“You want to know what they’re targeting. I get that, but couples are tricky, Paul. It’s best to kill them. Forget about a question and answer session. If you want an idea of what they want, I can go snatch their fifth wheel. He’s probably the planner and boss of the imported cell. Do they have open ended stays booked at the hotel?”
“Yes, thank God. What the hell do you think they’re up to?”
“I guess you’ve gone over all the possible targets. We’ve had them go after landmarks. How about meetings with upper echelon leaders or groups?”
“We have all of the above. It would seem likely their warehouse mole would know the answers, but he could also be their IT guy, the one who furnishes them with anything they need. We have them watched 24/7 now, but we only found them a few minutes ago.”
“I’ll have to check on all this, Paul. I’ll call in Gus and John to work some oblique angles with the info we do have. I assume you’ve had them scanned for everything, right?”
“No time for the complete workup, but we’ll have people looking for residue in the used towels by morning. I guess I’d be preaching to the choir telling you this is without doubt the dumbest situation I can imagine.”
“When politicians are involved in buying votes and getting bought everything is at risk: our lives, our families, and our country. We psychos have to stick together so we can monitor and undo the damage, our coin operated politicos cause, so we may enjoy another day with all we have in this great nation at risk.”
“You’d make a hell of a candidate, brother. Get the Unholy Trio together while I keep the Islamist tools in sight. One thing I’ll have is a nice force of darkness in place for any backup you need. Let me know right away if you guys find anything. I’ll send Clyde your way the moment you plot out either a target or a course of action. The only thing I have here are agencies ready to launch task forces - in other words organizational bullshit so as to look busy and competent while collecting money for pretending relevancy and necessity. I need to clone you. You have the instincts to point our politically correct forces in the right direction.”
“I’m afraid anything other than sticking our thumbs in the dike to prevent the flood is all we can do, my friend. There’s a reason we have people in power like the ones we do. They’re the only ones willing to sell their souls to get elected. It would be nice to sneak in an American patriot once in a while, but let’s quit daydreaming. I’ll call with news from my ragtag superhero crew if we discover anything of interest.”
“Until then… until then.”
Nick squeezed Rachel’s hand. Call the boys over, honey, even if you have to go pick them up. I’ll start gathering our workstation together. The Unholy Trio must save our abused nation once again.”
“Not funny. Good God, Nick… I thought Cincinnati’s action would have slowed the assholes down. I heard what you said about politicos but-”
“There’s no use thinking about it,” Nick interrupted. “I keep it simple in my head. Do what needs to get done so we can walk down to the beach one more day. Anyone getting in the way of that, be it the Kader clan or Islamist marauders, and I make it hell on earth for them until I’m no more or they’re no more.”
Rachel sighed. “If this keeps up, I’ll be practicing with the knives.”
“You know the old cliché about families who slay together stay together.”
“On that horrifying thought, I’ll go get the band together.”
*
At nearly midnight John pumped a fist in the air. He had been working on transportation schedules for land, sea, and air, trying to find any likely target in the Boston area. “Check this out. The Queen Mary II will be docking in Boston in three days. Although I can’t access the exact identities, the Company database claims ten members of the Royal Family will be sailing aboard her.”
“Damn, that’s better than anything I’ve run across.” Gus moved over to check out John’s screen. “Why wasn’t this on the radar from before?”
“The Royals many times move with only their own security services aware of where and when,” Nick answered, also moving to check John’s screen. “On a cruise like that, where the ship can be targeted at sea, it was probably a major coup for the Company to even get this hint. I see how you figured the Royal Family movement by inadvertent appearances tied in with ship’s movement, John. That’s some excellent work. I better get us a flight out of here. We’re taking everyone, including Deke and Cala. No one stays behind on this trip. We’ll do some book signings at the Harvard Book Store. It will be a great cover for us staying at the Boston Harbor Hotel again with Deke.”