“I don’t care what you think,” he said, pointing the blade’s tip in their direction. “I’m stuck in this fucking game, and I’m playing to win.”
“You were never big on following rules,” Toro said, edging backward. “Why start now?”
Chopper struck without warning, lunging toward Dani, blade slashing directly at her. She had seen his muscles bunch a moment before he moved and was able to sidestep what would have been a deadly attack.
He had no intention of partnering with them. Or talking. Or anything other than killing them. So be it.
She let the momentum of her evasive maneuver carry her around in a semicircle, spinning away only to double back behind Chopper. She had neatly put him between herself and Toro. Belatedly realizing his mistake, Chopper swiveled his head to one side, then the other, swinging the knife toward each of them in turn.
The next sixty seconds would reveal Toro’s true intentions. If they worked together, they could take Chopper, even though he was armed and they weren’t. If Toro wasn’t on her side, he could let her fight it out with Chopper, waiting for an opportunity to attack her from behind while she was distracted. As a third option, he could stand back and watch.
In the past, she had known those beside her, whether in law enforcement or the military, had her six. Now someone who claimed to be her partner could stab her in the very back he was supposed to be watching. Only one way to find out what would happen. She put her theory to the test, drawing Chopper’s attention.
“You good with a knife?” she asked him. “That why they call you Chopper? Because I think your edged-weapon skills suck.”
The barb had the desired effect, and he charged at her. This time, instead of pivoting out of the way, she grasped his outstretched forearm and launched herself in the opposite direction. His momentum and body weight carried him forward while his arm twisted back, wrenching his shoulder until she heard a loud popping sound. His howl of agony confirmed that his shoulder had been dislocated.
The knife fell to the floor. Busy holding Chopper, she was unable to snatch it up before Toro did. Chopper staggered, using his good hand to grasp his injured shoulder. Without a moment’s hesitation, Toro drove the knife into the side of Chopper’s neck, yanked it back out, then plunged it in a second time, giving it a sharp twist before pulling it away.
Blood sprayed in rhythmic spurts as Chopper sank to his knees, then flopped facedown on the cold floor.
She looked at Toro. “What the hell was that?”
“It’s called survival,” Toro said. “That bastard was going to kill us.” He wiped the dripping blade clean against his sleeve. “Now he won’t.”
Dani wasn’t sure how to communicate to Toro that this was way beyond the bounds of their instructions. Those protocols and policies, however, had never been meant for a situation like this.
“You’ve got to put all that good-soldier, team-player shit behind you,” he went on. “There is no honor in here. You’ve got to lie, cheat, steal, maim, and kill. Do whatever it takes to survive. You understand me?”
He was resetting the parameters under which they would operate going forward. Partnering with him had its benefits, but this was one of the drawbacks. Unlike her, Toro would not follow the rules they had both been given.
He reached out to grasp her shoulder, forcing her eyes to his. “You’ve got to learn to be heartless, or you’ll get us both killed, Corazón.”
She nearly scoffed. Her tía Manuela would have set him straight, explaining that Dani’s heart was physically strong like her father’s but emotionally stunted like her mother’s. She had demonstrated her ability to kill many times over. Saving people seemed to be her biggest challenge.
“Roger that,” she said after a long moment. Toro’s actions had demonstrated that, so far, he was with her. Their partnership would make them stronger than any individual. They could watch out for each other and work as a team.
Toro spun the butterfly knife with an expert flick of the wrist, folding it back into its split handle. Dani had seen the damage such a deadly weapon could do to a human body, but he treated it like any other piece of equipment. To him, it was simply a tool of the trade. How many people had he dispatched with the same careless efficiency? He’d admitted he had no honor and warned her to forget hers.
In that moment, she knew she’d made a deal with the devil.
CHAPTER 31
Wu glanced up when Jada Johnson rushed into the JOC.
“I’ve isolated the time window you requested at the public self-park on Washington Boulevard, sir,” she said to him. “I found six possible matches for the kind of vehicle you described.”
He had directed Johnson to focus on vehicles within the window that were large enough to carry multiple people and that had left the garage driving carefully, without speeding or violating any traffic laws.
“Get them up on the screen,” he said, swiveling his chair to face the wall-size monitor.
Johnson picked up the remote and navigated the cursor on the screen to her saved file. Six videos ran simultaneously, showing three SUVs, a stretch limo, and two vans leaving the garage with different time stamps.
“Eliminate the limo,” Wu told her. “Too flashy.”
She deleted the feed.
“Ditto the last two SUVs,” he said. “They both have vanity plates.”
He stood and walked to the screen to study the two remaining vans and a charcoal-gray Suburban with tinted windows all around. “Do you have a better angle?”
Johnson clicked open another file that showed all three vehicles from a street-level view.
“That one.” He pointed at the Suburban. “It’s riding low to the ground.” He turned to Johnson. “There’s extra weight inside. Could be from several passengers.”
“I’ll track it, sir.” She turned off the feed and slipped out moments before the door opened again. Assistant Director Hargrave walked in with Detective Flint on his heels.
“Status?” Hargrave said, not bothering with pleasantries.
The ADIC wasn’t known for his chattiness under normal circumstances, and these were far from that.
Wu answered in kind. “Possible suspect vehicle left the garage approximately ten minutes after the van that brought them in exited. We’re tracking its progress now.”
“You need eyes from above?”
Hargrave was referring to the various satellite feeds the FBI could access. Wu didn’t hesitate. “We have a missing agent in a case that involves a US senator. I want full access to every resource we’ve got.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Hargrave said. “Have you assigned a team to the Colonel?”
“We’ve got agents on Colonel Treadway’s Battery Park City address,” Wu said. “He divides his time between two apartments, one here and the other in DC. I’ve got a crew from the WFO watching that one.”
Wu had contacted the Washington field office to request surveillance but emphasized that no contact should be made without his authorization. Without a search warrant in hand, they might spook their best lead.
“Detective Flint can help one of the JTTF agents write up search warrants for both locations,” Wu continued. “But the Colonel’s a ghost.”
“Does he know we’re onto him?” Flint asked. “Is he actively fleeing or just unaccounted for?”
“No one’s seen him,” Wu said. “There’s no banking or credit card activity, and he hasn’t left the country or made any travel arrangements we can find. His vehicle is parked in its assigned space at his garage. He’s divorced and lives alone. We gather he hasn’t spoken to his wife since their youngest turned eighteen. I seriously doubt she knows where he is.”
“I understand we don’t have any charges against Colonel Treadway at this time, so our options with him are limited.” Hargrave paused as if choosing his words. “But have you reconsidered putting out a BOLO for Toro? You could alert law enforcement that we have a missing agent at the same time.”
Wu had been wrestling with the conundrum for the past hour. If he posted a nationwide notice to all law enforcement to be on the lookout for Vega and Toro, they would expand the net exponentially. On the other hand, if Vega had successfully infiltrated the group, announcing that she was a federal agent would put her—and Toro—in jeopardy.
“I vote no,” Flint said before he could respond. “Just because we don’t have eyes on her doesn’t mean she’s in trouble. Not only would we blow the whole undercover operation, but we might very well get her killed.”
“It’s the reason I’ve been holding off,” Wu said. “But we can’t wait forever.”
“What about Toro?” Hargrave said. “If we put out a bulletin for him, it shouldn’t raise anyone’s suspicions inside the group.”
“They still don’t know we’ve ID’d him,” Flint countered. “Like we all concluded before, if they learned we knew who he was, that could make him a liability.”