the exit, the pungent stink of the toilet seeming to trail him like a noxious fog.
Outside, he moved past the hookers and loitering criminal types and flagged down a cab – an always-dangerous risk in the city at night, where gypsy cabs were used for kidnapping – and gave the driver the address of a restaurant a block from his hotel. If the driver had any thoughts about trying to assault the German, they quickly died when he appraised him in the rearview mirror.
Rauschenbach reclined on the cracking vinyl seat and watched as the tawdry parade drifted past his window, the taxi taking its time winding through traffic, which was heavier as they turned onto a main artery.
One important errand out of the way, he thought with satisfaction.
Tomorrow he would get some photos taken and the papers would be handled, and then he would be more than halfway home. He’d spent considerable time scoping out all the possible strike points that day, and he had a good idea of where he would have the highest odds of success. And the best part was that it would be completely unexpected. Even the most aggressive security details, which he knew the Chinese would be, wouldn’t see his gambit coming. It was too much of a long shot. Literally.
Which would work in his favor.
The only way he was going to pull it off, given what he’d already seen in preliminary security precautions, was to plan something nobody would expect.
Which was why he got paid the big bucks.
He specialized in the impossible, and celebrated the unexpected.
In a week he would be in position, waiting, ready to end a man’s life, whom he had nothing against and who had never done anything to harm him. But that man had offended someone, threatened some plan, and the client had been willing to pay a nosebleed price to eliminate him on Mexican soil.
The lights of Mexico City sped by as the cabbie increased speed, and Rauschenbach took another draw of reasonably clean air through the cracked window, the constant pall of pollution that hung over the city smelling like pure alpine air after the misery in the bathroom. He wouldn’t miss D.F. a bit, and was looking forward to pulling the trigger and then getting out of there and back to his villa, where he could live out the rest of his life in comfort and style, thanks to one spectacular final payday.
Chapter 35
The blaring ringing of his cell jarred Cruz awake from his dozing on the couch, the lights off in his office, the blinds drawn. He’d chosen to spend another night there rather than dealing with getting situated in a new apartment. And truthfully, he didn’t want to see any reminders of his life with Dinah – anything from the old place would be just that. The less emotion that clouded his fatigued judgment, the better.
He stared at the phone like it was radioactive, then noted the time as he picked it up and held it to his ear. Three-twenty a.m.
El Rey’s voice crooned in his ear. “She’s being held in a warehouse on the outskirts of town. Six man armed cartel team.”
“Where?”
He gave Cruz the address, who scratched it on his legal pad and then rubbed sleep out of his eyes.
“We should hit it as soon as possible. Within the next hour or two, best case. Once El Jaguar is discovered, all hell will break loose and they’ll probably kill her in the chaos. There will only be one chance at this.”
Cruz didn’t ask what had happened with the Los Zetas captain. “Do you think that two of us can take them?”
“Who, you and pussy boy? Old man, come on. When was the last time you ran a few miles, much less were in peak fighting form?”
“You’d be surprised. I took down three gunmen yesterday. The way I see it, that makes me my best option.”
El Rey grunted noncommittally. “What have you got for weapons?” he asked.
Cruz rattled off his choices from memory.
“That should do. I’ll meet you a block from the location, at a closed market on the corner named La Esquina. The warehouse is in a barrio with mixed residential and industrial. Not a very big building, but fairly well fortified,” the assassin said.
“Meet me there? Where are you?”
“Near the market. I figured a little reconnaissance couldn’t hurt before your goon squad showed up with all the subtlety of a tank.”
“That’s...unexpected. And appreciated.”
“Let’s not get all weepy about this. My best chance