Chapter 31
I knocked again, saying, “Maybe we have the wrong place.”
Jennifer said, “She said we had a limited window because they were tracking somebody.”
I knew whatever mission they were on would take priority, but thought we’d arrive before they were required to commit. Although
we’d flown throughout the night, we’d arrived right at dawn, and it hadn’t taken too much longer to get here. I glanced at
my watch, seeing it was a little past seven in the morning.
I said, “They couldn’t have left this early,” and raised my hand to knock again. Before I could strike the door with my knuckles,
it opened, startling me. Standing in the doorway was a broad-shouldered man I didn’t recognize at first. My brain took the
image in front of me and made connections in my memory.
I said, “Aaron?”
He smiled and said, “Come on in, since you’re apparently determined to destroy our cover.”
We entered and I said, “What’s up with the hair?”
Ordinarily, he had a normal, middle management over-the-ears businessman’s cut, but now his hair was long and shaggy, looking
like something Knuckles would appreciate. In addition, I’d only seen him clean-shaven, but now he had a sharp goatee, the
entire effect making him look, well, foreign.
He said, “Part of the cover for the job.”
Jennifer gave him a hug, saying, “Sorry to crash the party.”
He kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’m not the one you need to apologize to.”
He led us out of the foyer and through a small kitchen. I said, “What’s Shoshana look like? A Halloween gypsy?”
He laughed and said, “She’s got longer hair too, but still the same Shoshana.”
I wondered if that meant Shoshana was on the warpath and let Jennifer take the lead just in case. We entered a small den,
and I saw Shoshana sitting in a chair, her black hair in a ponytail that hung past her shoulders. She was still as lithe as
a snake, all muscle with little in the way of womanly curves.
Jennifer broke into a smile, genuinely glad to see her. Shoshana was attempting to keep a stern look on her face, but I could
see a grin fighting to get out. She stood and Jennifer hugged her, not caring if she was angry, and Shoshana returned it for
real, with emotion.
She turned to me and said, “Hello, Nephilim. I don’t get a hug?”
Nephilim was my given name, and I hated it as much as Jennifer hated her callsign. Shoshana knew that, and by her using it,
I knew we were good. That was all the punishment she was going to give.
I wrapped my arms around her, surprised to feel some of the same emotion that Jennifer had shown. I didn’t like to admit it,
but Shoshana understood me at a level no one else did, not even Jennifer. No matter how crazy I felt she was; I really did
care for her.
I let go and said, “Hey, sorry about stepping on whatever mission you guys have going on, but I think it’s something that
we’re involved in as well.”
Aaron said, “We pretty much figured that was the case, although Shoshana thinks you’re just getting sweet on her.”
Shoshana gave her wolf grin again and said, “Tell me, Nephilim, who are you tracking that needs my skills?”
We took a seat and told her everything we had.
I took the lead on the briefing, with Jennifer using a tablet to pass across photos of the Ghost. I ended with the fact that he’d entered Argentina through Buenos Aires with a final destination of Puerto Iguazú, saying, “Does he have any connection to what you’re working on? Ever seen him before?”
Shoshana passed the tablet to Aaron, saying, “This guy is a top-tier assassin? He doesn’t look like much.”
I said, “Like you, looks can be deceiving, and yes, like you, he is most definitely one of the best in the world. I’m the
one who caught him originally, and it was a close-run thing. He’s scary smart.”
While Aaron studied his photos, she said, “What makes him tick?”
I glanced at Jennifer and said, “Honestly, he’s a tough one to figure out. He’s not like the usual Jihadist spouting death
to Israel and death to America simply because he’s a Muslim. He grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon, and it’s where he learned
his skills and his hatred. He’s a defender of Palestinians, which means he’ll kill anyone he deems a threat to that cause.
Usually, that’s us, but he’s killed Muslims he feels betrayed Palestinians as well. He’s not a robot, and he’s done things
that are counterintuitive to his goals.”
Aaron said, “Like what?”
Jennifer said, “We used him as a double agent on a mission, targeting Hezbollah. During that mission, I saved his life, but
in so doing, allowed him to escape. He could have disappeared forever at that point, but didn’t. Instead, he returned the
favor.”
Shoshana said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “A Mexican sicario was beating the shit out of Jennifer and about to gut her with a knife. The Ghost intervened, not
only saving her life, but in so doing, he put himself back in my custody.”
Shoshana squinted, trying to process what I’d said. I held out my hands. “Like I said, he’s a weird one.”
Aaron said, “But he is a killer.”
“Yes.”
Aaron passed the tablet back to Shoshana, nodding his head. She acknowledged the signal, then turned to me and said, “I don’t
know how you do it, but your boy is smack in the middle of a Hezbollah threat vector.”
“What’s that mean?”
Aaron said, “We’re here because of a potential threat against our prime minister.
He’s visiting Buenos Aires in a few days and we had some Hezbollah chatter rattling the lines in Lebanon, indicating that they’d like to take a swing at him.
It wasn’t very credible, to be honest, but after October seventh, any rumor is worth following up.
We tracked the chatter to a Lebanese drug runner here in South America, just across the border in Brazil.
He was doing a lot of cryptic talking to a known Hezbollah cell leader in Beirut. ”
Shoshana said, “We came here to explore that and found two Hezbollah operatives who were on our kill list in Lebanon. They’d
managed to avoid the pager strike and then fled when we conducted our incursion. We didn’t know where at the time, but when
we started tracking the drug runner, they popped up, which made the chatter a little more credible.”
I said, “What’s that got to do with the Ghost?”
Aaron said, “We saw him today in the Iguazú Falls Park. We tracked one of the Hezbollah men across the border, surveilling
him to develop the situation, and he met your man.”
Jennifer glanced at me, surprised that we’d actually found the Ghost. I said, “Are you sure that’s him?”
Aaron said, “Yes. I’m positive, and he was conducting a clandestine personal meet. He used tradecraft because he didn’t know
the Hezbollah men. They had bona fides to ensure each was who they said.”
“How do you know?”
“We had a parabolic microphone on them while they were out at a place called the Devil’s Mouth—one of the biggest of the falls.
We couldn’t get a whole lot because of the noise, but we got enough. They were meeting for the first time.”
Jennifer said, “Did you get anything about what they’re planning?”
“No. The Hezbollah man had a pretty good plan. We set up off the walkway from the Devil’s Throat, near a train station and
an outside food court, figuring that’s where they’d conduct the meeting, but they didn’t. They rented a raft and separated
from us, doing the meet out on the water of the river, away from everyone.”
Shoshana said, “We tried to board it with them, but were denied by the tour company. The best we could do was pick them back up when they got off. They split, and the Ghost met up with two different men. The Hezbollah operatives went back across the border, and we let them. We stuck with the new group. It looks like that was a good call, if this guy is half the assassin you say he is.”
I perked up at that, saying, “You followed the Ghost? You know a bed-down?”
“We do. It’s a place called the Iguazú Grand Hotel and Casino. It’s a large, fenced compound just across the street, on the
edge of the national park.”
“Right near here?”
Aaron looked at his watch, then stood, saying, “Yeah, it’s close, which is why we had the time to spend with you. We need
to get over there before they leave. We’re going to track them again today, build a pattern of life and see if we can determine
what they’re planning.”
Shoshana glanced at her own watch, saying, “You guys are going to make us miss them.”
I said, “Do you have a room? Any more fidelity than the hotel?”
Shoshana packed a few electronic devices into a small backpack, saying, “No, that’s all we have, but feel free to pin that
down.” She tossed me a cell phone and said, “We’ll let you know when they leave. Only communicate with us on that.”
I caught the phone, saying, “If we have his bed-down, we’ll snag him tonight, and that’ll be the end of it.”
Shoshana followed Aaron to the door, “Just don’t screw anything up for us.”
“Have I ever done that?”
She stopped at the door, looked at Jennifer and said, “Do I have to answer that?”