Page 68 of Good Enough

“There is that.” TB’s eyes continued to scan outside the car. “On the day of Ka-Bar’s last email to Kubrick, the French Ambassador in Cairo—the one he’s tight with, Jacques something-or-other—had an emergency. He left the embassy under the radar. No security. Now, he could have been going out to meet his mistress for all we know.”

“But that’s highly unlikely,” Nemo followed up. “He’s pretty damn devoted to his wife and kids.”

“Correct,” TB admitted, “but we have no record of where he went, whom he saw, or what he did. He could have been doing something as innocuous as buying a birthday present for someone. But, add to the fact that he accessed his personal safe before exiting the building, put one and one together, and you get three.”

“He could have been accessing exit packages,” Waters surmised.

“That’s what God thought. The embassy records every time anything is accessed within its walls. This includes personal safes, locked doors, and computer logins; hell, they even keep track of how many times the water gets turned on and off and when. After doing an inventory of past usage, the man hasn’t opened that particular safe in over two years. So, yes, Midas thinks he was accessing emergency exit contacts and providing someone—hopefully Ka-Bar—with a package because he couldn’t get to his own stash. The problem is, Midas was only able to follow him a few blocks on CCTV, and then the guy just disappeared into thin air.”

“Since that’s impossible, that means we have a rough idea of where to search. Ka-Bar must have been hiding out in that vicinity. We’re now left believing he would know that someone would look into the embassy, find the discrepancy, and use CCTV to trace the ambassador. Even if he’s not there now, he could have left another breadcrumb wherever he was,” Waters commented. His elbow propped once again on the windowsill, and he rubbed his top lip with his index finger. “Thin.”

“The thinnest,” Nemo agreed.

“Right now, anorexia is better than nothing,” TB reminded them. “Besides, we need something soon. Our dental benefits can’t handle the rate at which God is losing teeth.”

Waters gave a small laugh despite the situation in front of them. “I just wish I knew if this all connected directly to Kubrick. It doesn’t make sense.”

TB looked back at Nemo. “Well, that’s the other piece of news.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“As you SEALs are always so fond of warning each other, ‘brace.’ We now have confirmation. Her trailer was searched.”

“That’s definitely what you should have led this conversation off with. Goddamnit!” Waters struck the steering wheel with the heels of both hands.

TB ignored him. “Cyclopes went off around oh-two-hundred. Someone was looking for something. They didn’t trash the place, but they did break in, and they didn’t hide the fact that they were there. By the time Steel got there to check it out, whoever it was had already left. No prints, either.”

“And we know it wasn’t Big Bird who broke in since if it was, Steel would have been there to witness it happen. Apparently, our angry bird brain was at a club all night, then went home with some internet influencer. He was there until just after three o’clock.” Nemo shook his head. “How depressing. They only got to her place at about two-thirty. I should apologize to her for him when I get back.”

TB smacked Nemo upside the back of the head and shook his head.

“What do you want to do, Boss?” Nemo asked.

Waters drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking carefully before he answered. “Tie Kubrick up and cart her off to a safe house for starters.”

“Kinky.”

“Shut up, Nemo, or I’ll tie you up and put you in a coffin with that snake.”

“That’s a low blow.”

“How’s your ass feeling, by the way?” Waters sniped.

“Like two fangs punctured it. And not in a good way.”

TB looked at Nemo. “There’s a good way for that to happen?”

Remembering a set of fangs that had punctured his right ass cheek last night, Waters shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Everybody’s got their kink.”

Nemo got back on topic. “Well, we don’t have a safe house here, and I highly doubt she’ll agree to shutting down her film to go to one stateside.”

Waters grunted at that.

“And while tying her up sounds fun,” Nemo continued, “I don’t want to go another round with that snake. So… what do we do?”

Sighing, Waters scrubbed his face with his hands. “It wouldn’t take someone too long to figure out where she is. Right now, I can watch her just fine. It’s her, me, and six actors. We’re basically in each other’s pockets twenty-four-seven. I can limit crew access to her with help from you guys, but more and more of them are arriving daily. Shit, once filming gears up, add extras in, plus gawkers, there’ll easily be two to three hundred people running around, and I won’t know who belongs and who doesn’t.”

“Can we lock down the shoot?” TB asked.

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