Extinction Machine

Chapter Twenty

Camden Court Apartments, Camden and Lombard Streets

Baltimore, Maryland

Sunday, October 20, 6:23 a.m.

The two men in the black Crown Victoria watched the huge red-brick apartment building. The driver chewed gum slowly and methodically as he studied the building through dark sunglasses. The man next to him was hunched over a small laptop whose split screen showed him the feeds from several camera drones that perched as fake pigeons on power lines, light poles, and window ledges. From ten feet the drones looked entirely real. At close range their tiny black bird eyes were too dark, too lifeless, too unnatural to sell them as real. But they did not need to pass close inspection, and no one looks twice at a pigeon in Baltimore.

“Okay,” said the man with the small laptop. “The woman’s leaving, too.”

A tall and lovely young woman stepped out through the main doors and raised her arm for a cab. Both men paused to admire her legs and the way her clothes clung to her ripe lines.

“Ledger’s pumping that?” said the driver. “Lucky bastard.”

“Yeah, well his luck just ran out,” said the passenger. “Hope he got laid this morning, ’cause it’s going to be a long time before he sees a pair of tits again.”

“Ah, well,” said the driver. “Life’s a bitch.”

The other man laughed, then he tapped his Bluetooth. “The apartment’s empty. Send in the team.”