“What kind of clock?”

“You pick. There’s the woman being held there I’m trying to save before anything even worse happens to her, there are the women and girls sold off in Venice that I’d like to recover before it’s too late, and then there’s Matt Hanley.”

“What does the DDO want?”

“He wants me, Shep.”

“He made a deal with you in exchange for me and a chance to go after the Consortium?”

“You got it.”

Duvall finishes his beer and stands up quickly.

I reach for the pistol on my hip but don’t draw it. “Shep!”

He just chuckles, completely unafraid. “You ain’t gonna shoot,” he says. “Who’d shoot a man who’s about to bring him another cerveza?”

I relax, take my hand away from my waistband. “Not me.”

As the big man walks to the little open kitchen, just steps away, he says, “So you need men like me and my associates from Manila. Men you know who will lay down their lives for something like this if it comes to that.”

“That’s it. As causes go, you have to admit this is a good one.”

Duvall passes me another Pacifico and takes a swig from his own new bottle. “Okay, Violator. I like it. I don’t really like you, I don’t like the weak intel, and I don’t like the fact that we’ll be acting on U.S. soil. But I like it, just the same. I’ve spent the last year thinking about Manila. Not sobbin’ for the motherfuckers we slayed, but pissed off I couldn’t go out and slay some other motherfuckers.”

“You’re in?” I ask.

“You knew I was in before you got here.”

I smile a little. “I was cautiously optimistic. What about your mates? You have a six-man team, I’m told.”

Shep shakes his head. “Did have a six-man team. Scott Camp shot himself in the mouth with a twelve-gauge up in Utah a few months ago. His demons got the best of him.”

I close my eyes and think of my own demons. I say, “The others?”

“You can pitch it to them like you pitched it to me. Let them decide.”

“How far away are they?”

“For an asshole as unlucky as you, you got pretty lucky. We were primarily West Coast based when we worked in hostage rescue in Asia, and the boys grew roots in that area. One of my guys is in LA, one’s in Bakersfield. Another in Lodi, another here in Vegas. I can get them together quickly.”

I look at a map of Southern California on my phone. “Bakersfield is closest to the target. We’ll meet there.”

He nods and I tip my drink towards him. Then I say, “I do need one other thing.”

“Shit, Violator, what else?”

“That ranch. I’ve looked at the sat map. It’s a big property, flat, arid, and open.”

Shep gets it. “They’ll see us coming.”

I nod. “I need a helicopter, flown by someone who can follow orders, and someone who can put skids anywhere I need them, possibly even under fire.”

“And you think I just happen to know a guy with a helo willing to fly into gunfire?”

With a shrug, I say, “You’ve been around a long time, no offense. Hightower said you know everybody.”

To this Duvall leans his head back on the sofa. “Hightower. What’s that son of a bitch up to these days?”

“I can’t tell you.”

He raises an eyebrow. I just tipped him off that Zack was back with the Agency, which is sort of true, but I don’t care. I need this guy’s compliance, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to establish my bona fides.

“A pilot and a helo. You don’t ask for much, do you?”

I smile. “You want to pull this op off as much as I do.”

After a pause he says, “Zack’s right. I know just the guy for you, Violator, and he’s right here in town. As good a helo driver as you’ll find in the area, and he’d probably pay you for the chance to get some action.”

Cocking my head, I ask, “What’s he doing here in Vegas?”

“Let’s just say he’s in the sunset of his career. Like me, I guess.”

Great.

“But older. A lot older.”

Jesus Christ.

Shep looks at his watch. “Rack out here tonight. I’ll call the boys now, call the pilot first thing in the morning.”

“Why not now?”

“No use. He takes his hearing aids out when he sleeps.”

I blow out a long sigh. “Of course he does.”

FORTY-FIVE

   Talyssa Corbu had traveled all over Europe, she’d even been to the Caribbean, but she’d never visited the United States before she deplaned at LAX and went through customs and immigration. Once clear on the other side, she rented a car and drove to a mall, where she began buying clothes, a suitcase, and other items she hadn’t bothered with in her rush to get on a plane for America.

As soon as she was equipped, she called Gentry and he answered on the first ring. When she told him she was in LA, he begged her to sit tight, not to get a hotel room in her name because she was compromised to the enemy, and he promised to call her back with a plan.

Thirty minutes later he did so, and he gave her an address in Receda.

When she got there, a woman let her in and put her in a little guest room. Talyssa called Gentry back and he promised to keep her apprised of everything, but if and only if she stayed away from Rancho Esmerelda.

She knew where Rancho Esmerelda was, not far away at all; she considered driving there right then. But she did not, because she also knew Roxana’s chances were better with Harry than they were with her. She thought it unlikely that her sister would be able to live up to her promise to call her with information on her location, but if her guess was correct about the ranch east of the San Fernando Valley, then they wouldn’t need Roxana’s help in finding her.

She wished she could liaise in some way with the police department here, but her experience told her she needed to stay away from them. Further, Gentry had intimated that he’d learned that the U.S. government had an interest in the operation, and while he didn’t think they were actively supporting the sex trafficking ring, he thought it possible, likely even, that they were protecting the Director in exchange for intelligence he was providing them.

America was just as dirty as the other countries the pipeline ran through.