“Who?” said Prek. He swung around to look at George. Then he flipped open his cell phone and studied the picture Buda had sent him. The only illumination in the van was from the dim streetlights and it was a small photo. He swung back around to look at the man walking with Pia. They could have been twins in the misty half-light. “It has to be the guy with Pia. What is this, the Swedish Olympic team? Everybody is blond.”

Prek waited a couple of beats as the couple got closer. “It’s him. Hell, he has his arm around her. How close is the guy coming from the back?”

Neri checked again. “About two hundred yards.”

Prek picked up a rag from the dash and soaked it with a hefty slug of the Ultane anesthetic, which they were going to use to take down Pia. He shot a look at Genti, and Genti nodded back.

“Okay, go!”

Just as Pia and Will came alongside the van, the three masked men leaped out, Prek and Genti from either side of the front, Neri from the back. Neri stepped around from the back of the van as Will McKinley stood stock-still in front of him, his mouth open wide. Neri pointed the gun at Will’s head and a fraction of a second later Will reacted by turning toward Pia, who’d let out a scream. Neri fired, sending a nine-millimeter bullet into the side of Will’s head. Simultaneously Genti grabbed Pia in a crushing bear hug while Prek slapped the Ultane-soaked rag over her face. Almost immediately the fight went out of Pia, and she lost consciousness.

Neri ran around to the front of the van and got into the driver’s seat while Genti dragged Pia to the back of the van and pulled her inside. As Prek ran to help Genti, he caught sight of Neri’s spent casing. He picked it up from the sidewalk just before jumping into the van behind Genti and slamming the doors shut behind him. Neri already had the engine started, and the moment he heard Prek’s “Go!” he accelerated from the curb, made a rapid U-turn, and headed north on Haven Avenue. The hit-and-snatch had taken about seven seconds.