Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“All right, all right.” Coach’s laughter rang above the din and stole my attention. “Maybe we should get some work done before we hit the sack.”
We couldn’t sleep on the damn plane?
“Elliott, this next part is your show.” Coach tossed him something—a marker. “Tell us what you need and—”
“Sorry,” Shay said quickly. “Can I just say something before you begin?”
“Of course, kid.” Danny nodded.
Shay cleared his throat and left a half-eaten piece of pizza on the tray. “I only wanna say thank you. All of you—you saved my life. You flew all the way down here to bring me home and hopefully uncover another clue about where we can find Marisa and Blake, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you. For a while, I didn’t think I’d ever come home at all. And…” He swallowed hard and was soon enveloped in River’s arms, followed by Reese’s. “Just, thank you,” Shay continued, taking an unsteady breath. “I owe you everything—and I wanna help. Whatever I can do in Europe to help you save Marisa and Blake like you saved me.”
I swallowed hard and nodded with a dip of my chin. Flying over to South America hadn’t really been a question with more than one answer. Of course we’d offered to go. We’d just been chasing guesses in Spain.
As furious as I had been initially about Crew’s choice to put Mercier’s mission before ours, he’d made the right call. Thanks to Mercier, we knew Luiz Gajero was traveling to Europe with Marisa and Blake.
“You don’t owe us a damn thing, Shay,” Elliott replied and stood up. “We’re just glad you’re okay. And we’ll gladly accept your help in Europe—from a safe distance.”
“I love you, Elliott,” Reese said.
The others chuckled.
The ringing in my ears had faded a bit more, thankfully.
Hopefully, I could concentrate.
“Okay, everyone.” Elliott took his spot in front of the whiteboard. “I suppose I can thank some of you by sending you home. Coach, Danny—Em when he gets here—we appreciate you joining us for this op, but we won’t need a big crew on the ground for Europe.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Danny said. “Go on.”
Elliott huffed, amusement flashing in his eyes, and he began scribbling on the board. “We know Carillo travels with seven guards and a Russian named Dimitri Petrov. We can speculate about how many men Luiz Gajero travels with, but we won’t come near the numbers we saw tonight.” After listing the names we knew and the number of men, he began jotting down locations. “The Quinns, Ortega, and Ramirez have been tracking Carillo day and night this week, and we know he’s stayed at safehouses in these locations. Judging by his route, we can start making guesses on where he’ll end up. And he’s heading north of Barcelona at this point, which…”
“Andorra,” River concluded quietly.
Elliott pointed his marker at the man. “And it makes sense in a way—they don’t have a formal extradition treaty with the US. But last I checked, they’ve signed every human-rights agreement the EU has thrown at them, including Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.”
“I can confirm,” Coach said with a nod. “Chances are they’d extradite Carillo to Mexico, but since he’s supposed to serve his sentence in Texas…”
“Exactly, and Mexico and the US are already in agreement that we get him,” Elliott finished. “Even so, Andorra’s a good place to hide. Whether he’s planning on setting up his operations there—I have no idea, and it doesn’t matter. Our team in Europe is staying on him until we get there.”
“Andorra’s terrain will rule out a larger crew anyway.” Danny stretched out his legs and folded an arm under his head. “He’s really jumped all over the map, hasn’t he? France, Spain… When do you think he’ll hear about Colombia?”
Elliott eyed the board and scratched the side of his head with the marker. “No idea. Mercier’s cover is still intact, and as far as I know, he’s Carillo’s only contact. Let’s not forget that Carillo betrayed the Blancos, so he must’ve burned most, if not all, bridges. We do, however, know that Luiz Gajero has a direct line of communication with Marco Blanco.”
“Well, he did.” Coach smiled.
“Right.” Elliott inclined his head. “Gajero’s exact location is more difficult to pin down. We know from Mercier’s intel that Gajero is heading to Europe—and Mercier might know more. We’ll talk to him when he gets here. But Barcelona is a logical move. It’s a big port—”
“Can we be sure he’s on a freighter somewhere?” Danny asked.
“It’s the safest bet,” Elliott replied. “Do they have the money to fly private and enter a country without detection? Most likely—even though Willow’s frozen their assets. But it’s still riskier, and they don’t have infrastructure set up in Europe like they do over here.”
“They’d already be in Europe if they traveled by plane,” I added quietly.