A Thin Disguise by Catherine Bybee
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Leo kept one hand on Friedrich and one hand on his weapon as the team divided in two.
Half traced back to the hotel with Friedrich, and the others stayed to clean the scene.
With the Jeep left behind, Sasha drove with Neil, Olivia, and Leo in the back of the van keeping watch.
“You’re just going to let me go?” Friedrich asked for the third time.
Olivia nodded.
Leo watched the man’s movements and the growing uncertainty displayed by his constant questions.
“How much was Marie worth?” Leo asked, dragging every bit of information from the man that he could while he was still in their presence.
“Half a million euros. Double if she was taken before the trial.”
Leo glanced at Neil. Everyone in the van knew that Mykonos was hammering the final nail into his jailhouse coffin at that very moment. The second that half a million landed in Friedrich’s account would seal Mykonos’s fate to spend a lifetime in prison.
“That money would go a long way in Bali,” Leo told him.
They arrived at the motel as the Texas sun was setting.
Neil and Leo flanked Friedrich as they escorted him to his room to retrieve his belongings. Just as Olivia had predicted, Friedrich had stashed passports and cash in the vent space of the room. A tablet served as his computer, and an extra weapon was quickly given to Neil once it was retrieved.
With the hotel key left behind, they returned to the van and headed toward the airport.
“Log in to your bank,” Leo instructed.
“Why?”
“We need to make sure Mykonos believed you. If the money is there, you get on the plane.”
Friedrich opened his tablet and logged in to his bank. He swiped back and forth until he found what he wanted before showing the screen to Leo.
Leo saw the transfer and gave the tablet to Neil.
With a flip to the communication link in his ear, Neil gave the report. “The transaction is complete.” He rattled off the account information to whoever was listening on the other end.
“I’m never going to see that money, am I?” Friedrich asked.
Leo shook his head. “It’s in the hands of the feds. Abandoned by an assassin who hunted down a twenty-year-old girl. Maybe you felt the heat.”
Olivia smiled. “Maybe you developed a conscience.”
“Either way, Mykonos goes down with the evidence. No testimony from you is needed.”
“What stops the Sobol family from coming after me?”
“Nothing,” Olivia announced. “We will circulate that you’re dead. Leave notice at A Rókafor anyone asking. Inform Checkpoint Charlie. Maybe they accept that fact and move on . . . maybe they have an ongoing resource order for your demise.”
The Texas sun had set, and Sasha pulled onto a dark stretch of road that emptied onto a private airstrip.
Leo looked out the window, his eyes in constant motion. Getting Friedrich on the plane was the final piece of the puzzle. Neil had eyes in Indonesia waiting to confirm the man made it and had an escort the entire way.
“Go buy a rice field in Indonesia and take up yoga. I’m guessing you have a small fortune stashed away. Enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life,” Olivia encouraged.
As soon as the small plane came into view, Neil called ahead to the pilot.
Olivia reached out, placed a hand on Friedrich’s shoulder. “We’re even. Disappear or don’t. But I never want to see you again. Don’t give any of us a reason to come after you.”
Neil opened the sliding door of the van and stepped outside, hand on his AR, eyes alert. “You have an escort and a free ticket to your destination. If you break the chain, you will be brought in one way or another. If Mykonos can take your call in prison, he can make sure you don’t survive if you’re still taking jobs.”
Olivia, Sasha, and Leo moved into position.
“You wouldn’t want to dirty your hands with my murder?” Friedrich asked Neil.
Sasha stepped in front of Friedrich, her face up against his. She spoke in Russian, tension rippling through her body, her eyes laser focused on his.
Beside Leo, Olivia chuckled at what was being said.
When Sasha was done with her lecture, Friedrich attempted to act unaffected, but he offered a single nod in response.
“Do I want to know what she said?” Leo asked.
“Probably best you don’t, love,” Olivia told him.
The door to the airplane opened.
“Stay alert,” Neil instructed as he, Olivia, and Leo walked Friedrich to his private ride.
They made it halfway to the waiting plane when all hell broke loose.
The night sky lit up as gunfire came at them from two directions.
Leo’s breath caught in his throat, his weapon became an extension of his arm, and he started firing in the direction of one gunman. “Get down,” he yelled as if he needed to.
Olivia and Neil were crouched low and running toward the plane.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leo saw Sasha pulling the van around for cover.
Dirt blew as gravel kicked up from both the engine of the aircraft and wheels from the van.
“Fuck,” Olivia managed to squeeze out within feet of the plane.
Friedrich reached the plane first and dove in.
Sasha skidded to a halt, the door to the van open.
Then everything happened in slow motion.
Leo saw Neil follow Friedrich into the plane.
Olivia turned toward Leo, and a spray of bullets dusted around them.
Her eyes met his and she twisted to the ground.
“No!” he screamed as he crumpled on top of her to stop any more projectiles from hitting her.
He heard Neil yelling through the chaos.
“Get out of here.” Sasha’s command rose above the noise of the engines. “I’ve got this.”
Leo held Olivia to the ground as the plane started to move. “Hold tight, hon.”
The van Isaac and Lars had used sped onto the runway and gave them the coverage they needed.
Leo lifted off of Olivia enough to see her looking at him.
Sasha shouldered her rifle and moved to their side.
Together she and Leo brought their arms under Olivia’s and ran toward the van.
Without stopping, Sasha jumped in the driver’s seat and peeled away.
Above them, the single-engine plane with Friedrich and Neil lifted into the sky.
They sped off the airstrip with Isaac and Lars right behind them.
Olivia’s body started to shake.
“We’re clear,” Sasha announced from the front of the van.
Leo sat back as the last of his adrenaline dumped from his system.
Olivia rolled onto her back and started to laugh.
“Holy shit, it worked,” Leo said as he dropped his tired arms at his side.
Sasha slowed the van to a stop and turned up her comm link.
They heard Friedrich’s panicked voice mixed with Neil’s.
“Who else knew you were here?” Neil yelled.
“No one. I work alone.”
“Someone was following you.”
“I was careful.”
“Not careful enough.”
“It has to be Mykonos. He’s the only one who knew I was searching for Marie,” Friedrich pleaded. “I swear to God.”
Leo reached for Olivia, pulled her into his lap. Even though he knew the whole thing was a setup, watching her go down a second time felt as real as it had been the first time. “He’s crapping his pants,” Leo said.
“The only reason I’m not snapping your neck myself is because Olivia said you both deserved a chance at a new life. If she’s dead . . .”
“I had no way of knowing this was going down.”
Friedrich continued to plead, and Neil opened up a new asshole for the man.
The communication link faded as the airplane moved out of range.
The door to the van opened, and Claire and Cooper stood in full combat gear covered in weeds and dirt. The assailants climbed into the van with handshakes and pats on the back.
Claire started to laugh. “Now that was fun!”
Olivia rested her head on Leo’s chest.
He squeezed her tight. “Let’s go home.”