That meant that Stafford now had the time he needed to figure out where exactly that was. Unlike Ledger’s visits to the cities in Europe and Africa, this was home turf, and the whole Ledger family had ties to Fort Lauderdale. This part was just legwork, guesswork, and—if things went as he expected—gun work.

CHAPTER 147

THE PAVILION

BLUE DIAMOND ELITE TRAINING CENTER

STEVENS COUNTY, WASHINGTON

Top and Bunny had been taking a lot of walks and doing a lot of jogging over the last few weeks. Partly to establish these things as habits, but primarily to gather intel.

It was a strange time for both of them and by far the longest they had been undercover in any operation, before or since working for Mr. Church.

It was also deeply frustrating because they could not effectively sweep their rooms for bugs and so had to assume they were under constant surveillance. Even the old trick of running the shower and having a huddled conversation protected by the wall of sound wouldn’t work, because bathrooms could be bugged pretty easily these days. And the only way to find those devices would be during a concerted search, which would appear, on video, to be exactly what it was. Once in a while, they would jot a note on a tissue or a few sheets of toilet paper, but writing those notes could not be done anywhere in their rooms. Bunny did his in a porta-potty on the far side of the camp, and Top did his in a bathroom stall attached to the main training gym.

And so they were roommates, forcing themselves into routines and conversation habits that reinforced their credibility as disgruntled ex-military who were training to be upper-tier Fixers.

Every day, they went to classes to study the technology, the strategies and tactics, the politics of likely client nations, and similar classes on corporate structures for multinational businesses who routinely hired private military contractors. They did physical training in the morning, with long runs in full kit, clanking iron in the gym, swimming laps in the pool, climbing trees using hand and foot spokes, and hand-to-hand combat drills. Top had risen to the rank of assistant instructor, working with a Chechen ex-commando. They disliked each other at once, so there was no male bonding going on. However, they made a good team.

Day by day, though, Top faced the reality that he was actually training killers to be even more lethal.

Bunny kept his skill level from showing, though he got high marks on the gun range. Of the two, he was the better shot, though not by much.