End of Days (Pike Logan #16)(83)

“Twelve hours?”

“Yes. As I said, expensive. You’re paying me for my skill, and I’m the one that’s going to get you to your contacts on the other side. I have no idea what they want you for, or your area of expertise, and I don’t want to know, but it’s going to cost money.”

Raph bristled and said, “We have the money, if you are who you say you are. I’m not paying just to get rolled up by Hezbollah thugs in the valley, or Assad regime forces in Syria.”

Tariq laughed and said, “Then you’ve come to the right man, because I deal with all of them. Smuggling is what I do. On this side of the border, I’m Hezbollah. On that side, I’m regime. Nobody touches me because I’m too important to all of them.”

Raph said, “We have whatever money you require.”

“Then let’s get that out of the way first. You guys have Venmo? That’s kind of a thing now for the Assad regime.”

Leonardo said, “No. We have prepaid debit cards.”

“That’ll work. Half now.”

Leonardo reached into a thigh pocket and pulled out four cards, handing them over. Tariq took them, then said, “Is this your gear?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll have to inspect it before we leave. No offense.”

Raph said, “That’s not going to happen. Just assume we have weapons. We have no explosives, but we do have weapons.”

“No inspection will cost more.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m bringing security with me if you won’t let me check the bags. Check them, and it’s me and one other guy. Don’t check them, and it’s an entire car following with my men. I don’t like surprises.”

Raph shook his head, then kicked his bag over, a large frameless backpack. Tariq opened the top compartment and saw a pistol and what looked like a shortened bolt-action rifle with a large cylinder underneath it. He said, “What’s this?”

“An air gun. A silent weapon.”

Tariq laughed, continuing to search. He said, “You ever hear of silencers for your pistol? We even have them here, and I can get you one.”

“I’ll live with what I packed.”

Tariq went to the lower compartment, finding clothes, cliff bars, and a Thuraya satellite phone. He said, “Thuraya. Should have gone with Inmarsat like I have. Thuraya is compromised by the intelligence agencies.”

Raph said, “Only if someone is hunting you. Nobody is hunting us.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. What you’re doing is secretive, and who you’re meeting is important to my business. You will not turn that phone on while we’re together. Agreed?”

Raph nodded. Satisfied, Tariq zipped it up. He looked at Leonardo and said, “Yours?”

Leonardo slid it over. Five minutes later, Tariq was finished. He said, “The pistols are fine, but they stay in the bags until we reach our destination. The sat phone is not, but if it stays in the bag during the trip, you can keep it. The air gun is just stupid, but you can keep it as well.”

He pulled out an ordinary cell phone and made a call. While waiting on it to connect, he said, “Two it is, but you leave with the bags here. No stories about having to go back to your hotel for something you forgot. Agreed?”

Raph nodded and a white Toyota Land Cruiser with a snorkel snaking across the hood came around the corner, its paint scarred and dirty from trips far away from Beirut. A burly man with dark skin was behind the wheel wearing sunglasses above a thick beard. Tariq said, “Load up. Let’s go.”

Surprised, Raph said, “Now? Just like that?”

“Yes. Just like that.”

Leonardo said, “We have to pay the bill.”

“You’re already paying the bill. Everyone in that place, from the waitress you want to bed to the man making the espressos, works for me.”

They hesitated and Tariq said, “I’m not going to put a hood on your head. Quit being such babies. You’re the ones paying for this.”

They grabbed their bags and loaded the Cruiser. In short order, they were out of the city, driving south past the airport on Highway 51, the four-lane road that traversed the entire country along the Mediterranean coast. Eventually, the driver took a left on another major road and began heading east, into the Lebanon Mountains chain.

The road dropped down to two lanes, and then began winding back and forth following the contours of the ridges and switchbacks, getting higher and higher. Eventually, they crested the top of the range and began dropping down the other side. They entered a town called Jezzine, the Bekaa Valley spilling out below them. The driver pulled the SUV into a small gas station and stopped. Tariq turned around with a SIG Sauer P229 pistol in his hands. Startled, Raphael raised his hands and said, “What’s going on?”

The driver brandished his own pistol.

Tariq said, “I’m sorry about this.”

Tariq tossed two black hoods into their laps. “Don’t worry, this isn’t a kidnapping. You’re going to have to trust me. I can’t have you knowing where the start of my smuggling route begins.”

And Raphael realized why he’d made them leave their own guns in their bags. He said, “We’re not putting those on, and you’ve put your life in jeopardy by suggesting it. We’ve paid you well.”