“He’d better,” Adara said. “Because I’m not sure this stuff is going to come out anytime soon. It smells like they used some kind of tar or something in the dye. I’ve showered in a lot of bathrooms in my travels… Did you know they have a hose connected to the toilets that you can use instead of toilet paper?” Adara had a knack for language and culture. Out of all the people on the team, she was the most likely to study up on the eccentricities of the places they visited — and then do her best to embrace them. She was also possessed of a keen sense of smell, and suggested even when she was transportation coordinator that the guys shower with local soaps on arrival at any new destination so as not to stand out from the crowd. “I looked it up,” she said. “It’s called a…” She looked at her hand, where she’d written down the word. “
“Yeah, it’s going to take some time to convert me on that one,” Chavez said. “Not big on the air-drying thing…” He nodded at her hand. “You may want to rethink having something about butts and hoses written on your palm.”
“That’s why you make the big money.” Adara chuckled. She scooted her chair closer, forearms on the table so she could arch her back. Long flights, even on an aircraft as plush as the Gulfstream, had a way of putting kinks in a person’s spine that took days to shake out.
“Anything?” she asked, shooting a sideways glance through the window across the street.
Ding shook his head. “Nothing but customers. Our guys are set up outside the eye doc’s office. Should be making entry as soon as it closes.”
Adara raised her cardboard teacup. “Here’s to sitting on our spray-hosed butts while they do the fun stuff. When you were a kid, did you ever think you’d be in Southeast Asia drinking tea and trying to steal some millionaire’s computer software?”
Chavez knew the question was rhetorical but answered it anyway. “As I remember, my only goal when I was a kid was not dying in a gang fight.”
“Brutal,” Adara said, grimacing like she meant it. “Hey, you’re not really mad about the scenario in New York, are you?”
“Hell, no,” Chavez said. “I want training to be as close to the real thing as possible without spilling too much blood. We’re playing a zero-failure game. The only way to win is to cheat like hell… and then lie our asses off if we get caught. I was pissed at myself because I didn’t figure out what you were up to.”
“That means a lot.” She toyed with her cup, spinning it slowly on the table. “You’re a good boss.”
Chavez shrugged off the comment. “I’m just one of the guys.”
“No,” Adara said. “You’re not. You might look at yourself like one of us, but the rest of us view you in the league with John—”
Ding almost spewed his sip of coffee. “Well,” he scoffed. “I’d say the rest of you need to check your windage and elevation, because I have a long way to go before I am anything like John Clark.”
She drank her tea and looked at him for a time, and then said, “Whatever you say. I’m just telling you how we see it. You and John talk about us. Who do you think we talk about? You and John. It’s only natural. Not that this is a democracy or anything, I’m just saying that all of us see you taking more and more responsibility—”
“John’s not going anywhere.”
Adara gave an adamant shake of her head. “I’m not saying that. I just mean you’re a good boss, even if you do make me dye my hair so I look goth.”
He chuckled and pushed away from the table, chair chattering on the tile. “You got this for a few minutes? I’m gonna take a stroll.”
“I’ll be here,” she said, toasting with the teacup again.
Chavez had never been comfortable with compliments, so this was as good a time as any to conduct a little area familiarization. Whenever possible, he liked to walk the streets and alleys around any surveillance site, getting a lay of the land, egress routes, possible overlap with other ops. A gangbanger a block away might not have anything to do with your target, but that didn’t make him any less of a threat if he saw you hanging around his neighborhood. Smart spies used their surroundings like prey animals used chattering squirrels as an early-warning system for approaching danger. It was good to know where the squirrels were. More than once he’d watched some cartel kingpin’s lookouts — called
The ocean was just two blocks away, but none of the breeze made it past the buildings, leaving the area behind the hotel devoid of wind. Late-afternoon sun beat down on the rusty tin roofs, causing them to tick and pop under the heat.
