Max had a decision to make. Follow him out, or wait? Spook him and any illicit activity could be called off. Maybe it already had been. Maybe he’d spotted Max and that was why he’d departed. The thought bothered Max. But then, through the covered entryway, past the bare metal turnstiles and roundabout blacktop driveway, Max saw the Pakistani man slow his step.
Max stayed put, half-concealed by the entrance structure, sipping his cold amber beer, eyes locked on to his target. Syed loitered across the rounded drive just outside the gate. The Pakistani man came to a stop near a park bench that rested in a mulched garden. A grove of trees swayed overhead.
Then the crowd erupted into loud clapping and whistling, and Max could hear the chatter of people rising from their spots on the lawn to leave. The concert had ended. Shit. Syed was still just standing there. Waiting. Soon throngs of people headed through the exit turnstiles, racing each other to get to their cars in the parking lot.
A flash of panic hit Max as the empty area filled with people and he momentarily lost his quarry. Lines forming at the restrooms and exits all served to block his view. A bottleneck of foot traffic formed at the concert gate. Max maneuvered, poking his head around the crowd and trying to keep eyes on his mark.
A gap in the crowd lined up perfectly. Just for a moment. But that was all it took. A split-second line of sight from Max to the park bench, and that was when it happened.
Syed moved fast.
To the untrained eye, it would have looked like nothing more than bending down to retie his shoe, or perhaps brush a speck of dirt off his pant leg. Max knew better. Syed had been standing near the park bench. When he’d dropped down low, his hand had gripped the front of the bench seat, his knuckles going white as he’d pressed down. Then he’d stood up and begun walking away, towards the parking lot. From this far away, Max could just barely make out a round white object on the wooden bench seat.
A thumbtack? A sticker? Whatever it was, it was a signal.
Max’s heart beat faster as he realized that the timing had been precise. The wooden bench was now surrounded by departing concertgoers. The signal could be meant for any one of them. Max would just have to hang out and wait to see who came and sat at the bench. If the agent was really good, Max might not even pick him up.
“There you are.” Renee interlocked her arm with his. “Were you going to come back to me? I got our blanket. I’m ready if you are… ” Looking up into his face, seeing his expression, she whispered, “What’s wrong?”
He kept his eyes on the bench, nudged her forward, and began walking. “I need your help. Please follow me. This is important.”
Frowning in confusion, she said, “Of course.”
He threw his half-drunk beer into the trash — normally an unforgivable sin — and they walked out with the crowd. Max took out his phone and led Renee under the grove of trees on the mulched area behind the park bench. He positioned Renee so that the Wolf Trap sign and entrance were behind her… along with the bench. The crowd would be directly in front of him as they departed the concert area.
“Let me take a few pictures of you. Stand right… here.”
“Really, Max?” She sighed and forced a smile for the camera.
“Really.”
She arched one eyebrow, hands on her hips, but then gave up and smiled for the camera.
One minute of picture taking later, Max caught his fish.
White male, forty to fifty years old, medium height, medium build. Every cop’s favorite description. The man’s eyes were staring in the direction of the bench. His gaze hovered on the thumbtack for two beats too long. Maybe he was trying to determine the color? Maybe he just wanted to confirm that he really saw his signal. Either way, it was sloppy tradecraft.
And a total break for Max.
Max slid his phone into his pocket and began walking, placing his arm around Renee and bringing her with him. He whispered, “Do me another favor? Get the car and drive around to the exit.”
“Max, what’s going on?” she whispered back.
“It’s okay. I’ll find you and meet you there. If I don’t get to the car before you leave, just park on the side of the road outside after the traffic cops let you out.”
“What? Max, I don’t understand. It’ll be dark soon. Why are you—”
“I just need to check something. Please.”
Renee took the keys and headed towards their car.
Max kept his distance following the man, still keeping a lookout for Syed or anyone else who might be watching. The man who had observed the signal stopped at a silver sedan in the parking lot a few moments later. Max walked by the man as he fumbled for his keys. Max had placed his phone on video mode and was holding it casually by his legs, lens facing outward, positioned to capture the license plate, and then angling it up to record the man’s face.
After passing by, Max continued walking towards his own vehicle. When he found Renee a few minutes later, she was waiting in the long line of cars for the exit. Max hopped in the passenger seat and threw on his seatbelt.
“Can you please tell me what we’re doing now?”
Technically Max had completed his assignment. But if they followed the agent, it was possible they might learn more information. Max liked being thorough.
He turned to face Renee. “We’re following someone.”
“Who?”
He scanned the line of cars and located the target vehicle. About twenty cars in front of them. If Max was lucky, both cars would be let out together before they stopped traffic again.
“Who are we following?”
“Actually, I don’t know his name.”
The cars began moving towards the T-intersection, a traffic cop standing there with orange-lit cones.
“Go left.”
Renee turned. “Which car is it?”
“About five ahead. Silver sedan. See it?”
“Yes.”
For the next ten minutes, they traveled through the suburbs of Vienna, Virginia. Lots of colonial homes with finely manicured lawns, barely visible in the summer dusk.
Renee did well. She kept her distance from the silver sedan and drove past without asking when the car stopped abruptly on the gravel shoulder of the Creek Crossing Road.
“What do we do now?”
“Turn into this next neighborhood and park.” Max was squinting out the rear window, trying to see in the dark.
After they parked, Max said, “You stay here. I’ll only be a second.”
Max crept along the side of the road, walking towards his target’s parked car, headlights momentarily blinding him as cars sped by. He could feel the rush of air from the traffic. The gravel of the road shoulder crunched beneath his feet. This was poor surveillance technique, following his quarry into an unknown area by himself like this, but it was the best he could manage right now. He had texted an update to Caleb Wilkes while they were driving but had yet to hear back.
Max crept up to the silver sedan parked on the shoulder and peered inside. Empty. He turned to his left. Ten feet away, a paved path led from the road down into the woods. A buzzing streetlight above was just bright enough that Max could make out the words “Foxstone Park, Fairfax County Park Authority” in yellow lettering on a maroon wooden sign.
Max followed the path, careful to walk slow and quiet, listening for the sounds of footfalls or the snaps of breaking twigs. Instead, he heard only the summertime calls of insects and a bubbling brook somewhere off to his right.
The park wasn’t big. The distant yellow windows of surrounding homes rising high all around told him that. Maybe a few football fields in length. One football field across, tops. Lightning bugs glowed every few seconds, giving the woods a magical feel.