As the darkness thickened, the air was cold and damp. The smattering of tourists who were out seemed intent on taking their photos and getting back to the warmth of their hotels. They moved quickly and didn’t linger. As the last set hurried past, Carlton removed his 1911, screwed the suppressor onto its threaded barrel, and secreted the weapon beneath a folded copy of the
He would have to withdraw the weapon from its hiding place in order to prevent the spent shell casings from failing to eject properly, but by the time his weapon was out, that would be the end of the three men in trench coats up ahead. Action beat reaction every time.
Carlton watched as the trench coats cautiously approached the two men sitting on the bench in their Barbour jackets. It didn’t take long for them to realize they had been duped.
While two of the trench coats jerked the homeless men to their feet, the third removed what appeared to be photographs from inside his jacket and compared them to the faces of each of the men. The jig was up.
Raising his shirt cuff to his mouth, he relayed into his microphone what had happened as his eyes scanned the area. Carlton had positioned himself so that he couldn’t be seen and began watching as they roughed up the two homeless men. Both received vicious blows to the stomach, doubling them over, and then they were kicked and struck repeatedly about the head and face. Carlton wanted to step in and help them, but he couldn’t, not yet.
Finally, the homeless men were jerked to their feet once more and the trench coats began dragging them off toward 17th Street. Carlton was going to have to move very quickly if he was going to make this work.
As he sprinted away, he removed his cell phone and called Banks, letting him know the direction the men were headed. He had no idea if he’d even disconnected the call when he jammed the phone back in his pocket and picked up the pace.
Rounding the World War II Memorial, he slowed himself to a brisk walk as he headed north up the sidewalk. He stared into the glaring headlights of oncoming traffic, trying to make out the Chevy Suburban. It would be here any second.
A large group of tourists, having visited their last site of the day, was exiting the memorial and making their way toward two motor coaches that were double-parked along 17th Street. Carlton mixed himself into their group and kept his eyes peeled toward where the trench coats and the two homeless men would emerge from the park.
There was a sidewalk ahead that emptied out of the park, and unless the trench coats were cutting across the grass, this was where they would exit. It also meant that the fourth man, the one with white hair, would bring the Suburban up somewhere behind the buses, and that was exactly what happened.
As the crowd of tourists neared their coaches and began to board, Carlton spotted the trench coats. The bloodied homeless men were being spirited toward the street. He had no idea where the Suburban was. Any moment, he was going to lose his cover, as he’d already passed the first bus and the remaining tourists he was with had begun to slow down in order to queue up to board the second coach.
Suddenly the Suburban came racing up behind the second bus and stopped. Seeing the vehicle, the trench coats hurried their prisoners. That was when Carlton kicked into gear.
Stepping from behind the group of tourists, he bent forward and pulled his head down toward his shoulders. The newspaper and 1911 were tucked under his left arm. As far as he wanted them to know, he was just another disinterested nobody on his way someplace warmer.
The trench coats weren’t amateurs. Their heads were on swivels as they continually scanned the area around them for any sign of a threat. Transitioning into a vehicle could often be one of the most dangerous parts of an assignment, and they appeared to know that. Fifty feet more, though, and this would all be over. At least, that was what they were thinking. But at twenty-five feet away, all hell broke loose.
Either because of his worn appearance, his age, or his stooped posture, Carlton hadn’t registered as a threat. That was the first mistake the trench coats had made. The second was not having their weapons more easily accessible.
With his right hand, Carlton drew his suppressed 1911 from inside the paper clutched beneath his left arm, brought it up, and depressed the trigger.
The first shot went high and to the right.
“Gun!” yelled one of the trench coats as he let go of the arm of the homeless man he was muscling to the street and fished beneath his jacket for his weapon. The other two men spun and went for their weapons as well.
Carlton brought his weapon back under control and hit the man he’d been aiming at in the shoulder. He then turned his .45 on trench coat two and three.
Number two took a round right to the base of his throat. He fired at number three and missed, but as number three loosed his weapon, Carlton lined up his sights and succeeded in hitting him in the head, killing him instantly.
Running forward, he arrived at trench coat number one, who had lost all use of his right arm and was trying to draw his weapon with his left hand. Carlton aimed his weapon and shot him in the head as well.
The two homeless men were in shock. “Get the hell out of here,” Carlton said, shoving them back toward the park. “Go! Run!”
The tourists waiting to board their buses had fled, screaming as they ran. Carlton looked up to see the Suburban, and its white-haired driver slumped over the wheel. Standing on the other side of the door in a puddle of broken glass was Tommy Banks. In one hand was his .357 revolver, the butt of which he’d used to smash the driver’s side window. In the other hand was the dual-shot Taser X2 that Carlton had given him. Its twin wires were attached to two barbed probes that had been embedded in the white-haired man’s chest.
“Get everything else out of our car and throw it in the back of this one,” Carlton said as he took the Taser from Banks, depressed its trigger, and let the white-haired man “ride the bull” again, as it was known.
Carlton figured they had less than a minute. Yanking the driver out of the Suburban, he Flex-Cuffed the man’s wrists behind his back and dragged him to the rear of the SUV. Opening the hatch, he half lifted, half pushed the man into the cargo area, where he Flex-Cuffed his ankles and then bound them to his wrists, leaving him facedown.
When Tommy had finished transferring their gear, he had the older man sit in the backseat with the Taser to keep an eye on their prisoner. Carlton hopped in the front seat, put the Suburban in gear, and took off toward the Tidal Basin and Independence Avenue, praying to God they’d make it out of the city without being captured.
CHAPTER 58
As they drove past the bright brick house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, it appeared that Chuck Bremmer had kept his word. There was no sign of the surveillance team that he had following Kurt Schroeder. At the end of the next block they found his vehicle parked exactly where the Colonel had told them it would be.
Harvath checked his watch. “Ten minutes,” he said to Rhodes and Casey as he looped around the block, getting a feel for the neighborhood before settling on a place to park. Both of the ladies wanted to go in with him, but he needed someone to stay with the truck, especially if Schroeder tried to run. Harvath decided to take Rhodes and have Casey stand by outside.
Bremmer had given them everything he could remember about Schroeder and where he was going to be this evening. Without having the file in front of him, there was only so much he could bring to mind. It would have to be good enough.
The row houses looked like neighbors had taken turns throwing darts at a paint wheel at Home Depot. There were red, blue, orange, aqua, white, and then their target—a bright yellow house with white mullioned windows. If someone told Harvath he’d just been transported to Old San Juan or somewhere else in the Caribbean, he might have believed it.
The homes all had fenced patios in back that abutted the fenced patios of the homes behind them. Had Harvath wanted to come in the back door, he would have had to start at the top of the block and jump numerous fences until he got to theirs, halfway down. The chances of being spotted or running across a dog were too great to
