by Mark Dawson
“I know Control was unhappy with you,” he said.
Ziggy snorted. “You could say that. I guess it’s easier to leave the Group when they don’t want you anymore. He sent me back to GCHQ, and they demoted me. Cryptography. I was there for six months. I still managed to get into a spot of bother, though.” He smiled.
“Bother?”
“It’s big news now, the stuff Snowden’s putting out, but I was ahead of him. Years ahead. He hadn’t even joined Booz Allen when I found out what the NSA and GCHQ were doing with surveillance. But I like my life too much to do something as masochistic as blowing the whistle on people like that—not stupid enough, not brave enough, whatever—but they noticed I was snooping around in areas I wasn’t supposed to be. Jesus, Milton, the things I saw…”
Ziggy let the sentence dangle, inviting Milton to ask for more, but he nodded and waved it off. He remembered Ziggy better now, remembered that he was bumptious and liked to show off with the things that he said that he knew. Always trying to impress. Insecure. Milton’s complete lack of interest inured him to the barrage of teased hints and allusions, and he recalled how that had always baffled and frustrated Ziggy.
“Anyway,” he said, pretending to ignore Milton’s brush-off, “they sort of suggested that it would be better for me to leave, so I did. Two years ago.”
“And since then?”
“A bit of this, a bit of that.”
“Legal?”
“Not entirely.”
Milton cocked an eyebrow. He made no attempt to mask his disdain, hoping that Ziggy might register it and temper his bluster. But self-awareness was not one of Ziggy’s strengths—just working with him for the short time they had been together was enough for Milton to suspect that he had all the basic elements of an autistic personality—and he went on for another minute, crowing about his brilliance, until Milton raised his hand and cut him short. “Ziggy, enough.”
Ziggy grinned at him and put a hand to the thinning ginger thatch on his scalp, scrubbing at it. “All right, dude. You’re not interested, fine, I get it. Here I am. At your service. You’re lucky I still check that board, by the way. They’ve moved on since then.”
“What do they do now?”
“It’s Lana Del Rey, Calvin Harris, Miley Cyrus now. The Smiths are so 1980s.” He took a half-empty pack of duty-free cigarettes from his pocket, slid one out and offered the rest to Milton. He took one and lit it with Ziggy’s lighter. “So, Milton, you want to tell me why you wanted to see me so bad?”
“It’ll be easier if I show you.”
#
MILTON DROVE the Corolla back to the Lower Ninth.
Ziggy looked out, agog. “Jesus,” he said. “Look at this place. I saw it on the TV, but I had no idea it was like this. It’s like a fucking jungle on the surface of the moon.”
“Not all of it,” Milton said. He navigated the car through the grid of streets he was starting to know very well. Salvation Row came into view behind the stands of saplings, shrubs and undergrowth.
“Whoah,” Ziggy said. “Look at that.”
Milton turned the wheel and cruised slowly down the road. He looked left and right, aware that the place could very easily be under surveillance, but everything was in order. The lights were off in the Bartholomews’ bright-sided house, and he thought of them in the Comfort Inn, forced out by the threat that he still hadn’t really got to grips with.
“That junction back there, that’s where the Irish took you out. The house we sheltered in is gone. The whole street is gone. It was condemned, so they tore it down. These houses have been built to bring the displaced families back. There’s a foundation behind it—Build It Up. There’s no reason why you would’ve heard about it—”
“No,” he interrupted. “I have. I read a report on it, must’ve been last year. I just didn’t recognise the street.”
“This is all they’ve done so far, but they’ve got big plans. You remember the family who took us in?”
“No.”
“No,” Milton said, correcting himself. “Of course not. There was a girl. Her name is Isadora. She set the foundation up. She runs it.”
“That’s impressive.”
Milton nodded. “It was going well for them until a development was approved here. A mall. Big. The city is trying to take the land. Compulsory purchase. All of this could get bulldozed. Izzy’s fighting it and doing a good job. Too good, probably. Someone has been threatening her and then, yesterday, they tried to take her and me out.”
“Take you out?”
“Drove a car into us and then took a couple of shots.” He waved it off. “I can handle them, but I’m just reacting at the moment. I need to go on the attack. I need you to help me find out who’s behind it, and anything else you can get on them.”
“What do you have?”
“There’s plenty you can start with. The police are involved now, so I need you to look into them. If they are involved, it’s possible that it goes deeper. Politicians, maybe. Probably.”
“Anything more tangible?”
“I’ve got the name and address of someone who I think is involved.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“You had me fly here for that? I could’ve done all that from my apartment.”
“I prefer to be hands on,” Milton said. “And I think there might be more for you to do once we start to make progress.”
Ziggy leaned back. There was a tracing of sugar on his top lip. He wiped it off. “Twenty grand?”
“Yes,” Milton said. “But I’d like to think that you’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
He grinned. “Sure. But a little money doesn’t hurt, either.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
JACKSON DUBOIS met Peacock in the same place, under the bridge. A ship slid ponderously down the canal, lit up like a Christmas tree, its horn sounding two booming ululations as it approached its berth. The traffic swooshed overhead. The only people down here were junkies, pimps, hookers, and johns. The tires of his car scrunched through the loose aggregate. Peacock appeared out of the shadows, jogging over to him. Dubois let his hand drift down to the space at the side of the car where he had his shotgun. Peacock went around, opened the passenger door and slid inside.
“Well?”
“Our friend. The English guy. You know, before, there was only so much I could get? Well, I’ve got more on him now. You really need to hear it. He’s trouble.”
“Go on.”
“You know that problem they had up in Michigan, couple months ago? The militia?”
Dubois said that he did. It had been a big story: an eighteen-wheeler filled with enough fertiliser to make Oklahoma City look like a sneeze. “He was involved with that?”
“Yeah, he was. The FBI said they got to the bottom of it, right, they said they used CIs? Turns out that he was one of the CIs. I don’t know exactly how he was involved, but he was. The rumours I’m hearing, it wasn’t in no small capacity, either. I’ll never get it confirmed. But I’m hearing he didn’t just snitch on them, he brought them down himself.”
“What do you mean?”
Peacock shrugged. “Just that.”
Dubois remembered. There had been killings in the woods, multiple members of a fundamentalist Christian militia found dead. One guy did that? He started to feel uncomfortable.
“What else?”
“His name is John Milton, not John Smith. Used to be British Special Forces. SAS. I know that because the Brits got involved after the militia went down and Milton was brought in by the feds. My guess, they got onto them and told them to seal up what happened, keep their boy out of it in exchange for his confidential testimony.”
“So what’s he doing here?”
“That much I can’t say.”
“Keep looking.”
“I am.” He shuffled a little. “What about those two goons you had working for you?”
“Not a problem.”
“One thing I know for sure, if this dude was Special Forces, two crackheads are not gonna cut the mustard. He’ll wrap ’em up and send ’em back with a ribbon on ’em.”
“I told you,” Dubois snapped. “Not a problem.” Peacock was right, but he was irritated. It felt like the detective was blaming him for setting Melvin and Chad on the job. And two fricasséed junkies were beyond causing him headaches now.
Peacock shrugged his shoulders. “You want, I can make a suggestion?”
“About?”
“Someone you could put on this job. Someone who I can pretty much guarantee will get it done.”
“I’m listening.”
“I bet you are. First things first. Us taking this guy out wasn’t what the mayor agreed with your boss. He wanted the Bartholomew girl arrested, no more and no less. And we did that.”
“And then you let her out!” Dubois exploded.
“Did he really want a writ of habeas corpus going all the way to a judge? She starts blabbing, making wild claims, what if they get traction? Nah. We had to let her out. If you’d stopped them from getting to court, instead of fucking that up…”
Dubois entertained the notion of reaching down, pulling the shotgun and shooting this loud-mouthed, vulgar braggart. He fought it back and said, coldly and calmly, “What do you want, Detective?”
“My woman has a kitchen business in Elmwood. I know your boss has those granite quarries up there in Gallatin. I’m thinking, rather than give me cash, maybe he can send a truck of milled granite work surfaces to my woman’s shop. He does that in the next couple of days, I’ll take you and make the introduction to the man who will make all your problems go away.”
“Who is it?”
“Name’s Claude Boon.”
“And where do we have to go to find Mr. Boon?”
“We don’t go to him. Someone like Boon, we ask nicely, maybe he comes to us.”
“Asking nicely,” Dubois said. “How much does that cost?”
“No two ways about it, he’s expensive.”
“How much?”
“Fifty.”
Dubois was unperturbed. Fifty thousand was nothing. “That might be interesting.”
“Yeah, right. Like I said, he ain’t cheap, but he’s worth every last cent. Your man Milton, he won’t be a problem for long.”
Part Four
Chapter Thirty-Three
CLAUDE BOON pushed through the raucous crowd into the space where the fight would take place. He was in an underground car park in Jersey, vacant because of the construction work taking place on the office block above. The ring, such as it was, was hemmed in by parked cars, their lights blazing, and arrayed before them was the audience. The night’s activities were not advertised. The fights were illegal and, as such, notice was last minute. The promotion amounted to a series of texts that directed people to a voicemail message that, in turn, directed them to the venue. It was a hot ticket. There were two hundred people here, mostly men, and ten fighters who would each compete twice.
The atmosphere was clamorous, sharp-edged, feverish with the prospect of bloodshed. Gritty, nasty, electric. Rap music from the ’90s—Biggie, Tupac and Jay-Z—played loud from the open windows of a souped-up muscle car. The fighters waiting their turn stood at the fringes, bare chested. Those who had already fought had ice packs on the contusions on their faces, cuts stitched up or slathered with Vaseline. The last fight had been between a pudgy kid in a T-shirt and mesh shorts and a fifty-year-old former Army Ranger from Jersey City. The kid’s arm had been broken. A hammerlock. The promoter had given the kid ten bucks to take a cab to the hospital. The Ranger had barely broken a sweat.
Boon looked across the parking lot to the man he had drawn to fight. He was called Cooke. He was bigger than Boon, muscle packed on top of muscle, a mean streak a mile wide, and had a reputation as fearsome as his appearance. Boon guessed that he must have been six six and a good two hundred and fifty pounds. He had six inches and fifty pounds on him. They called him the Vanilla Gorilla and he was undefeated. His first fight, an hour ago, had seen his opponent dragged unconscious from the lot with a mouthful of teeth scattered on the ground.
Most people wouldn’t have considered getting into the ring with Cooke. But Claude Boon wasn’t most people. He wasn’t afraid. He was relishing it.
Cooke glared down at Boon. “Gonna kill you,” he growled.
Boon smiled, took his guard and pushed it into his mouth.
“Ready?” the referee said.
“Ready,” Cooke mumbled around his mouth guard.
Boon nodded.
“Get it on.”
Boon held out his gloves and the man hammered his down, knocking his hands away, making a point.
The bell rang and the audience held up their cellphones, cameras on.
Boon danced back.
The big man lumbered at him and threw a punch. It never connected. Boon hopped back, the man’s fist whistling harmlessly to the right of his ear. Cooke jabbed with his left, and Boon struck it away and to the side with his forearm while extending his leading leg. This brought him close enough to use the edge of his hand, as hard as a block of marble. He jabbed twice, the big man lurching backwards as the pain stung him.
Cooke looked at him with sudden fear.
Boon dropped his guard insolently, rolled his shoulders, and grinned around the mouthguard.
Cooke looked to the referee.
Boon danced after him on nimble feet, kicking him first in the torso and then, lowering his target just enough, he lashed up high, his foot thumping into the fleshy nub of the man’s nose. Cartilage and bone were mashed together, blood spurted from the wreckage and, as the starburst of pain disabled him, Boon slid around and latched on a Kimura lock. It was a submission move that had been appropriated from Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It was a staple in the arsenal of anyone who knew Krav Maga to a decent level, and Boon was a grand master. MMA fighters used it, too, but theirs were ugly and inelegant in comparison to the devastating lock that Boon applied. He wrestled Cooke to the ground and cinched the lock in even tighter.
The crowd knew what was coming. A man near to them both, a can in his hand, beer spilling out of it, yelled, “Finish him!”
Boon only had to ratchet the pressure a little for the man to tap. He pulled back a little more, feeling the tendons pop and the bones starting to bend. Cooke tapped more frantically, his hand slapping against Boon’s thigh. He pulled harder, waiting for the arm to crack and then snap, Cooke screaming like a baby. Boon released the lock and rolled away.
The referee stepped in. Boon hopped to his feet and let him raise his hand.
The crowd reacted with cheers from those smart enough to back him, and jeers from those who had lost their money by betting on his opponent.
His wife, Lila, was standing at the front of the crowd. Boon went to her.
“Nice, baby.”
“Easy.”
He held up his hands, and Lila undid the Velcro that fastened his gloves. She pulled them off, dropped them into his bag, and handed him a bottle of water. He drank half of it and stood it on the hood of the nearest car. Cooke was being dragged out of the ring. His arm hung uselessly at his side. Boon and Lila stepped aside, letting his cornermen haul him away. Cooke didn’t look at him. His aggression was spent. He was timid now, and in pain.
Boon looked at his wife. Her eyes sparkled. She had something she wanted to tell him.
“What is it, baby?”
She smiled at him, his little coquette. “You know we said we could go to Hawaii?”
“Yeah, I did. But I also remember there was a qualification.”
“When we get the next job.”
“That’s right. That look, what is it? You saying we got a job?”
“We got it, baby. Came through tonight.”
“Where?”
“New Orleans.”
“From the cop?”
“Same as before.”
“Who?”
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“Just some guy. Sounds like nothing. In and out, nice and easy.”
Lila handed him his towel and Boon used it to mop the sweat, and Cooke’s blood, from his face and chest.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Then you can tell me about it.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
BOON AND LILA flew from JFK. They were in coach, as was their habit, the better to stay under the radar. The stewardess in charge of the section was cute and quite happy to flirt with Boon, not that he was interested. He was a good-looking man. He was in his mid-forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a mischievous sparkle in his blue eyes. He was in good shape, too, with not an ounce of fat on him. His build had been honed thanks to the fighting and the fitness regimen that he followed with near religious zeal. Boon cared about how he looked, but that last habit was not inspired by vanity. It was a prerequisite of his profession that he be fit and strong, able to defend himself should the need arise. Some of his rivals preferred to do their business from a distance, but that was not how he liked to work. He preferred to be close to take advantage of the greater engagement that proximity allowed. He enjoyed the sensation of death, the moment when you could see the spark of life extinguished in the eyes of a target. Shooting someone from fifty yards was sterile, especially with the gadgets that you could add to a rifle these days. Where was the skill in that? He wanted the flavour of it, and the flavour was more redolent when you pushed a dagger into a man’s heart, or snapped his neck, or put a loop of piano wire over his head and pulled until the blood was running through your fingers.
