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Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 140: Kondor 305
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 117
Kondor came out of the hotel with Amanda in her niqab; she was fitted with a pair of glasses with built-in video plus a microphone and earpiece to communicate with them. He was not prepared to see a sizable Mercedes in dark gray idling at the curb. Underneath the shaded awning he looked about for another ride until the Mercedes gave one honk. Deciding this must be it, he and Amanda made their way. She took the back seat by herself, and he sat up front with Zeke.
“Expensive car,” he grunted to Zeke as he got in. Kondor did not like to freeload. After everyone was settled, Zeke pulled smoothly out as he explained.
“Not a lot of choices, Cap. Very dark tint, and powerful air conditioning, and add in discreet, and this is one of the more reasonable choices.” Kondor’s disbelieving look had Zeke protesting with a laugh. “I did pass up on the Rolls Royce with the gold plating--not paint, plating. A mere thirty thousand riyals per day rental.”
Looking as they crossed the oil-rich Riyadh, Kondor saw cheaper cars, but most did not have heavy tint, and most cars were in the nicer range with more than a few in the outrageous, he noted when a bright green Porsche whipped past them. There were no outright junkers, and few of what he would count as poor cars. In the end, he just relaxed back, enjoying the comfort of the fully adjustable leather seats until they arrived at the Sheikh’s palace. Zeke pulled over a block away, and shut off the car. “We should trade seats,” he said.
“You don’t want to drive?”
“I”m the guy who knows how to use the surveillance gear. The steering wheel is in the way, and if we have to make a fast getaway, I don’t want the stuff on my lap.”
He nodded, and opened the door into the searing world outside. Amanda said, “O.K., boys, I guess this is where I get off,” and hopping out of the car headed up the sidewalk along the outer wall of the property. It took a moment for Kondor and Zeke to trade places, and again for Zeke to get the monitor and mic in place.
Zeke spoke into the mic. “O.K., Amanda, can you hear me?”
“I wondered how long it would take you to get around to me,” she teased.
“Sorry. Didn’t plan that part well. Anyway, your video feed is coming on now.”
It was a bit jumpy, but Kondor realized that was because she was walking and the glasses, on her face, didn’t compensate the way human eyes did.
Kondor said, “Be sure to give us good images of any security stuff, and of the place in general.”
“We’ve been over this already,” she replied. “I’ve got this.”
As they watched from the car, they saw a dozen arches of varying widths in cream white stone with large windows behind them fronting the palace. Palm trees waved in a line in front of this, with beds of plants in front of them which let on to the drive which in turn curved around an active water fountain
She walked past a waiting line of cars, including a Lexus and a Ferrari, which were also letting off passengers.
Well-dressed greeters, two at a time, came down to each car and offered any aid that was required. Amanda shifted her view to the men closer to the palace, a dozen of them in a long line. They stood hard-eyed, armor vested, and carrying Heckler & Koch autorifles, grenades, knives, helmets, and pistols.
“Those looked like tough guys,” Zeke said.
“Yes.” Kondor thought a bit, and then added. “How’d you rate them?”
“Hard to say, but definitely tougher than the troops they had at the airport. Reptile House would wipe them out. It's easy to get lazy as a parade ground unit, but they don’t look lazy.”
Kondor nodded. This fit his perception. Tough, well-disciplined, not the top-notch level of troops, but still quantity had a quality all its own. After all, the North had beat the South in the Civil War, Santa Anna had crushed the Alamo, Xerxes had defeated Leonidas at Thermopylae, and a horde of army ants could take down a man. Just because he was pretty sure he was better than any one or maybe two of them meant nothing if the third guy got him.
As they continued to follow Amanda’s video they spotted just how many armed guards were about. Every room had at least two of them. The palace was not overly crowded, so Amanda could wander about with ease, acting like a bit of a ditz as she looked at first one item, and then turned back to look at another one. This enabled them to get a full sweep of the room without her obviously casing the place. Both of them noted that she made it all seem natural and easy. Clearly, this was not her first rodeo.
She made sure to crouch and appear to take closer looks at vases, but her real focus was on the security locks on doors in an eyeline beyond the vase. Even in parts of the palace that were not open to the public she got some data by pretending to look up at trees and birds which were in front of the off-limits areas. Without one bit of suspicion attaching to her, she had given them a thorough look throughout the palace.
Eventually she found the painting that matched the photo C had shown them. It was still on display--but there was another painting alongside it which seemed to be very much the same. All the faces were different, and it was a different locale, but it must have been by the same artist because it had the same dead eyes. She stared at it for most of a minute.
“We need to send that to C,” Kondor said. “Find out if it’s significant.”
Amanda nodded--it had a weird effect, as the image bobbed up and down. “I’m coming out,” she said quietly, and started wending her way back through the corridors and rooms toward the entrance.
Kondor pondered the situation. Breaking into the palace would be extraordinarily difficult.
Amanda joined them, and as they drove away she spoke.
“I think it would be easier to steal the Crown Jewels.”
Whatever the plan turned out to be, breaking into the palace was not going to be part of it.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
