Chapter 18 August 22, 2024 #2
God flashed a look at Midas. When he returned his gaze to her, she swore she saw a tic at the corner of his mouth, as if he were trying to hold back a smile.
“Very good. He has taught you well.” Without looking away from her, God called out to the AI.
“Nova, search the following tracker number. Whiskey. Alpha. Tango. Echo. Romeo. Sierra. Zero. Five. Three. One. Two. Two.”
A female voice came over the speakers. “Searching Whiskey. Alpha. Tango. Echo. Romeo. Sierra. Zero. Five. Three. One. Two. Two.”
“Sometimes I think Cherry and I should have been looking at women operatives rather than men.” There was just a hint of humor in his comment.
“Subject found,” the female voice said.
On the screen, a green light flashed.
“Who’s that?” Nemo asked.
“That,” God replied, “is Waters. The real one. It would appear that Steel has taught his lovely wife to do more than just shoot.”
Another squeeze to her hand. San Carlos di Bariloche. Why was this man being kept in her hometown? A sick feeling invaded her. Was her brother involved too?
“Chances are, if I know how to do it, Daleyza does too. It was necessary to teach her how to defend herself against my family,” Ildefanso explained.
“Good to know. No more surprises, please, Steel.”
“No guarantees,” she murmured. “He taught me things. Doesn’t mean I didn’t learn more on my own.”
That did cause God to smirk. “Noted.” He moved his eyes around the table.
“That signal went live four hours ago, which is why we needed to change flight plans midair. The tracker Demon placed on Waters has four days’ worth of signal, and then it begins blinking.
When that happens, we have roughly twelve to twenty-four hours left before it dies completely.
We need to be in Argentina and close by before that happens.
“We’ll be making a brief overnight stop at Tribe to gear up for an extended visit to South America. You need to gear up, say hello and goodbye to your other halves and children, and be ready to go at oh-five-hundred tomorrow morning.
“Demon—everyone in Tribe, Mythos, and the families, with the exception of Paris and Axel, gets one of these newfangled trackers of Midas’ before we fly out.
If anyone doesn’t already have the subdermal ones, they get them.
No exceptions. The surgical ones can wait for now on the kids.
” He paused. “Better put one in the damn dog as well.”
“Got it.”
“Midas—all trackers need to be online and live at all times going forward. Can Cyclopes be used to track them at all times as his primary objective?”
“No, he doesn’t work that way. He’s just surveillance based. Eyes on the ground, so to speak. His programming won’t match what you’re talking about, so that would be something for Nova. I mean, I could try to make him do that eventually, but we really don’t have time for me to do that right now.”
“Fine. As of this moment, it’s Nova’s primary objective at all times. Build another fucking AI if you need to when we get back, but she never goes off this. If she can do other things at the same time, great, but this is nonnegotiable.
“Everyone will have their comms in their ears twenty-four seven when we leave for Argentina. You can mute yourselves, but make sure you’re listening for pips on your watches if we need you to turn them back on.
Never, and I mean never, take them out of your ears for any reason.
Mold a set for Daleyza, and get her a watch as well.
I want to be able to reach anyone at any time.
When you’re not monitoring, transfer controls to Cerberus, and he’ll cover for you for eight hours each day. Coordinate who’s on the hub when.”
“Got it.”
She leaned over to whisper to Ildefanso. “Mold?”
“They’re designed to fit deep into your ear canal. You can still hear with them in, but this way, they can’t dislodge. They even work underwater.”
God continued. “Nemo—I need you and Gem prepped for all possible ingress and egress tactics on wherever Waters is. Have Midas get you the exact location and whatever you need. Drone footage, building plans, photographs, you name it.”
“Just texted her. She’s already on it.”
“TB—double-check and triple-check our weapons and ammunition. We’re going in heavy. If there’s something we need, let Cerberus know. His contacts can shore us up when we hit the ground in Argentina.”
“Burn-it-to-the-ground mode. Got it.”
“Do we have eyes and ears on Tripoli and his friends?”
Midas nodded. “We lost contact about the same time as we did when Waters’ tracker shell game started. Tripoli is back online now, and I sent them toward the Darién Gap.”
“Good choice. Cherry—I need you to go into the pool of traditional team members of Tribe and select three teams to impersonate Tribe and Mythos. Pull them off whatever they’re working on and get them to S?o Paolo tomorrow night.
They’ll be briefed when they arrive. We’re going to play our own little shell game with these fucks. ”
“What’s a traditional team?” Daleyza asked.
“They’re the guys who take basic security gigs—bodyguards, stuff like that—that make the company look legitimate. The building we work in attracts attention, so these guys are our cover.”
God continued. “I sent Kubrick and the girls to the Maldives this morning to get them out of sight. Who do we have on them?”
“Titan and Edge from Mythos,” TB answered.
“She’s good for now, then. Don’t need her spiraling until the last minute. When we go in, though, they’ll need to lock them down until we’re out of there. Have we got the contingencies in place for her cover story?”
“Yes. And I’ll prepare them for the shitstorm they’re going to create when you lock her down.”
“Appreciate that. It’s gonna cost me big time when she gets home.”
“Bring home Waters, she won’t give a shit-gibbon about anything else.”
“A shit-gibbon? Really? That’s a new one.”
“When she gets mad, she gets creative.”
God shook himself. “If I didn’t think the cartel would shoot her in ten seconds flat, I’d send her in there with her mouth as her only weapon.
She’d scare the fuck out of all of them,” he muttered.
“All right, everyone, get some rest. We’ve got just under two hours before we land, and another hour until we’re back at Tribe. ”
“Unless Medusa’s driving,” TB threw out. “Then it’ll be thirty minutes.”
A click came over the airplane’s communications system from the cockpit. “I heard that, Tuberculosis. One of these days, you’re going to appreciate my driving skills.”
“Fuck a duck.”
There was laughter around the table, and it was a soft break to the tension that had developed over the team leader’s predicament. One by one, the other men got up from the table, leaving her and Ildefanso with his boss.
“What about me?” Ildefanso asked.
“What about you?”
“You gave everyone else instructions, except me.”
“Your job is to protect Daleyza.”
“While I appreciate you recognizing that, I really didn’t need you to instruct me to do it.” He sounded offended.
“Focusing on your job once we get into San Carlos di Bariloche and protecting her while we’re there is more than enough for you to focus on.”
Her heart rate spiked, and her stomach dropped. “I’m going to Argentina?”
“Belleza, if one of his trackers is in Bariloche, I’m betting that means it’s on your family’s property. It’s a warning to us as well as a distraction.”
“A warning of what?”
“That there’s no help to be found from your brother.”
“Like you’d actually go to him for help?” she asked incredulously.
“Make no mistake, if it meant protecting you, I would go to the devil himself. But if your brother is taking orders from my father, and Waters’ tracker being present there suggests this to be true, then it means any hope of family loyalty to you is completely lost.” He looked to his boss.
“It also means that she’s a target. I’d rather leave her in lockdown at Tribe. ”
“Fanso! How dare you—”
The next thing she knew, his mouth was on hers.
Hard. The hand he had on the back of her neck, which apparently he’d used to drag her into his space, held her in a punishing grip so she couldn’t move her head at all.
When she tried to move her body instead, she discovered he’d used his other hand to haul her from her seat and into his lap, his arm a brutal band around her waist, holding her tight as she straddled him, her knees between his thighs and the arms of the seat.
Heart pounding. Blood racing. Strong arms embracing her, a sensation of warmth and protectiveness, despite the fact that she couldn’t move. Soft lips that contrasted with the hard press against hers. His scruff abrading her smooth skin, likely leaving behind a whisker burn.
It had been so long since she’d kissed him. She felt like she was falling into an abyss, so she clutched at him in return, as if that would keep her from falling.
The kiss was over almost as soon as she realized what was happening. While it lasted only seconds, that didn’t mean she would forget it any time soon.
Embarrassed by how quickly she’d succumbed and angry with herself for responding, she whisper-yelled, “What the hell was that for?”
She looked over to where his boss had been sitting only to see that the man was no longer there. Either the man was very fast, or the kiss had lasted longer than she thought.
“It was the fastest way to keep you from saying something you wouldn’t be able to take back.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but he merely raised that one eyebrow—the one she always wanted to rip off his face like a bandage… or duct tape—and make him eat it because it was so infuriating.
It was also a look she knew well from him. The one he made when he knew she was going to regret doing or saying whatever he was stopping her from doing or saying. Unfortunately, her back was up, and even though she knew she should stop and breathe, she began hissing at him in rapid Spanish.
“If you leave me behind, I swear to God, Fanso, you will regret it. I hate it when you treat me like a feeble woman. You, of all people, know better than that. I shoot as well as you do. I’m sneakier than you, and I’m faster than you too.
I can help you. If they’ve got your friend hidden on the family property, I know every inch of that space, including where all the bodies are buried.
I can help you, especially if my idiot brother is involved. ”
“I know that, pequeno tigre.”
She ran out of fire and brimstone to rain down on him. He did? “Then why are you planning to leave me behind?”
“You need to work on your listening skills. I said I’d rather leave you behind on lockdown. I didn’t say that I would.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No, because you raced to the finish line, like always, rather than stopping to think first. It’s actually a little reassuring to know you haven’t changed all that much. Every time you got mad at me, you’d scream at me in Spanish.”
“And you’d yell right back,” she reminded him, testily.
“It was the only way to get a word in edgewise,” he protested.
He huffed, then his eyes swung to the ceiling of the cabin, and he mouthed words in Spanish to himself, but she couldn’t catch them.
He continued. “If you’re locked down at Tribe, you’re safe.
No one, and I mean no one, can get to you inside our walls.
While you’d be safer at Tribe with the other women and the children, and therefore I’d be happier, I know we need you if we have to go onto your family’s lands. ”
“You’d be happier if I was safe.” She understood the words, but for whatever reason, they weren’t processing through her head.
He brushed a stray strand of hair back that had escaped her ponytail. “Of course I would be. Why do you think I came to Wisconsin?”
“You needed to protect Madre.”
“We moved her a week before this mess started. That was for her health and yours. But coming to the state myself? That was for you.”
“I’m so confused.”
“Dios me ayude… Because a week ago, you were safe. Exhausted and emotionally bankrupt, but safe. Madre had already been moved to the care center, and yes, we put guards on her when my family threatened her. She’s safe.”
“But if she’s safe—”
He framed her face with his hands. “They knew you were with her. You were part of the threat. The whole reason I came to Wisconsin was to get you and take you to safety.”