Page 88 of Lure

One hour turned into two and they seemed to drag as we maintained our positions. The vehicles had arrived on property. Security presented a very visible and armed presence. More of his girls left via a limo, so that whittled down more of the civilians around him.

At sundown, activity in the compound increased. Luggage was carried from the house down to the vehicles. That fit with what we knew. I checked my watch again.

Once he was out in the open, we would be free to move.

“Thirty minutes.” With two words, Bones had us moving. “Get in position. Alphabet, lock on to his car. I want our target painted before they leave the compound.”

“Done,” Alphabet said in acknowledgment and our conversational chatter ended. As operations went, this one was more of a walk in the park than a challenge. I took the route back toward town.

Music drifted on the air from the clubs and restaurants. A number of the cafes and eateries had their outdoor seating open. Plenty were packed with customers and the scents of food, wine, cologne, and sweat perfumed the air before the breezes swept them away.

At the twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds, I was at the cross street where they would turn to head down to the port.

“Marked,” Alphabet said. “They are on the move.”

I’d traded out my sunglasses for an entirely different pair of glasses calibrated to let me see electronic tagging. They weren’t perfect, and had a short range. But all I needed them for was to see which vehicle I wanted.

Traffic increased slowly, but steadily. Two beeps in my ear told me the little caravan we were waiting for closed in on my position. I pulled out the bag of 1 inch triangle spikes. Timing my stumble for being near the curve of the traffic circle heading to the port, I released twenty-five or so to scatter over the road just as the first security car arrived.

More than half were picked up by its tires and the second car snared almost the rest. They weren’t even a quarter of a mile down before the first car’s tires began to blow.

Delayed reaction was the best. I slowed down the painted target by hitting the crossing button and jogging right into the street. The third car, wearing the painted target, hit their brakes hard.

Oops.

Still grinning, I continued east. “Cleaned out some of the debris. Still need to sack up the last one.”

“I got you,” Lunchbox practically hummed. “Pick you up in five.”

“Good, I’d kill for a beer.”

“Great,” Lunchbox muttered. “Now I will too.”

Chuckling, I canted my head at the sound of squealing tires followed by a blaring horn, then crunches of metal before tires spun out again.

“Oops,” Alphabet said. “They missed their turn.”

“Well,” Lunchbox drawled. “Tag, I’m it.”

With that, I went from jog to loping run. I’d just made it to the rendezvous when the painted SUV pulled up. Lunchbox winked at me from the driver’s seat as I yanked open the rear passenger door, and slid inside with the pressure injector in my palm.

The bodyguard in the back lunged at me. Very nice of him to reach out. I broke the wrist of the hand with the gun and hit him in the side of the neck with the tranq even as I slid into the car.

The privacy partition was closed. Maurizio Gallo was all the way on the far side of the car trying to open the other door. Not that it was working for him. I knocked on the partition as I closed the door.

“What the hell do you want?” The man asked in a heavy accent, his eyes were wild and showing a great deal of white as they wheeled around searching for his escape.

“An ice cold beer, some good tunes, and maybe a meal with a beautiful woman. You?” I stripped down the gun toits component parts before I emptied the bullets from the magazine. Pretty sure this was an illegal weapon here in France, but then I wasn’t going to judge.

“You’re insane,” Gallo muttered, sweat beading his spray-tanned face. It definitely made him look like an overripe melon on the way to going bad.

“Nope, I’m just Voodoo.” I waited for the vehicle to slow to a stop again and opened the rear passenger door to shove the unconscious guard out. The rear driver’s side door opened, and I swore that Gallo squealed as Bones slid in.

“Who are you?” The overweight man let out a vicious gasp as he tried to retreat. But the only place he had to go brought him straight to me and he ended up trapped in the middle. Bones and I closed the doors at the same moment, then Bones knocked on the partition.

“Any lingering concerns?” Bones directed his attention toward me and ignored the man.

“Not at the moment.” I was definitely hungry. The wandering hadn’t leant itself to eating much and I didn’t really like snacking on a mission.

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