Milton clasped his hands together in his lap and looked out of the window as the Escalade moved away from the hotel and bulled its way into the traffic. He crossed his legs and ran his finger over the sole of his right shoe. He wondered whether the tracker could really work quite as well as Ziggy had suggested. Milton wasn’t armed, and the people he hoped to meet would be dangerous. He did not plan on needing assistance, nor could he say that it definitely would not be required. He was proposing to make an unscheduled meet with people who would be suspicious and, given the audacity of the approach, possibly hostile. It was hard to predict how something like that might go.

45

“There they are,” Hicks said.

Chase leaned forward. “Where?”

They were parked half a block down from the hotel. Hicks had been in place since five in the morning, and Chase had joined him when he had returned from the arms dump. Hicks had chosen a spot that offered a good vantage point of the hotel while not being so close as to attract attention. Chase had dozed off. Hicks slouched down in the seat, but he never closed his eyes.

“First car at the canopy,” Hicks said. “Black Escalade. There’s a trail car, too. At the kerb. It didn’t pull in, but they came together. Silver Mercedes GLC.”

“Got them,” Chase said. “They’ve sent a team.”

Hicks nodded. “Yeah.” He grabbed the binoculars from the middle console and trained them on the Mercedes. “Two men, no passengers in the back.” He rotated the binoculars to his left. “Two men in the Escalade, plus the one who went inside.”

Hicks saw Milton coming outside with the man from the Escalade.

“There he is,” Chase said.

Hicks watched as Milton nodded at the man holding the rear passenger door open for him. There was a conversation—Milton looked reluctant—and then he got into the vehicle. The man slid in next to him and closed the door. The Mercedes was still idling on the street, waiting.

The Escalade pulled away from the hotel and the Mercedes glided in behind it.

“Go,” Chase said.

Hicks waited several seconds then pulled away from the kerb, made a U-turn, and got in behind them. They stayed well behind the two cars as the Escalade led them through the Túnel de Ote and then southeast out of the city and onto the main highway that headed east.

Chase dragged his finger on the satnav, looking ahead. “This goes to the airport,” he said. “You think they’ll fly him somewhere?”

“Maybe.”

It was simple enough for Hicks to stay back in traffic and track them. The Escalade was big and easy to see up ahead. The Mercedes maintained a position to the Escalade’s rear left, usually with a car or two in between them.