“Romeo said you had seven men left; I only count six. I imagine the seventh man is hiding somewhere with a sniper rifle, yes?”
Ryker pointed toward the smaller hill that was several hundred yards away. When Spenser looked over, he saw the silhouette of a man lying prone, and light glinted off the tip of the long object the figure was holding.
“That’s my man, Galong. When I give the signal, he’ll blow your head off. By the way, I said no guns. What’s that strapped to your leg?”
“It’s just a knife, Ryker,” Spenser said, as he unsheathed the blade. “It’s hardly a match for that shotgun you’re holding. I know you fear me but don’t panic.”
Ryker laughed and spat on the ground.
“I don’t fear you, Hawke. I’m your superior in every way. I’m Tanner Six, not you.”
“Then be a man and fight me one on one, winner take all.”
“You want a fight to the death, mano a mano?”
“It’s the only way to know which of us is the best. If you just shoot me, you’ll always have a doubt.”
Ryker laughed again.
“See now, there’s the difference between you and me. I don’t give a shit about ethics, morality, or playing fair. I don’t need to prove a thing. I just want to win.”
“You’ll still live the rest of your life wondering if you were really the better man.”
“Nice try, Hawke, but I’ve already lost too many men playing games with you and your boys. It’s time for you to die.”
Ryker thrust a fist in the air, sending a signal to Galong to fire. Spenser ducked as he spun his head to look at the hill. He saw that the man who’d been lying atop it wasn’t moving, while the rifle he’d been holding was missing.
Ryker lowered his fist slowly as his brow creased with worry. “What the hell happened to Galong?”
Spenser looked over at Romeo and saw the smile on his face. Spenser sent him a nod, while looking as worried as Ryker. He could guess what had happened to Galong, and his name was Cody Parker.
Cody had driven less than a mile before going off-road again and heading back toward the cliff. He had never disobeyed Spenser before, but abandoning him and Romeo was something he couldn’t do.
Anyone standing on the cliff would see a vehicle approaching from some distance away. There was only one route into the area that allowed for stealth, and that was to move through a copse of trees bordering a smaller hill. From there, Cody could use the rifle scope he had to spy on the situation. He might also risk taking a shot at Ryker if he got one. However, accuracy would be difficult with the weapon he possessed.
When he reached the spot, he saw that there was already someone on the hill. It was Galong.
As Cody got closer to the man, a thrill passed through him when he saw the weapon the raider had. It was a higher quality Winchester than the one he carried, with superior optics attached.
The small hill was steep. Cody climbed while making as little noise as possible, and still limping from his damaged ankle. He then crawled until he was close enough to touch Galong.
Cody couldn’t use the Beretta or the rifle because the sound would carry. After taking out a knife, Cody rose to his knees and plunged the blade into Galong’s back. The would-be sniper opened his mouth to scream but Cody clamped a hand over it to stifle the sound. A quick move transferred the blade to the raider’s neck and Cody slit Galong’s throat open.
The man’s jerking motions made him lose the rifle, then he kicked it and sent it sliding down the hill. It traveled back along the way Cody had just come. As Galong’s struggle ceased and death claimed him, Cody turned to retrieve the rifle.
Ryker tried calling Galong and got no response, then he remembered that one of his men had binoculars hanging from his neck. He told the raider to toss them over, and once he had them, Ryker focused in on Galong.
“Sonofabitch!” Ryker said. “Galong’s throat has been cut.”
“That would be my other apprentice, Ryker, and now he has the sniper rifle. You’ll never get off this hill without him cutting you down.”
Ryker turned and looked at Spenser with pure hatred in his eyes.
“Your boy will pay for killing Galong.”
“Why, was he your apprentice?”
“I have one back where I came from, but it’s not Galong. Galong was a friend.”
“Let Romeo go down the hill and I’ll promise safe passage for your men; afterward, you and I will go down. We can all walk away from this and fight another day.”
“Or I can torture you until your boy over there gives himself up.”
“That won’t happen. If you harm me or Romeo, Xavier will kill all of you, and your weapons don’t have the range to strike back. Take the deal, Ryker. It’s your only chance to live through this.”
Ryker paced in a circle for several seconds with his head down and his hands gripping the Mossberg tight. When he stopped walking, he spoke to Spenser.
“Call your man and tell him the deal.”
Spenser whipped out his phone and dialed Cody.
“Spenser? I’m on the other hill.”
“Good work. You just saved my life.”
“I had to come back, Spenser. I—”
Spenser heard Cody grunt as if he were in pain, then came the sound of the phone being dropped.
“Xavier? Xavier, what’s going on?”
There was no answer, only the faint sounds of a struggle. It caused Spenser to fear that the tide had turned again.
Cody had reclaimed the rifle just as Spenser’s call came in. As he was about to walk back to the top while talking on the phone, someone tackled him from behind. Cody dropped the phone and rifle and hit the ground hard.
As the weight on his back lifted, Cody flipped over to see a face he knew. It was the huge raider from earlier. The man’s left side was coated with blood from the wounds he’d suffered, and there was a streak of red running down his face. Cody had thought he’d died from a head wound. Apparently, the round that had ricocheted and struck the brute’s temple hadn’t penetrated his thick skull.
Cody kicked out hard at one of the man’s ankles and scored a hit which caused the raider to fall forward. At the last moment, the man broke his fall with a hand, then used the other hand to grab at Cody’s shirt. Wounded or not, the big man was stronger than Cody. He used his strength to full effectiveness. After stunning Cody with a blow to the face, he began strangling him.
Cody tried to break the man’s grip by attacking the nerve clusters on the brute’s wrists. It had no effect, and he knew he needed a weapon.
As the hands around his throat tightened into a death grip, Cody reached out for the Beretta he had dropped after being driven to the ground. He managed to get a finger on its barrel as the world around him darkened.
112
Well-Armed
NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 2018, 6:22 a.m.
Rafe and Ronnie Powers drove to New York in a stolen van that wouldn’t be missed for days. After arriving in the city at daybreak, they visited the wide alley that Simmons and Carlton had chosen as a meeting spot.
Although the sun had risen only minutes earlier, many of the alley’s homeless denizens were up and about. They looked at the strangers walking among them but glanced away rather than make eye contact.
Most of the homeless were living in makeshift lean-tos or cardboard boxes, but there were a few tents mixed in. The tents belonged to the newer generation of homeless, those former members of the middle-class that had fallen on tough times and had yet to find a way out. One such tent was home to a mother and her two children. As he walked past the people he saw, Ronnie sniffed in disgust.
“If the city had any sense they’d chase these people out of here,” he told his brother.
“Chase them to where?” Rafe asked.
“Anywhere, hell, or just shoot them. It would be good target practice for the cops.”
Rafe laughed and they continued on until they reached a deserted section of the all
ey. It went on for a city block and curved twice along its length.
The plan was for Simmons and Carlton to confront Tang in a quiet segment of the alley at eight a.m.
While Tang was distracted, Rafe and Ronnie would come up behind him.
Through Celia, Simmons had told Rafe and Ronnie that the designated spot for the meeting was near an area in the alley where a brick chimney had collapsed and lay in rubble on the ground. Once they’d found the pile of bricks, the brothers agreed that it was an ideal spot. They could walk through the tent city and come up on Tang where the alleyway curved.
Satisfied with the plan, they went back and got the van to park it near the pile of collapsed bricks. They would need the vehicle to transport Tang somewhere to torture him. With over an hour before the meeting was to take place, they walked to a nearby deli that served breakfast. When it was time, they paid their bill and headed back to the alleyway.
Tang arrived in the alley at 7:53. He had approached from the opposite direction and hadn’t seen any homeless people. He noticed the van and was looking through a side window when Simmons and Carlton approached him from behind. The men had come armed. Their hands were resting on the weapons holstered on their hips, beneath the sports jackets they wore.
Tang had one arm in a clean white cast that reached from his shoulder to the knuckles of the curled fingers sticking out from its end. His other hand was gripping a black book. When Simmons and Carlton saw that Tang had no gun in sight, they relaxed and took their hands off their own weapons. If Tang was carrying a gun, it wasn’t visible.
Tang hadn’t set eyes on either man in twenty years. Simmons had aged well and still stood erect with watchful eyes. Carlton had put on weight. Tang thought he looked puffy and slow. As for himself, although he had stayed in shape over the years, he was nearing fifty. The skills he’d developed in the army and while working as an assassin were rusty at best. To survive being outnumbered, he would have to outsmart Simmons and Carlton.
Tang held up the book. “Dalton was blackmailing you two; I knew nothing about it.”
“You and he were brothers-in-law. You expect us to believe he never mentioned us to you?” Carlton said.
“I haven’t seen Dalton in well over a decade and was only informed of his death a few days ago.”
“He told us you were dead, Jeong,” Simmons said. “Why would he do that if he weren’t trying to protect you?”
“Dalton must have lied to protect Beth, his sister and my wife.”
“No matter,” Simmons said. “We’ll soon get the truth out of you.” After saying that, Simmons shared a knowing look with Carlton. Rafe and Ronnie would be along any second.
After entering the alley from the opening behind Tang, Rafe and Ronnie saw a man pawing through a dumpster. Despite the warm spring day, the man was wearing not one, but two old wool overcoats. The garments were threadbare as were the rest of the rags the man wore. Upon spotting Rafe and Ronnie, the scrounger climbed off the dumpster and approached them with his hand out. His graying beard looked as ratty as his clothes.
“Can you spare a buck, guys? I haven’t eaten in two days.”
Ronnie raised a fist. “Get the hell out of here, you damn bum. You smell like a pair of old gym socks.”
The man moved closer. “Just a dollar, okay?”
Ronnie swung his fist, but it never connected. The “bum,” who was actually Tanner, deflected the blow and drove the flat of his hand into Ronnie’s face, breaking his nose.
Before Rafe understood what was happening, Tanner swept his feet out from under him with a kick, then moved behind him while taking out a knife. The blade sliced open Rafe’s throat and sent his blood gushing toward Ronnie.
As Ronnie was reaching for his gun, Tanner kicked him between the legs. When Ronnie bent forward from the pain, the knife was driven into the base of his neck and he dropped to the ground with a damaged spine. Next, Tanner drove the knife into Ronnie’s side several times; and malicious things were done to the man’s organs.
When Tanner looked back at Rafe, he saw that he was either dead or seconds from it. The puddle of blood around him looked large enough to swim in.
Ronnie was alive, but he could do little more than twitch and moan with his injuries. The look on his face was a study in agony, and he was bloody as well. Tanner was walking away from them when an idea came to him that made him smile. After acting on the impulse, he headed along the alley to join Tang.
Tang noticed that Simmons and Carlton kept glancing behind him.
“If you’re waiting for Rafe and Ronnie to join us you’ll be disappointed. I would guess they’re dead by now.”
“How did you learn about them?” Simmons asked.
“It doesn’t matter, and now I have to kill you. However, I want you two to know that I was telling the truth. We never got along well in the old days, but I wasn’t part of Dalton’s blackmail scheme.”
Simmons placed his hand on his gun again.
“Where’s your weapon, Jeong? Tucked behind your back or in an ankle holster?”
“Neither,” said Tang.
Simmons smiled. “It’s that cast, isn’t it? There’s a gun hidden at its end. You’ve really lost your edge, Jeong. Even from here I can see the fingers sticking out of that thing are fake. If you even think about aiming that toward us, I’ll shoot you in the knee.”
The book Tang was holding exploded as he fired several rounds from the small gun hidden inside it. The real encoded book was locked away in Tang’s safe. Two rounds caught Simmons in the chest, while another one caught Carlton in his gut.
The two men fell to the ground as Tang let out a cry of pain. Simmons had gotten off a shot that glanced off the phony cast. Tang’s real cast was beneath the fake one. The impact of the glancing round sent shockwaves of agony through his damaged arm.
Carlton, although suffering from the wound to his stomach, managed to bring out his gun. Tang took aim at Carlton as his eyes watered from the pain in his arm, blurring his vision. He fired twice more. One round missed, but the second bullet caught Carlton just above the breastbone. Carlton settled beside Simmons and gasped out his dying breath.
Simmons was severely injured but alive and moaning. The pain in Tang’s arm was debilitating. He still acted and placed a round into Simmons head, then did the same to Carlton, which emptied his gun.
Tang stumbled as he took a step backwards, then was made steady by a hand gripping his shoulder. When he turned his head, he saw Tanner wearing the phony beard, but not the eyeglasses he normally had on. It was the first time Tang had seen him without the special lenses that tamed his intense eyes. He found himself marveling at the difference in Tanner’s appearance.
“You look like you’re in pain, what happened?” Tanner asked.
Tang explained about the bullet glancing off his already injured arm.
“Put this on,” Tanner said. He was handing Tang one of the overcoats he’d been wearing, then gave him an old knit cap to wear.
Tanner had to help him remove the fake cast. It was too big to fit inside the coat’s sleeve. When it was off, Tang tucked it under the coat and out of sight. With the coat and cap on, Tang resembled the homeless in the area.
As they walked past the bodies of Rafe and Ronnie, Tang shook his head in a sad manner. Tanner thought it likely Tang was remembering them as the innocent, if spoiled, boys they once were.
The gunshots had drawn the attention of a patrol vehicle on the nearby avenue. Tanner and Tang scattered with the other occupants of the alley as the cop car eased along looking for signs of trouble.
Minutes later, Tanner and Tang were down in the subway and being carried far from the scene. They discarded the overcoats in a dumpster at a construction site, along with the fake beard, phony cast, and the damaged book.
Afterward, they walked to their apartment building, entering it through the private entrance of Tanner’s penthouse. They had ridden the private elevator up. After reaching the penthouse, Tanner walk
ed Tang toward the front door, so he could return home.
“How’s the arm?” Tanner asked.
“The throbbing has subsided.”
“Good, and I would say your troubles are over.”
“Thanks to you… Tanner.”
“You figured that out, hmm?”
“You said you were the best assassin there is; that could only be one man.”
“I would still like you to think of me as Thomas Myers.”
“Of course, and we both have secrets to protect.”
As he opened the door, Tanner gave Tang some advice.
“Burn the clothes you’re wearing, shoes included. There are bound to be DNA evidence on them.”
“Yes, and that was something I never had to concern myself with in the old days. The British government would have buried any evidence of my actions.”
“You did good, Tang. I’ll have to remember that feint with the phony cast.”
“Deception is an assassin’s greatest weapon.”
Tanner smiled. “It’s saved me many times.”
113
Practice To Deceive
UTAH, AUGUST 2001
Spenser lowered the phone after the call to Cody was dropped. When he looked over at Romeo, he gave his head a slight shake. Meanwhile, Ryker was scanning the smaller hill in the distance. When he let out a laugh, Spenser knew it could only be bad news.
“Take a look, Hawke,” Ryker said, as he tossed the binoculars to Spenser.
Spenser raised the lenses; a moment later a moan escaped him.
“What is it?” Romeo asked.
“One of Ryker’s men has captured Xavier. He’s marching him this way.”
Ryker laughed. “About that deal you wanted to make, I’ve changed my mind.”
Spenser glared at him. “It’s not over yet.”
“Keep telling yourself that, right up until the moment I kill you.”
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