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“No deal. Kyle’s not ready to give up his position. I think he wants to let us make all the mistakes first before he jumps in. But eventually, it would be good to have him. We’ll work on it for the future.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Harper. We were kind of hoping he’d say yes.”
“It’s not a definite no. It’s just a no for now. I’ve been making my calls, and I think I have a good group we can use. Kyle’s going to keep his eyes open for new candidates that we might be able to recruit later, if we need it, people who have been tested and whom he trusts.”
“That’s smart on his part. He wants to make sure that you guys leave on good terms so he can get you back if it doesn’t work. That’s a valid plan.”
Patterson indicated he was also going to send overnight new photographs of the location of Mr. Lipori and several of his new recruits.
“Good, because that one photo was rather grainy, hard to tell what anyone looked like.”
“Also, you’ll be flying into Florence, to a little area to the south west.”
“Italy? That surprises me.”
“Lipori is an Italian name, Harper. He’s an Italian national. It’s nice vineyard and olive tree farming area. Gentle rolling hills, very old villas, many of them in horrible disrepair. We’re going to rent you guys an apartment in town and a house out in the country, which happens to be very close to the Lipori Villa. In this way, you’re going to be able to track his movements. The apartment is on the main drag, right at the entrance to the village square, so you will be uniquely able to follow him from his house right into downtown where he would be shopping. There’s also a vegetable market every Friday that he usually goes to when he’s home. They sell fresh vegetables from the farm, olives, when in season, and olive oil. He has staff at the villa as well: a couple of cooks, a handyman, couple of housekeeping staff, and several groundskeepers. There’s a lot of activity going on during the day, not too much at night. He seems to keep to himself, at least that’s what our intel says.”
“What kind of an asset do you have in place doing all this reconnaissance?”
“He’s a retired Italian Special Forces dude. A patriot. He has a delivery service, bringing supplies to several of the elderly residents who live outside the city limits.”
“How’d you get him?”
“He’s a friend. One of the Teams rescued his granddaughter in North Africa during a terrorist takeover of the Italian embassy. He’s a grateful man and a good friend to Uncle Sam.”
“Good deal. I can certainly trust a guy like that. And by the way, I’m sending you a list of required items, once I get the info from everyone, like you asked. I’m assuming everybody brings their own sidearm and whatever long gun they’re used to, or do you want to issue those to us?”
“No, I want you to use your own firearms. We’ll supply all the ammunition, of course, but everybody comes armed, your weapons maintained and freshly cleaned. If you’ve got anything that is not working properly, let me know, and we’ll get you a replacement to switch it out.”
They discussed their timeline, and it was agreed seven days from today would be the day they’d gather at Coronado and take a transport plane to the East Coast, at Norfolk, and then make the huge leap to Italy. From there, they would rent several cars and a van to transport all the equipment.
By early afternoon, he still hadn’t heard from Kyle. He called one more time and left his third message of the day. Hamish called to give him an update from his meeting and indicated Kyle had helped with the paperwork. He was cleared to go and would be picking up the signatures in the morning.
“Kyle says he’ll send you the paperwork from his office, so when you come down here, he’ll finalize it and we can turn everything in.”
Satisfied that they’d done everything they could, he began to work on the little repair items and the gardening. He cleared a patch for growing a new crop of lettuce and cold crops, trimmed off several blossoms on his pear, Asian pear, and apple trees. He decided next he needed to talk to Sally about taking care of Venom while he’d be away.
He ran down the driveway until he came to her house, slightly over a mile. Venom sat next to him while he knocked on Sally’s door.
She must’ve been painting because she wore a smock that was blotched with brightly colored streaks. She had her hair up with a bandanna, holding it off her forehead.
“You should’ve told me you were coming. I would’ve taken off all these paint clothes, fixed us something. What’s up?”
“I’m going to be taking a group overseas. We’re going to leave in about seven days, Sally, and I was wondering if you’d be willing to watch Venom again.”
“Boy, they work you pretty hard, Son. How long will you be gone?”
“I’m guessing two weeks but subject to change. We’re not sure. Our target will be there, so it could get delayed if we can’t find him.”
“So you’re saying next Saturday sometime?”
“Yes. I’ll bring him down with his food and couple of toys on Friday. Also bring his dog bed.”
“No problem, Harper. You be careful, though. Are you going with the whole team?”
Harper was careful not to divulge more than he should so he indicated to her that yes, he was going with the rest of the team. He wasn’t going to tell her it was a different team than he had served with the last nearly ten years. But he explained also that it was a short, temporary assignment and that the idea was to get in and get out quickly.
“Well, Venom and I will hang out here. He’s going to miss you again. I don’t think you’ve ever been gone so soon after you came back. But he’ll survive.”
