Chapter 6
I saw Bobby’s mouth open, him saying, “What?”
My view shifted, Amena starting across the green space of Marion Square to the front of the Embassy Suites. She looked over
her shoulder and through her eyes I saw the guy just standing there holding the bag. She stopped and snapped, “Follow me and
put that thing into action. Quickly.”
I was pulled from the monitor by Creed saying, “Pike, they’re leaving the room. Looks like they only took the computer. They
left all the other stuff behind.”
I nodded and said into the headset, “They’re on the way down. You need to step it up. I have no idea which way they’re going
to go once they leave the elevator.”
She grabbed Bobby’s sleeve and said again, “Follow me. Right now.”
He said, “I have to get the Grail in operation.”
“Do it on the move.”
They took off at a jog, the bouncing of Amena’s glasses making the view look like some sort of crazy first-person shooter
video game. They reached the front of the hotel with Bobby still messing around inside the backpack. I made a judgment call,
saying, “Amena, leave him in the foyer. He’s moving too slow. Spot the targets, get a direction, then go back and get him.”
She said, “Gladly,” and opened the door.
I said, “Wait, give him your cell phone.”
She did so and I turned to Creed, saying, “Call Amena’s phone and read him onto the mission. Get his ass in play. Tell him Amena’s coming back for him, they’re going to get within range of the targets, and he’s going to use the Grail. That’s all I want him to do.”
Creed nodded and dialed. I returned to the monitor, seeing Amena scanning around, looking for the elevators.
The Embassy Suites was built onto the bones of the original Citadel military college way back in the nineteenth century. As
such, it wasn’t like a modern-day Embassy Suites, with high ceilings and open space, at least at the entrance. It was more
like the bastion it once had been, with low ceilings and stairwells everywhere, but I knew the layout from my reconnaissance
earlier.
I said, “Amena, go straight. There are two elevators on the left and right in the middle of the hotel about halfway down.”
She jogged through the crowds and reached an atrium with a large fountain in the center, the area lined with rooms going up
five floors. I said, “You passed them. Turn around, you’ll see the elevators. They have glass walls.”
She did so, and sure enough, we could see an elevator on the left coming down with a family, and an elevator on the right
stopped at the fifth floor. Our floor.
Two guys entered wearing hoodies. I said, “That’s them. If they split up, stick with the one carrying the messenger bag.”
She said, “Got it.”
“You follow until the bag exits, get a line of march, then go get Bobby and intersect them. Knuckles and Veep are on the way.
They’ll be on you soon. It’s not all on your shoulders.”
“Don’t worry about me. You want me to snatch that satchel?”
“No! Do not snatch the bag. If it comes to that, Knuckles and Veep will do it.”
She said nothing, and I knew what she was thinking. I saw the elevator reach the ground floor and the thugs exit, still wearing
their hoodies over their heads. For the first time, I noticed the hoodies had a cleaning service logo, and they were both
carrying containers of cleaning supplies, either as real hotel staff or as crooks pretending to be employees.
I said again, “Do not try to interdict. I know you can, but I just want you to tag it. Understood?”
The targets exited and came around the elevator, away from the front entrance, walking towards the fountain and Amena. She
went into kid mode, crawling onto the fountain’s base and throwing coins into it, letting them walk behind her, her face hidden.
Smart girl.
I said, “Good call on the fountain. They’ll go right by.”
With her eyes focused on the water I didn’t get a shot at their direction of travel. I waited a pregnant second, then said,
“Get eyes on.”
She casually looked around, but they weren’t in the atrium. The glasses beginning to swing left and right in a panic. She
said, “Pike, I don’t see them.”
I said, “Calm down, they’re here. There are two ways out. The south and the west. Go to the southern exit first.”
She did and just about smacked into them in the small alcove leading back to Marion Square. The doors were exit only, meaning
a patron could go out, but would have to return to the front to get back in, presenting a dilemma. Amena would be burned if
she hung around within the alcove with them, waiting on them to commit, but if she exited, and they didn’t, she’d be locked
out.
I said, “Exit, exit.”
She kept going, exiting the hotel and taking a left, moving back to the entrance. She reached a low wall and scurried behind
it, taking a knee and facing the doorway.
I said, “Hold what you got. If they don’t leave here, I’ll send in Bobby from the front.” Something I really didn’t want to
do.
I turned to Creed and said, “What’s Knuckles’ status?”
“He’s there, but he’s trying to find a place to park.”
Amena said, “Pike, Pike, I’ve got ’em. They came out the door and are walking across the square.”
I said, “Drop your glasses on the wall. Line them up with them and go get Bobby.”
She left and I followed the two thugs all the way across the field, seeing them walking towards the light at the intersection of Calhoun and King streets, then lost them.
I heard Amena say, “We’re back, where did they go?”
I said, “Put on the glasses. They went to the Calhoun–King Street crossing, but I lost them from the angle of the camera.”
She said, “I see ’em. I see ’em. They’re crossing now, staying on King Street.”
“Is Bobby ready to go?”
She turned to him and said, “You got the Grail working, right?” He nodded his head and she said, “We’re going to be moving
at a jog, like we’re late for something. We’ll pass them by, then you’ll act confused, like we’ve gone too far. I’ll start
looking at a map on my phone, and you turn on the Grail. They’ll pass right by us and you’ll have your hit, understood?”
I would have interjected some words of wisdom, but that plan was about perfect. Finally, my radio clicked with, “Pike, Pike,
this is Knuckles. Where do you want me?”
“King Street. Go down past the Chipotle but no further than George Street. Use the west side of the road. Targets and Amena
will be coming down the east side. Break, break, Amena, you copy that transmission?”
“I got it.” She was out of breath, and I was getting the first-person shooter effect again. She jogged through a red light,
causing a car to honk, and was on King Street. She said, “I can see them a block ahead, moving slowly.”
“Get on them. When complete, link up with Knuckles on the other side.”
She took off jogging again and behind me I heard, “What in the world is going on in here? Nobody even watched my performance.
Where is everybody?”
Shit. Jennifer.
I said, “Hey, we have a little high adventure going on. While you were playing the floozy, a couple of thugs took our prop
laptop from the hotel room.”
“Someone stole our property? From an Embassy Suites in downtown Charleston?”
She was giving me her disapproving teacher look, convinced I’d set up a wrench in the exercise I hadn’t told anyone about.
I said, “No BS, that’s what happened. They were dressed as a maintenance crew, swiped into our room, and ripped through everything
we’d planted, stealing our computer. They may have been hitting other rooms too, or they may have targeted ours because they
know nobody’s going in and out. I don’t know, but it’s real.”
“So that’s where everyone is? Coordinating with the police to get it back?”
I nodded, saying, “Yeah, sort of like that, without the police part.”
She came forward and put in an ear bud, saying “Where’s Knuckles and Veep?”
“They’re on target. We’re about to use the Grail on the laptop, then follow it to a bed-down.”
“So you got one of the tech guys with Knuckles and Veep? How did you do that? Break up Amena’s meet?”
“Well . . .” Before I could finish, Amena was back in smart-ass mode, saying in what she thought was a commando tone, “Pike,
Pike, this is Blackcat. Mission accomplished. Moving to rendezvous with Knuckles.”
I felt relief at the tone, knowing she was out of danger and we had jackpot. Unfortunately, I wasn’t out of danger.
Jennifer leaned into my monitor and saw that Amena was crossing King Street, Knuckles and Veep in clear view across the road.
She turned to me and said, “Tell me you didn’t just use Amena on a live operation with a NOC newbie as her security. Tell
me that Knuckles and Veep were doing the real work.”
“Honey, it wasn’t like that! It happened fast. Knuckles and Veep were their security. Amena had the Grail.”
“Are you serious?”
Creed saved me, saying, “Slave worked. We’re tracking the computer in real time.”
I turned from Jennifer as if I needed to coordinate something, but really just trying to get out of her blast radius, and said, “Knuckles, use the Grail for a loose follow. Find the bed-down site and box it. We’re coming to you.”
“What if an opportunity presents itself for a unilateral hit? Want me to end this?”
“Yeah, sure. If you two get the chance, thump them in the head and get our computer back. If not, find me a location we can
hit tonight.”
Jennifer came on, saying, “Amena, you get your butt back to Marion Square. I’ll pick you up there and take you home.”
Amena said, “You got it. I told Pike this was a bad idea.”
Traitor.
Jennifer glared at me and said on the net, “I don’t buy that for a minute. You’re two peas in a pod.”
She snatched the car key fob off the table and left the VFW. Knuckles came on, saying, “I told you she’d have your ass.”
I said, “Okay, okay, just find me that bed-down location.”