The Collected Part 36

"Yes, sir." Ja.n.u.s hesitated. "What about the others? And this morning? Mr. Romero will be-"

"Find Quinn first," Harris ordered. "The rest can wait."

__________.

THE CHAOS LASTED nearly half an hour before the noise in the corridor finally died down. None of the prisoners said anything for another ten minutes, each wondering if there was a guard standing just outside.

It was Lanier who broke the silence. "How did he get out?"

"Screw that," Berkeley said. "Why didn't he take us with him?"

"They said he went through the door vent," Curson offered from farther down the hall.

"How could he do that?" Lanier asked. There was a thud and a bang. "If it's the same size as mine, no way he could get through it."

"I don't know. I just know he's gone," Berkeley said.

"What if this is another trick?" Lanier said. "What if they took Quinn out last night and shot him? What if this is just them messing with our minds again?"

"Why would they need to do that?" Curson asked. "They whipped us. They electrocuted us. Don't know about you, but my mind's pretty messed up already."

"I think they're trying to give us false hope," Lanier said.

No one responded to that.

"Hey, Jonathan," Lanier said. "What do you think?"

Peter was stretched out on his bed, trying not to listen.

"Jonathan. You there?"

With a sigh, Peter said, "I'm here."

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't think anything."

"Come on. You must have some ideas."

"Sure, I have one," Peter said. "Looks like we just got a few hours off."

__________.

HARRIS'S CELL PHONE rang as he was heading to Romero's room to deliver the news. He looked at the screen. It was Ryan Porter, Romero's point man on Isla de Cervantes.

"What?" Harris said.

"Mr. Harris," Porter said. "Sorry to bother you, but just a little while ago someone used the database at Cristo de los Milagros Hospital to look for info on Senor Romero."

Harris slowed his pace, surprised. "Who?"

"I don't have a name, sir. They used the IT department's log-in, but the IP is from a hotel a few miles away." There was a pause. "Sir, one of the terms they used for their search is on the hot list."

"What term?"

"'Current location,'" Porter said.

Son of a b.i.t.c.h, Harris thought. c.r.a.p was piling up on c.r.a.p now. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to concentrate on finding the cleaner. That was the most immediate problem. "Just see if you can find out who-"

"Sir, they also included a second name in the search."

A second name? He was almost afraid to ask. "What was it?"

"Jonathan Quinn. Does that mean anything to you?"

Harris froze where he stood.

"Sir?" Porter asked.

"Send the men to that hotel, find out who made that search, and eliminate them. Call me as soon as you know who they were."

CHAPTER 47.

THE MARGUERITE HOTEL was located a block from the beach in the touristy west side of Cordoba. It had been an easy hack for Orlando to insert into the hotel's records that room 317 was occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. J. Quinn. That was also the room where the IP address she used in the search was a.s.signed. In addition to room 317, she had claimed room 316 across the hall, and room 323 near the elevators.

Since they would need more than just the two of them to cover everything, they'd called Daeng and had him and, with some reluctance on Quinn's part, Liz join them. They stationed Daeng in 323 and put Liz down in the lobby with a newspaper. Quinn and Orlando took room 316.

"Don't do anything stupid," Quinn told Liz over the phone. She was their early warning system, tasked only with noting hotel arrivals.

"Don't worry, I won't," she said. "I'm just reading the paper. If anyone asks, I'm an early riser who didn't want to wake up her husband."

"All right. Just...be careful, okay?"

"I will."

After he hung up, he went over to the bed and sat next to Orlando. She was reading something on her computer.

"If no one shows up," he said, "we'll have to find another way to locate this son of a b.i.t.c.h."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be a problem," she said.

"What do you mean?"

She shut her computer. "A few minutes ago someone hacked into the hotel system, and checked on the occupants of room 317. I say they'll be here in fifteen minutes or less. How about you?"

__________.

THE TEXT FROM Liz came seventeen minutes later.

4 MEN IN SUITS W/BRIEFCASES. NOT TALKING. LOOK SERIOUS. HEADING FOR ELEVATOR.

"I should have taken the bet," Quinn said as he forwarded the info to Daeng, then moved toward the door.

"Did I not mention the plus-or-minus-three-minutes factor? I'm sure I did," Orlando said, walking up beside him and turning off the light.

Via the microcam mounted just above the frame of their door outside, they were able to monitor the door to room 317 on Quinn's phone. No one was there yet.

Quinn's phone buzzed with a message from Daeng that momentarily flashed over the video image.

DING!.

Daeng's proximity to the elevator meant he could hear when a car arrived. Apparently one just had.

Ten seconds went by before two men in suits walked past the room. Five more seconds and they came back, stopping this time at the door to 317, where the other two joined them.

They all set their briefcases on the floor and opened them. There was no question now why they'd come. Each removed a suppressor-equipped pistol.

Quinn shot Daeng a quick text telling him to be ready. He checked that his own sound suppressor was firmly attached to the end of his gun.

Veronique had supplied them with a variety of weapons. Quinn was holding his favorite SIG P226, while Orlando was carrying a GLOCK and had a vaccination gun full of sleep juice in her pocket. Daeng, too, was armed with a GLOCK.

One of the men pulled a small black box from his case and held it up to the electronic lock on the door. A light flashed green, he gently turned the handle, and began pus.h.i.+ng the door open.

"Get ready," Quinn whispered.

Orlando was holding her phone in her free hand. On the screen was one of her many self-created apps. It displayed a simple green b.u.t.ton that, when touched, would send a signal to the device now hooked to the fuse box controlling the lights on the third floor.

Across the hall, the first man entered room 317 and stopped a few feet inside. One by one the others joined him.

As the fourth started in, Quinn said, "Now."

Orlando's thumb tapped down on the green b.u.t.ton and darkness descended, sudden and complete.

Quinn opened the door and raced across the hall in a crouch, reaching the fourth man before the guy had even turned around. He shoved the intruder in the back, pus.h.i.+ng him farther into the room and knocking him into the guy just in front of him. Both men tumbled to the ground.

Muzzle flashes lit up the far end of the room. If Quinn had been standing, the bullet that smashed into the wall above him would have hit him square in the face. The other bullets flew through the doorway and into the hall.

Shooting first had been a mistake. Quinn and Orlando aimed at the flash points and pulled their triggers, once each. The two men who had entered the room first dropped dead.

Quinn heard the other two trying to free themselves from each other and join the fight. He whipped his gun down and positioned the end of the suppressor an inch from the closest guy's ear. The heat radiating from the muzzle was enough motivation for the man to freeze.

The other one continued trying to twist free. The shadowy form of the gun in his hand moved upward. Quinn was about to whip him on the side of his head with the SIG when Orlando stepped around him and kicked the gun out of the guy's hand. She then lashed out again, catching the guy under the chin.

His body went limp.

"Drop your gun," Quinn said to the fourth man.

"No hablo ingles."

"Bulls.h.i.+t. Drop it."

The gun clunked to the floor. Quinn reached over and pushed it back toward the door.

"Orlando, some light."

There was a slight delay, and then the lights in the hallway came back on. A few seconds later, the room lights flipped on.

Quinn glanced back and saw Daeng standing just inside the threshold. "Door."

With a nod, Daeng closed the door.

Quinn returned his attention to the man on the floor. "Who sent you? Romero?"

A second of nothing, then, "Who Romero?"

Quinn grabbed his man by the s.h.i.+rt and pulled him up. He forced him to the back of the room, where his two dead colleagues lay. "Tell me what I want to know or you'll join them."

There was fear in the man's eyes, a particular kind of fear Quinn had seen before-the fear of an a.s.shole who was used to being the deliverer of violence, not the receiver.

Quinn pushed the suppressor into the back of the man's head. "Who sent you?"

"Okay! Okay! Romero. Yes, yes. Romero."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know."

Quinn shoved the barrel forward again. "Where is he?"

"I don't know! Our boss just sent us here. Tell us to bring people in room back to him. I swear."

Quinn's eyes narrowed. "Back to where?"

__________.

RYAN PORTER WAS growing concerned. He should have heard from his security team by now. They'd had more than enough time to get into the room at the Marguerite Hotel and s.n.a.t.c.h whoever was in there.

The last he'd heard from them was that they were on site and getting ready to move in. That was nearly twenty minutes ago. They must have had some kind of problem.

He'd been monitoring the police bands, and all was quiet. So whatever was going on, at least the authorities weren't involved yet.