Read Online Rage Of The Assassin by Russell Blake - Free Book Online

Panerai watch.
    “Better you than me. Sounds like a young man’s game.”
    Silence stretched uncomfortably as the banter died, and El Rey did nothing to break it. He thought he detected a faint whiff of nervousness from the men, but that was hardly surprising given his reputation. When a soft knock at the door sounded, the CISEN officials seemed relieved.
    “Come in,” Rodriguez called out, and another anonymous young man in a suit entered carrying a thermos. Rodriguez took it from him and passed it across the table to El Rey. “There. As always, everything you need.”
    El Rey opened the top and peered inside before standing. “Wish I could say it’s been a pleasure. I know the way out.”
    Rodriguez watched as he departed. When the speaker on the center of the table beeped and the front office reported that the visitor had left the building, he looked at his associates.
    “Think he bought it?”
    The man on Rodriguez’s left gave the ceiling a pensive stare. “He’s suspicious, of course. Doesn’t matter. We know which lab he uses to check it, and we’ve made arrangements for it to test as genuine. He’ll believe it’s the real thing, take it, and that’s that.”
    “How long will it take to…finish him?” Rodriguez asked.
    “Matter of an hour or two from time of injection.”
    “Then there’s one problem over by day’s end.” Rodriguez tilted his head. “If only all my challenges were so easily resolved.”
    The other man sat forward. “Sir, we’re doing the right thing. He’s far too dangerous to have out there on the loose. We all know that. Our intelligence–”
    “Yes, yes. No need to belabor it. His usefulness is at an end, and he’s now a liability. Everyone understands,” Rodriguez snapped. He rose and moved to the conference room door. “He’s being tailed, of course?”
    “We have a locater chip built into the thermos casing. He’s too good for us to risk any physical surveillance. He’d spot it no matter how large a team we deployed or what techniques we used. Safer with the chip – it’s undetectable.”
    Rodriguez looked dubious. “Right. Well, call me when it’s over.”
    “Will do, sir.”
     

Chapter 12
    Cruz and Briones sat in the audio-visual suite in a single row of theater seats, watching the security camera footage from the prison on a massive screen – a mind-numbingly tedious job due to the sheer number of cameras and angles. Everyone had assured Cruz that he didn’t have to do it, that the footage didn’t contain anything, but he’d stubbornly insisted, and a technician had arrived with the data right after Cruz had gotten back from lunch.
    “There’s no camera that was focused on his cell?” Briones asked for the third time since the man had begun showing them the grainy black-and-white sequences.
    “No. As you can see, the primary concern is the public areas.”
    They’d been at it for over an hour when Cruz called out to the tech, “What are we watching now? Where is this?”
    “The service entrance – number two, to be specific. There are three in the prison.”
    “Back it up and let’s see it again, slower.”
    The technician complied, and they watched as a laborer in coveralls wearing a grimy baseball hat walked with a pair of guards from the exit. It could have been coincidence, or deliberate, but for whatever reason the worker’s hat obstructed the camera’s view of his face.
    Cruz leaned into Briones. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    “It’s just one of the workers.”
    “Look at the time stamp.
    “An hour before Aranas was reported missing.”
    “Which makes it at least noteworthy, don’t you think?” Cruz craned his neck at where the technician sat in the gloom. “You have any other cameras on that sector?”
    “The exterior there?”
    “Yes.”
    “Should have. Let me see what we’ve got.” The tech tapped at his keys as the grainy image froze on the wall.
    Briones shook his head. “This is a dead end, sir.