They circled the compound a couple of times, but Noah didn’t want to attempt to get inside while they had a trunk full of weapons and explosives. He took out his phone and googled for hotels, choosing a Holiday Inn Express that was only a mile away. Sarah drove to the hotel and Noah went in to get their rooms.
Their rooms were on the second floor, toward the back of the building. That allowed them to come in through a back entrance and carry all of their gear up without being observed. Moose had been smart enough to get a long, narrow box for the air rifle, but the rest of the guns they carried inside were either small enough to conceal or broke down into manageable components.
They stashed everything inside and took a few minutes to freshen up. Noah told Neil to get out the little Bluetooth-style two-way communicators they used to stay in touch during missions and bring them along. “Just in case we get separated,” he said. “We need to be able to stay in touch at all times during this phase of the mission.” Noah and Moose checked their pistols and then they all went back to the car. It was time to get in position to start following Molly around.
The offices of Dexter Reedy, the private analysis firm where Molly worked, were in the Woodward building on 15th St. Northwest. Security in the building was very tight, so Noah had Sarah park the car a block away from the main entrance. Molly would be coming out that door a few minutes after five, so that left them with about twenty minutes to wait. Noah passed out the pictures Neil had printed before, so all of them could refresh the mental image they had of her.
It was a good thing they had arrived early, because Molly came out the door five minutes before she should have been getting off work. She stood on the sidewalk for a moment looking up and down the street, and then raised her hand and stepped off the curb as a taxi approached. It screeched to a halt right in front of her and she climbed inside.
“Follow that cab!” Neil said, and then he shrugged. “Sorry, I just always wanted to say that.”
Moose and Sarah chuckled while Noah simply raised an eyebrow at him. Sarah put the car in gear and moved smoothly out of the parking space, falling in three cars behind the taxi. The cab appeared to be heading toward Alexandria, at first, crossing the Potomac on the 14th Street Bridge. Instead of turning south, however, it stayed on Interstate 395 for a couple of miles and then took the King Street exit to the northwest. Sarah changed colors a couple of times, but managed to stay close and keep the cab in sight as it curved onto Leesburg Parkway and finally stopped to let Molly out at an Italian restaurant.
Sarah thought quickly and pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center that surrounded the restaurant. She found a spot that let them keep the front entrance in sight, and the tinted windows on the Chrysler allowed them to watch as Molly paid the driver and turned to go inside.
“Moose, you and Sarah go inside and keep an eye on her. Go ahead and order dinner if she does, you’ll need to be able to stay until she’s ready to leave. Put your earpieces on so that Neil and I will be able to hear what’s going on in there.”
Moose chuckled. “This is funny,” he said. “Do you know how many times Sarah turned me down for a dinner date before you came along, Boss? Seems kind of ironic that you’re ordering us to go on one.”
“This is not a dinner date,” Sarah said sarcastically. “You’re my big brother and you’re taking me out for dinner because I’m about to go off to college. Got that?”
One of Noah’s eyebrows seemed to pop upward. “That’s a good scenario,” he said, as Moose laughed again.
Moose and Sarah hung the little headsets on their ears and got out of the car. It wasn’t a long walk to the entrance of the restaurant, and they stepped inside less than four minutes after Molly had done so. The hostess smiled up at them as she picked up a pair of menus and showed them to a table that just happened to give them an excellent line of sight to the booth where Molly was sitting with an older gentleman.
A waitress appeared immediately to take their orders, and a couple of minutes were spent as they decided on what to eat, with Sarah gushing about how nice her “big bubba” was to take her out for dinner. When they were done, the waitress took their menus and left.
No one appeared to be paying them any attention, so Moose tapped his earpiece. “Well, it’s obvious the girl isn’t pining away for you, Boss. She’s having dinner with a man who could be Harrison Ford’s kid brother, and if the smile on her face is any indication, it isn’t a business dinner.”