“How do you stick it into a USB port if it’s that thin?” I pick up the tab. Now that Bennito has pointed it out, it did have more rigidity than an ordinary Post-it flag, but it still looked paper thin. I couldn’t see any circuitry, either.
“You don’t. It works through a receiver. The receiver works in tandem with the USB stack. It’s pretty genius whoever designed this. I know that USBs were getting smaller but I swear that this was only a concept design. The flag is made of grapheme, which is a single layer of carbon atoms packed into a honeycomb pattern. The conductive layer is at the end.”
I scrub a hand over my face. “Duval sends out his mule with the sales information but his buyers can’t access the information without the receiver.”
“Exactly.” Bennito nods. “But if he’s going to sell the information, then the receiver must not be encrypted.”
“Is there any way to copy the data from the USB to our computer?”
“Not really. The information can only be read through the corresponding receiver.”
“We need Duval, then.”
“Or the receiver.”
“And how many bodyguards does he have with him?”
“Twelve, and then there are the multiple goons surrounding his buyers. The Manish Hotel Ecológico is overrun with black-suited, earpiece-wearing foreigners. Looks like a hit-man convention.”
“Why here in Pucallpa?”
“Dunno. I’m your computer and electronics guy.” He wheels back to the computer and taps a few buttons. A video screen pops up, and I see two men standing on guard outside a bungalow.
“That Duval’s place?”
“Yup. He’s got that supermodel with him. She spends most of her time in a cabana flipping through magazines. He’s usually talking on the phone or arguing with his brother.”
I watch the screen. “What are they arguing about?”
Bennito laughs and rips open a potato chip bag. He shakes it toward me. “No thanks.” I wave my hand.
“What don’t they argue about? If Duval says the sky is blue, Fouquet says its green. If Duval wants to order fish for lunch, Fouquet wants meat. If Duval is taking Rose off to fuck, Fouquet wants to join.”
My eyebrow raises on its own. “And does he?”
“Nope. That’s about the biggest argument that they get into. ‘Why does Duval get all the *?’ Fouquet shouts. ‘Go buy your own whore,’ Duval snarls back. Rose just sits on the lounge chair until Duval snaps his fingers.”
“Nice.” I wonder how much Ava knows about this. “Is she there against her will?”
“Who can say? I mean, if I was in her situation and it was either fuck Duval or be killed, I’d probably fuck Duval until someone could ride to my rescue.”
I nod absently. If she’s willingly with Duval, it will be harder to extract her, but does it matter? Everyone in Duval’s circle, with the exception of his brother, is disposable, including—or maybe especially—the women.
“What’s the chatter? Has Duval said anything about the USB drives? Or does he assume they are lost in the jungle?”
“So far nothing.”
“We have to assume that Duval has the original information on some computer device. We should steal that. Have you run an infrared scan and thermal imaging to locate all the electronics?”
“Yeah.” Bennito flicks open another file. He has already labeled the items. “Our main targets are the two laptops. One is Duval’s. Not sure whose the other one is. Rose has a tablet and so does Fouquet.” He taps his pen against an object shaped like a lamp. “But I think the receiver is here. The base of this lamp is hotter than all the other ones in his bungalow. I compared it to the heat signatures from all the other ten bungalows.” With a few keystrokes, he places an overlay of transparent maps on top of Duval’s.
“Is the lamp in Duval’s bedroom?”
“Yeah,” he drawls.
“Maid go in there?”
“Oh yeah.” Bennito and I are on the same wavelength. In another country, maybe we could sneak a man inside, but in Pucallpa, there’s no way that cleaning is done by a male. We need Ava for that. “Is she going to be up for that?”
“It’s not her you should worry about.” I rise and stalk over to the window. The safest plan for all of us, the one that would result in the least amount of injury and with the highest likelihood of success, is sending Ava in as a maid. She cleans, steals the base of the lamp, drops it out the window to a waiting Bennito who in the span of time it takes her to make the bed would have the receiver switched out and returned. I turn the plan over in my head. I don’t like leaving Ava alone here. Too many shitheads with no morals running around. But I don’t like her being so close to Duval, either. “We steal a uniform. Ava goes in, snatches the receiver, and then leaves. You and Rodrigo need to swap out the contents, and then we’ll send her back in with the replacement. At the same time, we offer the USB shit to Duval outside in exchange for Rose. When we get Rose, we get on the first plane to Lima and then to Virginia.”