“Nope… I’m good. I’ll be along to the restaurant shortly. I have to get going, while the bleary eyed trio stumbles around. Take care of my pack, and keep Tracy out of sight until they follow me. Call me if they don’t.”
“Got it.” Gus shouldered Nick’s equipment pack.
Without another word, Nick paced away at a measured stride so as not to attract attention. Gus went inside the store, where everyone waited on him with nervous anxiety. “Tracy… go try something on right now! Pick out anything you like. We’ll buy it, but you have five seconds. Everyone else is shopping, so look around, and get the damn grim looks off your faces.”
Tracy didn’t question a thing. She grabbed another pair of jeans she had been considering, and headed into the changing room. Rachel, Tina, and Jean stayed together, browsing through the myriad pieces of apparel in the store. Gus approached the rather uneasy clerk with a smile. He put a hundred dollar bill on the counter.
“This is for you. Our friend has an ex-boyfriend problem. Smile like usual if some cranky guys show up, and don’t glance back at the dressing room, Okay?”
The thin Asian man in his mid to upper twenties pocketed the hundred, and placed his hands on the counter. “No problem, Sir.”
Their three seekers entered the store only a minute afterward, glowering at the customers of which there were only Rachel, Tina, and Jean, who were busily conversing over the souvenir hoodies. They had pulled their own hoods down when entering the store. Gus leaned against the counter with a big smile. Even with a smile, no one would think of Gus as approachable. The three men were not inclined to do so either. They approached the counter, where the clerk remained the picture of helpfulness.
“Hello. Can I help you gentlemen with anything?”
The taller one of the three draped his angular body across the counter with a picture in hand. He made the question seem like an accusation. “You have seen this woman?”
The clerk took the picture in hand, looked at it carefully, and handed it back. “No Sir, I haven’t.”
The man’s stockier companion showed him an electronic tablet, urging him in Arabic. They left immediately. Gus put another hundred on the counter.
“You were excellent, my friend.” Gus motioned for Rachel to get Tracy. “Those three are very bad men.”
“I could tell,” the clerk replied, pocketing the other hundred.
Tracy emerged from the dressing room with Rachel helping her put the hood up on the jacket they had bought for her, while Gus paid for the extra jeans. He then called Nick’s friend with the limousine to meet them outside the Pier 39 area. Nick had headed for the dock area, so Gus led the way out of the store, turning in the opposite direction toward the limo.
“Is Dad going to be okay?” Jean kept glancing back the way they had come, fear in her eyes. “Those guys were scary.”
Gus grinned in spite of the situation. He put his arm around Jean, as Rachel and Tina hustled Tracy along between them through the crowded center section of walkway. “You’ve been along with the Terminator before, Danger. What do you think?”
A slight smile formed on Jean’s face as she met Gus’s inquisitive glance. “Sorry… I wasn’t thinking. Do you think he’ll run down to the docks and throw the purse in the water?”
“Probably not.”
“Oh.”
Chapter Eleven
More Than Meets the Eye
“The woman is stupid. If she managed to get clothes, look where she runs - the darkest part of the docks. With this wind and cold, no one will be down there,” the tall one, Dani Canaan, from the store stated in Arabic. They followed the signal as Nick moved the purse toward the end of Pier 39 instead of out to the Embarcadero.
“She is still under the drug’s effects,” the third member of the trio, Rami Abbar, spoke up, as they threaded their way through the thinning crowd on the concourse. “The cursed water must have revived her somewhat. Fahid made a mistake letting her go in the water. We could have dumped her body at sea tomorrow after retrieving his precious chip.”
“It matters not, Rami,” the stocky Nabih Zainy replied, carrying his tablet while trying not to have it jostled out of his hand. “Aldirin ran toward the docks. She cannot catch a cab there. If she tries to backtrack or go around, we can still get her. The chip will be fine. Besides having a transponder, its case is waterproof. Fahid should have remembered the transponder though. It would have saved us much time. Wait… Aldirin has stopped at a place fifty meters to the left of the center concourse. I believe The Shalimar is visible from there.”
“Let us wait for a moment,” Canaan said. “Perhaps she will try to round the pier to the right again. We can then cut her off at this center access way. Perhaps we should split up.”
“No, Dani. You and Rami need to stay with me. This tablet is the only way we can track her movements. Wait a few moments longer.”