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“Approaching target building now.”
Contreras peeled his tiny drone away from its position where he had been watching CIA officer James Pace for the past twenty minutes, and then it sped around to the north, over the water still. He climbed to 125 meters, then flew over land, turning south at the church and then slowing to a hover.
He zoomed in on the scene below. There were dozens and dozens of people on foot in sight.
“I need you to flash me. Just shine your phone camera light straight up in the air.”
Lancer did so, and Contreras saw it from above, then tapped his screen to put a bounding box on him. From now on, the drone camera would automatically keep him in the center of its field of view whenever he was in sight.
“I have you. Once you go into that building, I will go back around to the harbor side. You’ll come out of the northern stairwell on the third floor, turn right, and walk down the covered exterior walkway. Pace is in the fourth room. The door is wide open.”
“Is there a stairwell on the other side?”
“Yeah, I found a video of the interior online. You have a stairwell on the south side, as well. A service elevator is there on the south, too, but I don’t think it’s operational.”
“Roger. I’ll put one of these Cubans at the top of each stairway, and I’ll go to the apartment to eliminate the target alone.”
•••
Just one hundred feet behind him, Court saw Lancer’s movement, and he knew what was happening. He spoke softly, having just switched his call to Zoya’s phone. “Carrie, Lancer’s signaling overhead at something. I think he’s got a drone covering him.”
“You can’t see it?”
“I don’t want to start looking for it because I’ll stand out.”
“Okay, I’m on San Ignacio, heading up the hill looking for more trouble. I’ll double back to the water if I don’t see anything within a couple more blocks.”
“Roger.” Court knew Lancer would probably head up one of the two enclosed stairwells in the market that would take him to the third floor, and he had a feeling his two henchmen would be left behind to watch his six. That meant Court would have to disable at least one of the men on his way up, but he needed to do it without making any noise that would alert Lancer or any of the police he’d seen in the area.
He had a knife under his shirt, next to his Glock 26; he just had to get into striking distance and take the henchman in a location where the attack wouldn’t be seen by all the people milling about.
Zoya spoke up now. “What do you see?”
“Lancer just went into the market, probably for the stairs. His two men are moving behind him in the middle of a group of passersby.”
“What are they doing?”
Court cocked his head as he walked. “Passing by.”
“Dick,” she muttered. “I meant Lancer’s men.”
“Just heading to the market.”
Zoya said, “Okay. Let me know if you need me there.”
“Just keep checking the neighborhood. I’m switching back to Pace’s channel.” Court tapped his earpiece and began walking even faster.
•••
Jim Pace had held Travers’s movement towards the eastern side of the container terminal while the first few trucks passed, because men and women approached the entrance to the terminal operations building, directly in their line of sight.
But the group of workers stepped back inside, and another truck approached from the north before it would turn right in front of the chassis pool and continue east.
Travers said, “We good to go now?”
Pace replied, “Clear to move. Stay low and fast and the harbor boats won’t see you.”
Travers gave the order, and then he and his men took off running in a crouched position.
