“It’s easy,” she dismissed. “Deek’s got it wired. It’s amazing what that system can do.”
“Keep in mind someone breached our old system.”
“I’ll be careful...dad,” she mocked, laughing at the scene from last night.
“You’re not too old to spank,” I reminded her.
“Owww, is that a threat or a bonus?”
“Okay, funny girl, time to go to work. Just give Deek a few hours of rack time and meet up with us in Miami.”
“Who else is up?”
“Everyone.”
“Shit,” she exclaimed, scrambling for her clothes. While Amber didn’t like getting up, she hated being the last one up even worse. Even though she was very much a lone wolf type she made an effort to fit in with the rest of the team and pull her own weight.
She sat with V, Q and Deek and put down a quick breakfast, then followed Deek off to the beta site in her Jeep. We had too many people to fit in the van so I whistled up a plain commercial truck from the motor pool. We couldn’t have too many people at the job site, so I’d peel off two to provide cover. It was awesome not being shorthanded for a change.
We didn’t have enough earpieces for all Teddy’s guys so Jesse and Bobby were the lucky winners.
“What time we rolling out?” Bobby asked.
“We gotta wait for the other truck,” I pointed out. “I think you, me, Mat and Dugger in the van. We have Jesse driving V and covering us from the back of the truck.”
Bobby nodded. “Sounds pretty decent for the first part.”
“We can scout a high hide for V to cover the parking lot when we come back.”
“I get the feeling she’s pretty capable with a rifle,” Bobby pronounced.
“The best,” I assured him. “That won’t be any subsonic bullshit she’s spooning, either. That’ll be the real high-velocity, dead-right-there deal. If the shit hits the fan just hold still.”
“Gotcha,” Bobby confirmed. He looked uncomfortable.
“Not as far as I know,” I said in answer to the unspoken question.
“Huh?”
“You were about to ask if she was seeing anyone. The answer is I don’t know.”
If it were possible for a big man to look embarrassed, Bobby had that look.
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything--”
“Relax, Bobby, it’s okay,” I said, trying to put him at ease. “V’s a big girl and you know she can take care of herself.”
“Amen to that.”
“She’s had some relationship issues in the past, so just go easy.”
“Honestly, I sorta half-talked myself out of the idea anyway.”
“V’s been different lately,” I told him, violating my own rule about getting involved. “She’s been trying things I haven’t seen her do in years. Maybe something has changed. Maybe just let her lead and see where it goes. If she goes off the rails, I’ll say something nice at your memorial service.”
“Thanks for that,” he grinned.
“Don’t mention it,” I smiled.
I turned my attention to boxes that came with breakfast. I moved one up to a table and cut it open.
“This is only level II armor,” I pointed out to Bobby. “It’ll stop small arms and that subsonic shit but nothing big. Pass ‘em out. There should be a variety of sizes.”
The thin vests were the latest from our friends in the Netherlands. Almost like a wrap-around undershirt designed to be worn under clothing. We had to go with concealable armor instead of the heavier stuff because a phone crew wearing body armor looks more than a little suspicious. The important thing is it would work fine against 9mmx39 subsonic rounds. Sergei caught us getting sloppy once and I was determined that wasn’t going to happen again.
“What’s this?” Bobby asked, pulling out what looked like a heavy tarp.
“Bomb blanket,’ I answered. “V drapes it over herself in the back of the van. Sergei hit our entire team at once. So, this makes sure V can survive a drive by.”
“You are playing this one by the numbers,’ Bobby agreed.
“These assholes are dangerous,” I reminded him. “Everyone needs to keep their shit tight,” I said, looking straight at Dugger.
“I’ll apply the head thump of enlightenment as necessary,’ Bobby assured me.
“Two hours, we roll.”
“Copy that.”
Chapter 22
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” Amber announced over the comm system, “and I use that term loosely. Comm check, please.”
“Loud and clear,” I answered.
“Good,” Q chimed in and the rest of the team cycled through their acknowledgment.
“There’s an accident on I-95 south of 10th Ave, you’re down to two lanes there. After that you’re all clear,” she informed us. “The expected high today is 82 with a 30 percent chance of rain and thundershowers this afternoon.”
“Sounds like you’re enjoying yourself,” I said to the air.
“The pervert made some improvements,” she stated with a touch of admiration.
“Maybe we could use his name when we’re on a team frequency,” I suggested.
“Right, sorry,” she backpedaled, “bad habit.”
The highway was cleared by the time we got there and the drive was mostly uneventful. Amber sent us high resolution images of the target area and I had to admit Sergei chose well. The club was at the end of a dead end road and there was a fence that could close off the parking lot. On one side was I-95 and behind them were railroad tracks. There was a residential area on the far side of I-95 but that had a noise wall that was higher than the bucket could reach. V wouldn’t have an angle on the front of the building and it would be easy to monitor vehicles coming down the road.
The back of the building was better luck. The light industrial building to the north was set back and the corner would make a nice perch but the trucking hub across the railroad tracks was even better. That was also where the phone hub was located, the perfect place to park a phone truck. There was also no fence along the railroad tracks so that was our approach. We’d have to use the drone as eyes on the front of the building or put someone in the truck out front in the parking lot. I sent the address to the van’s GPS and to Jesse behind us.
“V, there’s a truck turnout up the road a bit. You guys can park and have a good angle on where we’ll be working.”
“Copy,” she said crisply.
“Jesse, what’s your cover?”
“We got some survey gear in the truck,” he indicated.
“Okay, that’s perfect.” That would give us at least an hour before anyone started asking questions.
We eased off the highway and made our way through the industrial area across the railroad tracks. This was the prime location. The phone hub and lines were almost directly behind Sergei’s strip club and right next to one wall of the trucking warehouse. Mateo squeezed the van in between the building and the pole, just to make sure it would fit and we could get V up on the roof. We had room to spare. Jesse and V parked their truck down the street, facing away from us. The back door of the truck would shield V from the cameras but give her a clear field of fire that included the back of the strip club. I felt better just knowing she was back there.
“Okay, Dugger, let’s see if bringing you along is worth anything. I want you to sneak into that trucking hub behind us and see what you can find out about the neighbors.”
“What do I use for a cover story?”
“You’re supposed to be the bullshit artist, figure it out.”
Dugger shrugged, walked off and disappeared around the corner.
We opened the side of the van and deployed the fold out shelter around the phone box. We put out our orange cones and wore reflective vests and hard hats. We looked just like the phone company and the trucks coming and going in and out of the shipping hub didn’t give us a second look. Mateo picked the lock on the phone box and looked over the wiring.
“Ok
ay these are their phone circuits and this pair is a silent alarm,” he pointed out. “This one here is a video feed.”
“Can we tap it?”
“Yeah, but I’ll need to do it on the box up there,” he pointed to the junction up on the pole. “It would be too easy to spot in the box.”
“Amber, how we doing?”
“I’m getting a flood of phone data,” she informed me. “I’m trying to screen out everything from the trucking hub and focus on the strip club. Dugger’s in the driver lounge next door, I’m listening in through his cell phone.”
The data started playing out on the screen. At first it was just a list of numbers but the longer we sat there the more precise the GPS location became. The numbers started to fan out across the building. Three off to one side in the back, two more by the front door and one by the back door and several in a clump near the middle.”
“I’ll bet those are the girl’s phones,” Amber guessed, circling the group near the center of the building. “This U-shaped group I’ll bet are customers.”
“So we got two bouncers at the front door, a guy at the back, and three off in their own little room.”
The video jumped as Mateo ran the bucket up but Amber kept the cameras pointed at the strip club.
“You can run the van cameras?”
“One of the features the perv--Deek installed last night.”
“Nice,” Q agreed, watching the display with me.
With the bucket up we had a much better view of the back of the building. I flipped over to infrared. This time of day the heat outside masked most of the signatures inside, except for one blob near the back door.
“The walls are thin there,” Q pointed out. “But not where the other three are.”
“Fortified,” I guessed.
“Why would they have a fortified room in a strip club,” Bobby wondered out loud.
We got our answer a few minutes later when a car came in the gate and then turned down the alley to the back of the club. The dark sedan pulled up to the back door and two thuggish types got out, scanning around the parking lot and carrying a bank bag.
I zoomed in on the back door and gained up the directional mic. One of the men banged on the door. Three quick knocks and a long pause before the fourth. A moment later the door opened and the men handed over their bank envelope.
“Tracking the license number,” Amber informed us. “Company registration to an address over in Opa-Locka.”
“What are they doing?” Q asked.
“Holy crap, I know what this place is,” I said out loud. Q gave me a puzzled look.
“It’s a drop bar,” I informed him.
“What’s a drop bar?” Amber asked.
“When you deal in a lot of cash, you need somewhere to stash it that deals in a lot of cash,” I explained.
“Like a strip club or a bar,” she caught on.
“Right.”
“Lock their cell phones and see if you can track them,” I asked. “Let’s see where they came from with that big ‘ol bag.”
“That’s no problem,” she said. On the display a box appeared around one of the delivery people and one of the items on the drop-down menu was tracking.
“That is nice,” Q observed.
Mateo buzzed down on the intercom. “The video feed is dead,” he informed us. “Looks like it hasn’t been used in a while.”
“Scanning,” Amber was checking the building for wireless cameras. “I got something,” she said after a minute, but Deek is going to need to look at it. The feed is wireless but it’s secured. I’ll record it so Deek can look at it later.”
“She is pretty good at this tech shit,” Q remarked, knowing full well Amber could hear him.
The delivery guys got back in the car, minus the big envelope and headed off. A white box appeared around the car and followed it out of the parking lot.
“I’m setting up the relay,” Mateo said over the intercom. He was attaching a camera and receiver to the phone box on the pole so we could monitor the club after we left. “I think I found their circuits but I need someone to call to make sure.”
“Tell him to stand by,” Amber said, able to hear the intercom through our earpieces.
“Call inbound,” I told him.
Amber patched in the call so we could listen. There was ringing and a woman with a thick accent answered.
“Hiii, this is Heather up at Monroe’s in West Palm, do you guys have any openings for dancers?” she asked in a breathy voice. I could almost hear her twirling her hair around a finger.
The woman said they were only auditioning headliners and hung up.
“Rude!” Amber snapped. “I’m better looking than half the skanks in that dump.”
“Tell her I got it,” Mateo said over the intercom.
“I heard,” she informed us. “Hello.”
Another car pulled, this time they parked away from the building in the back. A slender girl with long dark hair and big glasses got out and walked to the back door. She made the same knock as the delivery drivers, three quick knocks and one long pause before the fourth. The door opened and the girl proceeded inside. A few minutes later she came out, looking at a check.
“It’s payday,” Amber observed as she zoomed in on the woman and snapped some stills from the video feed. “I bet with the right wig and outfit I could almost pass for her.”
Q scribbled a note on a sticky pad and turned it so I could read it.
GLAD U HIRED HER the note said. I nodded the acknowledgement as Amber really did have an amazing aptitude for the business. She was already working moves ahead.
“Ah, thanks Q, that’s nice,” she said over the link.
I chuckled. “You forgot about the camera in the van,” I said, pointing over my shoulder.
Q frowned, which made it all the funnier.
“Packing up here,” Mateo announced.
“We got company,” Bobby said easily.
I checked the rear cameras and there was a local black and white pulling up to Jesse. We could hear the conversation through his earpiece.
“Everything okay?” the cop asked easily.
“Oh, yeah. We were just about to pack it in. We in the way here?”
“Nah, you’re fine,” the cop said. “I just wondered where your partner was,” he said, gesturing at the unattended surveyor target.
“Oh, she...just needed a quick break,” Jesse stammered. This was not going well.
Just then V stepped out of the van, shaking her hair out and zipping up her coveralls.
“Oh!” she said, seeing the police car and acting surprised with a touch of embarrassment. “Are we in trouble?”
The cop grinned. “O-o-o-kay, I think I get it...taking a break,” he said.
Jesse looked embarrassed. “Hey, I could get in a lot of trouble,” he said, fingering his wedding ring nervously.
“It’ll be our little secret,” the cop said conspiratorially. “Y’all have a nice day.”
We were packed up and already backing out by the time the exchange was over. Amber sent Dugger a text to meet us at the gate.
“Well played, V,” I said over the comm link.
“He ran the truck tags,’ Amber announced. “Came back as a commercial leasing company.”
“And that’s why we do that,” I reminded everyone. Many companies got their fleet vehicles through leasing companies these days so it rarely aroused any suspicion. It also let us use the same vehicles in many different corporate roles. If they called the leasing company today they’d get the name of a survey company. If they called next week it might be a phone company or a laundry truck or whatever we needed. Fleet vehicle leasing was one of the greatest covers in corporate history.
“Let’s get out of here before he comes back,” I suggested.
We slowed down at the gate to the transit company and Dugger jumped in the back.
“What did you find out?”
“It’s a great place for titties and be
er,” he told us. I could hear Amber suck a breath through her teeth but she didn’t say anything.
“I got a bunch of these,” Dugger grinned, handing over a stack of No Cover passes to the strip club and a couple two-for-one drink coupons. “They give these out to all the local businesses,” he said.
The Blue Tango Salvage: Book 2 in the Recovery and Marine Salvage, Inc. Series Page 25