The Vanishing Act
Anthony Shaw was a good-looking man—too good-looking. When someone saw him, they never forgot his face. Before he got anywhere near Carson City, he had already given himself thick round glasses, a scar under his chin, and a lazy eye.
He looked naturally ordinary—just right for one of the painters for the new Calm Stays villas. Three separate villas were being painted on the property—secluded buildings strategically placed for maximum privacy.
Anthony Shaw placed his car in a deep ravine. His vehicle was military-grade, and he parked it clinging to the side of the ravine, with a tree and its roots wrapping around it to help him with the camouflage. He got out of the SUV by standing on the tree's trunk. He spread a leaf-litter camo tarp over the vehicle and ducked down in the ravine. The first protection guard moved past the ravine. Their high-beam lights went over the vehicle several times before they moved on.
Anthony Shaw smiled. This was definitely a good team. He would not be able to leave his vehicle here the entire time. His mind clicked through different ideas as he opened his black-screen data device. The Blue Serene property came up, and several routes ticked across the screen. He was like a dark shadow within the dark, and his thick glasses—with their night-vision component—helped him see everything. He moved out to the furthest villa on the property. He learned every inch of it and then went back to his vehicle. He parked the giant SUV at a prearranged place—a small Airbnb that Timothy Banks had rented for the month—and he quickly hiked back to Blue Serene.
He slipped back through the protective ring and was almost caught by the second one. He was actually caught off-guard by the second team, and then he became annoyed when he couldn't break their communications code.
Anthony Shaw didn't do anything by halves. He waited outside the workers' quarters. A man with a scar on his chin, a lazy eye, and thick round glasses came out of the long building that would eventually be a conference room for the hotel. The man walked closer and closer to Anthony Shaw until he passed him without ever noticing him. The worker took out a cigarette and took a long drag. Before he could ever push the smoke back out of his lungs, his throat had been slit and his body was wrapped and hidden high up in a tree.
Anthony Shaw, now "Tony Douglas," took a long drag from the cigarette. He savored the smoke as he blew it back out toward the wooded area. He put the cigarette out on the sole of his shoe and headed back to the workers' quarters. Anthony Shaw had infiltrated the Blue Serene property.
Samuel Lance was career military. He first enlisted due to a sense of duty, but he made it a career because he loved it. It took a lot of convincing to get him to finally retire and start his security agency. His company had clients worldwide. They secured individuals and groups and improved both residential and commercial security systems.
His people were the best—the absolute best. And now they were being outdone by someone his humanitarian sister had hired. He got home, helped his wife tuck in their two children, kissed her, and went downstairs to his basement to check all ongoing operations.
He placed his eye to a retinal reader and the back wall of his study shifted. He passed his family's secondary panic room and pressed his palm to a different reader. A small panel opened and he spoke the day's security codes. He entered an elevator and went down several floors. The bunker was big enough for seven families to live there comfortably—all of his siblings would always be safe on his watch. The main hub was currently his headquarters. He put on the headset and, with practiced ease, listened to ten different operations at once.
"Nest Robber has slipped through the netting. Repeat, Nest Robber has slipped through."
"Confirm."
Images flashed across the screen—broken twigs, roots, and leaf litter pressed oddly. Samuel Lance narrowed his eyes. Anthony Shaw was much better than any of them had ever imagined. He opened his comms.
"Don't worry about where he has been. He is now planted in the forest. Find him before our client is injured."
"Yes, Commander."
Samuel moved all of the images to a memory stick. He would get a different team to track the vehicle, but he knew that was a distraction. This man was too good to let them be distracted. He picked up his cell and went up to the panic room. He speed-dialed a number and impatiently waited for an answer.
"Hey, Sammy."
"Jessica, where did you find this Anthony Shaw?"
There was a long silence. "I tried to call it off."
"You can't call a man like that off. Where did you find him?"
"When I was living in Asia. He…"
"He killed that colonel you were with?"
She sighed. Samuel narrowed his eyes. "And he didn't kill you?"
"He was almost caught. I got him out with me when I took some children to our school in China. Once he got there, he disappeared."
"And he owed you because of that." Samuel nodded in understanding.
"I have helped him more than once. I thought I could control him."
"Control an assassin!" Samuel took a deep breath and calmed himself.
"Can you save her Sammy?"
"I don't know."