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The ringing in my ears had faded a bit more, thankfully.
Hopefully, I could concentrate.
“Okay, everyone.” Elliott took his spot in front of the whiteboard. “I suppose I can thank some of you by sending you home. Coach, Danny—Em when he gets here—we appreciate you joining us for this op, but we won’t need a big crew on the ground for Europe.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Danny said. “Go on.”
Elliott huffed, amusement flashing in his eyes, and he began scribbling on the board. “We know Carillo travels with seven guards and a Russian named Dimitri Petrov. We can speculate about how many men Luiz Gajero travels with, but we won’t come near the numbers we saw tonight.” After listing the names we knew and the number of men, he began jotting down locations. “The Quinns, Ortega, and Ramirez have been tracking Carillo day and night this week, and we know he’s stayed at safehouses in these locations. Judging by his route, we can start making guesses on where he’ll end up. And he’s heading north of Barcelona at this point, which…”
“Andorra,” River concluded quietly.
Elliott pointed his marker at the man. “And it makes sense in a way—they don’t have a formal extradition treaty with the US. But last I checked, they’ve signed every human-rights agreement the EU has thrown at them, including Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.”
“I can confirm,” Coach said with a nod. “Chances are they’d extradite Carillo to Mexico, but since he’s supposed to serve his sentence in Texas…”
“Exactly, and Mexico and the US are already in agreement that we get him,” Elliott finished. “Even so, Andorra’s a good place to hide. Whether he’s planning on setting up his operations there—I have no idea, and it doesn’t matter. Our team in Europe is staying on him until we get there.”
“Andorra’s terrain will rule out a larger crew anyway.” Danny stretched out his legs and folded an arm under his head. “He’s really jumped all over the map, hasn’t he? France, Spain… When do you think he’ll hear about Colombia?”
Elliott eyed the board and scratched the side of his head with the marker. “No idea. Mercier’s cover is still intact, and as far as I know, he’s Carillo’s only contact. Let’s not forget that Carillo betrayed the Blancos, so he must’ve burned most, if not all, bridges. We do, however, know that Luiz Gajero has a direct line of communication with Marco Blanco.”
“Well, he did.” Coach smiled.
“Right.” Elliott inclined his head. “Gajero’s exact location is more difficult to pin down. We know from Mercier’s intel that Gajero is heading to Europe—and Mercier might know more. We’ll talk to him when he gets here. But Barcelona is a logical move. It’s a big port—”
“Can we be sure he’s on a freighter somewhere?” Danny asked.
“It’s the safest bet,” Elliott replied. “Do they have the money to fly private and enter a country without detection? Most likely—even though Willow’s frozen their assets. But it’s still riskier, and they don’t have infrastructure set up in Europe like they do over here.”
“They’d already be in Europe if they traveled by plane,” I added quietly.
Elliott nodded. “That too. But like I said, we’ll talk to Mercier when he gets here.” He turned to Coach. “What we need your help with is transport. You think Hillcroft can secure our ride?”
“No problem,” Coach responded. “We still have some strings left to pull here.”
I furrowed my brow. “Do you? The last surveillance aircraft left in 2009.” It’d been a huge deal for my buddies stationed in Key West who’d been on the task force that’d received intel from Ecuador. A joint op with the Navy.
Coach cocked his head at me. “Just when I relax around you, you pop up with some obscure trivia. I didn’t say our strings were military.”
Oh. All right.
I noticed Reese observing me.
I cleared my throat and turned back to Elliott, who was looking at me too.
Why were they constantly surprised I knew some shit? I’d worked in drug interdiction for almost twenty years.
Elliott checked his watch before getting back on track. “Mercier, Mathis, and the Finlays should be here in three or so hours, so I propose we get some sleep till then. The Tenleys, we appreciate you comin’ with us.”
“Of course,” Reese said.
“Danny, Coach—we can probably use you better behind screens,” Elliott went on. “Go back to DC, rest up, count your gold, debrief Willow.”
“If you insist,” Coach yawned. “I’ll go make some calls.”
“I’ll see if I can reach Em,” Danny said.
Elliott wrapped things up. “Once we’ve talked to Mercier, we’ll know if we’re heading to Barcelona to stick around to wait for Gajero or if we’re going there to pursue Carillo in that area. It’s roughly two hours between Barcelona and Andorra la Vella, and speaking from experience, we wanna enter after dark when the border patrol agents don’t wanna bother with travelers.”
