Part 21 (1/2)

”Have your conversation. Come home.”

t.i.tus nodded. ”How long do I keep him there?”

”Until we call you. One of us, or Garcia.”

”Then I take the cell phone?”

”Yeah.”

”The encrypted one?”

”Yeah.”

”What about a wire?”

”Useless. He'll check; he'll find it.”

Again t.i.tus nodded. This all sounded too slick.

”Listen, ”he said, looking at both Kal and Ryan, ”I know I don't know a d.a.m.n thing about what's going on here, or should be going on here, but this just doesn't feel quite right. This just seems a little too neat.”

”It seems neat, ”Ryan said quickly and with unexpected candor, ”because we're not telling you everything. The details. A lot of s.h.i.+t's going down, but you're not going to be a part of all of it. It's not your job. You don't need to know. ”He paused. ”And you shouldn't know.”

”The point is, ”Kal added, wiping his mouth, ”those other guys don't know what's going on at your end, either. And they don't need to know. But everybody's got to do their thing right if this operation's going to succeed. If you don't hold Macias at La Terrazza long enough, you could be jeopardizing what the other guys are doing. They've got to have the time they need. Everybody knows what the others are doing, in general, so we all understand the rationale for our own responsibilities. But beyond that, you're not any different from anybody else in not knowing all the details.”

”Okay, ”t.i.tus said. That made sense. s.h.i.+t, he guessed it made sense. ”Look, at least give me some idea of where the situation is most critical. When is something most likely to go wrong here?”

Kal nodded at him. ”The moment you drive out those gates at the bottom of the hill, from that point on something's likely to go wrong. It's that d.a.m.n simple. Every moment of every operation is the most critical. You can never-ever-kid yourself about that.”

t.i.tus stared at him. But just in case he was having any doubts about it, Ryan spoke up again.

”That's no bulls.h.i.+t plat.i.tude, ”he said. ”That's the message of salvation.”

t.i.tus and Rita stepped outside and stood at the head of the allee. The landscape lights illuminated the beginning of the long double row of laurels until they converged into the sloping darkness.

”That was sobering, ”Rita said, referring to their brief tutorial inside. ”Okay, t.i.tus, I'm going to be following this every step of the way in there with the rest of them. I insisted. We've already talked about it. But the moment you're in the clear, you call me.”

”Yeah, I will, ”he said. He was suddenly humming with adrenaline. He was aware of a kind of giddy antic.i.p.ation, but at the same time it was mitigated by the things that weren't said. The stuff he had to read between the lines. It seemed absolutely impossible that Burden and this loose collection of people who seemed underprepared and short on time would be able to do what he knew Burden wanted to do. But they were going ahead with it. He wondered if this was the way it always felt for these people. Or if every operation was different and carried with it a different set of emotions. Was it an unending stream of never-repeated episodes? Was that the juice that kept these people in this business?

”t.i.tus? ”Rita had taken his arm and pulled herself to him, close. He could smell her, not her perfume, but her, a far more compelling fragrance. He put his arms around her.

”Tomorrow it'll be over, ”she said. ”And we'll have our lives back. I believe that.”

”You know, I do, too, ”he lied. He didn't believe it because he knew they'd never have their lives back. Not the way they had been, anyway. But they might be free of Luquin, and right now he thought that would be worth any amount of lying and killing. That appalled him even as he thought it, but he wasn't going to pretend that he had moral scruples about what was about to happen.

The door to the cottage opened and Kal stood on the threshold.

”Time to go, ”he said.

t.i.tus embraced Rita and held her very tight. He felt his throat thicken with emotion. He couldn't say a word. But he knew that she understood exactly what this embrace meant. It was a thing they did. And then she said what she always said when he did it.

”And I love you, too, t.i.tus Cain.”

And she kissed him, and he walked away with Kal into the shadows.

Chapter 47.

The Dodge van sat in the empty parking lot of the small, green gla.s.s office building overlooking Bull Creek Road. The van had been there twenty minutes. At ten-thirty at night, the office had been closed a long time. When the gray van arrived, it had pulled around behind an island of trees, preventing it from being seen from the street in front of the building.

In the back of the van were three communications technicians wearing headphones and small mikes. One of the technicians checked in with Macias every half hour as required. Their job was routine at this point, just listening mostly, making sure there were no breakdowns in communication between Macias and the other teams. At the moment they were listening to transmissions between the Pathfinder and Macias's blue Navigator, which was just now pulling away from the house on Las Lomitas. Macias was making sure the Pathfinder was pulling in to cover the house while he was gone. Macias didn't say where he was going. Aside from Tano Luquin, he was the only man on the job who didn't have to explain himself to anyone.

When the black Lexus came into the lot off the street, the three men in the van froze. One of them slowly got up and moved forward and sat behind the steering wheel. He intently watched the Lexus through the darkened winds.h.i.+eld.

The car's lights went off, and for a second nothing happened. Then the driver's door opened, and in the light that came on in the car's interior, the man in the van saw a pet.i.te blonde sitting behind the wheel. She wore a light tank top and shorts and was digging through her purse.

”Whoa, will you look at that, ”the man said, and he leaned over and picked up a pair of binoculars from the pa.s.senger's seat while his two companions peered through one of the large windows darkened by one-way gla.s.s.

”What's she doin', Del? ”one of the guys asked, a set of headphones dangling around his neck.

”Looking for keys, I guess, ”the driver said.

Del was Anglo, the other two were Mexican Americans. All three were from Juarez.

The woman got out of the car and slung her purse over her shoulder. She punched the remote car lock on her key chain and headed for the front of the building at a brisk walk.

”Woman on a mission, ”Del mused to himself. ”I got a mission for her.”

”She forgot something. Working at home, ”one of the other men said, shrugging.

”Look ... at ... that ... a.s.s, ”Del said. The nightvision binoculars brought her up close, way close.

The two men in the back glanced at each other.

”Pull your eyeb.a.l.l.s back in, Del, ”one of them said.

The woman went to the double gla.s.s doors and put a key into the latch. She had her back to them now, fiddling with the lock.

”Looks like it no workey, ”Del said.

Frustrated, the woman headed back to the car. Her body language said she was p.i.s.sed. As she approached the car, she reached out and punched the remote lock again, and just as she was swinging the door open, she stopped. Slowly she leaned to the side and looked down at her left rear tire.

”Uh-oh, ”Del narrated, ”look at thiiis. Oh, baby, we got a flat tire.” tire.”

”What? ”The two guys in the back of the van leaned over again to look out the window, ignoring for the moment the bank of monitors in front of each of them.