The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [49]
"What are you doing this far from Birmingham, Mr. Caruso?"
"No time for that. Please run the tag."
"Roger, okay, it's a Volvo, green in color, a year old, registered to Edward and Michelle Peters, at Six Riding Hood Court, Charlottesville. That's just inside the city line on the west side of town. Anything else? Do you need backup?"
"Negative. Thank you, I can handle it from here. Caruso out." He killed his cell phone and relayed the address to his brother over the radio. Both then did the same thing, and entered the address into their navigation computers.
"This is cheating," Brian observed, smiling as he did so.
"Good guys don't cheat, Aldo. They just get the job done. Okay, I have eyeballs on the subject. She's heading west on Shady Branch Road. Where are you?"
"About five hundred yards back of you-shit! I have a red light."
"Okay, sit it out. Looks like she's heading home, and we know where that is." Dominic closed his target to within a hundred yards, keeping a pickup truck between himself and the subject car. He'd rarely done this sort of thing before, and he was surprised at how tense it was.
"PREPARE TO TURN RIGHT IN FIVE HUNDRED FEET," the computer told him.
"Thanks, honey," Dominic grumbled.
But then the Volvo turned at the corner suggested by the computer. So, it wasn't so bad after all, was it? Dominic took a breath and settled down some.
"Okay, Brian, looks like she's going right home. Just follow me in," he said over the radio.
"Roger, following you in. Any idea who this broad is?"
"Michelle Peters, so says the DMV." The Volvo turned left, then right, into a cul-de-sac, where it pulled into a driveway that ended at a two-car garage attached to a medium-sized house of two stories and white aluminum siding. He parked his car a hundred yards up the street and took a sip of his coffee. Brian showed up thirty seconds later, doing the same half a block up.
"See the car?" Dominic called.
"That's affirmative, Enzo." The Marine paused. "Now what do we do?"
"You come on down for a cup of my coffee," a female voice suggested. "I'm the broad in the Volvo," the voice clarified.
"Oh, shit," Dominic whispered away from the microphone. He got out of his Mercedes and waved to his brother to do the same.
Upon joining up, the Caruso brothers walked to 6 Riding Hood Court. The door opened as they came up the driveway.
"Set up all the way," Dominic said quietly. "Should have figured that one out from the beginning."
"Yep. Color us dumb," Brian thought.
"Not really," Mrs. Peters said from the door. "But getting my address from the DMV really was cheating, you know."
"Nobody told us anything about rules, ma'am," Dominic told her. "There aren't any-not very often, anyway, not in this business."
"So, you listened in on the radio circuit the whole time?" Brian asked. She nodded as she led them to the kitchen. "That's right. The radios are encrypted. Nobody else knew what you were talking about. How do you boys like your coffee?"
"So, you spotted us all the way?" This was Dominic.
"Actually, no. I didn't use the radios to cheat-well, not all that much." She had an engaging smile, which helped to soften the blows to her visitors' egos. "You're Enzo, right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"You were a little close, but only a really sharp-eyed target would have noticed, given the limited time frame. The make of the car helped. A lot of those little Benzes in this area. But the best choice of car would be a pickup-a dirty one. A lot of the yokels never wash them, and some of the academics at the school have adopted the same sort of behavior to fit in, like. Out on Interstate 64, well, you'd better have an aircraft, of course, and a Porta-Potti. Discreet surveillance can be the toughest job in the business. But now you boys know that."
Then the door opened and Pete Alexander came in. "How'd they do?" he asked Michelle.
"I'll give them a B."
And suddenly Dominic thought that was generous.
"And forget what I said before-calling the FBI to get a DMV on me was pretty smart."
"Not cheating?"