by Nolon King
Maybe Oliver was getting gun shy about his association with BlackBriar after the whole Paraíso situation and Anders, or maybe he smelled blood in the water and wanted to renegotiate the contract now that a few other companies had stopped doing business with BlackBriar as well.
Victor didn’t know. What he did know was they couldn’t afford to lose White Label Empire, the largest business in Creek County, a factory that provided hundreds of jobs and served as a major artery for the east coast transportation of bullshit tchotchkes. BlackBriar offered round the clock security to their warehouse as well as their cybersecurity needs. Their contract was worth millions, but more importantly, they were a prestige client BlackBriar used to land other big fish.
Hey, White Label Empire uses us, so certainly we’re good enough for your shitty little business.
That was just this morning’s problem. There was, of course, the ticking clock that was the whole Voluptatem situation. Victor wasn’t sure how long they had before the website went live. Before Madam Pandora died, she’d said Paul Dodd had a poison pill website that would require him to enter a password every month to keep it from launching and exposing Voluptatem to the world.
There were many unknowns. For one, nobody knew how much was pretense and subterfuge. What information had Richardson gotten on the group? And how had he managed to get it? Maybe this was nothing, but despite Victor’s extremely lucky life, rarely was he fortunate enough to be on the winning side of a winner-take-all bluff.
The other big unknown was how much time they had before Dodd was supposed to stop the website from going live. The shit in Mexico was almost a month ago now. Maybe Dodd had already entered the code. Or maybe there was some grace period before the countdown began.
Victor hated not knowing. His job was about protecting his clients from any and all variables, about seeing the threats before they were there. And, for the first time ever, he felt truly fucking blind.
Worse than blind, he was relying on lesser-thans to save his ass.
In addition to Spider, he had a team of five of his most-trusted cyber people working on clones of both the flash drive and Richardson’s laptops.
When Victor woke up, he checked his messages for updates from each team then had to stifle his rage at the lack of progress.
At least the worst hadn’t happened … yet.
He showered, dressed, then drove to Oliver Kozack’s ranch on the west side of Creek County. The Russian drove behind him in a black SUV, always keeping an eye on Victor — just in case he tried to run.
Well, at least he’s not in here with me.
The drive, one of the few times he wasn’t being watched, Victor finally had a chance to try calling his sister again.
But still no word.
Did they already have her?
They killed his mother already, so surely they must have gotten to Veronica.
She was supposed to vacationing in Mexico with her girlfriend. He’d left encrypted messages for both Veronica and Jasmine. Neither had gotten back to him.
Veronica always returned his calls within a day. She knew the nature of his livelihood. Not the shady fuckers he worked for, but she was aware her brother had a dangerous business, and he’d always told her she needed to be ready to run at a moment’s notice because of his enemies.
She thought he was paranoid and often laughed at his expense.
Was she laughing now? Or was she crying, stuck in some subterranean torture cell in Mexico or some other location.
Victor hated not knowing.
He hated not being able to protect her, especially since she’d protected him from their mother as they were growing up.
Just when my sister needs me most, I’m fucking useless.
Victor arrived at Kozack’s ranch home at eleven.
They met in Oliver’s massive garage. He was buffing his yellow Corvette Stingray, one of several luxury cars he owned that were easily the most expensive vehicles in Creek County’s rural westside.
He greeted Victor with a firm handshake and a wide, toothy smile. “Just got this baby at auction. You like?”
“Quite nice. What year?”
“1967 Sunfire Yellow Corvette Stingray L88.”
“Not sure I’ve ever seen one like this.”
“Yeah, not many around. Only 216 of them ever made, and only twenty of those were made in 1967. The head of GM’s performance division wanted a ‘stock’ vehicle that could run a good quarter mile, so they modified Chevy’s 427 cubic inch V-8 to put out 580 horsepower. No AC, radio, or creature comforts to speak of. Basically a track car sold as a consumer car. Hell, GM even lied about the power so consumers wouldn’t buy them and as many as possible would end up on the track.”
“Very nice. How’s she ride?” Victor asked with the appropriate amount of awe. Truth be told, he couldn’t give two damns about Oliver’s fancy cars, but he always had to act impressed.
“Four barrel carb with aluminum heads and a four-speed manual transmission. Dynotested at 600 horsepower. How do you think she rides? Like a fucking beast.”
Oliver reminded Victor of a fading Hollywood actor, a leading man if he were twenty years younger. His dark, slicked back hair had surrendered to salt and pepper, but he had a perpetual tan, a strong jaw, and blue eyes that other people saw as friendly, though Victor found them off-putting.
Oliver was a few inches shorter than Victor, but he seemed taller, with the confident air of a man used to getting exactly what he wanted in every possible context.
“Want to take her out for a spin?”
“Hell, yeah,” Victor said, still acting impressed.
Oliver opened the passenger side door for Victor as if he was his date. He climbed in, careful not to scuff any of the handsome camel interior. A tight fit, way too much for Victor’s comfort, but he kept it to himself.
Victor buckled his seatbelt. Oliver didn’t bother.
He pulled out, the car’s engine loud, powerful, and imposing. “Gotta love that sound.”
Victor had to admit, the sound was pleasing, though it would probably be easier to appreciate if he wasn’t strapped in and feeling every bit of the road roaring from under the car and into his teeth.
Oliver left the west side for US 1. He drove along the beach and sprawling stretches of road, and whenever he came up behind someone on a leisurely ride up the coast, he’d swerve violently around them.
As he drove, he asked about the “whole scandal in Mexico thing” and wondered if Victor had any knowledge of Anders’s involvement in the sex club.
So far, no one knew the ring extended far beyond Mexico or Paraíso.
“It was a shock to us all. We take trust very seriously at BlackBriar, and to have that faith violated is like being stabbed.” Victor couldn’t let it seem like this sort of thing was completely missed, though. What would that say of the organization, that they didn’t know a member of their group was recruiting ex-employees to kidnap a child and a cop?
He lowered his voice to deliver the next piece of information. “Between you and me, there are some elements that don’t add up.”
“What are you saying?” Oliver asked, one of his bushy eyebrows arching upward.
“Well, there are certain elements of the media, and the government, that want to paint companies like ours with a broad, and perhaps artificial, brush.”
“Fake news?”
“Yes. Being as big as you are, with the most important business in Creek County, surely you’ve run into your fair share of people who think you’ve accumulated too much power. They fail to see all the good you do for the community, all the jobs you provide. They’ve got other agendas, trying to appease special interests that line their pockets. Whatever happened to man earning his keep with the sweat of his own labor? These parasites all want to take what’s ours.”
“Yes! Exactly. People are so damned shortsighted. They can never see the big picture.”
“Indeed,” Victor agreed, smiling broadly. Now he was singing
Oliver’s tune, the song of the mighty man too good for the unappreciative masses.
Victor let that sit as Oliver drove in silence, enjoying the scenery, the sea looking gray beneath under a cloudy sky. He didn’t want to say too much and appear defensive, so he’d play this next part by ear, see where Oliver took the conversation.
Then Oliver took it somewhere Victor hadn’t expected. “How would someone even go about arranging a kidnapping?”
He could barely mask his surprise. “What?”
“If someone wanted to kidnap a person of note, how would they go about arranging it?”
Victor knew Oliver’s son had vanished a while ago, along with a girl he may have been seeing. It would be too mawkish bringing that up. Too manipulative exploiting his missing son. Even if Victor had managed to sway him, Oliver would eventually see the ploy for what it was, and he would want to burn whomever tried to use his tragedy against him.
“I’m sorry,” Victor said, “we’re not in that business.”
“Of course you’re not, but people hire you to keep high priority targets safe. BlackBriar has escorted people out of country and retrieved kidnapping victims from the cartels and mobs, correct?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, come on, we both know why I’m asking. Don’t pretend you don’t know what happened to my boy.”
“You believe he’s been kidnapped?”
“I do.”
“Has anyone reached out to you for a ransom?”
“No.”
Victor didn’t have the heart to tell him that if it had been this long, his son was probably dead. Someone worth as much as Kozack, the kidnappers would’ve reached out immediately. More likely, he took off to avoid trouble or got himself involved in something he shouldn’t have. Or maybe Oliver pissed off the wrong people. The Russian mob usually stayed under the radar, but they were active in North Florida. Maybe Oliver stepped on a few toes or was involved in some illegal business that infringed on someone else’s illegal business.
He eyed the man, wondering what else he might be involved in. Victor knew most of the area’s criminals and serviced a fair number of them. Kozack was rumored to be involved with some of the drug runners on the west side, but Victor had never heard it from a reputable source.
Oliver sighed. “He was either kidnapped or killed.”
“Have you hired a PI?”
“A few, yes. And the goddamned sheriff’s office is ignoring the case. This has got to be the worst sheriff we’ve ever had. Barry would never have let this shit happen on his watch.”
“Agreed. Hopefully, he’ll be back in office after the election.”
“Oh, he will,” Oliver said with an assurance that seemed oddly confident. Victor wondered what this man knew — was there some fix in play? Did they have dirt on Sheriff Bell?
Victor wanted to ask but couldn’t divert the conversation from the man’s missing kid. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah, you can find my fucking son,” Oliver said with an uneasy laugh.
Victor had to be careful. If he could help, great. But if he volunteered yet couldn’t do anything, or if the kid was dead, then maybe Oliver would associate that failure with BlackBriar. Still, he had to say something.
“I’m sure you’ve got the best people on this, but I’d be happy to take a look at what you’ve got, maybe we’ll fine a blind spot or see something your people missed.”
Oliver looked at him with a genuine expression of gratitude. “You’d do that for me?”
“I can’t imagine how you and Mrs. Kozack have handled this tragedy yourselves. I never had a child of my own, but I do have a sister who I love dearly. I don’t know how I’d handle it if she went missing, but I do know I’d move Heaven and Earth to find her.”
“Thank you, Victor, that means a lot to me.”
And though they didn’t talk business the rest of the drive, Victor’s mission had been a success. BlackBriar would continue providing services to White Label Empire.
Now all he had to do was find the man’s missing son, prevent the pedo ring from becoming news, and make sure his sister was safe.
Even if he did have to move Heaven and Earth to do it all, Victor was used to long odds.
Chapter 17 - Jasper Parish
Jasper woke up early in the morning to meet with Kim at the RV, about a mile northwest of Oliver Kozack’s house — a massive estate on a ranch with no other homes around for a few hundred acres.
Kim wasn’t alone when he got there. A black Escalade was parked in front of the RV. And standing guard outside the door was one of the three men who had approached him at Spider’s apartment — one of Logic’s men.
The man nodded Jasper through.
Kim and Logic were sitting at a booth, both smoking joints.
“So, we meet again, Professor.”
Jasper had a bad feeling. He wasn’t sure why Logic was here but figured it was probably to shake him down. Maybe he heard about the cash Jasper had at his disposal and wanted to relieve him of it.
He looked back at Jordyn, “Wait in the car.”
Logic looked at him oddly, then asked, “Who you talking to?”
Jasper ignored him. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Logic, still seated and perfectly calm, said, “Well, Kim here has told me you’re the one who got us all involved in your shit and got Spider taken by these dudes.”
Jasper nodded, readying his right hand to reach for the gun in his jacket. He didn’t think Logic was here to kill him, but he didn’t know shit about the man, other than he was probably the area’s primary dealer and one of Spider’s criminal clients. He really wished she would’ve taken him up on his offers to work for him exclusively and get the hell out of Butler.
Logic took a hit. “So, again, I’m wonderin’ who the hell you are. Like, what’s your deal, man? Why you goin’ after these folks? You some kinda real-life Black Batman or some shit?”
“No, not Batman. Just someone trying to help. These people kidnapped children, enslaved them.”
“So, why you gettin’ involved? What do you care if some kids get kidnapped? You know these kids?”
“No.”
“Then what’s it to you?” His eyes narrowed on Jasper. “Oh, hell. You’re a cop, aren’t you?”
Kim raised her eyebrows, looking like she might reach for the gun on the table in front of her.
“No. Just a pissed off man doing what the cops can’t do.”
“So, Black Batman, not Professor X … what’s this I hear about psychic powers?”
Jasper was pissed — not only at Kim for telling Logic, but also at Spider for letting Kim know in the first place. Still, in the end, it was his fault. He’d told Spider to convince her to work with him. Jasper had overestimated her loyalty. She was still a teenager, and kids needed to spill their secrets to someone.
And now these people, these dealers, wanted to exploit Jordyn’s abilities — exactly the kind of thing he was trying so hard to prevent.
“I get flashes sometimes. Nothing constant, nothing all that useful.”
Logic smiled, seeing right through Jasper’s lie. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I mean, Black Batman has to fund his operation somehow, right? So, what is it? You bet sports? Pick lotto numbers?”
“I don’t get visions like that. Mostly I see bad people doing bad shit, and … well, I take their money.”
Logic stood up and moved quickly toward Jasper, his face going from friendly to fierce.
Jasper resisted the urge to reach for his gun.
“So, how ’bout me, then?” Logic yelled. “You gonna take my money?”
Jasper kept his cool and responded slowly. “That depends. You raping or killing kids?”
“Hell, no.”
“Then you’re not my enemy.”
Logic backed off, but only a little, still glaring at Jasper like he was itching for a reason to put a few bullets into his body.
“Yo
u cost me a lot of good people.”
“How so?” Jasper asked.
“My men were in the parking lot when those fuckers rolled in. You owe those people’s families, way I see it.”
“No, BlackBriar owes them. You want to get their money, help me get Spider.”
“Kim says you’ve got money now, that you’re willing to pay.”
Kim was keeping quiet during the whole exchange, clearly working for Logic. Whatever deal he’d made with her was null. He needed to make that offer to Logic directly.
“You got some soldiers you can hire out, then I’ll pay.” He told him how much he could pay via Pentz, assuming Logic took the cryptocurrency.
“All right,” he said with a nod. “Kim’ll set you up with some people.”
“How many?”
Logic chewed on it for a moment. “Six.”
“I might need more than that.”
“Then you’ll need more money. This ain’t no run-of-the-mill job you’re asking for. These fuckers already killed enough of my people. You’re gonna need to pay top shelf prices for men willing to assume that level of risk.”
“Fair enough.” Jasper nodded.
Logic nodded back, raised the hoodie over his head, then shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and headed outside, leaving Kim with Jasper alone.
She looked relieved to see Logic go. “Sorry about that. He’s passionate about our neighborhood.”
“I can appreciate that. So, I need someone to get me close to a car that’s going to be at Oliver Kozack’s place.”
Jasper told her his plan and gave her the address.
Kim grabbed her tablet then pulled up a Google Maps overhead image of Kozack’s property. She gave a furious shake of her head. “Ain’t no way you’re getting on that land, let alone to Victor’s car long enough to put on a tracker. Not without someone spotting you. You can’t wait for him to go somewhere else?”
“This is my only window. He’ll make me if I follow him, especially out here in the sticks.”
