Deep Cover (The Extractor Series Book 4) by Mike Ryan (best novels to read to improve english txt) 📗

didn’t want to take the risk of getting spotted at another airport and giving their exact location away. It’s a thirty-hour drive from Paris to Athens with no stops. If they took turns at the wheel, might have been more preferable to them than taking a plane to get there faster.”

“What about this Kanelos?” Bridge asked.

“His family owns a string of houses all over Greece. It’s possible the gang’s using one of them, assuming they’re actually in the country and we haven’t got it all wrong. Now, we’ve already compiled a list of addresses that his family owns, so I would say our next move is for you guys to hit those houses and see if they’re there.”

“How do you want us to work it, Chief?” Steve asked.

“Well, time is of the essence on this, so with that in mind, I would say to split up into two teams of four. You’ll cover more ground that way. And you’re looking at four targets. I don’t want any smaller number of teams going up against them if we can help it. They’re a very dangerous group. Luke and Nicole can attest to that. You’ll have to be on your toes. Any objections with that?”

“None here, Chief.”

“Good.”

“Should we inform the locals and have them go along with us?”

“No. I want this handled in-house. They don’t know you’re there right now, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. You’ve provided some good intel while stationed there, I don’t wanna blow that cover over this. You guys take care of this. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Everyone’s to drop what they’re doing and handle this. This is our top priority at the moment.”

“Understood.”

“We’ll send over all the photos that we got from the cameras so you can look at them. Keep me updated as you move along.”

“Will do.” Steve looked at the others. “So you two physically ran into them already?”

Bridge instinctively put his hand on the back of his head. “Yeah. Didn’t turn out so well.”

“They the shoot first and ask questions later type of people?”

“They definitely are.”

Steve went over to one of the other men in the room. “Put those pictures on screen as soon as we get them.”

“They’re coming through now,” the man replied.

Steve went back to his seat as the pictures came on the monitor.

“There’s Kanelos driving,” Bridge said, pointing to him.

“Tough to make out the other ones,” Steve said.

“Well, that’s Dalton in the front passenger seat.”

“Can’t really see who’s in the back too well,” Nicole said.

“It’s clear enough. You can’t see faces, but you can see bodies. And you can see three of them.”

“That means one of them is Abbott.”

Bridge nodded. “Assuming the other two in the back are Kenny and Magareth, yeah, he’s still alive.”

“What do they want with this guy?” Steve asked.

“I think that’s gonna be your job to track that down.”

“Huh?”

“They obviously need him for something specific, otherwise they would have dumped his body long ago. And they need him for something here in Greece. What is it?”

Steve leaned back in his chair and put his hand over his mouth as he thought. He could only shake his head. He couldn’t think of anything specifically. Then the list of houses that the Kanelos family owned appeared on the screen. There were eight of them. And they were spread all over the country.

“Looks like we each take four,” Steve said.

“How far away are all of these?”

“They’re scattered, man. A couple of these are about eight or nine hours away. A couple are closer.”

“I guess we should start with the closest and work from there.”

“Yeah. I’ll take you two with me. I’ll get the other team started. I’ll have them start with the ones further away while we take the closer ones.”

As Steve was talking to his other men, Nicole sat down and plugged Kanelos’ name into the computer. A fairly decent list of things popped up on his report. He was known to skirt on the opposite side of the law, though nothing as big as this before. He mostly stuck to the drug trade.

“How’s this guy factor into this?” Nicole asked.

“Maybe he’s trying to step up in class.”

“Maybe.”

“Or maybe he’s not really involved much other than them using him for a place or transportation,” Bridge said. “Since he hasn’t been with the others, it could indicate he’s not in as deep as them.”

“Something else on your mind?”

“I dunno. Just seems like we’re not gonna find these guys by knocking over houses. Seems like we need to figure out what they’re planning; what they’re up to. And we still don’t have a clue yet.”

“Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Steve came over to them a minute later. “Gun cabinet’s over here.” He led them over to the large army green cabinet. “Take your pick.”

Bridge and Nicole both took a rifle as well as a handgun, along with some extra ammo. If they did find Dalton and the others, they were fairly sure they wouldn’t come along quietly.

“If we find these guys, sounds like the most action we’ll have had here in a while,” Steve said energetically, a huge smile on his face like he was actually looking forward to running into their targets. “Let’s do this. You guys ready?”

Bridge looked at Nicole, a little surprised at the enthusiasm. He’d been through too many of these to get that excited over them anymore. He gave her a shrug.

“Yeah, sure. I’m ready.”

“Me too,” Nicole said.

Steve continued smiling with a slight nod. “Let’s rock-and-roll.”

18

They were down to their last house. They’d started searching these houses almost twenty-four hours before. So far, everything had come up empty. A couple of the houses were empty, but there were no signs anyone was actually living there. And a few of the houses actually had people living there, but there were no signs their targets were among them. For the houses that had people in them, they sat on those for a while, making sure they could rule them out.

Now, they were