Page 46 of End of Days

We knew the entire bona fides for the linkup from the messages, and inside the gas station Jennifer had triggered the first—the fake ask for chocolate ice cream. At that point, we knew we were in play, but there was nothing we could do beyond taking pictures. The target walked out, went to the ATM booth, and then was met by a second man. We recorded it all, impotent. I’d seriously thought about just running up and thumping him in the head, but knew that was a nonstarter.

We settled for following them, which had been easy on the expressway. Eventually, they left it and began driving through the concrete jungle of the Sanabis neighborhood of Manama. A hotbed of Shiite folks who didn’t take kindly to strangers.

In the eyes-on position, I saw the vehicle leave the highway and start threading through the narrow streets of the neighborhood. I followed for about three turns, and then pulled off. From studying the driver of the vehicle at the gas station, I knew he was looking for the bad man. He had that wolf scent in everything he did. I’d called Aaron and Shoshana and told them my position, and they picked up the follow, eventually finding the apartment, but there was no way we could maintain surveillance in this place.

With the sun going down, we’d pulled off and made a plan for the next day, which, for me, was an almost impossible task. We had no idea what these guys had planned and no way to find out. I’dput my boss’s ass on the line for this—not to mention the entire Taskforce—and now had no way to solve the problem. Failure was not an option here, and I was really regretting that I didn’t take down the Bosnian in the parking lot. We would have had to run like no tomorrow, possibly taking his contact as well, but we probably could have made it to the plane. Probably could have prevented the hit that was coming.

The glaring truth was that there was no way to penetrate that neighborhood for an assault. It was like every small neighborhood in Boston or Houston—or Fallujah for that matter. The folks there knew who belonged and who did not. Because the terrorists were involved in subversive activities, there was no doubt that they had an early warning net established. They’d been hunted by the surveillance state of Bahrain for years, and had managed to survive. Which meant they were skilled.

And yet, a hit was coming. Something I’d promised to stop.

Inside the hotel room, we’d bantered about various courses of action, and all of them were a no-go. From using a small drone to acting like homeless folks, there was no way we could maintain surveillance on the place. Given the atmospherics, it was impossible.

At that point, we’d shifted to just slamming the place, taking it down with all inside. We knew the location of the hornet’s nest, and we knew they were planning a hit, so it wasn’t out of the scope of our authority, but doing such a thing had so many different points of failure that it was a last resort. The odds of us being in a Bahrain jail after such an action were very, very good. And our defense that they were planning a killing wouldn’t amount to much if the opposition denied it.

I’d finally canceled the planning, saying it wasn’t a course of action that was feasible. Shoshana had bristled, saying, “It’s not your decision. It’s ours. That Bosnian knows who killed theRamsad,and I’m going to peel him like a grape.”

And that laid bare the operational framework we were in, finally ripping open the confusing command chain. I’d been waiting on it. The Taskforce had given us Omega authority, meaning it was a Taskforce operation, but we were here under Israeli passports gleaned by Aaron and Shoshana, meaning she thought they still had primacy.

I looked at Aaron, and saw he was a little pissed as well, but I could tell he understood my position. He wasn’t going to fight me, but it would be up to me to convince Shoshana. He would be no help.

The truth is I had been more than willing to play the follower for their operation in Switzerland, but we’d entered a new world.Iwas the team leader here. That sounds arrogant, but I had given my word to Wolffe. If this mission failed, it would be because of me, not because I’d followed the Israelis.

I looked at Shoshana and said, “The mission is to find out who’s doing the killing, not revenge. I get you want the Bosnian, but peeling him like a grape isn’t going to solve our problem. The way we’ll do that is through my assets. The Mossad has given you nothing but passports. My team has given us the ability to penetrate. Don’t make this a fight here.I’min charge.”

She surprised me, like she did every single time we operated together. She walked up to me, gave her little disconcerting deep stare into my eyes, and said, “Okay, Nephilim. You can be in charge. I’m not here to fight you, but you won’t allow me to solve the problem.”

Taken aback, I said, “What’s that mean?”

“We can’t put surveillance on the outside, but wecanon the inside. I promise. They’re kids. They have Wi-Fi, and they’re bound to be using all sorts of applications. Let me penetrate that. We’ll get what they’re doing from the inside instead of watching from the outside.”

I looked at Jennifer and she raised her eyebrows. I glanced at Brett and he said, “It is the twenty-first century. We have the best hackers in the world.”

I turned to Aaron and he gave me what I wanted, saying, “You’re in charge here. Up to you.”

He knew what I was going to do, but it was the final nail in the coffin of who was running this circus. Now it reallywasup to me. I returned to Shoshana, seeing her grinning.

“What do you say, Nephilim? Want to turn me loose?”

I shook my head, then said, “Not really, but apparently we don’t have a lot of choices. So letting Carrie roam free is probably the best of the bad ideas.”

She laughed and said, “I can penetrate the neighborhood. I can move like a fish in water. You know that. What I need is the ability to penetrate the Wi-Fi in that apartment. And you can provide that. Call that guy Cream. He’ll figure it out.”

Jennifer was already digging through a backpack, looking for a device that did nothing but sniff out Wi-Fi nodes, then search for a weakness to penetrate. She said, “His name is Creed, not Cream. And he’s pretty good at his job.”

Chapter 30

Garrett parked his car and went into the greenspace next to the apartment complex with the dead woman, booting up his tablet. He walked to the near end for his signal, just like he had done before, and then took a seat on a bench, keeping an eye out for the small child who had seen him before. He wasn’t in the park, letting Garrett focus solely on his feeds.

Like he had done the last two days, he waited on someone to find the body and initiate a response. Yet again, nobody had shown up. On his feeds, he could see the body in the living room, sprawled on the hardwood floor with her eyes open. She hadn’t started to bloat with internal gases, but that was coming.

In retrospect, he realized he’d made a mistake renting the VRBO for four days without checking the scheduled cleaning for his unit. He’d shown up the next day, expecting at least a maid service to empty the trash or change the sheets, but nobody came. After that, he’d checked his rental agreement and saw there was no maid service. At that point, he’d simply waited each day, hoping someone would find the body.

So far, they had not, and he was growing aggravated. He needed to learn the police inspector’s name and address, or this entire trap was worthless. He considered “finding” the body himself, and calling in an anonymous report, but believed that was a risk. From his time hunting terrorists, he knew that such a contact could be peeled back, even if he was careful.

He decided to return to the apartment and initiate an alarm that would tell him when someone opened the door. He had the tools to do so, and could slave it to his laptop. Then he wouldn’t have to keep coming here in person hoping the body was found.

As he was musing about the problem, his phone rang, surprising him.

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