All he really wanted to know was that Tessa would be all right. But how do you know the unknowable?
Abraham could hear his late friend Durrie’s voice in his head. “Always remember the number one rule for surviving in this business: Never make it personal.”
Too late for that.
Far, far too late.
CHAPTER 3
“Was I right?” the client asked, her frustration coming through loud and clear over the phone line.
Ethan Boyer, vice president of special operations at McCrillis International, paused for what he considered an appropriate amount of time before saying, “I can’t help but wish you had come to us in the first place. If the project had been ours, you would have had no lingering doubts.”
“Was I right?” she asked again.
“To be concerned? Absolutely.”
“So you did find proof.”
“We found indications.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means those we’ve questioned so far weren’t interested in cooperating, which leads me to believe they were hiding something.”
“Were?”
He hesitated, confused. “You did order a full wipe-down.”
Her instructions had been clear. Find out if the operation she’d contracted another organization to perform had been carried out as planned, as the company claimed, or if she hadn’t gotten the whole truth, like she’d begun to suspect. In the process, the McCrillis team was to eliminate everyone associated with the operation so that no one would be left to divulge what had occurred. Which was exactly what Boyer’s specialists were doing.
“Jesus, Ethan. I know exactly what I ordered. I just want to make sure you’re getting everything out of these sons of bitches before you eliminate them.”
“We’re dealing with professionals here, so our usual means of information extraction aren’t always as successful. But rest assured, we will find out the truth out of those we’re still processing. That’s why you came to us. Here at McCrillis, client satisfaction is everything.”
“Can the PR speech. Just find out if they really got rid of the girl or not.”
“That is our top priority.” He paused. “We have yet to discuss what happens if we find out she’s still alive.”
“What’s there to discuss? If she is, then I need your people to finish the goddamn job.”
“It may take some time before we know the truth,” he said, salivating at how lucrative this job could turn out. “Months, maybe more.”
“I don’t care how long it takes. Find out if I’ve been screwed, and if I have, rectify the situation. Can I be any clearer than that?”
He smiled. “No, ma’am. Your wishes are fully understood.”
CHAPTER 4
“And we said yes to this job because…?” Nate asked.
Quinn didn’t bother answering. He’d been asking himself the same question and had yet to come up with a decent answer.
Four times in the last nineteen hours, they had been ordered to move into position, and, as of thirty seconds ago, four times they had been told to stand down.
“Please tell me we’re not going back to the hotel again,” Daeng said.
“No,” Quinn said.
There was no sense in it. With their luck, they’d barely walk into their suite and Winston — the op leader — would call them back.
“Then I assume neither of you will mind if I stretch out on the floor,” the Thai man said.
“Oh, by all means,” Nate told him. “Make yourself comfortable. If you’d like, I could grab something for you. A coffee? A stuffed croissant?”
“A beer would be nice.”
“Wouldn’t it, though?”
Quinn pushed himself away from the wall and headed for the door.
“Where you going?” Nate asked.
“I’ll be back.”
“Hey, if you’re actually going for coffee, wouldn’t mind a cup myself.”
Quinn glanced at him, not amused, before stepping into the hallway.
The building they were waiting in was being renovated, all the floors ripped apart and at various stages of being put back together again. Their floor, the second, was full of half-finished walls and bare concrete.
He walked all the way to the large room at the south end of the building and called Orlando back in San Francisco.
“Guess what?” he said when she answered.
She groaned. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“What the hell’s wrong with these people?”
“I was kind of hoping you could tell me that. Did you get ahold of Helen?”
“I tried,” Orlando said. “She hasn’t called back.”
Helen Cho was the head of the organization that had hired Quinn’s team for the job.
“You think she’s avoiding you?” he asked.
“I’m beginning to.”
“This is ridiculous.” He paused, considering their options. “All right. If we get jerked around one more time, we’re out of here.”
“I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long.”
So was Quinn, but Helen was, in essence, a new client. And he often gave new clients more leeway than he usually would. “If she calls back, let me know,” he said and hung up.
He should have known this was a bad idea from the beginning. It wasn’t that Helen ran a shoddy shop — far from it. His few dealings with her so far had shown she was pretty buttoned up. But this was a sub-job, something she’d inherited from another agency that had overextended itself.
“I’m stuck with the team they already have in place,” she had told Quinn and Orlando during the briefing. “That’s why I want you there. I know I can trust you to make sure things go right.”
“We’re not fixers,” Orlando reminded her. “My people won’t be picking up the pieces if yours screw up.”
“I understand that,” Helen said. “I’m sure everything will go fine. But I’ll be able to sleep a lot better if I know at least one aspect of this project is handled by someone I trust.”
It was far too early in their still-budding working relationship for a do-me-a-favor assignment, but Quinn and Orlando had decided to go ahead with it. If nothing else, it was a little chit they’d have in their pocket if they ever needed one in the future.
But now it was getting to the point of the absurd, and budding relationship or not, these continued delays were increasing the risk of danger to Quinn and his team. That was unacceptable.
Outside, the glow of central Copenhagen blotted out the stars in the northern sky. The operation was taking place just south of the city, in a business district in the suburb of Albertslund. From his vantage point, Quinn could see several of the other warehouses and outlets and office buildings that made up the area, but could not see the actual op location. It was in the structure directly behind the one Quinn and his team were waiting in. When they receive the go signal, they would head outside and pass between the properties via a hole Nate had cut in the fence separating them.
The roads in this part of town were quiet, the lights in most buildings off. He thought there couldn’t have been more than a couple dozen people spread throughout the whole area, a situation that would change dramatically come the morning.
As the wind rumbled against the window, frigid air seeped into the unheated interior of the building, forcing Quinn to pull his coat tight and think about heading back to the relatively balmy room where the others were waiting. Before he could take a step, his phone rang.