Page 50 of Exit Strategy
“Do all of our vehicles have that?”
“Yes, one in the GPS navigation system, and a second in the software of the drive system. Same for every hybrid in the fleet, three in the full electrics.” I nodded. “I put the sedan on continuous ping, since you mentioned Owen being missing. It’s returned a signal from a location that the net says is a private storage unit. We can be there in less than an hour.”
An hour and a half later, I popped the lock off the storage unit, and rolled the door up. The sedan was sitting right where the GPS said it was. The facility manager hadn’t been very forthcoming with information, but a small bribe got him talking, and the name didn’t match, but the description did. The car was empty, the battery cables were popped, but the electronics console was intact.
“It was a bug-out,” Cullen said, shining his flashlight around inside the unit. “There was a different vehicle in here, I can smell it.”
“Can you?”
“Fuel stabilizer, it’s an old vehicle. Probably something with no GPS. From what I knew of Kurt it probably had a carb on it, like old school,American Graffitiand all that.”
“So, we’re looking for a British Royal Marine in an old vehicle with Cardinal stuffed in the trunk?”
“Possibly?” Jacobson shrugged. “It’s what we’ve got.”
“Soren has several other teams out looking, you know,” Mac chirped in my earpiece. I grimaced.
“I’m not surprised. What can you tell me about my competitors?”
“Wilson is leading Team Echo down to the Mexican border, and Arizona is leading team Charlie to canvas LAX and any other avenues to leave the country quickly,” Mac said.
“What about Bravo, or Delta?” I asked. “Where are they?”
“Bravo and Abel are handling security at the mansion and the set respectively, and we’ve been designated Team Delta.” I smacked my fist into my palm.
“Does Soren have to be that kind of bastard? What the fuck is his problem?”
“He wants you gone,” Cullen said.
“You aren’t pretty teenager enough for him,” Jacobson agreed. “Those inner circle guys are like that. If you wanna be on their good side, and a woman, you need to be about five feet tall, and no more than a hundred pounds.”
“All of Soren’s personal valets are young women, so are August Emerson’s,” Cullen said.
“Look, I know that, fuck all,” I growled. “So, let’s assume that at least someone is going to be monitoring everything we do, so that they can keep an eye on us. If we actually pick up a lead, Soren will have a fast track to throw another team into it ahead of us. We keep communications face-to-face, no electronics. It’s worth noting that our target is the guy who trained us, and he knows what we are going to do and how we’re going to do it.”
“He won’t go to LAX or Mexico,” Mac said.
“Bingo. One is too easy to get him flagged, the other is an extradition country where the rules don’t apply all that well. He won’t go either way.”
“Where then?” Cullen asked.
“Let me hold those cards close to my chest for the moment, but we will be heading east. Mac, I will need you to hit car titles and find out what he is driving. That can be a big help to us. People notice old cars – old cars are cool and stick out. Plus, if we know what he’s got, it will give us an idea of where he can’t go, and where he is likely to.”
“Ma’am?” Cullen raised an eyebrow.
“A lot of the older cars that people own for cool factor don’t always have good performance. If he’s got a two-ton fifties cruiser with a straight six and only a hundred horsepower or so, he’s not going over mountains, and probably not crossing the desert. Small engine car goes north, Pacific Northwest, northern California.”
“Good to know,” he said.
“I’m not finding him owning any vehicles under a California registry,” Mac said.
“He’s not an American, and has lived and worked all over the country. Check his resume against those states. Whatever it is, its registered somewhere. Kurt isn’t the sort of person to own an unregistered vehicle, or an illegally tagged one. Guns, that is another matter.”
“What about guns?” Jacobson asked, his voice rising in alarm.
“The boss was a Royal Marine. He collected firearms, including military hardware. We are going to consider him exceedingly well-armed and accordingly dangerous. None of us in Delta have military experience, so even with what we’ve been trained to do, we aren’t going to be fully prepared to deal with what he can do if he becomes hostile.”
“Fucking hell, do we even have a plan, then?” Mac asked.
