“You have to figure if they take bodies out that way, they’d want to get close to where they dispose of them.” He reached out, finger-touched with Peabody. “Makes you sick when you think they’re doing that to kids. You take the tunnel east from the elevator, then the south fork. It’s going to come out under Quiet Rest. Funeral home and crematorium.”
“Good work. Damn good all around.” Eve shoved her hair back again. “I need everything on the funeral home.”
“I got it,” McNab told her.
“We pile that in.”
Studying the screen, she paced back and forth. And she could see how it could be done. Not fast, not easy, but she could see it.
“Okay, I’ve called in my detectives, Willowby, some uniforms, Lowenbaum from SWAT, the commander, Reo. I’ll pull Mira in. I see how it can work, so let’s talk it through, work out any kinks before they all get here.”
20
There were kinks. A building of that size, tunnels beneath, the security, unknown number of adversaries inside. More, the unknown number of minor civilians.
Then there was timing, coordinating with the authorities in France, Devereaux on Long Island, the whereabouts of scouts.
As they worked it, the fatigue crept back.
“Anyone in this room who wants in on the op takes a departmentally approved booster. Including me. Most of us have been up and at this for twenty-four or better.”
“Hate that shit,” Feeney muttered.
“Get in line. I’d say everybody take an hour down, but we don’t have it, so the boost. Take ten if you want it. Take a walk, get some air, whatever works. Peabody, sign out six boosters, log everyone’s name.”
As she spoke, Willowby came in.
“You’re early.”
“So I get the worm. I got more on the auction, wanted to pass it on in person since you called me in anyway.”
“Did you get any sleep?”
“Caught a couple hours. Things are moving.”
“Seven boosters, Peabody. We’ll brief in about ten, you can address new data then.”
Willowby scanned the screen, the board. “Looks like you’ve got plenty of new.”
“We have the location. We’re hitting it this morning.”
“No shit?” Slapping her hands together, Willowby focused on the screen. “That’s the where? Is that the … that’s the RDS drop-off I use. Fuck me, I’ve been in that place dozens of times. Now I’m pissed. Can I get in on this?”
“It’s why you’re here.”
“Well, hot damn. I’ve got to kick somebody’s ass now that I know I stood at that damn counter and there were girls … Son of a bitch.”
“We’ll get them out. Give me ten, Willowby.”
“Yeah, sure. I gotta walk off the mad.”
When Willowby left and they were alone, Eve turned to Roarke.
“You can’t worry about me. I’m talking about my mental and emotional state. I’m handling it, and I’m going to keep handling it.”
“Until?”
“Until it’s done. I’m going to say, here, to you, that even though I know it shouldn’t, my mental and emotional state need to get this done. And I’m going to say we wouldn’t be here, where I know we can get it done, without you. I couldn’t have gotten here without you. I don’t only mean the e-work. I mean knowing you’d be there if I got shaky. So I’m telling you I won’t get shaky. We, every one of us, have to be on top of this, every step of it, every contingency, every unknown—and there are too many of them. We have to, or it won’t get done.”
He took his hands out of his pockets, where his fingers had toyed with her old gray button, and put them on her shoulders.
“You’re steady as they come. If I had worries about that, you put them to rest an hour ago. Still, you’re so bloody tired.”
“Hence the booster. What the hell kind of word is hence?”
He just gathered her in, rested his cheek on top of her head. “Promise me something. If, after it’s done, you need to feel shaky, you’ll let yourself.”
“After it’s done. And you’re good with your parts in this?”
“I am. I’m with you, Lieutenant, before, during, and after.”
“I’m going to say I love you, then we need to break this up.”
“I’m going to say I love you.” He tipped her face up to his, kissed her. “And now we can break this up. Temporarily.”