Page 92 of The Wolves Come at Night
Near dawn, Jackson handed over a piece of paper, scribbled with arrows and lines of yellow. “I found him. Just outside of Geneva, in a town called Prévessin-Moëns. It’s about twenty minutes west of the city. He’s rented a house.”
“He rents a lot of houses.”
“This one has a name.”
Angelie felt that tiny tick of adrenaline that said something was about to happen, something she wasn’t going to like. “What’s it called?”
“Les Chambres des Anges. The Angel’s Rooms.”
Forty-Seven
MONDAY: Geneva, Switzerland
They were wheels up at noon and driving into the Geneva suburbs an hour after that. Santiago and Angelie had an arsenal waiting when they landed, a black Land Rover packed to the brim with weapons and materiel they’d need to assault the house.
Geneva was experiencing a clear, cool day, the sky an unearthly blue, the air as crisp and clean as the snow that was surely on its way soon. They crossed through the city proper silently, Taylor watching the Jet d’Eau reliably spewing water into the sky and the tour boats swinging ever closer, just enough so the delighted tourists could feel that chilling spray but not get soaked.
She was starting to have serious doubts about the situation she’d found herself in. She’d been trying not to think about Nashville, about what it felt like to lay down her badge and gun on Huston’s desk. The moment of freedom, of vindication, was quickly turning into a gnawing question: Did I do the right thing? While Angelie’s long history inspired some confidence, Taylor was not at all thrilled to be riding into battle with the assassins. It went against everything she’d always thought she believed in.
At the same time, a girl’s life was at stake. And she would do anything she had to in order to make sure Carson Conway got home safely. Not to mention the opportunity to reunite Baldwin with his son.
So did that make her different from Angelie and her ilk? Or the same?
The thrum of energy in the car was almost too much. Both Santiago and Angelie had done little but grunt orders at her since she’d found the house, and their intensity along with Taylor’s wandering thoughts was becoming oppressive.
“This is a little overkill, don’t you think?” Taylor asked. Her legs were bent nearly to her chin to fit in between the cases of guns.
Angelie stayed staring straight ahead, as she had since they’d discovered Game’s possible location, teeth clenched and hands on her knees. “This is a trap, you do understand this? He is thumbing his nose at us, wants us to come in quietly, to try and sneak Carson away. We will not. We will drop a bomb on this house and drag his sorry ass kicking and screaming on fire into the dirt of the road.”
“Temper,” Taylor said. Angelie shot a nasty glance over her shoulder. She looked like she might just scream again. “I agree it’s a trap,” Taylor continued, trying for a reasonable tone. “Why else would he rent a house with your name in it? But maybe we don’t have to blow up the whole block to get in. Maybe we could be a little more stealthy.”
Angelie fully turned in her seat and looked at Taylor scrunched in the back seat. “It is a suburban neighborhood, Taylor. Of course I’m not being literal.” Disdain dripped from every word.
Santiago huffed out a laugh. “She’s blowing off steam so there’s no adrenaline left to get in the way. You should try it. Scream.”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to scream. I am just fine.”
“You should. You’d probably feel better. I could bounce a quarter off you, you’re wound so tight.”
“You’re welcome to keep your observations to yourself. I feel fine,” Taylor said, surprised to realize she meant it. She’d talked to Baldwin briefly before the plane left France, and as always, hearing his voice had settled her nerves and recommitted her mentally to this job. Remember that, girl. It’s just a job. You can figure out the rest later. “I find preparation to be the most soothing part of an op. So why don’t we cover what happens when we get to the house.”
“We’ll park in the lot of the grocery down the street. Santiago and I will take our weapons and hike in. You will then proceed to the end of the street to wait for our egress.” Angelie’s dismissive tone grated on Taylor’s nerves.
“If it’s a trap, doesn’t walking in the front seem…foolhardy?”
“We’re going to go in through the neighbor’s home. It is less than fifteen meters from the target. They share a pool, a sidewalk, and a drive. They also share a basement door, which is where we’ll come in. The owner of both homes is the same, he rents the house next door to travelers visiting Geneva. Game has taken the south-facing home. We go in through the basement, find Carson, dispatch Game, if he’s there, and leave.”
“Too easy,” Taylor said, feeling a spike of annoyance. “They’ll have the door between the two houses reinforced. He’ll expect you to come in that way.”
Angelie snorted. “Then, by all means, Taylor, you plan our ingress.”
“The roof.” Taylor shoved her phone toward the front seat, where a satellite image showed remarkable detail of the property and surrounding neighborhood. “See the solar panels? There’s a widow’s walk behind them, so there must be an access there, on the western edge, next to the third array. The view must be lovely from that angle.”
“Too exposed, and there’s no guarantee we can even get it open,” Angelie said dismissively, but Santiago laughed.
“Go down the chimney like Santa fucking Claus, why don’t we? It’s not a bad idea.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Taylor said dryly. “There will be stairs down, either into the top floor or the attic. You can access the roof from the house down the street. There’s a tree with plenty of branches. We don’t even need to be on the road the house is on. He won’t see you coming from above.”
