Allan recognized the work of his fellow Black Hand members. There was obviously something big going on here, and he wondered what it was, though it only really mattered in his ability to survive.
When he finished this job, he planned on disappearing. For the past several years he'd been moving money out of the account where the company paid him and had hidden the funds in various offshore banks.
He could live comfortably for years on the interest.
Parking the truck, he decided to get out and walk. An on the ground reconnaissance was the only way that this was going to work as he knew he couldn't get a decent view of potential shooting sites while driving his lumbering former bread truck. It now sported decals from a fictitious heating and cooling company which would justify him lugging odd shaped equipment around. Even better, one of his favorite hides was a box made to look like an air conditioner/furnace unit. Stick it on the top of any building, it was light enough to be carried on a hand truck, and it wouldn't look out of place at all.
While originally designed for his remote sniper system, it was big enough that he could still use it.
Grabbing a clip board, he climbed from the truck. You could walk around almost anyplace if you had the proper uniform and a clip board.
Making sure his truck was locked, he set off to find a place to hunt from.
Leo noticed the heating and cooling company van parking down the block from the hotel room. It was the same size and shape as hundreds of others scattered throughout the city. But something about it attracted his attention and he couldn't place it. Except for the logo, it could have been a perfect duplicate of the van that had been sitting in the parking lot of Jackie's business when someone tried to snipe her.
He continued to watch it. His suspicions were confirmed when only one person got out of the van. Since when did any service company only send one person?
Last year, at the coin store, they had to replace the air conditioner. It was a bastard job in the summer heat and it had taken a crew of four people and a crane to install it.
Based on his limited experience, it didn't appear to be legit.
The person who got out of the truck was in his late twenties, reasonably fit looking under the company coveralls. Leo zoomed in with his binoculars. Under the brim of the cap, the face was unremarkable and plain. He scanned the man from head to foot.
His coveralls were too clean, but what really caught Leo's attention was that he was wearing sneakers. What employer would tolerate one of their workers possibly getting their toes smashed by a heavy piece of equipment?
Then again, who would look at a service person's feet to figure out if they were legitimate?
So, this guy was someone he needed to keep an eye on. Was he from the FBI or one of the other alphabet federal agencies? It was the only reason that Leo didn't shoot him where he stood. He was already on shaky ground with the feds and didn't want to blast one of their agents if he could help it. Not that he would have any problem in dropping the hammer on one of them if they got in the way, but why call unwarranted attention to yourself by blasting them as they stood on a sidewalk?
Leo saw that there was someone behind his truck, messing with it. He watched. The man tried to fiddle with the lock on the topper. He would be there a while as he had put in a new, stronger lock when he'd bought the vehicle. Not to say that you can't get into anything, but it wasn't a lock that you could pick with a paperclip and a small screwdriver.
The man pulled a small box from a duffel and started working on it. What the fuck was he doing?
Jackie rode the bus as far as she could take it and walked the rest of the way. The breeze washed through her hair and made her feel almost refreshed. She didn't know what she would do once she got back to the hotel room. Would Leo be there?
Jeff Silver gathered up all the resources he could put his hands on, calling in all favors. It didn't take much to fire up the HRT to help as they would run over their grandmothers in an APC to get revenge for their losses. The difficult thing would be holding them back. They would be very likely to stomp the shit out of anything that got in their way.
With more time, he could have been subtle, but the quickness he needed had forced him into using the only tool in his box, a hammer.
He'd briefed the teams, and they were getting ready to load up when his cell phone rang. Another number he didn't recognize.
“FBI Special Agent Jeff Silver.”
“Leo Marston here, you get my earlier message?”
He had to lean down to hear as the engines of the vehicles started.
“Yes. Where are you?”
“Hanging around. You going to follow up?”
“I can't say.”
“You better. I have one of the people responsible for the recent carnage tied up in my room. You'll enjoy talking to her. But don't accept any food or drink from her as she kills using poison.”
“How are you so sure…”
“It's the business I used to be in. I know.”
“Are you sending me into a trap?”
“Nope. As soon as I take care of a couple of things, I'll be happy to talk. But there’s something you could do for me in the meantime.”
“I'm almost afraid to ask.”
“There’s a guy at the back of my truck which is parked in the lot across from my hotel room. I think he's a car bomber. You mind getting there before he blows my truck up?”
“I'll see what I can do.”
“Be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because I won't be there to push your ass out of the way of a bullet.”
“Is that something that I should be concerned about?”
Leo laughed. Then he cut the connection.
Double dipped shit.
He jumped into the command vehicle. They had a lot of traffic to get through to get to the hotel and not a lot of time. Keying up the radio, he knew he'd have to brief the team en-route on the change in the situation.
There was the sinking feeling that he was being used as some sort of bait. But the only way to find out was to put his ass on the line and wiggle a bit. He hoped that he survived the experience.
Chapter 29
Leo settled in again behind his spotting scope. He watched with amusement as the heating and cooling guy struggled to pull a box up through a roof access cover. He should have made it more collapsible. Or at least improvised a bit more. Roof mounted air conditioners and heating units tended to be very large in order to spread their weight out over a larger surface area. So they were full of lots of empty space that could be used as a sniper hide.
Shut off the power at the unit, take a screwdriver and go to town. While he'd never had to shoot from such a hide, he had been trained in the concept.
Such a hide was for reasonably short term placement, as sitting in a big metal box for days on end, in the sun, would cook your brains in your skull. Then there was the possibility of having to deal with the repairman sent to fix the apparently broken unit.
He'd liked twisting the tail of the FBI Agent. It might keep the guy alive long enough for Leo to use him as proper bait.
Leo wished that he had a sound suppressor for his rifle. He could shoot the sniper when he got set up and then take a leisurely shot at the guy placing a car bomb in his truck.
But that wasn't the case, so he would have to make his shot count and hope the FBI made it in time to prevent his truck from being blown up.
He scanned the street again with his spotting scope. There was a familiar figure coming towards the hotel room. He twisted the zoom on his spotting scope and struggled to make out the features. Was that Jackie walking up the street?