Ramzi handed one to the Ghost, then took off his suit jacket. He cinched the elastic tight, closed the Velcro, then pulled out what looked like the end of an oversized push-button ballpoint pen, big enough to fit in the palm of his hand, two wires leading from it to one of the battery packs. He tucked it into his shirt pocket, hiding the wires with his suit jacket, and then said, “I’m ready.”
The Ghost finished with his belt, leaving the detonator in place. He said, “Same here.”
Ramzi wiped his brow and said, “Now what?”
“Now we wait.”
Chapter 64
Watching the local news show with the sound off because I didn’t speak Spanish, I saw a clip about the anniversary of the 1994 bombings, the newscaster standing outside of the AMIA Jewish center and pointing out the arrival of the VIPs. In the clutch of people entering through a bulletproof glass door, I saw Amanda Croft talking to the Israeli prime minister, both of them laughing at something the Argentinian minister of foreign affairs had said. They were only on the screen for a second before being whisked inside. Once they were gone a veritable platoon of armed security took their place outside the entrance.
I glanced over at Shoshana taking her turn on the headset and said, “Anything from Veep?”
She looked over at me and said, “No. But it looks like Aaron and Jennifer have done their lap. They just left the Israeli embassy and are headed back here.”
I said, “You want to go back out when they get here? Seems like a waste of time now. I just saw our VIPs enter the Jewish center. They’re locked down.”
Shoshana said, “Let’s talk with Aaron when he gets back. Maybe we interrupted the terrorist plans, but I doubt it.”
Before I could answer, the laptop connected to the Taskforce VPN dinged with a message. Shoshana brought it out of sleep mode and I saw Creed sitting behind the camera. He said, “Pike, you there?”
I wondered why he was calling because Knuckles was still in the air. Hecouldn’t have landed in DC yet. I motioned to Shoshana and she turned on our microphone and camera. Creed saw Shoshana and comically recoiled, saying, “Where’s Pike?”
For some reason Shoshana scared the shit out of him. Well, she scared the shit out of most people, so I shouldn’t hold it against him.
Behind her, I said, “Right here. What do you have?”
He said, “We have movement on that credit card you were chasing in Buenos Aires. The one that rented the hotel, the car and bought the fireworks. I don’t know if it matters at this point, as it might be real-world fraud, but we got an alert.”
Which was weird.Why would they go back to using a card they knew was compromised? Were they getting desperate? Had we really thrown that big of a wrench into their plans?
“Where was it used?”
Before he could answer, Shoshana said, “It’s a trap. They want us to go there to investigate. Nobody is that stupid.”
Which was actually a pretty good point. Creed said, “It appears to be a parking garage. Someplace called Recoleta? And the charge was outrageous, so whoever used it left their car for a few days.”
I said, “Recoleta Cemetery? Is that it?”
“I don’t know. I’m sending the address.” The other screen popped with the information and Shoshana put it into the map she was using to trace Aaron and Jennifer’s movement from the Israeli embassy. It popped right outside of the Recoleta Cemetery grounds, the same area we’d seen the Ghost on video.
Holy shit.I said, “It’s the car. The rental car. They used the card to get in, but it didn’t charge until they left. Get Aaron and Jennifer on the line. They’re headed right for it. Make sure they have the rental description of the car and see if they can locate it.”
Shoshana looked like she wasn’t listening, and I said, “Did you hear me?”
She held up a finger and said, “Veep, stand by.”
She turned to me and said, “You call them. Veep’s got something.”
I relayed what I knew to Jennifer, to include the vehicle information,and got her moving in the right direction, then turned to Shoshana and said, “What does Veep have?”
Still listening, she ignored me. She finally said, “Give me a grid.”
Hating not having on the headset, I impatiently said, “What is it?”
She turned, showing her wolf smile and said, “The phone’s active again, this time it stayed on. He’s sending a location.”
Driving on the gigantic boulevard known as July Ninth Avenue, Jennifer asked, “Did you find a route to the cemetery?”
