Chapter 10

Thankfully, the rest of their trip to the airport was uneventful. Taylor was pretty sure they had seen the last of the mercs. If there were any more of them out there, they would be rudderless without their boss. Or at least, that’s what he hoped.

Taylor made his way to the airport, which was smaller than the one in Caracas but still a decent size since it handled some traffic from South America and the U.S. Enough, at least, to make it an option for them.

“I think we’ve finally seen the last of the assholes, and I don’t think Ellsworth will have managed to buy off the locals here, so we should be okay. Just keep your head on a swivel once we’re inside, in case we have to run again.”

“You don’t need to tell me how to do my job, and you’re forgetting Ellsworth might have hired a professional in addition to the mercs. They and the locals aren’t the only things we need to be on the watch for.”

He hadn’t considered that.

“You think?” Taylor asked.

“He hired me, didn’t he?”

That was a good point.

“If he did, why haven’t they shown themselves yet? Wouldn’t we have had to deal with them already?”

“Maybe. Or maybe he hasn’t hired them yet, but I bet once he hears the PMC guys failed, he’ll start thinking about it. Especially if he knows we’re on a plane back to the U.S.”

“You think he’ll hire someone if we do make it back, though?”

“Yeah. Groups like these last guys can’t operate like that inside the U.S.; they’ll draw too much of a reaction. With them gone, it’s a good bet he’ll know you’re involved now and start taking you seriously. If he’d been really smart, he would have started off with a professional, but he cheaped out and went with those idiots instead. I expect there will be someone waiting for us when we get back.”

“Is it possible to hire someone like you that fast?”

“Usually, it takes time, but if he’s desperate and already has connections?” Bonnie said, and then shrugged. “Shit,” Taylor said, thinking.

The problem was, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do. Once she was turned over to the FBI, she was out of his hands, but even landing at Reagan, it would take some time to get her to somewhere secure.

“Nothing we can do about it now,” Taylor added. “First, let’s worry about getting out of here, then we can worry about everything else. Like you said, he won’t do anything until after he knows his mercs are gone, and that’ll take the day at least.”

“Lot of assumptions there,” she said.

“Yeah, but what other choice do we have? Keep driving? Sit here forever?”

“No, you’re right; this is our best bet. I just want you to be realistic about what we face when we land in the U.S.”

“Yeah,” Taylor said, getting out of the car and checking if there was anything he should take with him. “Let’s go.”

The SUV had been loaded up by the mercs with a fair amount of ammo, some food, and other equipment, plus what he’d salvaged from their car. None of it did them any good once they had to go through security.

They made their way into the airport, both of them with their heads on a swivel, trying to look in every direction on the way in. There were no obvious signs of an ambush, but considering all the bullshit they’d had to deal with so far, Taylor wasn’t sure that meant anything.

The second complication came at the ticket counter itself. He should have known there would be no direct flights to the U.S., but the best he could muster was tickets to Dulles by way of Bogota, Colombia. He got the tickets because, again, what could he do? However, Bogota was a big city and Ellsworth might have connections there. At the very least, once the mercs’ bodies were found, they’d be able to work out where Taylor and Bonnie were headed. From there, it wouldn’t take much work to determine which flight they were on.

Once they got their tickets, they had to get rid of their weapons, since they weren’t going to be able to get through security with them. They took a meandering path through the airport, stopping to look at all of the crap in every single one of the little shops, mostly to buy time until they had to go through security and to their gate, but also to scope out as many people in the building as possible.

There wasn’t any sign of an ambush this time, which Taylor wasn’t surprised about. As with everything else, there just hadn’t been time for anyone to get any kind of response together after they found the mercs’ bodies. Just sorting that mess out alone, finding out who they were, who else might be out here, would take hours all by itself.

Compared to how on edge he was, however, Bonnie seemed almost at ease. Completely carefree.

“How can you be so calm about all this?” Taylor asked as they looked through some crap he’d never buy.

“Because I’m a professional. You actually need to dial back the stressed-out spy routine. You’re practically screaming ‘I’m hiding something’ to anyone paying attention.”

“Everyone’s stressed at the airport.”

“Maybe,” Bonnie shrugged, clearly unconvinced. “But not everyone looks like they’re expecting a SWAT team to rappel from the ceiling at any moment.”

Taylor didn’t respond. He hated that she was right, and how good she was at this.

As the time of their flight approached, Taylor went back to one of the little shops and bought a small bag before finding an isolated, out-of-the-way corner for them.

Putting his magazines and weapon in the bag, he gestured for her to follow suit.

“Any hidden surprises I should know about? Anything that’ll get us flagged?” he asked as she dumped her weapons in with his.

She just gave him a look, like she was offended that he was questioning her abilities. Finding one of the rentable storage lockers, he purchased one and ditched the bag inside.

“Some poor bastard’s going to have one hell of a surprise when they clear out the expired lockers,” Bonnie said, still apparently having a good time with all of this.

Things were starting to go well enough that he’d almost believed they’d hit the end of their speed bumps. He should have known better.

When they reached the front of the security line that led to the gates, they handed over their passports and tickets. A beat passed. Then two. The guard was staring hard at Bonnie’s passport and then at something on the small screen next to him, then back to the passport.

“Is there a problem?” Taylor asked.

“Wait here,” the man said abruptly before getting off the stool he was on and walking over to who Taylor assumed was a supervisor. He could feel Bonnie getting tense next to him, and hoped she didn’t do anything stupid. If something happened, they could try to talk their way out of it, but if they ran or even walked away, they would have burned themselves completely and there’d be no way back from that. They’d have to drive all the way to another country at that point, if they wanted to get out, and even that would be difficult, since her passport would be flagged.

Worse, he had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was happening. Ellsworth might not have the juice to buy out military and security at every airport in the country, but he might have found a way to still jam them up. If he’d found out the name she was using in country, which was very possible considering how closely the mercs had been able to track her, then he could have gotten her passport flagged.

Taylor could have kicked himself. She’d said she had backup identity documents at the safehouse, but they’d opted to leave those, since she wasn’t as confident in the digital footprint of them, meaning their appearing in the systems that countries used to track visitors and residents. They’d left those documents behind because of that, since the worst thing that could happen was someone finding a second set of documents on her. That would end with them in a South American prison for sure.