“Who’s intel?” Sin asked.
“Ours—the U.S.”
“Why are we watching him?”
“He is now one to watch on the government’s terrorist list and his name seems to be shooting up the charts.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“I think you had a lot to do with that,” Charlie said. “You exposed him and brought his dealing into the light.”
“A lot of fucking good that did,” Sin said. “He’s free and living in a freakin’ condominium.”
“It’s abandoned,” Charlie said. “I’m not sure if he’s living or hiding.”
“Why is he there any way? With his money, he could live anywhere.”
“That depends on who you’re listening to,” Charlie said. “Our side says he’s sick and he doesn’t want anyone to see him in his current state.”
“And the other side?”
Charlie grinned. “They say he has been planning something big and he doesn’t want to be sidetracked or disturbed.”
Sin stood up and moved closer to the screen. “What kind of big are you talking?”
“Word on the street says he is moving away from drugs and girls and is about to put his hand in the black market weapons ring.”
“Does Westcott know this?”
“I’m sure he does,” Charlie answered.
“Then why the hell hasn’t he moved in. Veloz is like a sitting duck waiting to be plucked.”
“You know the game, Sinclair. Sometimes it’s best to wait and see if this fish can be used as bait to bag an even bigger one.”
“Those pricks,” Sin yelled. “They know where to find Veloz and they know what damage he can do, but—nothing!”
Charlie shook his head. “That’s why I got out of the game. Too many people jumping beds. You never know who is sleeping with who?”
Sin stared at the monitor. “Do you have any surveillance photos of Veloz?”
“Funny you should ask,” Charlie responded. “Even though he hasn’t left the building, he does venture onto the balcony to smoke.” He tapped the keyboard and pulled up a grainy video.
“Hell, that could be anybody,” Sin said.
“Typical woman,” Charlie groaned. “Hold on and I will make it all pretty.”
A few minutes later, the video repixelated and showed a clear picture of Veloz. Charlie sat back and admired his handiwork.
Sin watched and rewatched the two minute video at least a dozen times. He still walks with a limp from our last encounter, she thought. That could definitely work in my favor.
Sin checked her watch. “Let’s take a look at the schematic of the church. I want to hit it tonight.”
“Why tonight?”
“Sunday night is the best night to hit a church,” Sin replied. “Everyone that works there is tired from the big show they put on earlier in the day, even Heap’s hired help will be sketchy at best.”
Charlie smiled. “I like the way you think, Sinclair.”
Sin blushed at the compliment.
They spent the next two hours going over entry, route, and exit. They spent the most time on a contingency plan in case anything went wrong.
Sin watched as Charlie filled a small waterproof fanny-pack with implements you’d see on an episode of CSI. “Walk me through what you’re doing,” Sin said.
“If we are going to get a closer look at the church, I just want to be prepared,” Charlie answered.
Sin beamed in admiration. “I love the way your mind works.”
26
Sin and Charlie rowed a blacked out skiff through the rough waters behind the church. Each was dressed in all black, including having their faces blacked out. Once behind the church, they dropped a small anchor off shore so the boat couldn’t hit any of the rocks and alert security.
Charlie signaled Sin with his hands and they both dropped into the water from opposite sides of the boat. It didn’t take but a few minutes for both of them to make their way to the thirty foot rock retaining wall that separated the church from the gulf.
The wall, although slippery from algae, had enough foot and hand holds so they were able to free climb without ropes or gear. Once over the wall, they donned night-vision goggles. Charlie hand signaled Sin and they headed for the back side of the church. They knew this would be the best vantage point where the security cameras couldn’t reach.
Using an old fashion slimjim—a thin steel bar used for unlocking car doors―to pop the window lock, they gained entrance into the church. Exactly two minutes later, they stood in the waiting room outside of Heap’s office.
As they readied themselves to break in Heap’s office, Sin went over the plan in her head one more time—the plan was simple, they needed to see what was in the room behind Heap’s private office and then they would make their way to the large room behind the sanctuary. In each location, pictures would be taken and they would be out in less than ten minutes. They knew they would probably trip a silent alarm, but they would deal with that when and if the time arose. They hoped for an easy in and out.
Sin kept watch as Charlie picked the lock to Heap’s office. Things were going smooth, too smooth for her liking. Once inside the office, they quickly went through his desk and files but found nothing out of the ordinary. Charlie turned on Heap’s computer. The hard-drive was safeguarded with a password, so Charlie shoved a thumb-drive into the USB slot and downloaded all the files.
He would have to try to break the encryption later.
While he was waiting for the download to complete, Sin picked the lock on the inner office.
Entering, Sin noticed a couple things of interest. First, there appeared to be a woman’s touch to the décor. This must be Maggie’s office, she thought. Her next thought was, why does his wife need an office?
She tried to open the desk drawers—locked. The file cabinets—the same. She quickly picked the lock on the desk and rummaged through the drawers. There seemed
