Killing Sarai

43

Victor

“Niklas,” I say coming out of the room, “does this look familiar to you?” I step right up to him and hold out the pill bottle with the tracking device inside.

He takes it into his fingers.

I hear soft footsteps behind me as Sarai emerges from my bedroom, but I keep my attention on Niklas.

He peers into the side of the bottle first but then twists the cap off and shuffles the device into the palm of his hand.

He looks up at me.

“Same type of device they use in the girls in Dubai,” he says. He glances at Sarai. “You found this in her?” Then he drops it back in the bottle and tightens the lid. “I hate to ask where.”

Niklas wipes his hand on his jacket.

“If it is one of theirs,” I say, “this means that Javier Ruiz has a much larger operation than any of us knew. I’ve never known of a drug lord like Ruiz to have access to this kind of technology.”

“They don’t care about technology,” Niklas says. “All they deal in are drugs, weapons and girls.”

“Had,” Sarai says and I turn around to see her. “That Javier had a much larger operation. He’s dead, remember?”

“Yes,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean his operation is. It means that it’ll be passed on to whoever else was in line to control it.”

“Well what does that have to do with us?” Sarai asks.

I feel the urge to tell her to put on some pants while in front of Niklas, but I stop myself.

“There is no us,” Niklas says.

Sarai glares at him and readjusts the bloody towel against her hip.

“Then what does it have to do with me?” she snaps. “Or, with either of you?”

“It has nothing to do with you,” I say. “Not anymore. You were Javier’s and if he had sold you or promised you to another buyer you wouldn’t have been in his possession for as long as you were. He had no intention in letting anyone else have you. Now that he’s dead you have nothing more to fear.” I pause. “As far as what it has to do with us—.” I stop right there, knowing better than to tell her any more than she already knows or I’ll only put her in further danger with the Order.

And judging by the look on Niklas’ face I’ve said too much already, in his opinion.

He slips the pill bottle into his jacket pocket.

“I’ll get rid of it,” he says, then without moving his head I see his eyes avert to Sarai for a split second. His hatred for her seethes beneath the calm and disciplined façade he’s wearing. “So then what’s our next move? Will I be covering for you with Vonnegut, or are you going rogue?”

I know what answer he wants me to give and for now, it’s what I choose to do.

“Tell Vonnegut that I’m ready for my next mission,” I say, making up the specifics as I go along. “And to put this house back on the market. We’ll be leaving in the morning.”

Sarai glances over at me with a look of confusion. Niklas nods and accepts it, because unlike her, he knows that this house has been compromised by the tracking device he’s carrying in his pocket. Javier Ruiz might be dead, but the device is still in working order and someone is and has been monitoring its locations since Sarai escaped the compound. It is how Izel found us so quickly in the motel in Mexico. When I contacted Javier and gave him my location to come for the girl, Izel had arrived half an hour sooner than she should have given our distance from the compound. At the time, I assumed she had already been on the road with her men searching for us, and in fact, she had been. But I did not know until now that it was because she already knew where we were.