“Where will the sun be in relation to our hotel?”
The smile fades from Louis’s face, and he makes an annoyed frown.
“I’m not sure.”
“It’s important.”
“Yes, I’m sure it is.”
“If your boss wants this to happen, everything has to be in place.”
Louis says nothing. Looking even more annoyed.
I say, “Can I be honest with you for a second?”
He says nothing.
“This whole thing seemed rushed. Carla said it herself when she came out into the field. What’s that all about?”
The sun is almost gone from the sky, only a soft glow washing the side of Louis’s face.
He clears his throat but doesn’t look at me when he answers.
“There’s a summit in Canada later this week. The American president, Canadian prime minister, and Mexican president will all be there. Cortez had planned to stop in Los Angeles after the summit on his way back to Mexico to meet with the governor, but plans changed at the last minute on the governor’s end. So Cortez was agreeable to stopping in Los Angeles first. There’s an initiative they’re pushing to ensure Mexican immigrants are treated fairly if they come into the state illegally.”
“Sounds like a hot-button issue.”
“It is.”
“Which means there’ll be protestors.”
“Probably.”
“Which means there’ll be heavier police presence than usual, even with the governor and Mexican president all in the same place.”
Louis tilts his face toward me, his gaze still blank.
“If you don’t do this, your family will die.”
“What guarantee do I have they won’t die even if I do assassinate Cortez?”
Louis doesn’t answer, simply looks back out his window, which is answer enough.
Part of me didn’t believe my family would be truly saved if I went through with this, but another part—a tiny naïve part—thought there might be a chance. Even for me, somebody who has cynicism running through her blood, I had hoped my family might be spared, but apparently not.
The highway crests, and Los Angeles opens up ahead of us, aglow in the failing light.
For some reason, the city of angels has never looked so bleak. As if it knows a team of fallen angels is headed its way.
Thirty-Five
The evening had come on fast and strong, and the sky was darker than Nova had remembered it being in D.C. It had only been a year since he left, but something about the town felt different. Everybody was tenser. Angier. Or maybe that was just his imagination.
They had parked on a street lined with elm trees, and Nova cut through a park that was thankfully deserted this time of night. He knew he needed to be careful because police often kept their eye on parks like these at night. And if a cop were to stop him, what would he find? A big guy armed to the teeth carrying a quadcopter. They probably could have launched it from where they had parked, but Nova wanted to check out the motel across the highway first.
It was where they’d tracked the signal. Whoever was watching Holly’s family was stationed in one of those rooms.
Earlier, James had returned to Holly’s mother’s house with some kind of high-tech RF detector. James did a quick sweep of the block, searching for any abnormal radio frequencies, and almost immediately found the source. A tiny camera was placed across the street from Holly’s mother’s house, positioned near the top of a telephone pole. James also determined a tracking device had been placed on Holly’s mother’s car.
Whether any cameras had been set up inside the house itself was difficult for James to tell, and the only way he could know for sure was to enter the premises and do a sweep. Which presented a few obstacles, the first being it didn’t appear like Holly’s mother was ready to leave the house any time soon, and second, assuming there were cameras inside and they managed to enter without the camera out front spotting them, that would alert the people watching the family, which was the last thing they wanted right now. So far the element of surprise was on their side, and Nova wanted to keep it that way.
James then took the RF detector over to Holly’s sister’s house and determined a camera was placed there, too—this one on a light post half a block away. Tracking devices were on the two cars in the driveway as well.
Which made sense, once Nova thought about it—set up devices to watch and track their prey, and sit back and wait for the signal to attack if need be. Otherwise, idling vehicles would go easily noticed, just as they’d determined when they first considered staking out the houses.
Nova had his earpiece in and whispered, “Let me know when.”
The disposable phone vibrated with a text message from James through the Signal app.
Go.
Nova set the quadcopter on a picnic table and stood back.
“It’s all set.”
The propellers started spinning at once. The quadcopter lifted, hovered for a beat, and then continued higher into the air.
James was controlling the quadcopter from the car. Nova had seen the setup, an iPad with a controller. It seemed too simple, but the way James explained it via texting, the quadcopter had an infrared camera attached and would be able to sense heat signatures inside the motel. James had already determined where he believed the signals from the cameras and tracking devices went—a room on the second floor—but they wanted to make sure the room was occupied. Because if it was occupied, there was a good chance the entire team was inside.
The phone in Nova’s hand vibrated with an incoming call. It was Atticus.
He said, “I see it on my end. Are you still in the park?”
Wherever Atticus was located, he was watching the same thing James saw from the iPad as the quadcopter flew over the highway toward the motel.
Despite the park being deserted, Nova still found himself whispering.
“Yes.”
“Where’s Erik?”
“He’s keeping an eye on the sister’s place.”
Atticus was quiet for a beat.
“I trust him.”
Nova merely grunted.
“I understand we don’t know much about him, Nova. But I did
