Page 99 of The Devil's Ransom

“Specifically? I have no idea, but I’m sure Pike will.”

Chapter57

My car was starting to heat up even with the windows down and the sun setting. I looked at my watch, wanting my surveillance rotation to begin just to get out of this seat. Actually, I was leaning toward just hitting the place. If we startled some German tourists renting the Vrbo, then we’d apologize and leave, holstering our weapons.

At least that’s what I wanted to do.

My earpiece came alive with another SITREP, this time from Veep. “Still no activity. I say again, no activity.”

We’d been outside the target house for two hours now, and hadn’t seen any movement at all, which, given our evidence that it evenwasa target house, didn’t mean anything at all.

Creed had managed to download the GPS file in Branko’s phone—well, our cloned phone—and had plotted all the points for the last month. Two months was just too great of an ask.

The problem set was the opposite of what one usually did with this sort of data. For instance, in 2003, the CIA snatched a bad guy named Abu Omar off the streets of Milan, Italy, using what they considered good tradecraft at the time. Unfortunately, the times had leapfrogged beyond the Cold War.

The Italian police had taken the snapshot from the moment of capture and analyzed every cell phone in the square, focusing on each one to determine who owned it. They’d come up with abouta dozen that didn’t fit, and eventually used that data to trace the path of the owners until twenty-three Americans were convicted in absentia of kidnapping on Italian soil. Those twenty-three still have warrants for their arrests, including the chief of station in Milan, even as the CIA to this day disavows all knowledge of the operation.

Our problem was the inverse. Unlike the Italians, we knew the cell number, but we had no specific point in time to analyze. Creed had started on areas with more than one visit, which eliminated an enormous amount of data, but still left a universe’s worth. From there, he’d axed bars, restaurants, train stations, and the like, focusing on places to stay—houses, hotels, youth hostels, whatever. He’d found the ones we’d already assaulted in Zagreb, Korcula, and Split, eliminating them, then narrowed the list to three.

One was in Liechtenstein, which he’d only visited twice and wasn’t worth my effort. Another was in Zadar, with at least thirty hits, so that was something. The final was in Dubrovnik and also had about thirty hits. So, I had a choice. Since Zadar was up the coast, beyond Split, and Branko had consistently moved south, down the coast, I’d chosen the Dubrovnik location. It was on a hill in an area known as Lapad, without any access to vehicles, which was a clue in our favor. It seemed Branko never wanted a place where a car could pull up right outside, disgorging men before he could get away. He always built a little surveillance box to catch you coming on foot. And he’d done so here.

We’d found the cameras in the trees and bushes and had avoided them, settling down to wait until we saw someone leave. If it had been a little old lady, we would have reassessed. If it was some guy wearing Birkenstocks with skinny legs and a pasty complexion from staring at computers all day, we’d assault.

So far, we’d found nothing at all, and I was running out of time. Blaine wanted my acknowledgment of his termination order “tonight,” which I understood meant my time, but I was going to use “tonight” as in his time, meaning I had an extra six hours to work with. Even so, the clock was running, because the sun was starting to set.

I glanced at Jennifer in the driver’s seat and said, “I’m thinking about cracking it, right now.”

She said, “We don’t have any evidence one way or the other.”

I nodded, then said, “We get to the door and radarscope it. If we find life behind the door, we back off. If we don’t, we crack it.”

“What about the early warning net? You’ll trigger.”

“Only if we get in front of the cameras. We found three. I’m pretty sure they haven’t wired the woods like it’s Fort Knox.”

“But they might have some motion detectors, heat sensors, or something else we haven’t seen.”

I nodded and said, “Yeah, they might, but there’s a space capsule about to crash and I’m sick of waiting around. My bet is the place is empty and we’re wasting our time here watching.”

She smiled and said, “And you’ll have to quit once the sun sets.” She reached behind the seat and pulled up her backpack, saying, “I’m sick of sweating in this car as well. Let’s do it.”

That brought out a grin. I called in the team, gave them my assessment, then said, “Jennifer’s got the lock. Brett, you’ve got security of the breach, and you’re lead. Take us through the cameras. Veep, radarscope. Knuckles, you and I in after initial breach. But only if we get a negative on the scope. If we get a live body inside, we pull back and wait. I don’t want to scare some couple from France if they’ve rented the place.”

We spent about three minutes kitting up, then got in order ofmarch, with Brett in the lead. He went down the stairs until he reached a landing, then climbed the rail, circling around in the woods. We got parallel to the edge of the building, about thirty feet into the woods on the side of the hill, and he said, “Last camera is just above the overhang for the door. I’ll take Veep for the radar check and alert you. If you see us coming back, it’s no joy.”

I nodded, feeling the familiar trace of adrenaline rising. I said, “Execute.”

I watched them slink through the woods, then hug the wall past the porch overhang, avoiding the last camera. Brett put his weapon on the door and Veep went to work. After about three minutes, I was going to call and ask him if he had the damn batteries in the device or needed a class on how to work it, because he was taking forever. Thirty seconds later, I heard, “Cleared to breach. I say again, cleared to breach.”

Jennifer took the lead, her lock-pick kit out and ready, no weapons in her hands. That was Brett’s job. Knuckles and I raced across the slope right behind her, until we were stacked in the small alcove. Brett shifted his position to allow him to cover the door without putting his barrel over Jennifer, Veep came up to the rear of our formation, and she went to work. Twenty seconds later, she turned back to me, telling me the door was clear.

I nodded, and she swung it open, with me leading the way. I went right, Knuckles went left, Veep followed me to the right, then Brett went left.

I smelled it as soon as I entered. The sickly sweet odor of blood. I saw a body on the ground, but ignored it, continuing to clear. Jennifer entered, now with her Glock out, and I said, “Cover the door.” She rotated around, took a knee, and we split up into two-man teams, each clearing rooms. I took the stairs with Veepbehind me, and we reached the bottom, finding another body. I went right, saw a door, and waited on Veep’s squeeze. He rubbed my shoulder, and I entered a laundry room, nothing else inside.

We returned up the stairs, and the place was clear, Knuckles and Brett searching bodies while Jennifer maintained eyes on the door.

I said, “What do we have?”

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