The man who had originally picked up Tamara on the street outside of her apartment escorted Nancy back to the van they had come in. After the van moved away, Mero came out of the restaurant with his three bodyguards. They walked down the street a little ways to a Lincoln Town Car parked in a no parking zone. Only after the Lincoln was out of sight did Donaldson exchange places with Rasheed. Driving with expertise, Rasheed passed the Escalade well before reaching Tamara’s neighborhood. At the apartment building, Donaldson exited the backseat quickly.
“Thanks, Pete,” McDaniels said over his shoulder.
“You bet, Colonel, see you later.”
Rasheed drove away quickly before the Escalade arrived. He parked so they could watch Tamara arrive safely. As soon as the Escalade arrived, Rasheed pulled away. While driving around the block McDaniels checked in with Barrington. After McDaniels ended the call, Rasheed looked at him expectantly. McDaniels stared out the window without a word.
“Are you going to let me know what we are doing, Cold, or should I continue driving around the block for the rest of the day?”
“Oh, sorry Kay, we can go back to the office. Tom and Jen will hang out here for a while. I think Nancy is out of trouble with Mero. He wants the information conduit into Aginson’s office badly. You should have heard him cajoling Tamara. Mero even promised to escort her out of the country himself.”
“What else, my friend? What was young Pete reminding you of?”
“Mero told Tamara they knew of Diane and he’d settle with her.”
“I see.” Rasheed thought over that bit of information carefully. “Pete convinced you to not take Mero’s head in front of the crowd in the restaurant immediately.”
“Something like that. He reminded me I would never see Diane or the Marines I promised to lead again.”
“It is lucky for young Pete he still retains his head. He was right for his part. Let us go to the Syrian embassy instead. We will kill them all now while young Pete is not around.”
McDaniels turned quickly to look at Rasheed, only to find the Iraqi smiling at him. McDaniels laughed.
“Good one, Kay. Let’s head back so I can report to Diane in person. She needs to know they have her in their sights.”
“Let me see,” Rasheed mused, rubbing his chin with his left hand while steering with his right. “A few of these cheap little thugs will be coming to get Diane. Let me know how that works out for them, Cold.”
“Mero might send a sniper, Kay, or a bomber.”
“I know, my friend. We will do all we can. You will then let me know when you would like to remove the Syrian embassy from this dimension.”
“If Mero knows much about Diane, we’ll have to change every routine she has. I’ll be checking out all vehicles from now on.”
“Yes, but if they merely detonate one near her by remote control as the cowards continue to do in my homeland your checking will do no good.”
“I realize that. Mostly, I will be listening to every word we can tape of Mero’s conversations. If Diane’s name comes up again, things could get ugly. If Nancy does as well in the future as she did with Mero today we may be able to move on him real quick.”
“I pray the Boss will have every line in and out of the Syrian embassy wired. I wonder if this Mero has outside interests such as female companions. Perhaps he spends a night or two away from the embassy.”
“Damn, Kay, you’re pretty good at this stuff. Of course he does. Oh what fun he and I will have.”
“I did not mention this so you could visit him and ruin everything, Cold Mountain,” Rasheed replied with an irritated wave of his hand in McDaniels’ direction. “I only meant Mero might be conducting a lot of his business outside the embassy, in which case we will have an easier time finding out what he is doing.”
“And who else he sees. Okay, this may go smoother than I thought. As long as he doesn’t find out what we’re doing, we may be able to wrap this up in short order. On the other hand, Mero dies before I go overseas.”
“Of course. You are not angry with young Pete any more, are you?”
“No, but the prick sure pushed my buttons.”
“I will have to study his technique while you are away,” Rasheed said immediately, laughing at McDaniels’ irritated reaction next to him.
“Hell, Pete only did it because he’s been around you for a couple days.”
“That is a lie, Mr. Reskova,” Rasheed said with some manufactured outrage. “I would have gone with you to help butcher the Mero pig. On the other hand, if you think young Pete emulates me, I will take it as a compliment.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t mean it as one.”
“That is of no importance.”
* * *
“I was frightened out of my wits,” Tamara said. She sipped the bourbon on ice Donaldson had poured for her.
Tamara arrived at her apartment only moments after Donaldson. They were both sitting in the only room in her apartment Donaldson had cleared for conversation: Tamara’s bathroom. Tamara sat on the toilet seat lid while Donaldson sat on the edge of her bathtub.
“Even the Colonel was impressed with how well you did. He believes Mero bought the whole thing. They’re already working on something for you to give him from Aginson’s office.”
“Mero knows about Reskova. He…”
“We heard,” Donaldson interrupted. “That part didn’t sit well with McDaniels. I thought he was going to pop Mero right in the restaurant.”
“It would have probably been better if he had. Mero’s terrifying. There’s something about him… I don’t know what… but he makes my skin crawl.”
Donaldson reached over and covered Tamara’s hand with his own. “Believe me, if you’d been in the van with me, you would have glimpsed what terrifying really is. I’ve been around the block a few times in my life. I thought I was formidable. Compared to the Colonel, I’m like one of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Mero ain’t long for this world.”
“I thought all the stuff I read about him was hype, especially some of the things he’s done. He was the one who came up with burying me, wasn’t he?”
“He would have left you down there to rot too. I doubt there’s a shade of gray in anything McDaniels does. It will be very important for you to stay on the right side of things without wavering. The Colonel will keep his word. He’ll either make things right for you or he’ll bury you.”
Tamara shuddered. “Jesus… would you let him, Pete?”
“Don’t ever confuse how I may feel about you with how I feel about my country.” Donaldson pulled his hand back.
Tamara reached out, clutching Donaldson’s hand again as he pulled away. “I…I didn’t mean it like that, Pete. I meant if there were some misunderstanding you wouldn’t let him just stick me in a hole somewhere.”
Donaldson met her gaze without looking away.
“I care for you, Nancy. The Colonel is on your side until you give him reason not to be. Make sure there aren’t any misunderstandings.”
“Make love to me, Pete.” Tamara put her glass on the sink. “Let’s go in the bedroom.”
Donaldson pulled her up with him as he stood, enfolding Nancy in his arms.
“Unless we want my co-workers taping our bedroom time we better stay in here.”
Tamara blushed. “I…I forgot about the apartment being wired.”
Tamara looked around the small bathroom. “Can we do it in here?”
“That was a rhetorical question, right?”
* * *
McDaniels walked purposefully into Reskova’s new office, the one vacated by Dreyer. Reskova smiled when she saw who had entered without knocking. She held up a hand in a stopping gesture as McDaniels neared her desk.
“I know. Tom already filled me in on Mero’s desire to deal with me,” Reskova said before McDaniels could speak. “Thank you for not doing anything hasty.”
“Pete reminded me of what was at stake.” McDaniels sat down in the chair facing her desk.
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“I’ll put him in for a commendation.”
“Very funny, Red. This Mero guy could take you out anytime he wants. There wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do about it.”
“Gee, you don’t have a very high opinion of Dino and yourself.”
“Like Kay says, he could detonate a car while you’re walking past like they do in Iraq still. Mero talks like he knows you. We need…”
“We need to alter my habits. I get that, Cold. I’ll bring Dino along with me to work too. He’ll love it.”
“At least it would handle the explosives part of the equation,” McDaniels agreed. “I only believed about half the stories concerning bomb sniffing dogs until we picked up Dino. Now you have him doing interrogations.”
“Not very well by the amount of stuff we missed.”
“Hey, you suspected Dillon and the Russians weren’t giving us the whole story.”
“How did you get the information from Tamara, Cold?”
“That’s classified. She did real good today. Even Kay believes Mero bought her act.”
“What about Pete?”
“You can’t trust anything he thinks about Nancy. That’s what makes him so valuable as her handler.”
“From what I hear, Pete went way past handler. Not to mention it sounds like you can’t be trusted with anything concerning me.”
“You drive me crazy, Red,” McDaniels admitted uncharacteristically. “I may not have been thinking as clearly as I should have earlier.”
“Wow.” Reskova leaned forward. “That’s quite an admission. The safety of the free world rests on my love life.”
McDaniels pointed at Reskova accusingly. “See, you’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Driving me crazy. Let’s go back to your place.”
“I wish. In case you’ve lost track of time we still have a few hours left on the government’s dollar. What’s Kay doing without supervision?”
“He’s going over everything he can find on Mero with what little we have so far. Kay believes Mero will have contacts away from the embassy: girlfriends, etc.”
“We already have a tail on him. If he does what Kay thinks he’ll do we will most definitely wire everywhere he goes for sound.”
“Kay’s checking the Syrian embassy phone records, looking to get lucky with a group of phone calls made to the same place coming from Mero’s office. He’ll widen the search if he doesn’t come across what he needs.”
“How about his cell phone?”
“He has one but he keeps it clean. Kay only found… hey, what are you doing?”
Reskova walked over to her office door and locked it. “I think I’ll chase you around the desk for a while.”
McDaniels stood up to face her as she walked toward him. When she was within his arms, he effortlessly picked her up with his hands on her hips and set her on the desk. He leaned in, kissing her lightly around her mouth.
“Okay, I’m caught. Now what?”
“Now, I concentrate on not screaming loud enough to bring a security detail in on the run,” Reskova answered breathlessly.
* * *
Rasheed waved at Barrington and Rutledge as they walked into the office.
“I sincerely hope those tired looks on your faces are the product of all the surveillance work you two have been doing.”
Barrington chortled and continued into his office.
“Don’t go there, Kay,” Rutledge warned. “The only excitement on the stakeout was when Pete and Nancy hid out in the bathroom so we couldn’t hear them. Unfortunately for… or fortunately for Pete, Nancy was so loud we could hear her on the transmitter in the living room.”
Rasheed laughed appreciatively. “I’m checking on Mero’s contacts outside the embassy in case he meets up with any girlfriends on the side.”
“That could be big, Kay,” Rutledge agreed, turning to her computer. She networked into Rasheed’s workstation. “I would have come up with it after I came back. It’s good you were able to get a head-start on it.”
“Oh, thank you so much,” Rasheed replied sarcastically. “Is young Pete on holiday until we get Mero?”
“Nope, he’ll be coming into work with Nancy tomorrow. They’ll be having a rotating team of agents watching Mero now. I know you were in the restaurant. How did Cold take hearing Mero was giving Diane some serious consideration?”
“Not well.”
“He didn’t waste everyone in the res… uh, when you say not well, Kay, you… where is he?” Rutledge jumped up out of her chair worriedly. “I’ll…”
“Calm down, Jen,” Rasheed called out quickly, gesturing for Rutledge to sit back down. “He’s with Diane right now. Pete helped him through it at serious risk to life and limb.”
“Thank God,” Rutledge muttered, sitting down heavily. “If Cold didn’t think it was idle chatter on Mero’s part, Mero ain’t long for this world.”
“I have no knowledge of such talk,” Rasheed said guardedly, turning back to his computer screen.
“Don’t give me that crap, Kay. Cold only has a couple more weeks before he leaves for Iraq again. I don’t have to be a psychic to know he won’t leave a guy like Mero alive. They’ll put him in a dungeon if he crabs this investigation by killing the main character.”
“Yes, I am certain the thought of incarceration will surely turn the Cold Mountain away from thoughts of Mero’s death.”
“I think they figure too much is riding on this to ignore improvisation on the Colonel’s part. Let me take the second half of your list here. We’ll see if we can come up with something good so the higher ups won’t notice Mero losing his head. It’s kind of hard being friends with the Colonel, huh Kay?”
“Not as hard as it is being his enemy.” Rasheed grinned over at Rutledge who laughed. “Cold feels much the same as I do. I am not yet sympathetic to the rights of known criminals as many of you Americans are. Will that count against me?”
“Actually, Kay, only the media, Congress, and the damn lawyers care about the criminals. The rest of us are just as bewildered as you about the way our system coddles cold-blooded killers, rapists, and child molesters.”
“A few of your lawyers flocked to Iraq in hopes of representing Saddam. I have also read where your ACLU wants to protect the rights of child predators by preventing the authorities from placing tracking devices on the monsters.”
“Oh, you know about our good old ACLU, huh? We like to call them the American Criminals’ and Communists’ Liberties Union. They’re consistent. They started out representing communists. Now they’ve added the rights of criminals to their repertoire.”
“I have lived all my life under the rule of a mass murderer. I feel uncomfortable criticizing your system. Perhaps… Jen, check this.”
Rasheed flashed the information from his screen to Rutledge’s.
“All right, Kay!” Rutledge buzzed Barrington’s office. “We have something, Tom.”
Barrington hurried out into the main office. “I hope it’s good. I just got off the phone from briefing Aginson at Diane’s request. He ain’t happy.”
“I think Kay’s found the mistress.” Rutledge came over to stand next to Barrington at Rasheed’s desk. “Mero must have thought we’d never take a look at him.”
Barrington stared at the phone records and visitor list recorded at the Syrian embassy. “Anybody else getting uneasy about this?”
“I believe you think these scum are all as intelligent as those actors on your ‘24’ television show, Boss. I have met many of these terrorist geniuses. Their idea of victory is sending a poor soul whose family they are holding hostage into a crowded police station with a bomb belt.”
“I guess you’re right, Kay.”
“He probably cares little if his actions implicate this stupid woman he sees,” Rasheed continued. “Mero may even believe it makes him fit in better. Did he not think the Tamara woman’s adlib of enticing young Pete to be her boyfriend a good idea?”
&nb
sp; “Yes, he did. This Erica Marisol lives in Georgetown. She may even be one of those limousine liberals who think 9/11 was our fault. I’ll get the court order and send a team to fix up this woman’s place. By the time Mero visits again it will be like we’re in the place with him. Stay with it you two. I want to know this woman’s life intimately.”
Chapter 35
Assassins
When Barrington was back in his office Rutledge sighed heavily for Rasheed’s benefit.
“He’s so forceful.”
“The Boss must show steadfast determination and precise manner so as to offset your continued disrespect, Agent Rutledge.”
“You’re on the bottom of this totem pole, newbie. Go get me a cup of coffee, probie.”
“I have watched NCIS. Do not think to harass me as they do the underling on that show,” Rasheed warned, standing up to get Rutledge’s coffee anyway.
“You watch too much TV, Kay. You like all those CSI programs, huh?”
“They are very entertaining,” Rasheed called back over his shoulder. “It is a wonder anyone gets away with committing a crime in this country. Science Fiction is very reassuring, is it not?”
“I’ve wondered what real CSI units think about those shows. Did you hear about people on jury’s being asked if they watch the CSI shows?”
Rasheed returned, handing Rutledge her coffee.
“Perhaps reality will live up to expectations eventually.”
“The technology’s there but the budgets of those departments are a little behind. A town like Las Vegas might spring for state of the art labs and people though.”
“You and the Boss are trained in forensics, are you not?”
“We get more practice on the electronics than we do with the physical. By the time we’re called in everyone and their brother has stomped around the crime scene. Then the locals look at us like we’re going to solve the crime in ten minutes.”
Twenty minutes later Rutledge pushed away from her desk with some frustration.
“This Marisol doesn’t seem to do anything.”
“She belongs to many community groups.”
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