“Dr. Menzinger of the Swiss astronomical society is now saying that Nomad is not months away, but is already inside the solar system and will be passing the Earth in two days. NASA and the European Space Agency have refused to comment…”
“Jesus Christ.” Ben raked one hand through his hair. For the past day, he’d been holding his breath, waiting for this news to drop. Now it was out. He had hoped to be at the castle in Italy now. They had to get moving, now. He took a step forward, slapping the truck’s siding, leaning to look into the truck’s cabin. “Hey, can you move forward?”
Ben and Roger weren’t the only ones that heard the news. All around them, horns started beeping, engines revving.
“Hey!” Ben yelled, taking another step. “Can you move the goddamn—”
The truck slid back another two feet, crushing the hood of the car. Another car had jammed into the side of it and was trying to push through between them.
Roger was still sitting in the driver’s seat, his seatbelt strapped on.
Ben slammed on the side of the truck again. “HEY!” he screamed.
The car trying to squeeze past the truck gunned its engine and rammed forward, and at this impact, the truck slid back again, but this time not just two feet. It released completely, slamming into their car, pushing it sideways into the metal guardrail behind them. Ben glanced back just in time to see Roger’s terrified eyes as the car plummeted over the edge.
28
VACA, ITALY
“THAT’S HIM,” JESS whispered.
The setting sun cast long shadows down the street, but the man opening the gate across the street was definitely Enzo. Looking left and right, he walked thirty feet to the street corner and dropped a black plastic bag. Scanning the street again, he wiped his hand and returned to the gate to go back inside the house. It was a single-story bungalow, with terracotta roof tiles and white stucco walls, surrounded by a well-maintained six-foot hedge that made it impossible to look into the yard from street level.
Jess and Giovanni watched from a second-story perch across the street. They lay on a bed mattress dragged out onto the concrete balcony of the small apartment, lying flat, spying through the two-inch-high drain-gap in the bottom of the balcony wall.
After locating Enzo, Giovanni’s security guards had somehow rented the apartment across the street. It was empty except for a couch and coffee table and the stripped-down bed they dragged onto the balcony. The mattress was surprisingly clean, looked and smelled new.
Jess was impressed.
Giovanni’s security guys were definitely professionals, in just a few hours establishing a complete surveillance operation. Driving the ten blocks from the waterfront to the back of this apartment, the men had dropped off Jess and Giovanni, then took up their positions on the ground floor and rear of Enzo’s house.
“Brutto figlio di puttana bastardo,” Giovanni swore under his breath, staring at Enzo going back in the house.
Jess grabbed Giovanni’s shoulder, restrained him from getting up. “We need to find out if Hector is inside,” she whispered. “And we need to find out who else is in there.”
Still holding Giovanni’s shoulder, she glanced back at the house through the drain gap. A garden surrounded the bungalow on three sides, with just the front and side doors as entrances and exits. Beige covering obscured all the windows, something like drapes or sashes but more solid and blacked out. Light still bled out from the edges of the windows. Jess counted the four windows on this side, and from scouting the house knew there were two more in the back. There were maybe two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. Lying with her face flat to the floor, the scent of a flowering chamomile bush in the gardens below managed to overpower the smell of damp concrete and sunbaked skin.
“How do we find out?” Giovanni growled. “We don’t have time.”
Jess pushed Giovanni back to the mattress more firmly. “We don’t even know if Enzo has Hector. Maybe he just came home to see his family.”
Her stomach lurched. She should be with her family. She hoped her father was at the castle by now. They’d called Nico to say they’d located Enzo, but as of two hours ago, Jess’s father still hadn’t shown up.
The castle was just an hour away, Jess told herself. Just around the corner. She could leave at any time and get back there. And having something to do—a purpose, a mission—felt good, like she was doing something useful, something important.
“Maybe we should just go and knock on the door.” Giovanni held up his Beretta handgun. “We ask nicely.”
It was a good thing she had come along. Jess shook her head. “No, your guys are right. We’ve found Enzo, now we need to gather more information and form a plan. Patience.”
The walkie-talkie crackled softly. “Hai visto?"
“Si, si,” Giovanni answered.