“Hightower is on a Delta flight to Boulder, Colorado. He’s flying under the name Lyle Hart, but the facial recog there at Reagan shows him to be the same man.
“Lyle Hart has a return flight from Boulder tomorrow evening.”
Scardino rose quickly and headed out of the room, pulling out his phone as he went.
Shaw watched this, and J.W. spoke up. “What’s he doing in Boulder?”
The younger man shrugged his narrow shoulders. “ThatI don’t know. You got any killers working in Boulder?”
“That’s not your concern. Just dig, find out if there are connections between Hightower or Hart and Boulder, Colorado.”
Shaw said, “I guess I can see if he’s been there before, get into credit cards and whatnot. That’s not really what I do, that’s more like PI work. I’m sure somebody at Gauntlet can—”
J.W. interrupted. “Events have escalated, Lewis. We need everything you can get us right now. All your efforts. I want to put a Gauntlet team on Hightower while he’s in Boulder. If he has a vehicle there, either a rental car waiting for him or his own vehicle, like if he lives there, I want a Gauntlet operator in that city to put a tracker on it before the plane lands, so work fast.”
Shaw nodded. “I’ll get on that.”
“What about Gentry?” J.W. asked.
“For Gentry, he had a brother who died several years ago. His name was Chancellor, went by Chance; he was a cop in Jacksonville, Florida. Shot while making a traffic stop. But Gentry does have a father, still there in northern Florida, outside of Jacksonville. I have no idea if there is anycommunication between them. Apparently, Court Gentry lives like a ghost. CIA blames a couple dozen hits around the world on him, and that was before the working group disbanded. Who knows what that fucker has been up to since.”
Westwood said, “He’s working with Hanley, obviously.”
Shaw nodded. “Yeah…there is some evidence he was on the ground in Russia a couple months back, and that was definitely Hanley’s op.”
Westwood looked at the image. “So he’s a ghost, but he’s taking part in gunfights in D.C.”
“Against your buddy’s company,” Shaw said, referring to Gauntlet Group.
Scardino reentered the room and immediately addressed Shaw. “I’ve got a Gauntlet man in Boulder ready to run surveillance. I’m sending Lancer there, too. He says he can get a team of locals, non-Gauntlet guys, to support him there.”
“What locals?” J.W. asked.
Scardino flashed a look to Shaw. “We talking in front of the help?”
To this, Westwood chuckled, then said, “Let’s discuss details after young Lewis leaves.”
“Right,” Scardino agreed.
J.W. looked back to Shaw. “Where’s Hanley working out of?”
“I don’t know. What I just gave you is all I have for now, but I’m still digging. Once I got the ID of the Gray Man, I figured I needed to come to you ASAP.”
Scardino said, “Good. Go back to Liberty Crossing. Keep at it. We need physical locations for these people. Vehicle information. License plates. It does us no good if we can’t find—”
Shaw interrupted. “I don’t take orders from you.”
Big Mike turned to J.W., who then looked directly at Shaw. “All that.”
“Fair enough, boss.” Shaw packed up his things and headed for the stairs.
—
When he was gone, Westwood said, “We’ll give Whetstone the information about the father down in Florida. It will probably lead to nothing, butat least we can keep the trickle of information going to the Northern Irishman. He has a lot of work to do yet. He’s in Chicago now; supposed to be, anyway.”
Scardino said, “Two of five hitters are off the playing field. We still have a long way to go.”
“Yeah. We have to assume that Hanley’s people will show up at all our targets now, and plan accordingly.”
