Page 105 of Double Shot

Roan was taking his turn in the shower when Grant rolled up into the driveway, driving a completely inconspicuous neon green Lamborghini.

“Deejay,” I greeted him as he popped out of the convertible. “I see you took low profile to heart.”

“This car has a very low profile, to get a more low-profile car would have meant trying to get a Ford GT or a Caterham,” he said.

“Low profile, likeblending in,” I suggested, and helped him grab some of the bags he had brought. Some were gear and went in the back of the moving truck, the rest seemed like a local barbecue joint. He was lucky Sadie wasn’t one of those girls who liked to flirt with vegetarianism or veganism. She would have been left with almost sickeningly sweet iced tea and a Styrofoam cup of coleslaw.

“Grant!” Sadie greeted him with a hug. “Fries!” she greeted the bags of food, and took a bag of said fries and some sort of sandwich.

“So, what did you bring us to eat?” I asked.

“No idea, fam, I told them fuck me up with fifty dollars’ worth of their food and this is what they gave me.”

“I got sliced steak,” Sadie said.

“That’s brisket, Poppet,” Roan said, walking in. “Shower is free.”

“Grant’s here,” I said, mastering the obvious.

“Let’s go get all of your gear tied into the mobile rig in the yard,” Roan said. He paused long enough to dig another brisket sandwich out to take with him.

The shower was a shower, and that was about it. No real pressure, and the hot water didn’t last long enough, but after that many days driving and just changing clothes rather than real cleaning, it was enough. Roan had insisted on us not stopping at any hotels, and had even gone so far as setting up a few decoys at the house on Phoenician, several food deliveries through apps, and a couple bottles of booze as well. He said the neighbor would pick it up, I didn’t keep up with all the balls he had in the air when he started juggling.

I could only assume that he knew we were back on being monitored again.

He also seemed to know the man in charge of Kaijin’s security detail, so I wasn’t going to argue with him. I barely remembered Worthington, in the short time my unit and the Royal Marines were teamed up, I couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a large man with a beard and an English accent.

Roan knew him, and that was good enough for me.

* * *

After everyone hadtheir shit squared away, we started going over the plan. Roan rolled out a large printed map of the Final Prophecy compound and starting laying aerial photographs that he had managed to grab with the drone while I was taking that shower and a time out for a long overdue shave.

“That explains why you wanted a fucking printer in the truck,” I said, picking up a print off the table of the guard house now. The place had been reinforced, and there were two men standing there. They looked like the last wannabe cowboys who had been here, but rather than being kids in oversized hats and belt buckles, they were all older, their faces more weathered, and instead of kitted up ARs they had pistols in holsters.

“Resolution on these is really good, man,” Grant said, looking at a few of the other pictures. “Like crispandfresh.”

“New optical filtering program on the drones, and I did what you said, and switched from LG optics to Apple. They were more expensive, but you can almost read this wanker’s name on his belt buckle.”

“C’mon, plan now, nerd later,” Sadie said. “I want this bitch dead and I wanna go home to my big-ass new house.”

“Yeah, this place is a drag,” Grant agreed.

“We’ll owe you one, man,” I said. Having Grant run the wizard’s seat, putting three of us on the ground, armed and armored? These guys didn’t know what was coming.

“Lach is going to reprise his role from last time, the path you took along the perimeter and crossing the fence seems to still be viable,” Roan said. “And you will be the point of the spear.” I gave him a salute. “Sadie, you are going to head up the opposite side of the perimeter, and approach the blind side of the compound.”

“Why didn’t Kyle do that, last time?” she asked.

“Because he was carrying a small arsenal of weapons, and the wall he would have to cross would be too high. He’s carrying maybe a third of what he had last time, and you’ll have that fence cutting torch.” I knew he was talking about the torch Sadie and I had used to cut through the fences when we were bugging out, after Bootlegger. “Once you clear the grounds, you will skirt the building, go around the sports complex and there are several glass double doors there. Those will be easy to bypass quietly.”

“But I’m still bringing Thumper, right?” she asked.

“Yes, you are still bringing the grenade launcher,” Roan agreed.

“You have a n00b t00b?” Grant asked grinning.

“It’s a Vietnam era M-79 grenade launcher, and yes,” Roan said. “She’s good with it,” he added. “I actually watched her shoot a guy in the chest with a teargas can.” Grant grinned and gave her a high five.

---