Nathan sighed. The man lived in a fishbowl. If you weren’t FBI, you weren’t jack. In Nathan’s limited experience with the bureau, he hadn’t found that a common attitude. Every FBI agent he’d ever met—granted, there hadn’t been that many—had been reserved and professional. He supposed every law enforcement agency had its share of gung-ho types. But deep down, he respected the FBI and what it stood for or he wouldn’t be here, debt or no debt to the Ortega family.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Nathan asked.

“And that would be?” Henning asked.

“Four hundred pounds of missing Semtex. Don’t you want to recover it?”

Holly Simpson emerged from the back of the van and walked over to Nathan’s window.

He rolled it down.

“You’re on,” she said. “We haven’t heard anything but snoring for the last two hours. We have bugs in every room. They’re both crashed out in the living room just inside the front door.”

As Nathan and Harv climbed out, Henning opened the trunk and stepped back. Harv grabbed their duffel bag, set it on the asphalt, and unzipped it. He removed two pistol belts and handed one to Nathan. Harv strapped on a small black waist pack containing their LED flashlights and two rolls of duct tape.

“Dogs?” Nathan asked.

“None,” Holly answered. “I doubt they could handle the responsibility.”

“I only have one condition,” Nathan said. He retrieved two sets of night-vision visors from the duffel bag.

“It’s a little late for conditions,” she said.

“None of it gets recorded. I don’t care if you listen in, but the black boxes aren’t running. Deal?” He strapped his Predator knife to his ankle.

Harv did the same.

Nathan placed his NV visor on his head. “I mean it. We’ll have… unresolved issues otherwise.”

“Are you threatening us?” Henning asked.

He ignored Henning and stared at Holly, his eyes unwavering. “Do we have a deal?”

Henning took a step forward. “Nobody threatens us.”

Without taking his eyes from Holly, Nathan pointed at Henning’s face.

“Get your finger out of my face.”

“Holly? Do we have a deal?”

She looked at Henning, then back to Nathan. “Yes.”

He turned toward Harv. “Let’s go.”

After they left, Holly faced Henning. “You’re out of line, mister. I’m in charge of this operation. Are we crystal clear on that?”

“I just—”

“You just nothing. Don’t ever test me again.”

Chapter 6

Chapter  6