He pulled into DC USA, the largest retail space in the entire District, and he parked in the garage. It was eight p.m. now; the mall was by no means empty but it appeared to be a slower night, and he had no problems getting a parking space within a minute’s walk of one of the entrances.
As he climbed out of his Lexus and began walking through the evening, he looked around as nonchalantly as possible for the black truck. He saw no evidence of it and began to wonder if he’d imagined the entire affair. This was cutting into his already precious time with Trina, and that pissed him off, but he told himself to stick with his game plan here and go buy his wife some stupid present.
He started in jewelry stores, but within fifteen minutes of arriving he stood in a Bed Bath & Beyond, looking over a set of wineglasses. She didn’t really need them, but they were nice, and he decided they would suit his objective.
As he turned towards the front of the store he found himself face-to-face with the man in the blazer. He wore dark sunglasses, strange for indoors when the light outside was low, and he stood next to an end cap selling handheld vacuum cleaners.
His hair was short and his beard was trim around his face, but waxed into a dramatic point on the end of his chin. His sideburns were striking, as well.
And he was clearly looking right at Renfro.
“Good evening,” said the deputy director of Support for the CIA.
The big man said nothing. He was a soldier, or used to be, Renfro could tell. Up close his craggy, weather-worn appearance made him seem a little older, early fifties, perhaps, but even through the suit Renfro could tell the man was in chiseled good shape.
He chilled Renfro the way he stood there so brazenly.
After a few seconds Renfro said, “Do I know you?”
The man behind the sunglasses did not make a sound.
Renfro smiled now, though he was terrified, and said, “A little late in the day for those aviators, don’t you think?”
The man made no reply.
Renfro’s smile drifted off as he turned away and looked around the store. A woman in her thirties stood not far from him, and he thought he caught her looking away just as he eyed her.
She’s part of the surveillance team, and there’s more out there! There wouldn’t just be the two of them, he told himself.
For the next five minutes he wandered the Bed Bath & Beyond—he didn’t take the box of stemware with him—and during his stroll he sighted four other people who, he determined, were part of the follow.
Twice he looked back at the man in the shades, and both times the man stared back his way, though each time he held some random item he’d pulled off a shelf.
Renfro was certain he was being followed by a coordinated team of professionals. Other than the one overt man in the aviators, the rest seemed like extremely slick government surveillance operators.
They could be either CIA or FBI. Jurisdictionally speaking, it would make more sense for it to be the latter, but he had good reasons for suspecting it might be the former.
If someone in the CIA was having him tailed, he knew exactly why, and he knew he was in deep trouble. He hurried out into the mall, back to his car, and drove off. Not towards Trina in his secret apartment, but instead home to his wife. It would be an hour’s drive in this traffic, and he knew his mind would race during each and every minute of it.
* * *
• • •
Zack Hightower smiled as he walked calmly back to his truck. His job was done for the day; he’d head home and get some rest so he could start back tomorrow morning refreshed and ready to go.
His smile wasn’t due to the sleep that was soon to come; it was, instead, for the success he’d had this evening, on his first full day of the tail.
From DDS Lucas Renfro’s actions tonight, Zack knew in his bones this dude had a good reason to fear a government tail, and it had been so much more fun to lean on someone with fear already built into his life than the two others earlier in the day, who seemed to have nothing to hide.
And it had been clear to Hightower that Renfro was worried about everyone