33

Shoshana watched the car pull into the roundabout in front of the Victoria & Alfred Hotel, then saw her target exit. She took a left into a tourist car park and pulled into a spot that gave her a view of the entrance. Before committing, she wanted to know if he was entering the hotel or going deeper into the famed V&A waterfront of Cape Town, South Africa.

Originally constructed as a simple stopover point for Dutch East India Company ships traveling to India and the Far East, it had transformed in the modern era into a tourist promenade, with everything from a giant aquarium to a Ferris wheel that looked like a miniature London Eye. Even though it was becoming overrun with pedestrian walkways, shops, and restaurants, it was still a working port, and Shoshana hoped her target was doing something other than getting a beer.

In truth, she was a tad bit aggravated at the slow-moving surveillance effort and wanted nothing more than to corner her target and rip off his head, spilling out the secrets that he held. But she couldn’t, because Pike had demanded they develop the situation. She feared the delay was putting Aaron in danger.

She’d lost the ability to sleep at night, worried beyond measure about what was happening to her touchstone. Her gateway to normalcy. She didn’t realize it, but her fear of losing Aaron was driving her to become exactly what she was trying so hard to leave behind. A monster that shouldn’t walk the earth.

She saw the target bypass the entrance to the hotel, moving deeper into the waterfront. She exited the car, taking up a loose follow, keeping his blond head in sight in the distance and wondering why his mission even mattered, whatever it was. There was nothing in Cape Town for her. Yeah, the man they called Apple Watch might be doing something heinous, but who cared what the Taskforce thought? He was a bad man like a bazillion other folks in the world. Divining his evil plot wouldn’t get her Aaron. Only skinning him alive would do that. She was regretting volunteering for this task. She should have followed the black man.

In Tel Aviv, they’d learned that the Taskforce had identified Apple Watch’s iPhone in Cape Town, South Africa, at a hotel in the old Muslim section of Bo-Kaap. They’d done a hasty site survey via online tools and then had flown to the bottom of Africa to interdict the target. The flight route had been circuitous, forcing them first to go to Europe before traveling back down to the edge of the earth in South Africa, and the time lost had eaten at Shoshana.

She’d become incensed when Pike had developed a surveillance plan on the hotel but no follow-on takedown. No planning for exfiltration with the target, no interrogators, no requests for support assets whatsoever.

She’d eventually interrupted the operations order, saying, “I see a lot of sneak-and-peek crap to set this guy up, but nothing about taking him down. When are we doing that? We’re wasting time with this tiptoe stuff.”

The room had gone quiet, all eyes on Pike. In a measured tone, he’d said, “Shoshana, we don’t have authority to do that. Not yet, anyway. We have to build the target package and then get approval.”

She heard the words and felt betrayed, her earlier fears coming home. They didn’t care about Aaron. They cared only about themselves. She’d snapped to her feet and said, “I told you I wouldn’t stand for any bullshit. That man knows where Aaron is, and I’ll take him down by myself if I have to.”

Pike shook his head, saying, “And then what?”

“And then I wring him out. Find Aaron.”

She’d glared at him, then Jennifer, and started to walk to the hotel door. Pike had said, “What if he doesn’t know where Aaron is?”

She stopped, the anger flaring out, saying, “Then I move on to the next one.”

Pike said, “What next one? We don’t have a next one yet. And what happens when our target set realizes you’ve hit him? You think they’ll just continue like business as usual? Or shift? Perhaps move Aaron to a new location. Or kill him.”

She balled her fists and let out a guttural animal sound, something from deep within her soul. She knew he was right, and that fact was eating her from the inside out. She wanted to fight. She was like a wolf caught in a bear trap, ripping its limbs to get free, the action itself doing more damage than the trap, but continuing to thrash in a frenzy nonetheless.

She tamped down her instinctual fear, managing to stop her internal struggle. Pike nodded, seeing the change. In a gentle tone he said, “Shoshana, sit down, please.”

She did, and he finished the OPORD detailing trigger and bumper locations. He ended by saying, “Remember, Apple is our only key, and today is just development. We record every thread and then explore those threads. That’s the mission.” He looked at Shoshana and said, “Can you do that?”

She nodded firmly, and he said, “Good. Let’s get cracking.”

They’d traveled to their designated surveillance bumper locations around the hotel, with Brett on the trigger position inside and Shoshana on the least likely egress the target would use—the one away from the city center. It aggravated her, but she understood why.

Two hours later, sitting in her rental car parked on Wale Street outside a traditional Cape Malay curry restaurant, she heard the trigger call.

“All elements, all elements, this is Blood. Apple is leaving the hotel foxtrot, intending right on Wale Street.”

Shoshana perked up at the call. Foxtrot meant he was on foot, no vehicle. Intending meant Blood thought he was taking a right on Wale Street, not a left. Which meant he was coming to her.

She said, “This is Carrie. I copy.”

Pike and Jennifer, in the other two bumper positions, did the same, and she saw Apple Watch coming up the hill. She said, “Carrie has the eye, still foxtrot.”

She’d wait until he passed her before exiting her vehicle, just in case. He didn’t. He stopped at the corner, across the intersection from her position, and a car pulled up, heading the other way. He got in the passenger seat, and she put her car in drive.

She called the team, gave them a description of the car and the direction of travel, and then passed Pike headed the other way. She grinned. She was now the only one who could follow in the short term.

They wove through the city until they hit Long Street, the target taking a right. Shoshana followed two cars back, immediately hit a throng of pedestrians, and grew afraid of a break in contact.

“Pike, this is Carrie. Apple is on Long Street, and this looks like the barhopping, boozing area. Nothing but pubs and restaurants, with backpackers and locals all over the street. I might lose him.”

Jennifer came on. “Carrie, this is Koko. I’ve got visor two blocks up.” Meaning she was ahead of the target. Shoshana slowed her urgency through the crowds. She heard Jennifer come back on. “Pike, Carrie’s right. This avenue looks a lot like Bourbon Street.”

“Got it. No issues now, but it’s something to remember if we have to do night ops here. Brett’s parallel to the north, and I’m to the south. Target’s not getting out without us picking him up.”

Shoshana saw the target car pull over next to a two-story building with a hotel on top and a bar on the bottom. Apple left the vehicle, and the car rolled on. She called, “He’s foxtrot now. I’m passing. It’s the Long Street Hotel, some type of social club on the bottom.”

She rolled through the intersection, seeing Apple enter, and called, “I’m off.”