Earmark

earmark
verb, transitive. To designate something, typically funds or resources, for a particular purpose. To mark the ear of an animal as a sign of ownership or identity. Also a noun.

Uneasy when she spotted the men near the cars, Marcia paused and observed them through the window in the stairwell door. Faintly, their voices sounded, echoing in the vast, underground space. After a minute or two, their voices grew fainter as they moved away from where she stood.

When she emerged into the garage, she caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. That told her that the men were just the temps HR had hired to drive today--not security. She wondered where the guards were. In the booth? If so, she had a problem.

Marcia glanced at her watch as she approached the cars. It was nearly nine-thirty. Yesterday, she had noticed both security guards in the lunchroom when she had stopped by to get a cup of vending-machine coffee. They weren’t supposed to be together, she knew, but discipline was lax at this company.

She walked purposefully toward the fleet, leased two days ago and earmarked for the motorcade this afternoon, trying to scan the shadowed distances of the garage without appearing to. Nervously, she fingered the key in her hand, wishing that her heels didn’t make so much noise on the concrete. It would only take a few minutes to enter the car, back out, and drive it to the exit. Once she reached the street, she knew she could get away. The windows of the rented vehicles were deeply tinted. If a garage attendant did see the car, he would not be able to see her at the wheel.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.