Page 83 of Ground Truth

The wiry man refused to give up.

He fought against Drake with what remained of his strength.

But the scuffle was short and bloody.

The intruder’s wounds opened wide and poured his life all over the marble floor.

While Drake was finishing the job, Flint won his battle of wills with nausea.

He strode quickly to the master toilet and splashed cold water on his face and rinsed his mouth. For the moment, he felt slightly less dizzy.

“You okay in there?” Drake called out.

“Yeah. Fine.”

Returning to the room, careful to step around the large pool of blood on the floor, Flint reached down and pulled the man’s knitted mask off.

He swiped it in the man’s blood, collecting enough to test several times over. He stuffed the soggy mess into an evidence bag and sealed it.

Next he yanked the man’s glove off his left hand and captured his fingerprints on his phone app.

Finally, he snapped a few photos of the man’s face, frozen in horror the moment he died.

Flint punched a few quick buttons on the phone to send the prints and photos off to Gaspar.

Then he dropped the phone into his pocket and handed the evidence bag to Drake.

“Do you recognize this guy?” Drake asked.

“We’ll use the DNA to confirm identity when we get back. But I’ll bet you ten bucks now that this guy got burned at least five years ago. No way an active Mossad agent makes mistakes like that,” Flint said. “If he’d been a solid performer, we’d be dead. Simple as that.”

“Lucky for us, then,” Drake replied, breathing heavily. “Now what? I vote we get out of here before his pals show up.”

“What makes you think they’re not waiting outside?”

Drake snapped his gaze back to Flint. “Are they?”

“Not likely.” Flint shook his head carefully. “There’s two of us and maybe they knew that. But only one of them came inside. Which probably means he didn’t have a partner with him.”

“Probably,” Drake replied sourly. “So if he’d been authorized to take us out, he’d have had backup. If he wasn’t tasked to eliminate us, then he’s rogue.”

“Let’s not wait until reinforcements arrive to find out which it is,” Flint said. “How did he communicate with his team? He’s not wearing a headset. Check his pockets. See if he has a cell phone or a tracking device on him.”

Drake patted the dead man’s pockets. He pulled out a holstered pistol and a cell phone.

“Keep the gun. We might need it,” Flint said.

Drake stuffed the pistol into his pocket. “What about the phone? They can track it easily enough. And us, too, if we keep the phone on us.”

“Bring it along. We’ll download the data and find a clever place to stash it,” Flint replied on his way through the house.

At the front entrance, Flint looked through the window blinds, scanning for security personnel. A few cars were parked along the curbs. He counted six groups of pedestrians, all civilians, strolling the sidewalks. Traffic on the street moved at or near posted speeds.

-

Chapter 42

“Now what?” Drake asked, stuffing the dead man’s weapon into his waistband. “The battery’s not removable unless I destroy the phone to get it.”

---