Daredevil Riders

81

SIX HOURS LATER A FELLOW named Ming, who was part of Mr. Green’s Asian protection team, came to the surface. He was known as a highly paid mercenary who sidelined as a hired killer. No case could ever be built against him, mainly because witnesses kept disappearing. Probably against orders, Ming had used his credit card to buy some lunch at a deli in the South Bronx.

That was still a big area, but they’d managed to whittle it down some. They could trace no rental cars to anyone on the watch list Mr. Green might have hired. Cabs in the Bronx were not as plentiful as those in Manhattan and there was no record of Ming being in New York before, which probably stopped him from trying to figure out how to use the subway. So based on all that, Joe Knox assumed he was probably on foot when he went for his meal.

On the phone he told Herbert, “Let’s figure in a six-block radius with the deli as the center point. It’s a lot of ground to cover, but not nearly as much as we had to check before.”

“That’s good work, Joe.”

“So who do you have on your hunting team?”

“Harry Finn, Mary Anthony from MI and me.”

“And me.”

“No, Joe, not you.”

“Alex Ford saved my life. I owe him this.”

“I thought you were going to retire.”

“I will, right after this. How we getting up there?”

“Private wheels. For all I know Mr. Green has a way to put markers in the electronic system too, so rentals are out.”

“We can take my Rover. When do you want to leave?”

“You really sure about this?”

“Don’t ask again. But what about the rest of the Camel Club?”

“Reuben is shot up. I don’t want Mirabel going anywhere near this. And Caleb, well.”

“Enough said.”

They headed out at four in the morning. Knox drove. Herbert rode shotgun. Finn and Anthony were in the rear seats. Herbert had explained the plan to them the previous night. Except for Knox they were all disguised, just in case Mr. Green had scouts out doing what they were doing. Mr. Green might have gotten a look at Finn when he was tailing Turkekul and Herbert was not willing to take any chances.

They each had a photo of Ming, and Knox also had one of Mr. Green, although it was doubtful the woman looked anything remotely like she had before.

“Six-block radius,” Herbert repeated to them as they reached the Big Apple, which was fully awake by now as millions set off to work. Knox was going to roam in his wheels after he dropped the other three off in different locations around the South Bronx. The area they were in wasn’t exactly Park Avenue, but they were all armed and well capable of taking care of themselves.

Herbert walked his route inward toward the deli. He had no need to look at Ming’s photo again. He’d memorized each of the man’s distinctive features, the most prominent of which was a pair of blank eyes. Herbert knew if he weren’t a hired killer Ming would have simply become a sociopath and done the same thing for free. But even sociopaths made mistakes. Ming’s error had been using his credit card for a pastrami sandwich, a can of Sapporo and an order of fries.

While there were many gentrified areas of flourishing neighborhoods and retail strips, the South Bronx also contained over half of the borough’s public housing projects. And despite the presence of the new billion-dollar Yankee Stadium, about fifty percent of the population lived below the poverty line. Crime was a problem and there were parts of the area one should avoid. Herbert and company were in precisely one of those areas.

However, Herbert was less worried about domestic criminals than about a team of imported killers. His gaze kept moving, but as the sun rose high overhead and sweat began to trickle down his neck, he understood quite clearly that it would take a minor miracle to find them.

He was only hou

rs away from getting one.

Anthony reported the sighting. She gave the address where she was. “He’s headed west, just crossing the street.”

The others moved in while Anthony relayed updates via texts.

She texted one last time and then called Herbert. “He just went into what looks like a machine shop on… hang on. Uh, East 149th Street is what the sign says.”

“What’s the cross street?” Herbert asked, and Anthony told him.

He said, “Now get some cover. They might be watching the street.”

She crossed over and entered an alley. She looked back at the four-story brick building. “It looks abandoned,” she said into her cell phone.

“Stay put and keep watch,” said Herbert. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

In nine minutes Herbert joined her in the alley. “I’ve got Knox and Finn approaching from the other side,” he told her. He glanced at the building. “Seen anything else?”

“Figure at a window on the third floor. Didn’t look like Ming. But I couldn’t be sure.”

Herbert studied the area and wondered why Mr. Green would have chosen this spot to hide. Certainly parts of the South Bronx offered lots of space that no one else was using. Still, it was an odd choice, thought Herbert. But he was coming to realize that Marisa Mr. Green was far more complex than he had originally believed. And he had thought she was quite talented to begin with.

He gazed southeast toward the East River where more than a few bodies had been dumped over the years. To the west was the Harlem River, beyond that upper Manhattan and beyond that the Hudson River where Interstate 9 connected the city with New Jersey to the south and New England to the north.

“What’s the plan?” asked Anthony.

“We sit on the place and observe.”

“How long?”

“As long as it takes for us to figure out what they’ve got, who’s there and how we get to them at minimal risk to ourselves.”

“How about we call in NYPD and/or the FBI?”

Herbert glanced back at her. “When you insisted on coming I took it for granted that you were going to follow my lead.”

“I will, to a limit. We need to do everything possible to ensure that Mr. Green gets back alive, to stand trial.”

“You said you were going to have a hard time not pulling the trigger.”

“I only said that to make you feel better. I’ll have no problem with it. She’s not worth screwing my life over. But the question is, can you stop yourself from pulling it?”

“If I have to, yes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I seriously doubt the woman will walk out with her hands up so she can be tried, convicted and executed for treason. If she tries to harm anyone of my team I’ll do my best to kill her. I’m assuming you feel the same way.”

“How much weapons training does she have?”

“I checked her file. She’s got plenty. And all top of the grade performance-wise. Close-quarters and long-range.”

“And here I was thinking she was just a pretty face.”

Herbert snagged her shoulder. “This is serious stuff, Anthony. No time for anything but your best game face. So cut out the wisecracks.”

She pulled herself free from his grip. “I’ll let my performance speak for itself. How about that?”

Herbert looked away and took up surveillance on the building again.

A few minutes later he received a call from Finn. “In position. No activity back here. Two entry points. One center and one east of center. Appears to be locked and would assume watched. They might have a portable surveillance system in place too. At least I would if I were them and had picked an area like this to hole up in.”

“I agree with that, Harry,” said Herbert. “Is Knox there?”

“Affirmative. What do you want us to do?”

“Let’s sit on the place and see what we can see. When we hit it, I want it to be as clean as possible. Any chance on getting the interior plan for this building?”

“Already downloaded it onto my phone.”

“How so fast?” asked a surprised Herbert.

“Got a buddy in the city planning office. We served together in the navy.”

“Give me the layout.”

Finn did so.

“Lot of problem areas,” noted Herbert.

“Agreed. Once we gain entry. That’ll be the hard part. Unobserved, I mean.”

“Keep watching. Report back every thirty.”

Herbert ended the call and turned his gaze back to the old brick structure.

Anthony stirred behind him. “What if someone notices us in this alley?”

“Then we move.”

“I’ve never been to New York before. It’s not as glamorous as I heard.”

“That’s Manhattan, to the west over there. That’s the land of the rich and famous. The Bronx is a different experience. Some cool places and some not so cool places.”

“So I take it you’ve been here before?”

Herbert nodded.

“Business or pleasure?”

“I’ve never traveled for pleasure.”

“So what’d you do when you were up here last?”

Herbert didn’t even attempt to answer her query. And from her look, it was clear Anthony didn’t really expect a response.

Yet in his mind’s eye it was decades ago and Herbert pulled the trigger on his custom sniper rifle, ending the life of another enemy of the United States as he walked across the street with his mistress toward the luxury hotel where they were going to have s*x. His downfall had been ordering the execution of two CIA personnel in Poland. Herbert had put a shot through the right eyeball at the stroke of eleven p.m. from a distance of nine hundred yards on elevated ground with a breeze from the north that had given him a few anxious moments. The mistress hadn’t even known what happened until her dead lover hit the pavement. The NYPD and local FBI, tipped off to what was going down, had never attempted to solve the case. That’s just how it was done back then. Hell, thought Herbert, maybe that was how it was still done.

He refocused on the brick building even as his index finger curved around an imaginary trigger.

SIX HOURS LATER Herbert AND Anthony had moved to an empty building across the street. Filthy mattresses and dirty syringes signaled this for a “prick palace” for addicts, although it didn’t look like anyone had been there in a while. They’d entered through a rear door and settled themselves in for however long this would take. Herbert opened his rucksack and handed Anthony a bottle of water, an apple and a hunk of hard bread.

“You know how to show a girl a good time, I’ll give you that,” was her only comment as she started in on her “meal.”

A bit later Herbert’s attention was engaged when the front door of the building opposite them opened and Ming and another man came out, walked down the street and turned left. He immediately relayed this to Finn.

“You want me to follow them?” Finn asked.

“No. At this hour of the night they’re probably going for something to eat. They’ve been in there all day. You think you can get a peek inside one of the windows? If our intel is right, there should be ten others in there plus Mr. Green. But I’d like to get a more accurate head count.”

“The place is mostly dark, but I’ve got a Gen Four NV scope with me.”

“Be careful, Harry. These guys know what they’re doing.”

“Roger that.”