Robin turned to Agent Dwight. "It's just me," she said, pointing at Creek, "but he seems more believable."
"He's lying," Agent Dwight said. "He's a dangerous man."
"Robin, I have my communicator with me. Use it and get the number of the State Department from information," Creek said. "Ask for Ben Javna. He's the Special Assistant to the Secretary of state. He should still be in his office. Tell him who you are and he'll confirm everything I've just told you. He can even arrange to have someone else come and get you. You don't have to go anywhere with me."
Robin looked back at Agent Dwight. "So, what happens if I call the FBI?" she asked.
Agent Dwight didn't answer; he was holding his hand to his ear as if listening to something. Creek saw him glance upwards as he did so; Creek turned around and looked up in the direction Dwight had glanced. He saw someone on the second floor of the mall, standing at the rail of the atrium.
"Robin," Creek said, and pointed. "Look up there."
Robin looked up and squinted.
"Hey," she said. "Isn't that the gecko dude?"
Creek turned and saw Agent Dwight reaching for something inside his coat.
Rod Acuna knew taking the girl at the mall was going to be trouble. "Just let me take her at home," he'd said to Phipps, over the communicator. "It'll be quicker and safer for my men."
"But then we'd still have this Creek character to worry about," Phipps said. "The girl goes missing while he's still free and you know he's going to go looking for her. That's eventually going to lead back to us."
"We can take him, too," Acuna said.
"There's not enough time to grab her and him separately," Phipps said.
"Then let me just grab him," Acuna said. "Without him, the girl's not a problem."
"See, this is why you're not paid to think," Phipps said. "He goes missing, and Ben Javna's going to notice, quick. Since Creek's undoubtedly already briefed Javna, any random disappearance will bring down most of the State Department to hustle the girl to safety before you can get to her."
"I can get them both before that happened," Acuna said.
"Or you can get them both at the same time, which solves a lot of practical issues," Phipps said.
"There's a lot to go wrong grabbing two people in a mall," Acuna said. "For one, there are a lot of people around."
"Which will work to your advantage when you're dealing with them both," Phipps said. "You'll be able to get her to go with you willingly because you're in a public place. And when he puts up a fight, it looks like resisting arrest."
"It still has problems," Acuna said.
"Then minimize the problems," Phipps said. "That's what you get paid to do. Now let me speak to the computer geek I sent you. I have something I need him to do." Acuna swore under his breath and shoved the communicator at Archie.
After the geek was done with the communicator, Acuna contacted Jean Schroeder, who was not sympathetic. "What do you want me to do?" Schroeder said. "Phipps is paying you."
"You're paying me too," Acuna reminded Schroeder.
"So I am," Schroeder said. "But in my case I'm paying you to tell me the things Phipps doesn't, not to contravene his orders.
Which reminds me. Are you going to do what I suspect you're going to do once you get the two of them?"
"We can't really let them go," Acuna said, dryly.
"I'm going to need the girl," Schroeder said.
"So you are paying me to disobey orders," Acuna said.
"I suppose I am. Just not the ones you want to disobey," Schroeder said.
"Takk can take care of Creek, but Phipps is going to want proof about the girl," Acuna said.
"I don't need the whole girl," Schroeder said. "I just need the part I get to be alive."
Shortly thereafter Acuna had the geek pull up the plans for the Arlington Mall and hack the security to find where they'd positioned cameras. The plan was simple enough; they'd wait for Creek and the girl to park themselves somewhere, after which Ed would come up with his FBI gear and escort the girl out. As he was doing that, a second team would converge on Creek and hustle him out of the mall. Creek would meet Takk, who would dispose of him in his own special way, and Acuna would deal with the girl. Mall security was understaffed and unarmed, so they wouldn't represent much of an issue. Acuna had the geek go down to his storage unit in the apartment complex basement to bring up a few keyfob-sized signal disrupters, which would be powerful enough to knock out the security cameras and whatever personal cameras were present. This wasn't the first time Acuna had had to snatch someone in public.
Acuna had to admit Phipps was right—this would leave fewer holes than a typical snatch from home. But he never liked public grabs, and this one, with two targets, one of them former military and cop, he liked even less.
Normally Acuna would take the lead in grabbing the girl, but he'd already blown his identity wad posing as a customer in the woman's pet store. Acuna was getting some old friends to handle the secondary jobs of grabbing Creek and acting as goalie in case one or both of the targets decided to run, but they wouldn't be much good for talking. It'd have to be someone in his current crew: Ed, Takk, or the geek.
Acuna didn't waste any time considering the geek; he wasn't experienced with felonious activity of a nondigital kind and anyway, Archie was working for Phipps, not for him. Takk was likewise out. The FBI like any federal agency was committed to affirmative action when it came to nonhuman agents, but Takk was simply too damn big not to be noticed. Takk was also needed to deal with Creek once Creek was out of the mall.
This left Ed, which was not an optimal situation. Ed was about as bright as a night-light. But there wasn't enough time for anyone else at this point. And Ed had done this thing before; so long as he had a script to stick to he'd be fine. Acuna walked Ed through the scenario a couple of times and gave him his FBI ID and an earpiece into which Acuna could issue commands if necessary.
Acuna's backup boys arrived shortly thereafter; Rod went over the plan and gave everyone their roles. Everyone piled into two vans equipped with fake tags and anonymous credit toll passes and went to the mall. Acuna stressed the nonlethality of the mission but he knew all of them, including Ed, were carrying slug throwers. He couldn't complain; he had one of his own nestled in a shoulder holster. In this fine of work, guns were an occupational hazard.
At the mall, everyone took their positions, and waited for Creek and the girl. They weren't long in arriving, and headed into the mall atrium to play a game.
Acuna wasn't very pleased with that. The atrium was large, with traffic from all four directions as well as escalators feeding traffic to and from the upper level. And on top of that there was this big goddamn plastic cube in the middle of it. Acuna had five guys on the ground, which was just enough to cover the atrium ground floor; he placed himself between the escalator banks to present an obstacle if Creek or the girl decided to head up that way. Acuna got on his headset, activated the signal disrupters they were all carrying in their pockets, and told Ed to get going.
Acuna had expected Creek to put up a fight; he hoped he would, since it would give Ed's story more credibility and make it easier for Ed to hustle the woman off while the other team grabbed Creek like a fugitive criminal. Acuna hadn't expected the girl to be the skeptical one; the story he'd fed Ed wasn't strong enough to stand up to scrutiny, and Ed wasn't exactly a world-class improviser. The girl had him on the spot before Acuna could feed him something reasonable, and then shut him down to talk to Creek.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Ed," Acuna muttered under his breath. "Just get the fucking woman already." Ed put his hand to his ear, as if listening, and glanced up at Acuna. Acuna realized he'd muttered loud enough for the microphone to pick up. Then he saw Creek turn around and look directly at him.