Carter didn’t want to push for more information since it wasn’t his business, but Dante was quite forthcoming.
“My Black Hawk was shot down over Latifiya,” Dante explained. “It’s a small town south of Baghdad. It’s dominated by native Sunni Arabs and was one of the hottest spots for our troops between 2003 and 2007. The Iraqi army couldn’t get a grip on the insurgents, so Hunt and a bunch of Rangers were sent in to help them. I was bringing in fresh troops to the zone when my chopper was hit broadside. I did a controlled crash landing—”
“I didn’t know such a thing existed,” Carter said, biting into the ham-and-swiss sandwich.
“What?”
“A controlled crash landing.”
“You wanna know the story or not?” Dante asked, but he was smiling.
“I’m sorry. Please continue,” Carter said, twisting the cap off his water bottle.
“Hunt saw the chopper go down and, with six other Rangers, left his covered position and charged five hundred feet across open ground to provide suppressive fire.”
That sounds like Pierce, Carter thought. Crazy motherfucker.
“I’m glad you made it,” Carter said. “Pierce is a good man.”
“The best. I’m in his debt, and this little op of ours, it won’t even cover the interest.”
“I hear you,” Carter replied.
“It sucks what happened to his daughter. That’s not right, man. Will they really set his daughter on fire? On live video?”
“Not if I can help it.”
They drove the next fifteen minutes in silence, staring out their respective windows and considering what could happen to Leila if they failed.
“So what’s the plan?”
“Since this morning, Abigail and I are officially on leave. We don’t have to report our whereabouts for the next thirty-six hours.”
“One way or the other, this will all be over in less than twelve,” Carter told them.
“We got a two-bedroom apartment in Centro,” Abigail said. “We created an Airbnb account using one of our aliases. We booked it for a week.”
“Centro is the old town?”
“Yes, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Narrow streets lined with homes in different shades of yellow, red, orange, and brown terra-cotta. All very pretty, but that isn’t why we put you there.”
“Because of the expats?”
“You got it,” Dante said. “About ten percent of the seventy thousand residents are expats. You’ll blend right in.”
“What about the list of items Pierce sent you?”
“That was a bit trickier, I’m afraid,” Dante admitted. “Since Pierce wanted to keep this black, we couldn’t access the armory. Nevertheless, in addition to our own personal firearms, we were able to secure three Glock 22s, and three silenced MP5s with enough ammunition to kill half the population of San Miguel.”
“Body armor?”
“Yes, we got that too. Light body armor only, though. But we got the Ops-Core FAST helmets and NODs you asked for. We had to buy the Nikon, the binoculars, and all the other electronic items Pierce wanted.”
“Transportation?” Carter asked, taking notes.
“We rented a compact SUV through Hertz and used the same IDs we used to reserve the apartment on Airbnb. The Land Cruiser is ours to use too.”
“Do you have any info regarding the Black Tosca’s mansion?”
Abigail shook her head but kept her mouth shut. Dante ran his fingers through his hair.
“What is it?”
“We don’t know much,” Dante confessed. “A couple of agents tried to fly a drone over the mansion a few months ago, but it got shut down.”
“How the hell do you shut down a small drone?” Carter asked.
“There are devices that detect drones using radio frequency methodology. It’s effective up to about twenty-five hundred feet. And it’s quite difficult to circumvent. The most expensive systems—which I’m sure the Black Tosca has—automatically detect and disable incoming drones.”
“So where does that leave us?” Carter asked.
“We have a few shots that were taken by a satellite a few years back, but they won’t be of much value. Having said that, the Mexico City office arrested a midlevel member of the Black Tosca’s cartel three weeks ago.”
“I doubt he said anything of importance. These guys prefer to do time rather than talk to us.”
“You never worked in Mexico, did you?” Abigail asked.
Carter narrowed his eyes, wondering what she meant.
Dante jumped in and said, “We do things differently here, Simon. Our methods are, let’s say, a little more invasive than they’d be back in the States. You know what I mean?”
Carter knew what invasive meant. Whatever intelligence the DEA got from the cartel member, they wouldn’t be able to use it in a court of law.
“Okay, so he talked to you. Anything I should know?”
Dante handed Carter a file containing the satellite pictures and drawings of the perimeter surrounding the residence.
“He said that the grounds of the residence were patrolled twenty-four hours a day by half a dozen heavily armed guards, and that wasn’t counting the two at the guardhouse outside the main gate.”