Imani leaned in and watched, Nobu was correct, she couldn’t sit and stake out the place. There were a lot of people sitting on their porches. Lookouts? She wondered.
“Sorry again about the other day.” She said.
Nobu snorted, “Yeah, you were half listening, I could tell. What do you think of him? He’s nice, isn’t he.”
“Yes, he is. Should I follow him around for you? You know, check him out?” She grinned.
“No, I want to get to know Adam the normal way. Besides, the last time you did that, it ended in disaster.” Nobu grouched.
“Yeah, sorry bout that. Okay, but yeah, Dr. Quint seems very nice. I got a good vibe from him.” She said, only a little contritely. One of Nobu’s previous prospects had turned out to be an undercover cop. He’d been working in narcotics, and Imani had followed him. Thinking he was some kind of scum, she came within a scant minute of killing him. When she realized he’d been an undercover cop, she’d slunk away, mortified that she’d almost killed a cop. Nobu had dropped the relationship, since cops were a big no no.
“At least you put on the wig before you came into the restaurant. I think it would have been hard explaining why my roommate was spying on us.” Nobu grinned, nudging her.
“Can you speed this up to evening, I’m fairly sure not much happens in broad daylight. Yeah, that’s it. Okay, now slow down.” She instructed.
They watched as several vehicles came and went to the house. She got a good look at the man and woman there. There was a third man, a big man. A handler? She sat beside Nobu and watched intently, then a van pulled up. She looked at the time, it was 22:40, she watched as the big man came out, the couple standing at the door. The big man looked around then opened the sliding door to the van.
She felt her mouth go numb with rage as she saw three women dragged out of the van and hustled quickly into the house. Her nostrils flared and her lips pulled back in a silent snarl.
“Fast forward, I want to see if there are any more deliveries.” She ordered in a low voice.
Nobu did and there were no other deliveries. It looked like all activity ended near midnight. Nobu ran the tape forward to the next day. Nothing moved in or out of the house during the day, though plenty of activity on the street.
“Let’s move it along to night.” She suggested.
Nobu moved the video forward and once more, they saw a van pull into the drive at 22:20. So night time deliveries.
“Can you push in on the van, get the plate number?”
“No, but I can see if I can get a clear picture, I have a friend who does shit like that. I’ll capture a few segments and send. I can get you more then.”
“Cool, what does your friend Dragon’s Head have to say?”
“That’s Dragon’s Breath, and he said this place isn’t on anyone’s radar. You should be clear to go for it. How do you think you’ll proceed?” Nobu asked, sitting back and swiveling his chair to face her.
“Tell you what, bring up Google Earth, let me look around in back. I think gun and knife and maybe a little rope.” She smiled grimly.
“That big guy’s gonna be a problem you know.” Nobu warned, he looked over his glasses at her.
“Yeah, well, bullets are a great way to equalize shit. I’ll take him out and play with mom and pop.”
“When will you hit them?” Nobu asked.
“Tonight, and I want an address on that van. They’ll be next.”
“That’s pretty quick.” Nobu said and she could hear the nervousness in his voice.
“You can watch the feed tonight, I’m sure there will be another van. That way I can also get a peek. I’ll get there about 21:50ish, lay low and keep an eye out for the van. I can also get eyes on the driver.” She smiled.
“That’s a little dicey Ima. I’ve seen dogs in that neighborhood. You go and they start barking, you’ve blown it before you have a chance.”
Imani huffed and bit her lower lip, then sat back and stared at the screen. She watched the video play and twitched in her seat.
“Shit, okay, but I’ll go in at two am. But we see about that plate number. I want them.”
“You bet. Sorry, should have thought about a camera with a zoom.” Nobu apologized.
“Hey, no worries. This is fantastic, we didn’t know we’d need a zoom.” Imani smiled at him.
Ϫ
Imani parked a block away. She was sitting low in her car, she looked at the dash, quarter till two. She flexed her hands. She hated the feel of the elastic polymer, but it was vital to her movements and no fingerprints or DNA. The streets were dark, though street lights lined some of the streets. Some were broken, and that would work in her favor. She kept the lights of the car off and pulled away, she’d park behind the house and go through the yard of the neighbor.
She and Nobu had studied the house and the surrounding homes on Google Earth. It helped her see the layout, and different areas of egress. There was no fence separating them. Coming to a stop, she got out and gently closed the car door. She squatted beside the car, listening for voices, animals, music or tv chatter. Nobu had checked and found no house alarm for the property.
It was quiet. The nice thing about suburbs, was that most people went to bed early. At 2am, most people were dead to the world. Standing,
