Smoke and Mirrors

56

The two teams of Cutouts following Massey split up after the trio had settled into Barnett’s house for the evening. The second team would rest until daybreak, then relieve the overnight team, and eight additional team members would be arriving the following day. While one of the two men put Global Positioning System locators on the Jeep and the Tundra and took up a position behind the house, the other remained in the Yukon watching the front of the house for lights. Massey’s history with their organization had taught them that you couldn’t take him for granted. The ex-deputy U.S. marshal was a legend with the group, having taken out several of them a few years before-a feat unparalleled in the organization’s shadowy fifty-year history. Five members of the team remained in Tunica, and several cleaners were on call, if and when that became necessary.

Traffic in the sheriff’s neighborhood was extremely light. Of the six or seven cars and trucks that passed on the street after eleven o’clock, only one was a police cruiser, and the sole officer occupant didn’t even slow as he passed the SUV. The Yukon carried Mississippi plates, a move designed to make the vehicle fit in. If the plates were run, they would be traced to a corporation set up for regional dark operations. If, by some miracle, cutouts were taken into custody, they would be out before they were booked and within hours, there would be no record of the arrest.

As each vehicle passed the Yukon, the watcher there would open his laptop and type in the plate. None of them raised any flags in the computer, which had immediate access to governmental mainframes.

Around three in the morning, the watcher in the Yukon radioed his partner. When he received no response, he climbed from the SUV, tacking a silenced Heckler amp; Koch Mark 23 under his jacket and putting on night vision goggles. Slipping into the cover of bushes, he moved toward the place the second watcher was supposed to be.

As he approached the neighboring yard where his teammate had set up his surveillance, he spotted the man’s shape, sitting in the grass with his ankles crossed, his back against a tree. The older cutout appeared to be asleep, and the watcher approached stealthily from behind. Suppressing a chuckle, he reached around and clasped his hand over his partner’s mouth. As soon as he touched the still man, he jerked his hand back. Looking at his hand in the moonlight, he saw that his gloved fingers were covered with warm blood. Pulling his pistol and kneeling beside the man, he saw that his partner’s head was exploded on the left side. Something heavy dropped to the ground behind him, and as he turned, he felt a spray of cold liquid, smelled it for what it was, and covered his mouth too late to stop the chloroform from taking him down.