Kurtz waved off the automatic rifle. If the 9mm Browning and two extra magazines didn't prove adequate for the evening, he was in deeper shit than he could imagine.
Baby Doc's men carried the extra Mp5s back to their SUV and opened another olive-green box and began handing out what appeared to be thick, cylindrical grenades.
"Flash bangs," said Baby Doc, still standing in the chopper's doorway. "They're not going to blow anything up, but they'll blind and deafen anyone in a room for a few seconds. Just remember to roll them in before you go through the door." He gave quick instructions on how to activate and throw the things.
Kurtz stowed three of the flash-bang grenades in his new little ditty bag.
They opened another container and offered flexcuffs.
"Hey," said Toma Gonzaga. "I'm not going down there to arrest these people." Angelina had Campbell grab several. "We'll want someone to talk to us," she said.
Kurtz took several. Baby Doc's men opened another large crate and began handing out black Kevlar vests. Everyone going took one of these.
It's like Christmas morning in downtown Baghdad , thought Kurtz. He set his ditty bag and other gear down, pulled off the windbreaker, and began tugging and velcroing the thin but heavy vest in place around him.
"Here, I'll help," said Angelina's bodyguard, Campbell. The man securely adjusted and fastened the side straps for Kurtz.
"Thanks."
"These aren't military spec," Baby Doc was saying. "But they're up to SWAT specifications. In fact, they were stolen from a SWAT supply house."
When everyone was a little bulkier and warmer and less comfortable, Baby Doc himself unlatched the last metal box. He held up a bulky fistful of optics and straps. "State-of-the-art military night vision. Each pair weighs two-point-two pounds, has digital controls and an infrared mode that you won't want to fuck with. They also have five-times magnification that you also won't want to fuck with."
"What will we want to fuck with?" asked Gonzaga's man, Bobby.
Baby Doc told them how to get the straps adjusted and to power the things up. The bodyguards tried them on. Gonzaga, Angelina, and Kurtz slipped theirs into their already bulging ditty bags.
"Better be careful," said Baby Doc. "You break 'em, you've bought 'em."
"I thought we'd already bought them," said Gonzaga.
Baby Doc laughed softly. "You're renting this stuff, Mr. Gonzaga. For one night So you don't want to lose it or bruise it."
The men loaded several boxes aboard the Long Ranger and secured them with bungee cords and tie-downs. "Medical stuff," said Baby Doc. He pointed to a small, dark man
standing with his bodyguards. The gentleman was wearing a sweater and tie and thick glasses. "This is Dr. Tafer," he said. "He's going with us but he won't get out of the Long Ranger. If you get wounded, you've got to haul your own ass back to the chopper or find someone who will." The little doctor smiled hesitantly and nodded at the cluster of men and Angelina. Everyone just stared back at him.
Baby Doc looked at his oversized wristwatch. "Any questions or second thoughts before we take off?"
"Let's shut up and do it," said Angelina. "I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie."
Gonzaga's bodyguard, Bobby, barked a laugh at that but shut up quickly when no one else laughed.
"Kurtz," said Baby Doc, "you come sit up front with me."
"Why?" said Kurtz. He hated helicoptershe'd always hated helicoptersand he'd just as soon not sit where he could see better.
"Because," said Baby Doc, "you're the only one who really knows where we're going."
People climbed aboard and the powerful jet turbines fired up again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Arlene didn't know how he could see her without binocularsand she could see through her own binoculars that he had nonebut she was sure that he saw her. She leaned her head back against the Buick's headrest, deeper into the shadows, making sure that there was no glint of the sodium-vapor lamps reflecting off her binocular lenses.
The burned man kept staring at her from the pest control truck. His rapt but blind attention reminded Arlene of something but she couldn't think of what for a moment. When she did remember, it wasn't reassuring.
Like an animala predatorthat can't see its prey but smells it .
She thumbed her cell phone on and held that thumb over the fifth pre-set fast-dial button. Earlier in the evening she'd looked up the number for the Niagara Falls precinct house closest to the Rainbow Centre Mall sometimes direct dial brought help faster than 911.
The burned man stared her way for another minute but then pulled his scarred face back into the shadows of the van. Arlene couldn't see even a silhouette.
Is he back in the van? Did he get out the other side ? The overhead cab light hadn't gone on in his vehicle, but Arlene was sure that this man had long since broken or removed that bulb. Whatever else he was, he was a stalker. He loved the night.
Arlene licked her lips and considered her options. She assumed that the burned man was also waiting for Aysha, although there was no evidence for that yet. But like her boss, Arlene DeMarco very rarely believed in coincidence.