An Acceptable Sacrifice

slowed down the hotter it got. Oatmeal came to mind, steaming sludge.
    He wiped his forehead, sipped Coke and asked for more details about Cuchillo’s professional and personal life. Díaz had quite a bit of information; the man had been under investigation for the past year. Nodding, Evans took it all in. He’d been a good tactician in the Special Forces; he was a good tactician in his present job. He drained the Coke. His third of the day.
    Nine fucking forty-five in the morning.
    “Tell me about his weaknesses.”
    “Cuchillo? He has no weaknesses.”
    “Whatta you mean? Everybody has weaknesses. Drugs, women, men? Liquor? Gambling?”
    Weakness was a very effective tool of the trade in Evans’s business, as useful as bullets and C4. Usually, in fact, more so.
    Díaz added yet one more sugar to his cup, though there was only a small amount of coffee remaining. He stirred elaborately. Figure eight. He sipped and then looked up. “There is maybe one thing.”
    “What?”
    “Books,” the Mexican agent said. “Books might be his weakness.”

     
    The weather in Washington, D.C. was pleasant this May evening so he picked a Starbucks with an outdoor patio … because, why not?
    This was in a yuppie area of the district, if yuppies still existed. Peter Billings’s father had been a yuppie. Shit, that was a long time ago.
    Billings was drinking regular coffee, black, and no extra shots or foamed milk or fancy additives, which he secretly believed that people asked for sometimes simply because they liked the sound of ordering them.
    He’d also bought a scone, which was loaded with calories, but he didn’t care. Besides, he’d only eat half of it. At home in Bethesda, his wife would feed him a Lean Cuisine tonight.
    Billings liked Starbucks because you could count on being invisible. Business people typing resumes they didn’t want their bosses to see, husbands and wives typing emails to their lovers.
    And government operatives meeting about issues that were, shall we say, sensitive.
    Starbucks was also good because the steam machine made a shitload of noise and covered up the conversation if you were inside and the traffic covered up the conversation if you were outside. At least here on the streets of the District.
    He ate some scone and launched the crumbs off his dark blue suit and light blue tie.
    A moment later a man sat down across from him. He had a Starbuck’s coffee, too, but it’d been doctored up big time—almond or hazelnut, whipped cream, sprinkles. The man was weasely, Billings reflected. When you’re in your forties and somebody looks at you and the word weasel is the first thing that comes to mind, you might want to start thinking about image. Gain some weight.
    Have a scone.
    Billings now said to Harris, “Evening.”
    Harris nodded then licked whipped cream from the top of his coffee carton.
    Billings found it repulsive, the darting, weasely tongue. “We’re at the go/no-go point.”
    “Right.”
    “Your man down south.”
    “Adam.”
    As good a code as any for Harris’s contracting agent in Hermosillo, presently dogging Alonso María Carillo, AKA Cuchillo. Harris, of course, wasn’t going to name him. Loud traffic on the streets of D.C. is like cappuccino machines, only loud. It masks, it doesn’t obliterate, and both Harris and Billings knew there were sound engineers who could extract incriminating words from cacophony with the precision of a hummingbird sipping nectar in a hover.
    “Communication is good?” A near whisper by Billings.
    No response. Of course communication would be good. Harris and his people were the best. No need for a nod, either.
    Billings wanted to take a bite of scone but was, for some reason, reluctant to do so in front of a man who’d killed at least a dozen people, or so the unwritten resume went. Billings had killed a number of people indirectly but, one on one? Only a squirrel. Accidentally. His voice now dropped lower yet. “Has he been in contact with the PIQ?”
    Person in Question.
    Cuchillo.
    “No. He’s doing the prep work. From a distance.”
    “So he hasn’t seen, for instance, weapons or product at the compound?”
    “No. They’re staying clear. Both Adam and his counterpart from the D.F.” Harris continued, “All the surveillance is by drone.”
    Which Billings had seen. And it wasn’t helpful.
    They fell silent as a couple at a table nearby stood and gathered their shopping bags.
    Billings told himself to be a bit subtler