He crouched down in front of her. “It’s good to meet you, Señora. I am very impressed with your family. They are worried about you, and I promised that I would be bringing you home soon.”
Suzanne smiled. “I’m proud of them,” Suzanne said before she started to cough.
“Write it down, Woman.” Leland glowered at her.
Suzanne closed her eyes. If Asher had to guess, she was praying for patience. She took the proffered notepad from Leland and started to write.
Asher read her note aloud.
I hate the thought that my actions on this council might have put any of my family in danger.
“Seems to me that your nephew courts danger,” Asher teased gently.
Suzanne sighed her agreement.
“Asher, are you in charge of this op?” Eden asked.
“I’m taking point on-site. My lieutenant and the second-in-command are outside determining the best way to ensure that Maduro’s men don’t infiltrate the bank. Ultimately, we want to get you out with no casualties.”
“Good thinking,” Leland clapped Asher on the back. “Keep all non-combatants alive, that should always be the mandate. Do you have any idea why they haven’t just led an all-out assault? If Maduro is out to get us, we’re sitting ducks. Now’s the time.”
“Maduro is busy being entertained on the Isla de Margarita. He’s incommunicado. According to our sources, he won’t be back until Sunday morning to attend Mass, so we’re safe until then.”
Suzanne shook her head, then winced as she gingerly touched her throat. She then demanded her notepad back from Asher with an imperious wave of her hand. He handed it to her.
Untrue, Perez is his right-hand man. Maduro’s secret police will listen to him. Perez is greedy. Might make move on the bank without Maduro.
“Yeah, but that would piss off Maduro,” Asher said with a frown.
Suzanne underlined the words greedy and bank.
The light dawned.
“Fuck me. He couldn’t care less about your cash, it’s worthless. Hell, in order to buy a loaf of bread, people are weighing the cash instead of counting it out. But you have gold stashed away here in the bank, don’t you?” How could he, Kane, and Max have missed this?
She nodded, then wrote again.
Safety deposit boxes.
“How much total?” Asher asked.
For the first time, Suzanne’s eyes cut away from his.
“Never mind, you don’t have to tell me your bank’s assets. It’s enough to know that it could encourage the cockroaches.” Asher’s head felt like it was going to explode; he didn’t know if it was from the crash or because they’d screwed the pooch so badly.
“I’ve got to get my team on the phone,” Asher said as he pulled his satellite phone out of his tactical vest. “I need to get some background on Perez and find out if he’s one of the bastards who currently have us surrounded.”
He started out of the room and caught Eden’s grin. “Yeah, yeah, I remember,” he smiled reluctantly.
“Now you don’t think my plan was all that farfetched, do you? It’s all about the creative thinking, SEAL boy.”
She was beautiful. She was smart. And she scared the hell out of him.
He watched as Suzanne motioned for Leland and Eden to come closer. It looked like something important. But he didn’t have time to go and see what the hell was going on, he needed to talk to his team.
Asher moved to the office furthest away from the Eden and the others and tagged Kane.
“What?” Kane’s voice was gruff as he answered the phone.
“You okay?” Asher asked.
“There’s a lot of variables. It’s about goddamn time you called in. I’ve heard from Raiden and Ezio. So, what have you got for me?”
“More than either of us want,” Asher said as he leaned against the wall and kept his eye on the door to the staircase and the office down the hall. “We have a bank full of gold and safety deposit boxes that one of Maduro’s men, a guy named Perez, is itching to get his hands on.”
“Perez?” Kane asked. “If you give me a minute or two, I’ll pull him up.”
“While you’re at it, I want the full fucking run-down on Eden York. Did you know that her brother is Pete York, the former Green Beret who operates Force-Tactical out of Vegas?”
“No shit. I’ve met him.”
Asher could hear the grin in Kane’s voice.
“Well, I’ve now met his sister, and she’s a wildcard. She intends to be part of this op, and the only thing that is going to stop her is locking her in the bank vault.”
“Dammit, Thorne, that’s the last thing we need, some damned civilian thinking they can help us out. She’ll get herself killed and fuck up the mission. You’ve got to sit on her!”
Asher sighed. “Kane, the crap thing is? I think she could be of help.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Get me the file on her. I want it the same time you find out about Perez. When I ran into her twenty minutes ago, she had a Sig Sauer in her hand and had a harebrained plan that ended up being pretty damned good. Since I don’t know where we stand with Becker, Patel, and Carlson, I think having her around to help sort shit out will help.”
“Think this through, she’s a fucking civilian!”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Asher kept his voice down, barely. “Just do what I tell you to do. You’re the one with the info, so get it to me. There is more to this woman than being an interpreter, and I want to know what it is. Hell, I think she might have been a Girl Scout.”
Kane barked out a laugh. “Nah, she was probably just a Camp Fire Girl.”
“Get me the info.”
Chapter 9
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