I understand it, but I don’t like it. They basically asked Lily to murder Robin Hood.
I massage the bridge of my nose and pause for a drink. It’s too hot to think…
Maybe I should try learning to go with the flow. Stop asking so many damn questions and accept the fact that life’s different for me now. It shouldn’t matter to me why I’m being sent to kill someone, should it? This is my job. Hell, this is my life. Back in the old days, when it was just Josh and me on the open road, I know that was more about running from my past than anything else. I needed that moral justification so I felt better about myself and what I was doing.
But now?
I don’t know… As I said to Lily earlier, old habits die hard.
“Check this out,” says Lily, distracting me.
“What is it?”
She scrolls down a page on a local news website. “It says here that bin Mawal is staying in a penthouse suite at the Jumeirah Hotel for the next few days.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Oh…”
“Is that a bad thing?”
I nod. “If that’s true, it puts him either on or above the sixty-fifth floor of the Etihad Towers. In Tower One, I believe.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah… Oh. If he’s as well protected as you say, it’ll be near-impossible to hit him while he’s in the hotel.”
She raises an eyebrow and half-smiles at me. “Near impossible?”
I smile back. “Yeah… there’s no such thing as a truly impossible shot. You can get to anyone providing you make the right approach.” I stand, finish my drink, and grab my keys from near the edge of the counter. “Come on.”
Lily stands. “Where?”
“We should start with some recon. We’ll take my car — chances are you’ll be spotted, and we want to avoid that if at all possible.”
“So, what, we’re going to the hotel?”
I shrug. “Yeah, why not? That’s where he is.”
I turn and head for the door.
“But, Adrian, what if someone sees us? This is reckless… This is insane! Why on earth would you go and stand outside the guy’s hotel? It’ll be swarming with his security. I can’t believe you’re…”
I stop listening to her as I open the door and step outside. The heat hits me like a freight train as the effects of the AC are left behind. I jump over the door of my Aston Martin and start the engine. Lily appears in the doorway, and stares at me defiantly.
“This is stupid!” she shouts.
I smile back.
She’s not the first person to say that to me when I’ve had an idea, and I doubt she’ll be the last.
12
I pull over to the side of the road and kill the engine, parking in the shadows of the Etihad Towers. The temperature is unholy, and the shade is doing very little to compensate. I lean back in my seat and stare up at the dizzying height of Tower One.
Christ, it’s big.
I think Tower Two, which is just to the left of it, is a little bigger though. I’m looking up at the top floor, trying to figure out a way of getting up there without being seen.
Nothing’s springing to mind…
I look across at Lily. She seems distracted, a little spaced out, staring blankly at the dash. “Hey, you okay?”
She nods vacantly. “Yeah. I’m just thinking what I’m gonna say to Horizon when he finds out Sayed bin Mawal is still alive.”
I smile. “It won’t come to that, I promise. The guy’s gonna be dead by the end of the day. Don’t waste your time and energy worrying about The Order, okay?”
She looks at me. “You can’t possibly be that confident…?”
I shrug. “Like I said, no hit is impossible. But… some of them can be difficult, so a little bit of thought is required, that’s all.”
She scoffs. “Only a little bit?”
“Yeah… too much and you jeopardize the mission. Our business is about instinct. Get too weighed down with a plan, you lose sight of your objective. You become more bothered about doing it a certain way than you do about simply getting it done. That’s when shit starts to go wrong.”
She shifts in her seat, turning her body toward me. “Okay… you’re the expert here. You’re the best there is…” She air-quoted that. Bitch. “…How do we kill this bastard?”
I raise an eyebrow at the not-so-subtle edge in her tone. I’ll chalk it up to concern for now.
“Let me see what we’re dealing with first.”
She frowns. “What are you going to do?”
I nod toward the entrance of the hotel. “I’m gonna go ask what room he’s staying in.”
She shakes her head with disbelief.
I laugh. “It’ll be fine. But maybe don’t wait around for me, just in case you’re spotted. Drive around for twenty minutes or something, meet me back here after that, okay?”
“Yeah… whatever.”
“Oh, and my Beretta’s in the glove compartment, should you need it.”
She furrows her brow with confusion. “Won’t you need it?”
I shake my head. “No. If I get close enough to him, they’ll search me, and having a gun will be hard to explain away. I don’t want them to think I’m a threat.”
She flicks her eyebrows up. “Your funeral…”
I climb out of the car and she shuffles sideways behind the wheel. She starts the engine, revs it harder than I’m happy with, and then speeds away.
I watch her go and then walk over to the entrance. It’s a large revolving door made of tinted glass, with polished brass handles affixed to the outer edge of each pane. I push the right hand side and step through as it spins counterclockwise. A blast of refreshing, cool air hits me as I walk out the other side and into the main lobby.
I glance idly around before heading over to the front desk, which is in front of the wall facing me, running almost the full width. There’s a decorative logo of the hotel chain mounted above it. Straight away, I spot three guys sitting on the circular sofa away to my left. They’re wearing dark suits with their white shirts half-fastened underneath. No ties, but my trained eye spots the bulge of their weapons holstered beneath their jackets easily enough. Same on my right, except there are only two. They have to be bin Mawal’s men.
I need to be discreet here… subtle.
I know, I know — I’m screwed!
My shoes squeak on the polished, marble floor as I approach the desk. There are four people behind it sitting side by side — three women and a man. The counter is waist height, so I can only see their upper bodies. They’re all smartly dressed, formal. One of the women, on the far left, is talking on the phone. The man, sitting on the far right, is dealing with a young couple who look as if they’re checking in — they have suitcases with them and they look happy, so it’s unlikely they’re on their way home.
I stop in front of the young woman sitting to the left of the guy. She’s attractive, but has a little too much make-up on for my liking. She has straight black hair that rests comfortably on her shoulders, and an easy smile that just reaches her dark eyes.
She looks up at me. “Hello, sir, how may I help you today?”
I smile a quick greeting. “Hey, yeah, I’m just wondering if you can tell me which room one of your guests is staying in, please? They’re an old acquaintance and they mentioned they’re staying here a few days. I was passing, so figured I’d call in and surprise them.”
“I’m sorry, sir, we can’t give out that information. However, if you give me their name, I can call their room and let them know they have a visitor? At least it will still be a surprise…?”