The Ghost closed his eyes and eased back into the business class seat on board the TAM Airbus 319, which was about to leave Galeão International Airport in Rio on the three-hour flight to Buenos Aires. He reflected on what he’d achieved in the few hours since the two million dollars had hit his numbered account.

He was travelling with the aid of one of his many fake passports, posing as a Brazilian national, using the alias Felipe Sousa. He always travelled light when he was on an assignment, as he had a number of local contacts placed throughout South America whom he would call upon as and when he needed them. He had already received a confirmation text from his man in Buenos Aires that a suitcase containing every item on his list had been dropped off at the Park Hyatt Hotel, located in the north-east of the city. On receiving the text, he had wired the contact an instant payment of seventy-five thousand dollars, five times the cost of the actual purchases.

Before boarding the flight, he had studied dozens of images of the hospital and the exterior of the federal courthouse. He planned to check out both locations in person the following day. As the Airbus climbed towards its cruising height of thirty-nine thousand feet, he opened his iPad, switched on his Bluetooth headphones and settled down to watch a couple of episodes of his favourite Netflix drama.

* * *

Paz had moved into his office full-time and planned to stay there until the crisis was over. His burner phone was running red hot, and he was busy filling Herrera in about The Ghost, when he saw an incoming call flash up on the screen from Hugo Otero.

“Hugo, what news from our friend?”

Otero knew his boss was referring to their informant inside the police department. “That’s why I’m calling, boss. We’ve just heard from them, and it seems that García is still pleading his innocence. Vargas is proceeding with the charge and García is due in court for a preliminary hearing at eleven thirty on Monday morning. The word is, he definitely won’t make bail so, if we want to hit him, it has to happen outside the courthouse.”

Paz thought about the two-million-dollar transfer he had made the night before. “Don’t worry, Hugo. It’s in hand.”

* * *

The yellow taxi pulled to a halt outside the magnificent neoclassical facade of the Park Hyatt Hotel which, in a former life, had been known as the Palacio Duhau. The palace had been built back in the 1930s and, in 2002, the Hyatt Hotel Group had taken it over. It was now recognised as one of the city’s leading hotels.