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"I hope the helicopter he's getting for us is better than that," Kian muttered under his breath. "I'm paying top dollar for it."
"It is," Turner said. "Top of the line in its class."
Kian nodded and shifted his eyes to Theo. "What about the rest of the thugs? Were there any voices of dissent?"
"Nope. Kalugal did an excellent job with them, but I don't know what will happen when the brother returns with his men. I wish Kalugal could do the same thing to them."
"If they arrive tomorrow, we can have Kalugal work on them as well. Still, there is no way we will be able to convert every last thug in Modana's cartel. What else do you have for me?"
"That's it." Theo leaned back. "The guys in the control room are monitoring the situation in the mansion. How long are you going to continue with that?"
Kian had been wondering the same thing. "I want to say only until we are back in the village, but I'm curious to see how long Kalugal's compulsion will hold and if Modana will do what we told him in Acapulco. Once we know that's going well, I'll probably stop spying on him. It's not like I have any long-term plans to influence the Mexican cartel situation."
"Got it." Theo finished the last of his coffee and rose to his feet. "If that's all, I would like to go." He put the mug in the sink.
"That's all," Onegus said. "Thank you, Theo."
The Guardian dipped his head and walked out the door.
"Jasmine's suitcase was delivered to her," Onegus said. "Naturally, we searched it and put it through the bug detector before giving it to her. She went over her things and reported that only her phone was missing. We assume that it was disposed of in the ocean. Regrettably, William didn't bring any spares with him, so we can't give her one."
"Did you meet her?" Kian asked.
Onegus shook his head. "I put Kri in charge of our guest, and she delivered the suitcase."
"What's Kri's impression of her?" Turner asked.
Onegus leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Kri says that it's hard to tell. Jasmine doesn't broadcast much as far as emotional scents go, and what she does emit doesn't match what she seems to feel at the moment. It could be the lingering effect of the drugs, though. Bridget met Jasmine, but she didn't report anything unusual. She said that it could take up to seventy-two hours for the chemicals to clear from her system."
"We should keep an eye on her," Kian said. "Monitor her through the surveillance cameras. If she tries to snoop around, let her. I want to see what she will do."
"Probably nothing. She's confused, overwhelmed, and suffering from withdrawal." Onegus uncrossed his arms. "Let's move to the next item on the agenda before we have to leave." He looked at Turner. "What's your guy in Cabo reporting?"
"It would seem that the Doomers are still there. My guy reported that Carlos Modana was seen entering a meeting in the Antario hotel with two men who looked like military types, so we should assume that they were Doomers. My contractor is monitoring the main highways and the airport through the local authorities' surveillance equipment, and he didn't see any large groups of men leaving the area, but then they could have done it in smaller groups of three or four and escaped his notice."
"What about the decoy?" Kian asked.
Turner shook his head. "I decided against it. The Doomers most likely heard about the missing woman after Margo's sister-in-law involved hotel security. In my opinion, that's confusing enough to throw them off, and we should leave it at that."
"Agreed." Kian pushed to his feet. "Anything from Ensenada?"
"Nothing yet," Turner said. "But it's too early to celebrate. If there is still no suspicious activity near the port two days from now, we can proceed with our new itinerary."
"Maybe we shouldn't stop there at all," Onegus suggested.
"I wish we could just go home," Turner said. "But if we want to be sure that they don't suspect the Silver Swan and won't wait for it in Long Beach, we need to follow our new itinerary or have Roni's buddy doctor the plan logs again. Any change in our official route will draw attention to us, and that's the last thing we need."
28
MARINA
Marina read the message Peter had sent, and a smile lifted the corners of her lips. I have five evening dresses waiting for you in my cabin. Come up here, and we will get ready together.
Hopefully, one of those dresses would fit her and would be long enough to cover her feet. She didn't have any evening shoes either, but she didn't want Peter to bother his cousins again, or worse, his mother.
That piece of information had been hard to swallow, and it was still wreaking havoc on Marina's sensitive stomach. It would be difficult to enjoy the party while thinking about Peter's mother watching her with disapproving eyes.
Even a human mother wouldn't have wanted her son to date an uneducated nobody with no prospects for the future, let alone the mother of an immortal Guardian.
