“Oh, yes! And they were talking about us, believe it or not. The one in charge, who must be Talib, was saying we demons might be anywhere and cannot be stopped.” Tracy giggled and looked at Oliver, who had put his glasses back on. She asked, “Were you able to sense enough energy from each of them?”
Oliver nodded and said, “Yeah, I can find any of those four men now.”
“Amanda and I will recognize their scent as well,” said Gene. “Working together, I’m sure we can locate where each one is staying.”
Tracy said, “Talib asked that one guy to leave and go check on the others. We need to follow him. Hopefully, we’ll learn where all of them are staying.”
Chapter Nine
Mar 19, 2020
After dropping Amanda and Tracy off at the hotel in downtown Leipzig which Lieutenant Saunders had selected for everyone, Gene and Oliver drove back to begin surveillance of the liquor store. They intended to follow the man Tracy had told them would be checking on others.
As the girls headed up to Linda and Jesse’s room to join them along with Candy and John, Tracy smirked and said, “I won the bet, didn’t I?”
Amanda sighed, knowing which bet Tracy was referring to. “Gene and I explained we do not disclose private things like that about people.”
“What’s to disclose? They made it clear enough when we checked in here, right? They wanted the same room and there was no mention of being platonic this time.”
Amanda rolled her eyes but had nothing to say. On arriving at the room, they knocked and were welcomed inside.
Candy asked, “Do you think anyone recognized Oliver?”
“No, he was totally ignored,” said Amanda. “I think the guys were too busy checking out Tracy. They spoke freely in front of us. They definitely are members of the WIJO group which bombed that nightclub.”
Jesse said, “I’ll let Lieutenant Saunders know. He has some men watching the liquor store and others watching Talib’s apartment building. He’ll want to keep that up.”
“Yes, and he has GPS tracking in the car Gene and Oliver are using, right?” asked Amanda. “They hope one of the men will be leading them back to where other members are hiding out.”
“Great,” said Jesse, nodding in affirmation. Looking at Linda he said, “Tell them what Dale Hewson has learned for us.”
“The holding company which owns the liquor store has ties with another company which owns a large warehouse about forty minutes outside of the city here,” said Linda. “Dale says that’s probably where the business gets most of its revenue, with the store merely a front. In order to be distributing the quantity of beer and wine which this company seems to be delivering throughout its network, a large place is needed for inventory and for storing all their vehicles.”
“Hey, that’s great,” said Tracy. “Amanda will recognize if the guys we met today have been there. Once we confirm that, we need to search for whatever might be stored there besides booze.”
They discussed various options for getting inside and doing a search but, until they actually got to see what they were dealing with, they really couldn’t agree on any specific plan. However, Tracy said she and Amanda would try something similar to what they’d done in the liquor store. They decided Linda and Candy would stay behind and maintain communications with everyone while Jesse, Amanda, Tracy and John went out to take a look at the warehouse.
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Lieutenant Saunders sat up front in the passenger seat of the lead vehicle which also had John and Jesse in it. For this recon, they were using four vehicles after leaving several men behind to guard Candace; one of the vehicles was a car they’d just rented for Tracy and Amanda. He asked, “When we get to this warehouse, what’s the plan?”
Jesse said, “Once we do a drive-by, Amanda and Tracy will circle back and fake having car problems. The rental car they selected has a simple distributor cap held down with two clips. Tracy says she can pop that cap off using the nail file in her purse, remove the rotor and reinstall the cap in less than a minute. Then, should anyone try to help them, the car won’t start.”
“So that’s why you wanted her to pick out the rental car. I thought the rental was only so the registration wouldn’t trace back to one of our military vehicles.”
“Well, that too, but they wanted to be sure they could easily disable it. It’s not likely anyone will attempt to do any actual troubleshooting but they might need to show they can’t get it started. Once they’ve faked breaking down, they’ll approach the place on foot. Amanda can speak German and will tell them their car stalled out and now won’t start.”
The lieutenant nodded and said, “Okay. That gets them inside the place. And, since Tracy knows Pashto, she’ll be able to listen to any meaningful conversations, just like she did at that liquor store.”
John said, “They figure they can ask whoever is there to call a tow truck for them. Hopefully, while they’re waiting for that to show up, there might be some conversations worth listening to. If they can manage to do any snooping around as well, that’ll be a plus.”
“If they have any trouble with whoever is there,” said Jesse, “they’ll send us a text message and you can have your guys rush in to rescue them. But we don’t really expect that to happen. They’re just a couple of girls who need a tow, right?” He grinned.
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After Tracy had the distributor cap back on with its two clips reattached, she had Amanda grind away on the starter a few times. So far, so good. They left the car with the hood still up and headed over to the warehouse they’d found at the address Linda had provided.
They’d selected a spot for their breakdown that was a hundred yards from the main entrance. There was a large paved area containing several cars, trucks and vans parked all along one side. There were also four loading bays on that side but none had their doors open. None had been open when they’d gone by earlier either. However, there were lights shining through the windows near the office door at the end of the building. That, the parked cars and an open main gate, suggested there probably were some people in there.
