Deliver Us From Evil

30

REGGIE LOOKED in the bathroom mirror as she washed away her makeup with a damp cloth. She had on a long green T-shirt and white bikini panties, and her hair hung straight to her shoulders. She turned off the light and moved to the window overlooking the street in front. The van and one SUV were still there. The second truck had left about twenty minutes ago; Reggie had heard it start up but had been too late getting to the window to see who’d been in it.

She’d texted the professor and Whit and told them that Kuchin’s men were here. The message had gone out over a secure line, but would still seem innocuous to anyone who might intercept it. It had read simply, “Dear Carol, the views here are even more beautiful than I thought. I’m going to get up early to see the sunrise.”

She walked into her bedroom and edged open the window, which swung out like a door. From here she could see a portion of the rear grounds of the next-door property. She was startled to see the silhouette of a man sitting in a chair near the end of the pool smoking what looked like a cigar. There were no lights on in the back, but the moon was bright.

It’s him. It’s Fedir Kuchin.

If Reggie had had a gun, she could have ended the man’s life right then. But that was not the way they did things.

She saw the man flinch. Had he seen her watching? That would have been virtually impossible. She was not in his line of sight and there was no light at her back. Still, she eased back into the room but left the window open, figuring if she tried to close it that would alert him that someone was watching.

She drew a deep breath, pulled off her T-shirt and panties, slipped into her bikini, and walked down the stairs. She slid open the rear door and stepped to the darkened pool.

“Okay,” she said quietly, “here we go.”

She slipped into the warm water, kicked off, and started doing her laps.

From the cliffs Shaw watched the two villas through his night glass. He saw Reggie standing at the window and then leaning out to peer next door. His gaze next swung to the man in the other villa’s rear grounds. Evan Waller sat there smoking a cigar while two of his security men stood nearby. Shaw zoomed in on the man. His optics gave off no signature, so he wasn’t overly concerned that anyone could spot him. And even if they had night-vision equipment, he was looking through a crevice formed between two boulders. The odds that they could “make” him under those conditions were too small to worry about.

Waller’s movements were leisurely. He was talking on a cell phone. A few minutes passed and Shaw was about to give up his surveillance when he saw Reggie emerge from the back sliding door in her bikini, a towel in one hand.

“Oh, come on,” Shaw said to himself. “You know the creep was already spying on you.”

As though he had heard Reggie come outside, Waller rose and walked over to the wall that separated the two villas. One of his men joined him there and was pointing at Reggie’s villa. Shaw zoomed in some more. It was the same muscle that had peeped on the lady earlier. He was probably giving Waller a blow-by-blow account of the incident. The resolution on Shaw’s optics was good, but not quite good enough to show someone smiling. However, even without the confirming picture, he was convinced the man was grinning about whatever he was thinking right now.

Shaw flinched when the muscle bent down and formed a stirrup with his hands. A moment later Waller was boosted up and peering over the wall. Shaw swung his surveillance in the other direction. Reggie was still doing her strokes. Shaw hoped she would keep doing them until the two men went inside. His hopes were dashed as she stopped swimming and walked up the steps and grabbed her towel.

Shaw swung back around to look at Waller, who was still peering over the wall. The son of a bitch was probably drooling by now. Or maybe wondering if the lady would be a good recruit for his prostitution business.

He looked back at her. Don’t strip, Janie. Don’t.

Now it appeared as though she’d heard him. At least she kept her bikini on, toweled off, wrapped it around her, and walked into the house. No one watching her could see the waterproof bud in her right ear where she had been receiving communications from Dominic. Shaw wasn’t the only one watching them from the cliffs tonight.

Waller quickly climbed down from his perch and the two men went inside. Shaw left his observation post and walked back to his room. There was sweat under his armpits though the night was cool. He called Frank and told him what he’d just seen. His boss wasn’t nearly as concerned as he was.

“I don’t care about the chick. All I care is that he goes to Les Baux on schedule.” He added ominously, “And that better be all you care about too, Shaw.”

Shaw slowly put the phone down. He was a pro, been doing this forever. The only time he’d really lost it was when he’d allowed himself to care about something other than the mission. Well, when he’d found himself caring about someone.