We walked out the squad room and into the corridor. Then down the stairs. On the stairwell landing, Nazari stopped. “What the hell was that all about?”

“No idea. I guess I provoked them a little.”

“Is that what you wanted?”

“I was improvising, but they really rose to it.”

“I already told you they were assholes.”

She had to go out with her colleagues. The beat cop routine, walking around in pairs looking for whatever cops look for. Maintaining a presence for the citizens to feel safe. I told her that I’d pick her up at six, when her shift ended.

I took another tour of the downstairs police station rooms, just to make sure that everyone had taken a good look at me. I figured if one of them was on the take, they’d be alert. If a call was to be made, it either already had been, or was in process.

Chapter Thirty

For search and rescue, the mission is to save lives. That others may live, is the motto.

After a recruit passes the candidate course, he undergoes two years of training. Airborne school, Combat Diver school, Underwater Egress, Air Force Basic Survival, Free-fall Parachute, six months of Spec-Ops Combat Medic Training and another half year of Specialist Training.

The Specialist Training part is where it gets interesting. The vast majority specialize in combat arena operations. Your classic war zone. A few young highly trained but relatively unsophisticated and inexperienced killers—are siphoned off to the spooks. Because, even spooks need rescuing. They get the war zone stuff plus a little extra on the side. Among the dark arts that the young operator learns in spook rescue school, one of them is covert street surveillance and counter surveillance. I was one of those spook-trained operators.

A built-up area with stores provides excellent opportunities for counter surveillance. I stopped twice for coffee. Tied my shoe laces several times. Flashed glances in reflective store windows. And took advantage of every possible choke point I could find. I made a mental catalogue of each human being encountered in a 150 yard radius around my mobile body. I categorized hair color, clothing type and color, skin tone, age, gender and outfit. These attributes were collated to time and geography.

It is almost impossible to follow a trained operative alone. He will eventually make you because you can only change outfits so many times. If, at the beginning of my walk I had noticed someone and then half an hour later seen the same person in a different outfit, they’d be blown.