Blood of the Assassin - By Russell Blake Page 0,97
lose steam. He’s out there somewhere, and we need to keep turning over rocks until we find him.”
Briones raised his hand. “Why don’t we release his photo to the press? Plaster it all over the TV and the newspapers? It can’t help but stir the pot. Offer a reward. It’s worth a shot.”
Cruz couldn’t tell him that he’d floated that very idea past Godoy that morning, and it had been shot down. CISEN and the president’s team were obviously playing a game with the Chinese, where they didn’t want to alarm them. That was the only reason for not distributing it on every street corner.
“I ran that up the flagpole. Still waiting for a response. Good suggestion, though,” Cruz said.
“How about circulating the photo to every cop in D.F.? That would be a good start. Maybe we’ll get lucky?” Briones suggested.
El Rey was sitting quietly in a corner at the back of the room, studying his fingernails, and when he heard the suggestion, he looked up. “Has that ever worked? You did that with me. Did it help?”
Briones flushed at being called out in front of his peers, but Cruz interrupted.
“It’s a good idea and a necessary step.”
“Well, I suppose it can’t hurt, but those photos are ancient history, and the likelihood that he still looks even vaguely like them are slim to none. Take my word on this. You don’t become the highest paid assassin in Europe by not taking simple precautions like changing your appearance regularly. That’s kind of Hit Man 101, if you get my drift. I think you need to stop relying on this man behaving like a moron and start preparing for reality. Unless you get a miracle, you’re not going to find him in time,” El Rey said, then returned to his examination of his cuticles.
“Well, then what do you suggest?” Briones countered. The officers on either side of him nodded with raised eyebrows, and one threw his pencil down on the table in disgust.
“Circulate the photo to the media. Why? Because it’ll put him on notice that the risk just increased. At this point, psychology is all you have. Your best bet is to make his chances so poor that he gives up, and being all over the TV, even if he no longer looks anything like the photo, will have an effect on him. Assassins are a paranoid bunch. They have to be, to survive for any length of time in this business. Seeing an image of yourself is never good news, especially if it’s out in the open. That signals that the stakes were just raised and the odds of a clean getaway went down.”
Cruz held up a hand as the room exploded in conversation, the men talking over each other, and gave it twenty seconds to settle.
“Noted. As I said before, it’s in the works. What else?”
“Everyone in this room should go to the site and walk it, and then walk the neighborhood around it, and study the layout. If an idea comes up, no matter how outlandish, bring it up. If you see anything that seems off, bring it up. If someone looks at you crosswise, bring it up. Preparation is your best defense right now. Because you’re not going to catch him in time. I agree with you on that point.”
More muttering and angry exclamations sounded from men who had poured their souls into the investigation. El Rey seemed impervious to it all, not an iota of concern disturbing his matinée idol-smooth features.
The meeting continued for another twenty minutes and then broke up in disarray, the reality of the situation settling in. Cruz gestured to El Rey as he moved towards the door.
“Can I see you in my office for a moment?” he asked, more a demand than a request.
El Rey nodded, once, and then waited for Cruz to lead the way.
When they were both seated at the meeting table, Cruz leaned forward, both palms on the smooth wood-look vinyl surface. “They’re not going to release the photo to the media.”
“I kind of figured that. And there’s only one reason not to. They haven’t told the Chinese, have they?”
“I don’t think they have. I was told it was above my level of need to know.”
“That’s rich. They want you to stop this, but they’re holding out on you. So they’re hedging their bets – they don’t want to alert the media and have a photo out there, even if it’s on some invented charge, because if he’s successful