“You are a winner. And get this. Nova puts him within ten clicks of where we had our base camp last month.”
“They’re trying to divide you.”
All heads turned in her direction.
Ildefanso’s eyes dropped from hers to look at where their hands touched. She let go and drew back, but he quickly secured it, this time with his hand engulfing hers. A zing of warmth flashed through her at his touch.
“What did you say?” God barked.
A soft squeeze of pressure to her hand—his signal for her to go ahead. Refusing to show God that he intimidated her, she steeled her spine and turned her gaze on him. “It’s meant to weaken you. They put what you want in several places, forcing you to either put all your attention in one place—easier to see you coming and fewer places they need to defend—or they force you to split up your forces, spreading you thinly, so you’re not at full strength. Plus, they have the ‘high ground’ because they know where they need their defenses most.”
The look on God’s face was contemplative now instead of cold. The man would never win any prizes for congeniality, but perhaps he was less hostile toward her.
“What would you do in this situation, Senora Ortiz?” There was a slight emphasis on her last name, the one she’d been given as part of her witness protection cover.
“If I were them? He wouldn’t be in any of those places.”
“And if you were me?”
She considered him carefully. Another squeeze was applied to her hand.
“I’d have two more ways to track him. One would be surface level. Obvious. Something they’d know to look for, like a watch or a piece of jewelry. Something in his shoes or buttons on his clothing. Probably all of those things.”
“And the second?”
“Something that he would be able to activate once he knows he’s not going anywhere for a while. Something you would have been able to watch until it lands somewhere steady, then it runs down, like a battery.”
God flashed a look at Midas. When he returned his gaze to her, she swore she saw a tic at the corner of his mouth, as if he were trying to hold back a smile. “Very good. He has taught you well.” Without looking away from her, God called out to the AI. “Nova, search the following tracker number. Whiskey. Alpha. Tango. Echo. Romeo. Sierra. Zero. Five. Three. One. Two. Two.”
A female voice came over the speakers. “Searching Whiskey. Alpha. Tango. Echo. Romeo. Sierra. Zero. Five. Three. One. Two. Two.”
“Sometimes I think Cherry and I should have been looking at women operatives rather than men.” There was just a hint of humor in his comment.
“Subject found,” the female voice said.
On the screen, a green light flashed.
“Who’s that?” Nemo asked.
“That,” God replied, “is Waters. The real one. It would appear that Steel has taught his lovely wife to do more than just shoot.”
Another squeeze to her hand. San Carlos di Bariloche. Why was this man being kept in her hometown? A sick feeling invaded her. Was her brother involved too?
“Chances are, if I know how to do it, Daleyza does too. It was necessary to teach her how to defend herself against my family,” Ildefanso explained.
“Good to know. No more surprises, please, Steel.”
“No guarantees,” she murmured. “He taught me things. Doesn’t mean I didn’t learn more on my own.”
That did cause God to smirk. “Noted.” He moved his eyes around the table. “That signal went live four hours ago, which is why we needed to change flight plans midair. The tracker Demon placed on Waters has four days’ worth of signal, and then it begins blinking. When that happens, we have roughly twelve to twenty-four hours left before it dies completely. We need to be in Argentina and close by before that happens.
“We’ll be making a brief overnight stop at Tribe to gear up for an extended visit to South America. You need to gear up, say hello and goodbye to your other halves and children, and be ready to go at oh-five-hundred tomorrow morning.
“Demon—everyone in Tribe, Mythos, and the families, with the exception of Paris and Axel, gets one of these newfangled trackers of Midas’ before we fly out. If anyone doesn’t already have the subdermal ones, they get them. No exceptions. The surgical ones can wait for now on the kids.” He paused. “Better put one in the damn dog as well.”
“Got it.”
“Midas—all trackers need to be online and live at all times going forward. Can Cyclopes be used to track them at all times as his primary objective?”
