Chapter 8
EIGHT
Rio Grande, Argentina
Adam sipped from the small china cup, and his brows rose. “This stuff is good.”
“Told you.” Ash nudged his elbow. “Plenty of places in the world with better coffee than Seattle.”
The two of them were at a tiny round table that barely fit their knees under it, in a dining area on the beach side of a lobby that spilled outside onto a patio.
Overhead the sun beat down in a blue sky, and traffic buzzed past on the road.
Beyond that was a strip of sand, the heavy waves of the South Atlantic, and a view of the Falkland Islands baking in the morning sun.
Adam peered over the top rim of his Aviators. “You look ridiculous in that shirt. We’re supposed to be professionals.”
“How dare you!” Ash ran a hand down the Hawaiian shirt he’d dug up from who-knew-where, laughing. “I’m a consummate professional in these khakis. You’re in shorts!”
“Dress shorts. Nice ones, with pockets. And a shirt without flowers all over it.” Adam sipped his coffee and stared at the water rather than the women walking by. Trying not to tap his foot waiting for the representative from Earthnet to show up. The receiver burning a hole in his pocket.
“Point taken. How was Ice this morning?” Ash bounced his knee up and down under the table.
Adam set the cup in its saucer. “Dan said it’s just bruises. He’ll be fine.”
“You know what book she was talking about?”
Adam shook his head, not wanting to talk about the intel gathered as a result of Ice’s actions. He’d rather wait until Ice’s injuries healed…and then wring the guy’s neck. Not that any of the rest of them would’ve done differently, but that wasn’t the point.
A silver Porche pulled sharply out of the flow of the traffic and stopped at the curb. The driver climbed out, unfolding his tall frame. Nice shorts—with pockets. White dress shirt. Silver watch and flat-bottomed white sneakers.
Tanned enough he’d been here a while, or he didn’t like sunscreen. Light blond hair and a beard along the line of his chin, across his upper lip, and in a vertical line down from his mouth—an extended goatee.
“Here he is.” Adam got up as the guy approached and held out his hand. “Good to see you, Mr. Johannsen.”
The guy slid off his sunglasses and took Adam’s hand, a half smirk on his face. “You as well. The mission was successful?” He shook with Ash.
Adam took the receiver out of his pocket and handed it over.
“Thanks.” Johannsen nodded, and they all took their seats.
“We got what we were tasked with retrieving. Two birds and all that.”
“That’s good.” Johannsen lifted his finger to a server and ordered something that Adam didn’t catch. “They’re definitely up to more than they’re advertising. This will help.” He slid the receiver into his pocket. “You got the downloads?”
Adam slid out the two storage devices. Bigger than flash drives, they were closer to the size of a phone. “If Earthnet wasn’t counting on us not noticing that the information belonged to a company called Starwise Holdings, you’d be wrong.”
Johannsen sat back in his chair, his expression placid. “That’s company business.”
“If you paid us to steal from your competitor, then we’ve got a serious problem.”
Johannsen smiled. “I’m happy to hear you say that, because it means I’m right about you. Even after all these years.”
So this was a test to see if Adam was still a good guy?
Depended on a person’s definition of good. He didn’t think that’s what Johannsen meant, but this wasn’t the kind of place where they could speak openly.
Adam eyed him. “Does Earthnet wanna have a problem with us?”
“Usually, they hire among people whose reputations precede them. Yours does not. In fact, no one I asked could even verify your existence.” Johannsen smirked a little.
“They had to know who they were working with, and if that couldn’t be done through references, then it had to be a small job that told them what kind of team you are. ”
“Shame you couldn’t be the one to vouch for us.” Ash sipped his coffee, an amused smile on his face.
“Now they know we’re the kind of team who completes the job despite a helicopter and a team showing up to steal these.” Adam tapped the storage drives.
Johannsen’s brows rose, and behind him a toddler started to cry. The mom shifted to bounce him on her knee, trying to interest him in a pastry.
“What’s on there that’s important enough someone else showed up to kill us and retrieve it?” Adam folded his arms across his chest. “That’s the only thing I wanna know right now.”
“Even being requested to carry no weapons, you still got the job done.” Johannsen sipped his water. “Impressive.”
Adam hadn’t agreed to carrying no weapons, but he wasn’t going to point that out right now. Just no live rounds. “We left the helicopter where it wrecked, and the other bodies are still at the facility. The team’s leader ran off when it became clear she wouldn’t get what she wanted.”
“Any idea who she was?”
“I can have my assistant send you an image we captured of her.”
“Obliged.” Johannsen inclined his head.
“So what was the point of all that? You really needed us to go in and retrieve your tech?”
“The assignment was a necessary part of our business. The trouble you ran into was not. I’ll have a team of my researchers identify the woman and her associates, and forensic experts will comb through the wreckage.”
“Appreciate it.”
Johannsen didn’t seem inclined to explain.
Or he didn’t have the words to do so thoroughly without breaking the NDA he’d signed, or whatever.
“The program you retrieved is one that learns. When your team downloaded it, the program saw what you were doing. Its access to the facility security system allowed it to learn from your actions. Your words. The decisions you made, and how you reacted to additional problems that arose.”
“Like a chopper full of mercenaries?”
“None of us anticipated that.” Johannsen almost seemed distressed. “I can assure you Earthnet did not contract another team. But I’m sure the program will be all the more robust with the data it was able to gather.”
“Good to know you didn’t send them.”
“With that, our initial business is concluded.” Johannsen touched his watch. “I’ve initiated payment, and I have another job for you.”
A server came over. She set a plate down in front of the Earthnet rep. Smelled like a meat and cheese sandwich.
“I’ll have one of those as well,” Adam told the server. He’d probably mangled the Spanish, but she was likely accustomed to tourists in this part of town.
Ash lifted his hand. “Me, too.”
“With pleasure.” She bowed slightly and retreated.
“So what’s the job?” Ash looked in his coffee mug but didn’t pick it up.
Adam clocked two guys doing a slow drive-by and watched them for a second. The woman with the toddler got up quickly and left in the other direction. “Now we’ve proven ourselves, I’m assuming there’s more for us to do.”
Johannsen wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“Starwise Holdings is a subsidiary of Earthnet, though you’re unlikely to ascertain that from a simple forensic accounting.
I’m still trying to grasp all the ways Earthnet is tangled with other companies they own, or ones they’ve acquired through less-than-reputable means. ”
Adam’s stomach rumbled.
“Bottom line is, they need you for another job.”
Adam glanced at Ash, who lifted his brows.
“Starwise recently conducted a test of a new drone system they’ve been working on.
There were some problems with the program, and one of the drones drifted off course.
Considerably. We’ve managed to track it so far, but it’s shortly going to go down in territory known to be dangerous.
What we need is a team who can go into a hostile area and retrieve it before our competitors do. ”
“How long do we have until it crashes?”
“A matter of a few hours.” Johannsen dug a flash drive out of his shirt pocket and handed it over.
Adam turned the drive over in his fingers. “Where is the drone?”
“Southern Turkey, far too close to the Syrian border.”
Adam glanced at Ash, and they shared a look. The clock was absolutely ticking. “Any chance it’ll be noticed by someone and shot down?”
“There is tech that’s part of the drone’s system to ensure it isn’t spotted by any radar.
It is unlikely to be noticed while it’s flying, but as soon as it hits the ground, we run the risk that someone will discover it.
If it’s shot at, or destroyed, we still require the pieces to be retrieved.
But we’d much rather have it returned in one piece. ”
Adam nodded. “Understood.”
“Your payment will be twice what it was for the job you just did. Per day.”
He didn’t want to react to that, but mere mortals balked at that much money. “We’ll take a look at the specs and let you know our final decision within an hour.” He figured they’d likely be wheels-up by then, but they could call from the plane.
Johannsen lifted his sandwich and wrapped it in a napkin. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
The other sandwiches showed up just as Johannsen was pulling away from the curb, and Adam took a big bite. The hot and spicy mix of meats hit his tongue, and he lifted his brows. “This is good.”
“Eat fast,” Ash said. “If we need to do a full workup on a new mission and loop in everyone, it’s going to take most of that hour.”
“We should order these to go for everyone.”
Ash slid out his phone. “I’ll ask Google Translate how to say that.”
Adam shot him a look. “I can do it.”
Ignoring that, Ash motioned the server to them. He spoke fast, reading off his phone.
Adam didn’t catch much of it. After the server left, he said, “I could’ve done it.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Marina. He slid his thumb across the screen and stuck the phone between his shoulder and his cheek. “Hey.” He took another bite of his sandwich and saw the two guys drive by again.
“We got paid, I see.”
“And we got another job.”
“Noah and I will be working something else, so we’ll be out today.”
“Got it,” Adam said. “We’ll be on the plane. Probably headed for Turkey.”
“Copy that. I’ll set it up and file your flight plan.”
The server came back with a white paper bag.
Ash grabbed it, and they were on the move.