Page 152 of One Minute Out

I nod. “I need a helicopter, flown by someone who can follow orders, and someone who can put skids anywhere I need them, possibly even under fire.”

“And you think I just happen to know a guy with a helo willing to fly into gunfire?”

With a shrug, I say, “You’ve been around a long time, no offense. Hightower said you know everybody.”

To this Duvall leans his head back on the sofa. “Hightower. What’s that son of a bitch up to these days?”

“I can’t tell you.”

He raises an eyebrow. I just tipped him off that Zack was back with the Agency, which is sort of true, but I don’t care. I need this guy’s compliance, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to establish my bona fides.

“A pilot and a helo. You don’t ask for much, do you?”

I smile. “You want to pull this op off as much as I do.”

After a pause he says, “Zack’s right. I know just the guy for you, Violator, and he’s right here in town. As good a helo driver as you’ll find in the area, and he’d probably pay you for the chance to get some action.”

Cocking my head, I ask, “What’s he doing here in Vegas?”

“Let’s just say he’s in the sunset of his career. Like me, I guess.”

Great.

“But older. A lot older.”

Jesus Christ.

Shep looks at his watch. “Rack out here tonight. I’ll call the boys now, call the pilot first thing in the morning.”

“Why not now?”

“No use. He takes his hearing aids out when he sleeps.”

I blow out a long sigh. “Of course he does.”

FORTY-FIVE

Talyssa Corbu had traveled all over Europe, she’d even been to the Caribbean, but she’d never visited the United States before she deplaned at LAX and went through customs and immigration. Once clear on the other side, she rented a car and drove to a mall, where she began buying clothes, a suitcase, and other items she hadn’t bothered with in her rush to get on a plane for America.

As soon as she was equipped, she called Gentry and he answered on the first ring. When she told him she was in LA, he begged her to sit tight, not to get a hotel room in her name because she was compromised to the enemy, and he promised to call her back with a plan.

Thirty minutes later he did so, and he gave her an address in Receda.

When she got there, a woman let her in and put her in a little guest room. Talyssa called Gentry back and he promised to keep her apprised of everything, but if and only if she stayed away from Rancho Esmerelda.

She knew where Rancho Esmerelda was, not far away at all; she considered driving there right then. But she did not, because she also knew Roxana’s chances were better with Harry than they were with her. She thought it unlikely that her sister would be able to live up to her promise to call her with information on her location, but if her guess was correct about the ranch east of the San Fernando Valley, then they wouldn’t need Roxana’s help in finding her.

She wished she could liaise in some way with the police department here, but her experience told her she needed to stay away from them. Further, Gentry had intimated that he’d learned that the U.S. government had an interest in the operation, and while he didn’t think they were actively supporting the sex trafficking ring, he thought it possible, likely even, that they were protecting the Director in exchange for intelligence he was providing them.

America was just as dirty as the other countries the pipeline ran through.

Talyssa pushed this depressing fact out of her mind and tried to think optimistically.

She sat on her bed in her little room and told herself it wouldn’t be long now.

She’d see her sister again, and then she’d spend the rest of her life putting things right with her.

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