She nodded. She picked up two of the three phones, including the black one, then followed Burton to the main deck. He handed her a pair of binoculars.
“Check the rocky alcove at your one o’clock,” he said.
She raised the binoculars and scanned the alcove near the end of the small beach. Pam, one of the four operators she had sent to snatch Hobb, was moving in a combat crouch toward the alcove, her pistol drawn. Pam didn’t spook easy. Burton had spoken the truth.
Something’s wrong.
A moment later, Pam disappeared behind the rocks.
“Where’s Oscar?” Verena asked.
“Can’t say for sure, ma’am. I watched him untie the Jet Ski, then I went back inside to get the binocs ’cause I thought I saw someone else.”
“Someone else?” she asked, lowering the binocs so she could look atVeloce’s captain.
“Again, I can’t say for sure. That’s why I went inside to grab these,” Burton said, nodding at the binoculars. “Next thing I know, Pam has her gun out.”
She brought the binocs up again. Through a gap in the rocks, she caught glimpses of movement. A struggle between two people. A man.
And he’s fighting Pam. Shit!
A sudden realization settled over her. Oscar wasn’t missing. Oscar had been taken out. And if someone was good enough to neutralize the former pro boxer, then whoever that someone was, he was a problem.
A big problem.
Verena’s first instinct was to send backup. She was about to order Burton and the two men interrogating Hobb to take the dinghy, but she hesitated. It wasn’t tactically sound. She had no idea what—or who—she was dealing with. Was it just one man? A team? Were they afterher, or was Paul Hobb their target? Even armed, her men would be sitting ducks on the open water, vulnerable to enemy fire as they crossed from the yacht to the beach. And it would also leave her alone with the chef to protect the yacht.
Too many unknowns. And unknowns got people killed.
Besides, her employer’s orders couldn’t have been clearer.
Find out what Hobb knows. Find the leak, Verena. And plug it. Permanently.
Sending her crew to help Pam would be careless and distract her from her main objective. Her gut told her to play it safe. At least until she knew exactly what the threat was.
“Warn our friends in the engine room that we’re about to leave, Justin.”
“Now? But ... what about Pam and Oscar?”
She looked at him, daggers in her eyes.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” she hissed.
“Where to?” Burton asked, lowering his eyes. “Back to the marina?”
Verena considered the question. If someone was here for Hobb, it meant they had resources. That meant they might already have people waiting at the marina. The right call was to move out, regroup, and formulate a plan.
“For now, let’s head south,” she said in a friendlier tone. “We’ll be back for Pam and Oscar, I promise.”
Burton gave her a sharp nod, then headed toward the helm. A few seconds later, the Azimut’s three Volvo Penta IPS 1350s, each delivering one thousand horsepower, rumbled to life beneath her feet.
Verena walked out to the cockpit and gripped the railing, her eyes fixed on the shore.
Whoever this was, they’d just made a powerful enemy.
Verena smiled. Her most dangerous asset was in Palma, awaiting orders. She hadn’t activated him for the Hobb job. Instead, she had kept him in reserve, in case there were complications.
It was time for him to earn his keep.
