Typhoon Fury

60

Finding an isolated car to hotwire took longer than Eddie thought it would, but according to the NSA, the phone that Beth had told them to track was still in the city when he, Hali, and Raven arrived. With over half a million people, the modern city of Bacolod was a major hub for the processing and shipment of the sugar grown in the vast fields they’d passed on the drive. If they didn’t intercept the person with the phone before it turned off again, they’d never find him.

Although none of them looked Filipino, Raven’s and Hali’s caramel complexions and dark hair meant that they could more easily disappear into the crowds of people preparing to ride out the coming typhoon. And since people of Chinese ancestry made up a significant portion of the population, Eddie looked like he could be a native. Most of the inhabitants spoke English, so language wouldn’t be a problem, though they’d have to fake the accent.

The NSA guidance led them to a plaza crowded with shoppers getting last-minute supplies before the storm. The nearest building had a sign on it that read Visayan Wholesale Foods.

Eddie parked the car, and the three of them walked toward the building, which had trucks lined up outside loading crates of food to replenish the rapidly emptying grocery stores. There was apparently no thought of evacuation, but Eddie wasn’t surprised. There was simply no way to clear out an entire island of more than four million people.

Rain showers were coming in bursts now as the outer edges of Hidalgo approached Negros, so all three of them wore hooded windbreakers. Many of the workers wore no protective clothing and were getting soaked, while the shoppers carried umbrellas. The bustle of activity made it difficult to tell who their target was.

They stopped at the building, and Eddie turned to Hali. “Can’t the NSA get more precise than the signal is coming from the vicinity of this food supplier?”

Hali nodded. “A half-block radius is the best they could do.”

“Raven, keep your head down but let me know if you see anyone familiar.”

“If it’s Locsin himself,” Raven said, “he’ll recognize me immediately. Getting the tracker onto his vehicle will be tricky.”

“We’ll deal with that if we need to,” Eddie said. “Right now, we need to find out who owns that mobile phone.”

Eddie scanned the shoppers while Hali eyed the workers. Raven switched back and forth between the groups. Five minutes later, Hali tapped Eddie’s shoulder and nodded at two muscular men walking out of Visayan Foods, each pushing a handcart full of produce boxes. They began loading them into an unmarked white truck with surprisingly knobby tires.

“Those guys seem like the kind of meatheads we’re looking for,” Hali said.

“Do you recognize either of them?” Eddie asked Raven.

She shook her head. “Neither was in the Manila warehouse.”

“And I don’t remember them from the gunfight on Corregidor. Still, Hali’s right that they fit the profile of Typhoon users. Let’s find out if we’re right.”

He took out a burner phone he’d gotten from the Magic Shop. He’d asked Kevin Nixon to program it with a Negros Island number for this very possibility.

He dialed the number they were trying to find.

Seconds later, they heard a phone ringing in the pocket of one of the men loading boxes. He had a scar on his upper lip like someone who’d had a cleft palate repaired. The man answered the phone, and Eddie hung up without saying a word. The man shrugged and put the phone back in his pocket.

“Looks like we’ve got our man,” Eddie said.

“Now we just need to wait until they go back inside to plant the tracker,” Hali said.

“They may not go back inside before they leave,” Raven said. “Look how full the truck is. They may be getting ready to head out.”

“We may never get a chance like this again,” Hali said.

Eddie frowned at the men. Everyone else was giving the truck a wide berth, as if they knew not to approach it. Even if the two communist soldiers standing nearby didn’t notice him attaching the tracker, somebody else in the crowd might alert them. They wouldn’t have a second try. Eddie dismissed the clichéd idea of sending Raven in to use her feminine wiles to distract the two men. Besides, it probably wouldn’t work in this kind of weather.

But he had an idea that would work in any conditions.

He handed the tracker to Raven. “Get ready to put this under the truck by the rear wheels. Wait for the distraction.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What distraction?”

One of Locsin’s men was closing the rear door of the truck while the other wheeled the handcart back to the door and gave it to one of the employees. They were preparing to leave. It was now or never.

“You’ll know when,” Eddie said to Raven and put his arm around Hali’s shoulder, pulling him toward the rear of the truck.

“What are we doing now?” Hali asked in confusion.

“Get ready to hit me as hard as you can,” Eddie said in a low voice.

Hali looked at him like he was crazy. “What?”

Eddie staggered like a drunken idiot when they got close to the truck and loudly slurred his words into Hali’s face. “I said, your sister invited me over to her place. What was I supposed to do? I think we’ll have a storm party today.”

He glared at Hali, who finally got what he was going for. Hali reared back and sent a solid punch into Eddie’s gut. His tightened abs absorbed most of the blow, but he was impressed with Hali’s punch. The lessons Eddie had been giving him were paying off.

Eddie went down on his back, then sprung up and grabbed Hali by the neck and wrestled him to the pavement. A cheering crowd surrounded them, eager to have a good fight to distract them from the coming storm. While they exchanged softened blows, Eddie stole a glance at the people around them and saw that Locsin’s men were among the spectators, exactly as he had hoped.

Raven wouldn’t need long to snap the tracker’s magnet into place. Eddie put on a show with Hali for a few more seconds, just long enough to make it look respectable. Then he rolled away and acted like he was catching his breath. Hali didn’t pursue, much to the groaning dismay of the crowd.

They looked at each other as if they were grudgingly conceding the fight and got to their feet.

“Okay. I won’t go to her place if you don’t want me to,” Eddie said reluctantly. He extended a hand to Hali, who shook it. With that, the crowd dispersed as quickly as it had gathered.

Eddie watched the two men get in the truck and drive off.

Raven walked over to them and said, “You fight like girls, and I mean that in the best way.”

Hali rubbed his chin and smiled at Eddie. “You got me pretty good on one of those punches.”

“Sorry about that, but we had to make it look real,” Eddie said. He turned to Raven. “Is the tracker in place?”

“Exactly where you wanted it. Nobody saw a thing.”

“Then let’s return that farmer’s car and get back to the Oregon. If there weren’t such long lines at the gas stations I’d fill it up on the way back.”

He didn’t need to text Juan that the tracker was operational. It went active the moment the magnet connected to the truck. Seconds later, Eddie got confirmation on his phone. The Oregon was already receiving its signal.