard stationed at the entrance, saying, “We’re going to leave our car here for about an hour. Is that okay?”
The guard, having been told they were important individuals and misunderstanding the question, stiffened and said, “Yes, yes. Nobody will do anything to the vehicle. I’ll make sure of that.”
Knuckles leaned in, looked left and right conspiratorially, then whispered, “It’s a rental. Don’t shoot anyone trying to break into it. I just want to make sure you don’t tow it away.”
The guard smiled, finally getting the joke. He said, “Yes, sir. The car will be here when you return.”
Knuckles laughed and said, “How much security do you guys have here? I mean, outside of you at the gate. It doesn’t seem like this place is very secure.”
Now friendly, the guard said, “It’s just us out here on the gate during the day. At night, when the place is closed, there are security inside, but the true protection are the cameras all over the place.” He pointed into the guard shack and said, “If we see something during the night, we call the police.”
Knuckles smiled and said, “Good to know,” then exited through the arch onto the street outside.
They began walking to Piazza de Spagna, Brett saying, “What was that all about?”
“Just checking. Those guys are a bunch of liars, and it’s nice to know their security posture.” He held up a thumb drive and said, “Same reason I asked to use the secretary’s computer. We now have their network.”
They entered the square next to the fountain, went left, and walked to an outdoor café, the area threaded with umbrellas and tourists walking about. Brett saw Shoshana and pointed. They took a seat and Pike said, “So did you get more than we did?”
Knuckles said, “That depends. What did you get?”
“Nothing. The geolocation ended up at an apartment complex with a crime scene.”
“Crime scene? Like a terrorist attack?”
“No. Like a murder.” Pike flicked his head to Shoshana and said, “Carrie here thinks it’s the guy behind all the killings of our diplomats. Because she ‘read the room.’”
She bristled at his disparagement, but Knuckles said, “Why? What did you see?”
It was the first time Knuckles had ever indicated he trusted her instincts. Surprised, she said, “I saw colors. It was red. I smelled the death outside the room. I mean I could sense . . . Wait, wait, that’s not right. I can’t explain it. I just—”
He chuckled, holding up his hands and cutting her off, saying, “I get it, I get it.”
She smiled her little shark grin and sat back, saying nothing. Pike winked at her and said, “She might be right. We have a meeting with the inspector in a couple of hours. What did you find out?”