Ordinarily, he had a normal, middle management over-the-ears businessman’s cut, but now his hair was long and shaggy, looking like something Knuckles would appreciate. In addition, I’d only seen him clean-shaven, but now he had a sharp goatee, the entire effect making him look, well, foreign.
He said, “Part of the cover for the job.”
Jennifer gave him a hug, saying, “Sorry to crash the party.”
He kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’m not the one you need to apologize to.”
He led us out of the foyer and through a small kitchen. I said, “What’s Shoshana look like? A Halloween gypsy?”
He laughed and said, “She’s got longer hair too, but still the same Shoshana.”
I wondered if that meant Shoshana was on the warpath and let Jennifer take the lead just in case. We entered a small den, and I saw Shoshana sitting in a chair, her black hair in a ponytail that hung past her shoulders. She was still as lithe as a snake, all muscle with little in the way of womanly curves.
Jennifer broke into a smile, genuinely glad to see her. Shoshana was attempting to keep a stern look on her face, but I could see a grin fighting to get out. She stood and Jennifer hugged her, not caring if she was angry, and Shoshana returned it for real, with emotion.
She turned to me and said, “Hello, Nephilim. I don’t get a hug?”
Nephilim was my given name, and I hated it as much as Jennifer hated her callsign. Shoshana knew that, and by her using it, I knew we were good. That was all the punishment she was going to give.
I wrapped my arms around her, surprised to feel some of the same emotion that Jennifer had shown. I didn’t like to admit it, but Shoshana understood me at a level no one else did, not even Jennifer. No matter how crazy I felt she was; I really did care for her.
I let go and said, “Hey, sorry about stepping on whatever mission you guys have going on, but I think it’s something that we’re involved in as well.”
Aaron said, “We pretty much figured that was the case, although Shoshana thinks you’re just getting sweet on her.”
Shoshana gave her wolf grin again and said, “Tell me, Nephilim, who are you tracking that needs my skills?”
We took a seat and told her everything we had. I took the lead on the briefing, with Jennifer using a tablet to pass across photos of the Ghost. I ended with the fact that he’d entered Argentina through Buenos Aires witha final destination of Puerto Iguazú, saying, “Does he have any connection to what you’re working on? Ever seen him before?”
Shoshana passed the tablet to Aaron, saying, “This guy is a top-tier assassin? He doesn’t look like much.”
I said, “Like you, looks can be deceiving, and yes, like you, he is most definitely one of the best in the world. I’m the one who caught him originally, and it was a close-run thing. He’s scary smart.”
While Aaron studied his photos, she said, “What makes him tick?”
I glanced at Jennifer and said, “Honestly, he’s a tough one to figure out. He’s not like the usual Jihadist spouting death to Israel and death to America simply because he’s a Muslim. He grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon, and it’s where he learned his skills and his hatred. He’s a defender of Palestinians, which means he’ll kill anyone he deems a threat to that cause. Usually, that’s us, but he’s killed Muslims he feels betrayed Palestinians as well. He’s not a robot, and he’s done things that are counterintuitive to his goals.”
Aaron said, “Like what?”
Jennifer said, “We used him as a double agent on a mission, targeting Hezbollah. During that mission, I saved his life, but in so doing, allowed him to escape. He could have disappeared forever at that point, but didn’t. Instead, he returned the favor.”
Shoshana said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “A Mexican sicario was beating the shit out of Jennifer and about to gut her with a knife. The Ghost intervened, not only saving her life, but in so doing, he put himself back in my custody.”
Shoshana squinted, trying to process what I’d said. I held out my hands. “Like I said, he’s a weird one.”
Aaron said, “But heisa killer.”
“Yes.”
Aaron passed the tablet back to Shoshana, nodding his head. She acknowledged the signal, then turned to me and said, “I don’t know how you do it, but your boy is smack in the middle of a Hezbollah threat vector.”
“What’s that mean?”
Aaron said, “We’re here because of a potential threat against our prime minister. He’s visiting Buenos Aires in a few days and we had some Hezbollah chatter rattling the lines in Lebanon, indicating that they’d like to take a swing at him. It wasn’t very credible, to be honest, but after October seventh, any rumor is worth following up. We tracked the chatter to a Lebanese drug runner here in South America, just across the border in Brazil. He was doing a lot of cryptic talking to a known Hezbollah cell leader in Beirut.”
Shoshana said, “We came here to explore that and found two Hezbollah operatives who were on our kill list in Lebanon. They’d managed to avoid the pager strike and then fled when we conducted our incursion. We didn’t know where at the time, but when we started tracking the drug runner, they popped up, which made the chatter a little more credible.”
