Requiem for an Assassin

30

THIS TIME, when Kanezaki opened his door in response to my knock, he didn’t have any smart comments about whether I was coming in. He just stood there, looking at Boaz, Naftali, and me. He didn’t say a word, but I didn’t need to be psychic to know what he was thinking: some variation on the time-honored What the fuck?

I smiled. “May we come in?”

“I guess so,” he said, moving aside so we could all file past him.

We all sat across from each other along the edges of the beds. “Tom, Boaz, Naftali,” I said, gesturing as appropriate. Boaz had been right about Naftali. The man hadn’t said a word since I’d met him. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t place what.

There was a round of uneasy handshakes, and I went on. “I’m sure we can imagine our various affiliations, and they don’t really matter anyway. What matters is, we all showed up here for the same thing and we don’t want to trip over each other’s dicks trying to get it. With me so far?”

Everyone nodded. Boaz smiled and said, “Trip over our dicks?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It means…”

“No, no, I get it. I like it. It’s better than ‘cluster fuck.’”

“They’re a little different,” Kanezaki said, and Boaz nodded to show he was eager to hear more. “A cluster fuck is…”

“Not that it’s not important, but why don’t we do the language lesson later?” I said.

No one responded, and I went on. “I want my friend safely off that boat. You all want Hilger dead.” I paused again, locking eyes just for an instant with Kanezaki. “We know Hilger’s on the boat now, but don’t know for how much longer. So we need to move fast.”

Kanezaki’s face betrayed nothing, and I went on. “We know the general layout of the yacht club. What we don’t know is the precise location of Hilger’s boat, the nature of the opposition on board, whether any sentries are posted off the boat, and where Dox is being held on the boat. What I propose is this. We’ve got two vans. We use both, arriving separately. Naftali and Tom, you wait in the vans, engines running. Hilger knows my face, and probably Tom’s, too, so we’re the wrong guys for reconnaissance. That’s Boaz’s job. So far, so good?”

Everyone nodded. Kanezaki said, “What do we know about club security? Can Boaz just walk in?”

“Let’s find out,” Boaz said. He nodded to Naftali, who tossed him a mobile phone. “Sterile unit,” Boaz said. He dialed a number from memory.

“Hello,” he said, “I’m interested in chartering a fishing boat. Is that possible? No, not for today. You do, good. Two boats? Oh, the twenty-two-footer should be fine. Look, this is for an important client and I’d like to see the facilities. Can I do that? Yes? Right, Chan, I’ll ask for you, thank you. I’ll be by tomorrow or the next day. Yes, of course, my name is Vanya. If you’re not there, though, can I just…stroll around by myself, take a look at the boats? Of course, of course, I would never board a boat without the captain’s permission. Yes, thank you.”

He clicked off and looked at us. “The operation is off. Chan says we can’t board a boat without the captain’s permission.”

No one said anything, and he shrugged. “Just a joke. Security’s not an obstacle, at least not initially. But this raises a question. If we have to…disable security, how far do we go?”

The answer was so obvious to me that for a second, I didn’t follow him. “You mean…”

“At all costs, we want to avoid the loss of innocent life. It’s our most important rule of engagement.”

“Sorry, can you define that phrase, ‘all costs’?” I said. “And what do you mean, ‘rule’?”

He sighed. “Well, sometimes it’s more of a guideline than a rule. The real world can be messy. But we try very hard.”

“All right, I agree to try hard,” I said. “Fair enough?” He nodded, and I went on. “Tom’s got some fishing equipment. You carry it with you and scope the area, checking all the spots where you would place a sentry if you were Hilger. Have you got a wireless earpiece to use with one of those phones?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

“Good, so do I, and that’s how we’ll stay in touch as you stroll around. No telling what you’ll find, so you’ll just have to inform me and we’ll improvise.”

He nodded again.

“You keep wandering around, looking the part of afternoon-fishing hobbyist, until you spot Ocean Emerald. When you find her, you get your equipment ready. While you’re doing that, I move in.”

“What equipment?” Kanezaki asked.

“What’s your security clearance?” Boaz asked.

Kanezaki scowled at him, and Boaz sighed. “Am I the only one here with a sense of humor?” he said. He turned to Naftali. “Naftali, was that not funny?”

Naftali might have been made of stone.

Boaz sighed again and turned to Kanezaki. “Well, what can you do…these secrets always get out sooner or later anyway. Have you heard of an ‘active denial system’?”

“Of course. The Raytheon technology. Nonlethal millimeter wave energy weapon.”

Boaz laughed and looked at me. “Smart guy.” He gave a quick rundown on the particulars of his device.

“Okay,” I said when he was done. “When I’m in position, you zap the boat. Either it’ll fuck up the people on board, increasing my chances of surprising them, or they’ll haul ass off the boat like their hair’s on fire. Either way, I drop whoever I encounter and extract Dox.”

“Dox will be locked inside while I’m zapping,” Boaz said.

I nodded. “I’ll apologize to him later.”

“Have you considered how they might have secured him?” Kanezaki asked.

I nodded. “If it’s just a locked door, I’ll shoot the lock out. If it’s ropes, I’ve got a knife. But you’re right, if he’s in manacles…”

Kanezaki smiled. “I’ve got a pair of four-foot bolt cutters in a nylon case in the van. Boaz can carry it. We need you mobile, and shooting straight.”

I nodded and gave him a slight smile. “Two heads really are better than one.”

I imagined the terrain for a moment. We were working on the fly. It would be so easy to miss something.

“I come off the boat with Dox,” I said. “He’s a big guy, and if he needs assistance my hands are going to be full. Boaz, you’ll be armed?”

“How do you say it? ‘Fuckin’ A,’ I think?”

“That’s how it’s said. You cover the retreat to the vans. Tom, we ride with you. Naftali, if anyone tries to follow, you ram. Clear?”

Everyone nodded.

“Whatever you need to bug out, have it with you. Bags, papers, everything. Assume we can’t come back to our hotels. Now, what are we missing?”

“Probably a dozen things,” Boaz said.

“I know. But there’s no time. We’re not going to get a better chance than this. Let’s go through it one more time, and then we roll.”