Page 71 of Witness Security Breach

Good thing Bill had Devlin at his disposal to give him ideas. The man was a sadistic monster of the sickest kind.

“See. Plenty of options,” Devlin said cheerfully. “Once we take care of the marshals, then you can really have at it with Edgar.”

Grinning, Bill typed a response on the burner phone.

Let’s trade. Midnight. Location to follow.

Then he hit Send on the text.

“Tommy,” Bill said. “Make a list of the stuff we’re going to need. I want to do it all, beginning with a pair of pliers.”

Edgar started screaming again and Bill couldn’t think of any sound in the world that had ever brought him more pleasure.

We say when. We say where. Or no deal.

Aiden sent the message and shut off the phone. The one thing they had to maintain control over was the rendezvous.

While eating the home-cooked dinner Henri had prepared for them, they sat on the bed in front of the laptop, strategizing their next step. Aiden had already got dressed to go down and get the food, sparing the older lady a trek up the steep flight.

“I think we should give Walsh a location for a fake meet,” Charlie said. Wearing his long-sleeve button-up with the front open and revealing a tempting amount of skin, she shifted into a cross-legged position. “Catch them off guard early. Take the fight to them.”

“But how? We don’t know where they’re holding Albatross.”

“They’re going to have him someplace Walsh completely controls. Somewhere contained, with no danger of him being seen. Not the casino and not the restaurant. His home is out of the question since the feds are watching him. Didn’t you mention seeing deeds for other properties?”

“Yeah.” Aiden brought up several documents that he’d pored over the night before. “Walsh is in some nasty business. Human trafficking, forcing the women to work in brothels, and he also has his hands in drugs. There are four properties that he’s hiding under shell companies. Two are small apartment buildings, one-and two-bedroom units. All appear to be leased, but according to this, money is being laundered through there. I assume he’s using those apartments for prostitution. If they’re active, with a lot of traffic flowing in and out, Albatross won’t be there.”

“What about the other places?” Charlie finished her crawfish étouffée, scraping the plate clean with her fork.

It was a testament to Henri’s cooking. Junior hadn’t exaggerated about her culinary skills.

“There’s an old processing plant in Metairie and a warehouse down by the docks. No documentation showing any income flowing through either.”

“You think Walsh might be holding Albatross at one of those sites?”

“It’s possible.”

Charlie took a closer look at the paperwork. “We’ll have to check them out to narrow it down.”

“What you’re proposing would require a lot of recon for just the two of us.” Aiden ate the last spoonful of his dinner. “We might have to watch one location for a day or longer to be sure that Albatross is there, and we have multiple sites to cover. What if Devlin is holding him for Walsh somewhere else? Even if we did find him, we’d be seriously outnumbered and we’re talking about the potential for a lot of bloodshed.”

“That’s a risk no matter what. I think we have to take the chance.”

“If we hit them on their turf, even with the element of surprise, they’ll have the advantage. They could use smoke against us again. We can’t defeat thermal scopes or use flash bangs in return. We’re operating on the shoestring budget and limited resources of street vigilantes.”

Resting back on the wood headboard, she sighed. “The only other option is to set a legitimate meet in a public place, but civilians could get hurt. They could be used as human shields. If there’s going to be loss of life, I’d prefer it to be the bad guys. We bought Albatross time. Walsh might still hurt him, but he’ll be alive. We can do the recon.”

Aiden shook his head. Albatross was worth three times more alive just so that he could be tortured. Walsh had a vendetta that he wasn’t going to let slide. The odds of Eugene walking away uninjured were nil. “Alive, but in what condition after a day or two? In public, we can have the FBI there in advance waiting for him.”

Charlie ran her fingers through his hair. “You’re an eternal optimist and I love you for it, but we’re fugitives. The FBI consider us a threat and are more likely to arrest us or shoot us before we can ensure Albatross is safe. And don’t you think Walsh will send flunkies to check out any location we pick? Maybe even Devlin, who’d spot feds a mile away in a park or shopping mall. Walsh will never get out of the car, especially not with Albatross. We need to use the FBI as our final play.”

Aiden ran his hands over his face, racking his brain. “There might be another way.” He brought up the city of New Orleans on Google Maps. “What if we spend our time looking for the right public place, where we have more control over how everything plays out? Limit collateral damage. Terrain is everything.”

Terrain and a lack of convergence led to General Custer’s defeat. Why not Walsh’s?

“Maybe,” she said. “As they say, location is everything. It would mean the difference between success and incarceration or death.”

“Controlling the terrain is possible, but Walsh has four highly trained SWAT officers working for him, plus however many thugs. We’d need to even the playing field. Reduce his forces.”