Sean stared at the image on the screen. Even with the resolution not being optimal, there was no question it was Tommy’s parents.
“So you just want us to walk away, and you’ll tell us where his parents are?” Sean asked.
“That’s the deal,” Baldwin gave a nod.
“And if we don’t?”
“Then we will return you to the police, tell them you were responsible for a terrorist plot, and you’ll be put away in a German prison for a very, very long time.”
“Oof. Tough decision,” Sean joked. “You know what, my friends and I are going to need a minute to talk this over. Would you mind giving us a little privacy?”
“Certainly.”
Baldwin motioned for his men to follow him back to the conference room door. One man stepped through the door they’d come through on the way in, presumably to guard it from the outside.
Tommy was still staring at the screen, visibly shaken by the revelation. He kept shaking his head and biting his nails, rocking back and forth.
Sean gave him a moment and then beckoned the two women closer.
“There’s nothing to discuss. We have to take the deal he’s offering,” Sean said. “If we have a chance to get your parents back, at least it’s something. Who cares about the sword at this point?”
“We don’t even know if that’s really them,” Tommy said. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. “What if it’s people in disguises? Huh? What if this is all some kind of sick ploy?”
Sean put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “It looks legit enough to try,” Sean said. “If they give us the location of your parents, maybe I can put something together with Emily to get them out.”
“Maybe?” Tommy asked. “Look, even if that is my parents, they’re in North Korea, Sean. There’s no way we can get them out. Not even you could put something like that together. Once they run out of leads to feed the North Koreans, they’re as good as dead anyway.”
The room dipped into silence once more. June reached out and touched Tommy’s hand gently with her fingers. He didn’t react, just continued staring forward at the big screen.
“There’s another way,” Tommy whispered after thinking on the issue for a minute. “Tell them we’ll take it. We want as much detail as they can give us on my parents’ location. And we’ll drop the Excalibur case.”
Sean’s lips pinched together, and he gave an acknowledging nod. He turned to the window and motioned for Baldwin and his crew to come back in.
Tommy waited to speak until all the men were back in the room save the one guarding the door outside. “Tell us everything you know about my parents,” he said in an icy tone. “We’ll drop the Excalibur investigation.”
“We can go a step further than telling you where they are,” Baldwin said. “We can tell you how to get them out.”
He put his hand out toward the man with the bandaged head. The wounded guy passed him a black folder, which Baldwin relayed to Tommy.
Tommy opened it to find pictures, building schematics, and topographical maps with certain areas circled.
“Are those drop zones?” Sean asked, pointing at the maps.
“That file contains everything you’ll need to get a team in and out of North Korea, including your best options for point of entry and preferred extraction zones. Feel free to double check our work, but it’s thorough.”
Sean sifted through the file. “How did you guys pull these satellite images?”
Baldwin crossed his arms. “We have our resources, Sean. An operation like ours doesn’t exist without considerable…support.”
Adriana still had something on her mind. She’d been holding it back during the course of the discussion. “What about the North Koreans that are here looking for the sword? Are you going to stop them?”
“We are monitoring their movement now. It appears they are lying low. When they pop their heads up to take a look around, we’ll take care of them.”
“You going to offer them a deal, too?” Tommy asked. He didn’t try to hide his cynicism.
“The only deal we have for them is death,” Baldwin answered. “Do not mistake our mercy toward you as weakness. We are soldiers, Tommy. We do what soldiers do. Sometimes that means doing what is necessary.”
An awkward silence slipped back into the room. For a moment, the only noise came from the humming machines running their processes.
Tommy looked over the information in the folder as Sean passed piece after piece to him. When he was done, he looked up into Baldwin’s steel-blue eyes. “Okay. We’ll get out of your way. Just make sure you take care of those North Koreans.”
“That’s what we do,” Baldwin said. “Karl will take you back to the cars.” He motioned to the bandaged man, who still had an irritated look on his face. “The cars will take you wherever you need to go. I would suggest leaving Cologne immediately.”
“I think we can both agree on that,” Tommy said.
16
Brussels, Belgium
Han-Jae looked out the window of their room. Most of the buildings within view were old, showing off the rich history of the city. Dramatic church spires and domes sprang up in the distance, contrasted by intermittent modern buildings made mostly of glass and steel.
Belgium was a center of culture and diversity, which made it an easy place for Han-Jae and his crew to blend in.
They’d managed to escape the German police, though at great cost. He didn’t care about the cops they’d killed to get away. The real cost to Han-Jae was that now Interpol would be watching for them.
He’d spent a good amount of time putting this operation together. Getting their false papers and identifications was no easy task, not originally anyway. Now Han-Jae had a network throughout the criminal underground. Brussels was one such place where his connections thrived.
Going to Prague had been a consideration. He had plenty of reach there as well. Something in his gut told him to stay closer to the United Kingdom. That meant Brussels.
A knock came at the door and startled the four men in the room. Kin Pak—the one who’d injured his head previously—was sitting on the chair next to the door with a pistol across his lap.
Their weapons had been taken by the German police. The gun Kin held was the one he’d taken from the German cop he’d killed during their escape.
Han-Jae motioned to one of the other men to open the door while Kin stood back with his weapon pointed at the doorway. When Han-Jae was happy with Kin’s position, he gave a nod to the man holding the doorknob.
The guy twisted it and eased it open.
A skinny, pale figure stood in the doorway wearing a hoodie and torn blue jeans.
“What’s with the gun?” the man asked in a scratchy voice. “You know I don’t like guns.”
“Excuse our caution,” Han-Jae said. “We had some trouble in Germany.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” The figure stepped into the room and pulled back his hood, revealing his stubbly face. “I saw you killed some cops over there. They tend not to like it when you do things like that.” His sharp English accent belied the part of London where he’d grown up.
Two large-gauge earrings dangled from sagging lobes. A miniature black spike stuck through his nose. Matching dagger tattoos ran up either side of his neck, pointing toward his ears.
The guy at the door closed it quickly behind him and remained at full attention.
Kin lowered his weapon but kept a ready finger on the trigger.
The guy with the tattoos went by the name Raven. Han-Jae didn’t know his real name, and that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the guy delivered.
Raven stepped over to the bed and plopped a duffel bag down on the edge. He unzipped it and reached inside.
“Four 9mm pistols,” he said, setting the weapons on the bed next to the bag. Then he placed several passports down by the guns. “Passports, driver’s licenses, visas, etc. Brought you some spare magazines, too. You’ll probably be needing them. The
y’re in the bag.”
“Rounds?”
“Boxes of them in the bag. Check for yourself. You’ve got enough ammo in there to start a small revolution, though if that’s what you’re looking to do you might want bigger guns.”
Han-Jae shook his head. “This will work.”
Raven drew in a breath and sighed. “Good. I thought it might. I also brought you some silencers for the pistols, as requested.”
Han-Jae rummaged through the bag and found the sound suppressors. He did a quick eyeball test, making sure the cylinders were clean and free from damage. Underworld types like Raven were often guilty of delivering faulty product. It wasn’t necessarily intentional. Sometimes they had to deal with what they received. In this case, the weapons and their accessories were high quality.
Raven stood by a few feet away as his buyer finished going through the goods. He patted his palms against the outside of his thighs, clearly anxious about the whole deal. He knew better than to ask too many questions, especially from guys like the ones in the room. He had a partner at one point, a guy who had a nervous habit of talking way too much, asking more questions than he should have, and all in all just being annoying.
During a deal with some Russians for some microchips and AK-47s, he ended up getting shot in the back of the head and dumped in a river.
Killed selling Russian guns to a Russian crime syndicate. The irony wasn’t lost on Raven, and he constantly reminded himself to keep his mouth shut during a deal.
Han-Jae flicked his head up at one of his men. “Give him the money.”
Raven didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief. His motto was: Act like things are always going according to plan. That kept him calm, or at least made him appear calm on the outside.
The man closest to the door walked over to a duffel bag on the floor near the bathroom. He picked it up and tossed it to Raven, who caught it with a grunt. It was heavier than he’d expected.
“Thank you,” Raven said.
He pulled back the zipper and thumbed through a few stacks of tightly packed euros.
“Ten thousand,” Han-Jae said.
Raven gave a nod and clutched the money bag tight. “Thank you for your business. Please let me know if you ever need anything else in the future. I’ll be happy to—”
“We know where to find you,” Han-Jae cut him off. “Leave us.”
Raven nodded emphatically, even bowed a few times as he backed toward the door. “Right.”
He reached the door and spun around to find one of the other men blocking his path.
“Excuse me, sorry,” he said.
The man wouldn’t budge.
“I’ll just slip by you and be on my way,” Raven said, his voice becoming more insistent.
He heard the sound of metal threads squeaking against another metal adapter. Raven swallowed and twisted his head to look over his shoulder. Han-Jae was standing there with one of the pistols he’d just bought, now with a suppressor attached to the muzzle.
“You know, Raven, I’ve been thinking. We could just kill you right here, take our money and all the goods you’ve brought us. I doubt anyone would miss someone like you.”
Han-Jae raised his weapon and pointed it at Raven’s chest.
Raven’s breath quickened. He felt his heart pounding inside his ribcage. Panic rushed into his mind. It was all he could do not to turn around and try to barge his way through the man guarding the door.
“Yes…that…that’s true,” Raven stammered. “You could do that. But…but then who would you call when you need something in the future? Right? I mean, don’t kill the golden goose. I’m your guy here in Western Europe. We’ve got a good thing going here. I don’t know your names, you don’t know my real name. It’s great for business, for both parties.”
He was rambling now, desperate to say or do anything to keep from being a headline on tomorrow’s front page.
Han-Jae cocked his head to the side as if deciding to shoot an animal. His eyebrows closed the gap above his nose. “I’m sure there are many others out there who will be happy to fill the void you leave behind.”
Raven shook his head violently now. “Fine, you know what, keep the money. I don’t need it anyway. Been a good year for me up to this point. I can take a loss on this one. It’s fine.”
Han-Jae’s finger tightened on the trigger. “You think we need the money?”
Raven shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, obviously not. If you can afford…listen, please, just let me go.” He started sounding pitiful.
“If there’s one thing I detest, it’s someone who can’t die with honor,” Han-Jae said. “At least learn how to die like a man.”
He pulled the trigger, and the weapon clicked.
Raven winced, tightening his shoulders and nearly every other muscle in his body. After a second of waiting for the pop followed by a bullet tearing through his flesh, he opened one eye and saw Han-Jae standing with the weapon still aimed.
“I didn’t load it,” Han-Jae said. “Did you really think I was going to kill my best connection in Europe?”
He started laughing. The other three men started laughing, too, all the while watching their guest for a reaction.
Raven swallowed hard and then forced a smile. He chuckled even though he didn’t find anything funny.
“Good one, sir. Good one. Okay, thank you. I’ll just be on my way.”
He turned around, and the man in front of the door stepped to the side. As Raven reached out to grasp the doorknob, he heard the familiar sound of a magazine clicking into place.
Had his customer changed his mind? He didn’t dare turn around to find out. He pulled the door open and took a step across the threshold, expecting the weapon to fire at any second.
He kept walking, one foot after the other until he heard the door mercifully close behind him. Only then did he turn around and look back to make sure no one was following him.
The door was closed, and no one else was in the hall. He took in a deep breath and sighed. His body still shook from fear.
Raven hurried down the hall and around the corner to the elevator, unable to get away fast enough to calm his nerves. As the elevator door closed, he shook his head and rubbed his face.
“I’ve got to get into another line of work.”
Back up in the hotel room, Han-Jae handed out the passports and weapons to his men.
First thing they’d done when they arrived in Brussels was send one of the men into a market to buy a few hygiene products. Now every man’s hair looked different. One had shaved his head completely. The other three changed their style as well to better conceal their identities.
“We’re going to have to travel separately from now on,” Han-Jae said after he finished handing out the supplies. “The authorities will be on the lookout for the four of us.”
The others nodded that they understood.
“Fortunately, we know where we’re going next. The Americans got a call from Bellevaux about something they discovered at the dig site in France. That’s where we will rendezvous.”
The guy with the shaved head raised an eyebrow and a question. “What do we do if one of us doesn’t make it?”
“Complete the mission,” Han-Jae said without hesitation. “Even if I don’t show up, finish what we have started. According to the email, the excavation revealed something else that might help us find the sword. There are two Americans in charge of securing the artifacts. They are staying at this hotel in a town not far from the dig site.”
He handed out three pieces of paper he’d scribbled an address on previously.
“Be at this hotel at nine o’clock tomorrow night. There’s a bookstore across the street that closes at seven. Next to it is an alley. That is where we’ll meet. If I’m not there by nine, go to the room number on the paper, apprehend the two Americans, and find out what they know or where this new artifact is.”
“What if they won’t give us what we want?” one of the others asked.
“From what I understand, they are a husband-and-wife team. To get the husband to talk, torture the wife.”
17
Cologne
Sean and the others stood inside one of two hotel rooms they’d rented for the night. As promised, Baldwin’s men had taken them where they requested. The hotel, while clean and modern, was not as upscale as some of the places Sean and Tommy had stayed through the years. Not that that mattered. Nicer places simply had better food, at least in their experience.
Baldwin’s men had been kind enough to return all their things, too. Phones and clothes were stuffed into the Americans’ gear bags. No guns, though. Those had been confiscated by Baldwin’s Brotherhood.
Sean knew better than to think the blond would let them keep their weapons. That didn’t keep him from checking.
“They kept our guns,” Sean said.
“You didn’t think they’d give them back to us, did you?” Tommy asked.
“No, but hope springs eternal. Not that we need them right now anyway. We’ve got to put a plan together to get your parents back. Figuring out how to get in and out of North Korea will be no easy task no matter how thorough Baldwin’s research might be.”
Tommy went silent for a moment. He looked down at the floor and then back to his friend. “Sean, we’re not going to North Korea. Not yet.”
Sean’s forehead wrinkled as he frowned. “What do you mean? We have to get your parents out, like yesterday. Who knows how much time they have left?”
Tommy nodded absently. “I know. You’re right. And no one wants to get them out safely more than me. Maybe a part of me doesn’t really believe it’s them. I mean…it’s been twenty years, Sean.” He clenched his jaw to fight back the tears.
Sean stepped a little closer. “I know, buddy. But you saw the pictures. I think Baldwin is telling the truth. Let me call Emily. She can help me put something together—”
The Sean Wyatt Series Box Set 4 Page 39
