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“I reckon we’ll continue where we left off earlier,” Elliott said. “Mercier, you’re the one with intel. Where do you think we’ll find Gajero?”
Mercier set down his coffee mug on a side table. “I don’t have a location, but I did find out he’s meeting up with Carillo. This was confirmed by Marco.”
That was still good news, right? Since we knew exactly where Carillo was at all times.
River tilted his head. “Any idea why Marco had a direct line of communication with Gajero?”
“Insurance,” Mercier replied. “Marco wasn’t exactly fond of Carillo, so he threw out some bait to see who might be next in line if something were to happen to Carillo.”
That made sense.
“Okay, then. That’s good,” Elliott said. “Do you think Gajero will find out about what happened here anytime soon?”
Mercier weighed his response. “I’d say that’s unlikely. Marco had his own freelancer in Europe, to whom I can reach out if I need to, but Marco didn’t make it a habit to speak to low-ranking men like Gajero. Chances are, once he’d established a connection, which we know they did at some point, Marco would have delegated. In other words, once Gajero arrives in Europe, he’ll report back to Marco’s freelancer.”
Elliott uncapped his marker. “What’s his name?”
“Armando Rossi.”
“I heard that name, I think,” Shay mentioned. “Enzo was talking to someone else and used the name.”
Mercier inclined his head. “I’m not surprised. Rossi goes way back with the Blancos. He married into the side of the family that stayed in Italy.”
“We’ll deal with him if we have to,” Elliott said. “When we get to Barcelona, we’ll essentially hit the ground running. But when we’ve reconnected with Darius and the others, we can expect a frustrating stakeout until Carillo and Gajero are together in one place.”
“My guess, based on what Marco hinted around, Gajero will arrive in Barcelona in a day or two,” Mercier informed us. “They’re on an MSC container ship.”
“That’s good to know.” Elliott turned pensive and glanced at Reese.
The two seemed to communicate well without actually speaking.
“We don’t want a new Djibouti on our hands,” Reese murmured.
“Which time?” Elliott smirked. “No, you’re right.” He ran a hand through his hair and faced the rest of us. “I was thinking about interceding earlier—grabbing Gajero before he disembarks, but that could turn messy real fast.”
Yeah, no. I understood how his mind went there, but we’d be in the middle of one of Europe’s busiest ports. Unless he thought about boarding the freighter in the middle of the sea, at which point we’d have a massive ship to search through. It was better we waited.
We didn’t even know if Gajero would get off the ship at the port, or if he had someone…hmm.
I turned to Mercier. “You don’t happen to know how big Gajero’s crew is, do you?”
“Unfortunately not,” Mercier answered. “I tried to dig for information, but Marco was tight-lipped about it. We canguessthat he’s traveling with a minimum of five guards, though that depends on how many hostages they have. Considering he’s supposed to establish their human trafficking operations—and considering Marco’s interest in the matter—we can’t dismiss the possibility of catching him with several innocents aside from Blake and Marisa.”
I rubbed my jaw and looked at Elliott. “Maybe we should appoint a rescue unit just in case.”
“That’s a good idea.” He nodded. “I already know Gray will wanna be part of that. What about you, Shay?”
“Um, yeah—what does it mean?” Shay sat up straighter.
Reese answered. “In short, the others take the heat. You won’t be near combat. You and Gray—and whoever else—will focus on rescuing hostages.”
“I can be their security,” Crew offered. “A second line of defense, if you will.”
“That would make me feel better.” Reese nodded. “I’m sure we can include Darius as well.”
Elliott made notes on the board. “It’s a good unit. Shay, you and Gray will be in charge of the rescue once the coast is clear, and you’ll have Darius and Crew covering you.”
We all remained silent as he drew up the units he had in mind. First line of defense, snipers and hand-to-hand combat. Which meant Ryan Quinn and me, along with Elliott, Reese, Ortega—
