49

We met back in my suite to convene a short war council prior to contacting the Taskforce. Earlier, before we’d penetrated the warehouse, I’d sent transcripts of the conversation at the castle, and Kurt had told me he’d wait at the office for a final report. It was closing in on four A.M. in Cape Town, which meant it was only nine P.M. in Washington. Kurt would definitely still be there.

I heard a knock on my door, and Jennifer let in Brett. He looked around and said, “Where’s the psycho?”

“Still out. Haven’t heard from her.”

He pursed his lips but remained quiet. I said, “She’s fine. She’ll be back.”

He said, “What are we going to tell Kurt? What’s your preferred course of action?”

“I want to take that fucker down. They’re training for a free-fall operation, and we just saw a stockpile of weapons in a warehouse secured by Tyler Malloy. There’s some nefarious shit going on here.”

“You know that’s not going to be enough. ‘Nefarious shit’ doesn’t rise to the level of Taskforce involvement. It’s got to be related to terrorism, not to African shenanigans.”

“Tyler’s payment for all this is something bad, and he’s going to sell that to someone who’s not in America’s best interests. They mentioned Project Circle.”

Brett nodded and said, “Hey, I agree with you, and if I was still working for the CIA, I’d work an angle to take him out as a threat against US interests, but I’m now with the Taskforce, and we have limits. We do terrorism, not all-source threats.”

I said, “Well, let’s see what those limits are.” I nodded to Jennifer and said, “Get us online with the Taskforce.”

She manipulated the laptop; we heard a bunch of bleating and beeps and then saw some staff guy on the screen. Jennifer said, “Can you hear me?”

He said, “Yes. Go.”

“This is Prometheus Pike. We have a scheduled contact with the CEO of Blaisdell Consulting.”

He nodded and said, “I’m not sure he’s here. He might be at dinner.”

Jennifer said, “No dinner needed. We’re secure.”

He smiled and said, “Roger that. Stand by. I’ll go find him.”

That exchange was a dance to make sure we weren’t under duress. If Jennifer had said, “Okay, well . . . call us back” or “How long should we wait?” or anything else, the guy would know she was calling with a gun to her head. “No dinner needed” was the response that released him.

We sat around, staring at the walls, waiting on him to find Kurt, and then heard a knock on the door. Brett went to it and then glanced back at me with a smile. He opened the door, and Shoshana entered, fired up. She was wired and blasting sparks.

She came right to me, held out a phone, and said, “We need to go to Durban. Today.”

I said, “Whoa, whoa, what’s up?”

“Some Eastern European guy assassinated the man I was going to question. Killed him with an overdose of heroin, but they talked beforehand. My target mentioned Aaron. His friend in Durban was the man who coordinated for the safe house Aaron was . . . was interrogated in.”

She could barely say the final part. I glanced at the computer screen, but it was still blank. This was the worst time to talk to her, as I had seconds before I had to talk to Kurt. I said, “Okay, okay. We’re on with the Taskforce here shortly.”

“Pike, that guy is going to Durban to kill the contact. I don’t know who that European is, but he’s cleaning house. We’re going to lose the thread.”

I said, “What did this guy look like?” She described him, and I knew it was Stanko. Now Tyler was deeply, deeply involved in whatever was going on. He wasn’t just providing arms. He was killing to protect the sale.

She held out the phone and said, “I have the contact’s number. A man named Eshan. The European said he was going to meet him today. And that means he’s going to kill him.”

Which introduced a little bit of pressure. If it was real. I said, “Why do you believe that?”

“Because he killed the target I was after. Not only that, he killed the man who provided them the heroin. He murdered them both, then planted evidence around them to cause the police to look at a drug crime. It wasn’t a snap decision. It was planned. He’s going to kill the man in Durban, and when he does, we’ll lose Aaron.”

I nodded, absorbing the information. She walked to me and took my hand, forcing the phone into it. She said, “That’s the guy’s number. Get the Taskforce to track it. We need to beat him to the target.”

I started to say something, knowing that tracking the phone wasn’t in the cards, and she said, “Please. For me.”

I squeezed her hand and said, “Shoshana, I’m with you. I am. But if I can get Omega for Tyler Malloy, we’re at jackpot. Let me work Kurt instead of chasing a local thread. We squeeze Tyler’s ass and we have it all.”

She said, “If you get permission, if you do this, will you continue? Once you take Tyler down, you have no reason. The mission will be over.”

The computer bleeped, and I heard, “Jennifer, good to see you. What did you find in the warehouse?”

She said, “I’ll let Pike do the talking.”

I ignored the discussion, focusing on Shoshana. I said, “Yes. I will, even if it means me doing it alone.”