T
he little hide they’d put together definitely wasn’t a great place. Savage sighed, shook his head, and sat beside Terry with a grimace. It was drafty and cold, thanks to the time of year and time of day, but complaining about it would simply earn him shit from all three of them. Terry, Anja, and Sam would lay into him for getting soft.
The real problem, of course, was that he actually thought he might be.
He placed the paper cup of coffee carefully near where Terry stared through a pair of binoculars. They had found a small crane that currently wasn’t in use, probably due to the fact that it was late on a Friday on Thanksgiving weekend. This afforded them an overwatch position over the bunker where their target had been taken.
“Do we know for certain that Banks hasn’t already left the country?” he asked. The sniper sipped his coffee calmly without looking away from the binoculars.
“Well, Anja studied the camera feeds in the area, and it doesn’t look like he’s left the premises,” Terry responded as the hacker appeared to be too busy to do so. “There aren’t any secondary access points in the plans, either the original or improvements, although I suppose it’s possible they simply added them without applying for any permits. Either way, the
heavy security is still in place, which indicates that someone’s still down there. Or something that needs lots of protecting.”
“Yeah.” Savage cracked his back and sipped his warm coffee. For once, he’d asked for a little of half and half and sugar to be added. He needed something to make him feel better about the boredom. “It seems our chances of pinning Banks down inside are looking better and better.”
The other man finally turned his attention away from the bunker to look at him. “Are you sure you want to do this, man? We can simply wait for him out here. He needs to leave eventually. He’ll be at his most vulnerable in transit anyway, so we can wait until he’s being transported again and that’ll be that.”
“We don’t have the advantage of time.” The operative shook his head decisively. “We delayed his contract on my family but eventually, someone will be capable or stupid enough to make another attempt. I can’t risk that. We need to take care of Banks here and now—or as soon as possible, anyway.”
“Why doesn’t Anja take the ad down?” Terry resumed his surveillance.
“They’ll simply put it up again. If we take eliminate Banks, we won’t need to constantly take the ads down only for someone to post them again.”
“I guess that’s true. So you’re dead set on doing this, then?”
“I am,” Savage answered with a small smile. His mind was made up. While he wasn’t suicidal, he needed to take some risks at this point. He was the one with skin in the game, as it were, and he wouldn’t simply sit around and wait while his family was in danger.
“And there’s the change of the guard.” The sniper gestured for him to look at the target location as two SUVs pulled up outside. They greeted the five men who were stationed outside but headed down in the elevator that went into the bunker. About three minutes later, the elevator returned with another
group of ten men, who climbed into the SUVs and drove away.
“What time do the men up top change?” Savage asked.
“Every eight hours, so about three hours from now.” Terry frowned in thought. “They stagger the changes to make them more effective at the job or something like that.”
“That’ll probably be the best time,” he muttered and made a mental note of the times. “The guys who are newer on the job will be easier to evade, I think.”
“Well, if you’re dead set on it, there’s no way we’ll let you do it sober,” the other man said. He looked away from his binoculars and started to pack the hide up.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “You want me to go in there drunk?”
“Of course not.” Terry chuckled. “We want to get you sloshed today, get you un-hungover tomorrow, and then we’ll make the run.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He narrowed his eyes.
“It’s adorable that you think you have any say in it, boss man.” His companion grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, Sam’s already starting the shots for us. And she said there might be some visitors joining us later in the evening too, although she didn’t give me any specifics.”
Savage shrugged. He didn’t like the idea of getting sloshed right before a difficult mission, but it wasn’t like it was his first time doing it.
Under any other circumstances, Banks didn’t think he would mind spending excessive amounts of time there. Bunkers were usually portrayed as dull, dark places where people hid in fear, but he was… Well, he was hiding and afraid, but the structure wasn’t dull or dark. Very little sunlight made its way inside but there was plenty of light and nicely paneled walls
and elegant furniture. It was like someone had designed the place to be their own little hideaway if the time came to retreat from the world as a whole.
His wanderings through the facility had revealed a fully stocked kitchen, a gym, a small swimming pool, and tanning beds, as well as three different bedrooms—all suites with enough space to put most apartments in New York to shame. Hell, his client could make a fortune by renting this place out. He knew people who would quite literally kill to have this much space available right in the middle of Manhattan. Well, maybe not right in the middle, but still.
The bunker also contained fully stocked bars, which he had taken the liberty of using. He’d had a long nap for almost a full day, but after that, lacking anything else to do, he decided to attack the stock of gin they had on hand. The whiskey was good, but gin had always been his poison of choice. He’d become far less picky once he realized Savage was coming after him, though.
There was an Internet connection, run through about fifty VPNs to keep Savage’s computer expert off his scent, but the men who ran security for him had told him it was still a risk. He had taken that warning seriously. Even with this many people to keep him safe, there was still a very real trace of fear in the back of his mind. He was in danger as long as he remained in the same place.
Banks closed his eyes, leaned back in his seat, and took a sip of his gin and tonic. It was the soft kind of drink he had grown accustomed to. Others tended to think it was the drink people ordered when they didn’t know what they wanted. He would have disagreed.
But now wasn’t the time to think about trivialities.
His phone buzzed. He had been told there would be no signal down there, so he was understandably confused when he retrieved the device and confirmed that there was a call
coming over the line. Weird. He pressed the accept call button and his eyes widened with surprise when an image accompanied the voice. He’d seen the client before—only once when she’d met him for coffee. She still had that luscious, long black hair, but it was tied up in a braid this time, and she wore glasses too. The area around her was dark, which made him wonder if she was in a time zone where it was night, or if she was merely in a dark room. Either was an option, he assumed. She wasn’t the kind of woman to share much, which left his mind occupied with trying to work out any detail he could.
“Mason,” she said, greeting him familiarly by his first name. “How’s the new place? Up to your standards, I hope?”
“More than up to them, thanks,” Banks replied cautiously. He had been told when he’d met in the flesh that it would be the last time he ever saw her, which made him curious as to why she called him on a video call.
“Well, it’s one of the best safe houses money can buy,” she replied and leaned forward into the screen. “It’s only fair that it should provide a few creature comforts.”
He smiled. “I still feel like I’m a sitting duck here. As secure as it is, Savage is still out there, gunning for me. It can’t be long before he finds me here, right?”
She chuckled. “I’ll be honest with you, Mason, that is half the reason why I have you there. Savage has shown himself to be rather resourceful, and I don’t doubt that his arrogance will lead him to try to get his hands on you himself. He will most likely fail in the attempt, and that loose end will be effectively tied. I do want my people—and you, if you like—to make it a very slow, painful death and record every moment. I’d like to use it as a lesson for all those who might annoy me the way he has. Of course, if he decides to wait or can’t find you, I’ll have all the papers necessary to get you out of the country in a couple of days and you’ll be in the clear. I still have a need for you to work for me out here, Mason.”
The lawyer nodded. “I…appreciate that.”
“Try to stay alive, and I’ll be in touch.” She cut the connection before he could respond.
He didn’t appreciate the woman trying to be sweet. She had manipulated him and tried to soften the blow. The reality, though, was that he was being used as bait to bring Savage in. While he could understand that he wasn’t as important to her cause as eliminating the operative, it still sent a chill down his spine to know it. He’d had his suspicions before, of course, but to have them confirmed so blatantly was enough to stir all his fears back to life.
It was all good, though, he thought sarcastically as he raised his glass to his lips and took a nice, long sip. He would simply drink himself into a blackout and test his liver’s ability to process the poison until it was time to leave. Or be attacked by Savage, whichever came first.
