Intentional Consequences

by Charles Harris

  As they headed back to Franks’ car, the Seal said, “OK, let’s set Sunday at 6:00 p.m. as the deadline for completion. Let me know if you want to talk about the other job, but I don’t want the software side.”

  An hour and a half later, Franks called the Seal and gave him the assignment to capture Dan.

  Chapter 52

  After lunch, Eva received a text message from Steve Cole. The text read: “Received this at Daneva Tech info@ email address last night. No message or reply address. Thought you should see it. BTW, VADS says photo is real.” The message included a color photo of Dan standing next to an attractive blonde woman. Dan was wearing a snazzy sport jacket. The woman was in a tuxedo with no shirt and a very low-cut jacket loosely tied with a sash. That’s interesting, Eva thought as she enlarged the photo on her phone screen. Nice breasts. Wonder what he’ll have to say, she thought. She sent a text back to Cole: “Thanks. Interesting!” She’d deal with the photo at dinner.

  ◆◆◆

  Shortly after 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, Billings received a call from Bernbach’s assistant. She said, “Mr. Billings, I know you’ve been a friend of Mr. Bernbach for many years. I have bad news, sir. Mr. Bernbach is dead. He apparently had a heart attack while he was in San Francisco last night. He left White Plains about 7:00 p.m. last night. He was staying at Susan Ward’s house, the PaprW8 COO, and was supposed to have some meetings today and fly back this afternoon. She found him this morning.”

  Billings said, “That’s terrible. Absolutely terrible. Have you made any arrangements yet?”

  “No, it’s too early. They’re insisting on an autopsy. We’re all devastated as you might expect. Miss Ward is barely able to talk. Mr. Bernbach has strong leadership succession in place for the hedge fund, but he managed his political dealings himself. I know you were one of his closest confidents on the political front, so if there’s anything I can do to help with the transition, please let me know.”

  “Yes. Yes, I will. I’m so sorry for your loss. For all our loss. Thank you so much for calling me. I know I will need your help. Do you plan a press release?”

  “Yes. The lawyers and PR people are working on it now. It should be out by this evening. So far, this hasn’t hit the wires, which is a miracle.”

  He ended the call and looked out at the mountains. He sat silently for several minutes, then sent a text to Susan Ward that read: “Just heard news from DB’s assistant. Hope you are OK. Please call when you can talk.” He put on his windbreaker and walked out on the deck. He called his security guard to say he was going for a walk on the upper logging trail. He told the guard he didn’t want company. He’d check in later.

  ◆◆◆

  During dinner at home with Dan, Eva said, “Oh, I received a photo of you and some blonde woman today.” She watched him closely. Although he didn’t flinch, his complexion reddened. “Very pretty lady. You were both dressed quite well. She had on a tux that would look good on me.”

  Dan said, “Is this fake news or are you going to show it to me?”

  “It’s not fake news. VADS checked. I’ll text it to you.” She did.

  He opened the text and looked at the photo. “Oh, that’s from a dinner party at David Bernbach’s house in Westport a few weeks ago. They were taking candid pictures of the guests for some local community magazine. Bernbach loves publicity. Did this come from the magazine?”

  “No, someone sent it to the info@ email address at Daneva Tech. What’s her name?”

  “Who?”

  “The woman in the photo.”

  He looked pensive. “Uh, Hope. No. No, that’s her last name. Something Hope.” He paused. “It’s Tara Hope. She’s one of Bernbach’s political buddies from up there.”

  “I see. Well, you certainly look nice together. I hope it made the magazine. Still seems odd someone would send it to Daneva Tech.”

  Eva knew Dan was embarrassed. She tried not to think about why.

  After dinner, Eva called Andy and asked him if he could find anything on a woman named Tara Hope who lived somewhere around Westport, Connecticut and was connected to David Bernbach, socially or otherwise. She decided not to send him the photo with Dan.

  ◆◆◆

  Shortly before 9:00 p.m., Eva received a text from Andy with a link reporting David Bernbach had died in San Francisco from an apparent heart attack. Her cell rang as she was reading the text. It was Andy. “Can you believe this?” he said.

  “No. I can’t. That pretty well kills your story, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe. But what if the Chinese took him out? Your whole internet strategy was designed to make the Chinese concerned about Bernbach. What if it worked? What if they decided the only way to cut their losses was to get rid of him?”

  “My God, Andy, do you ever give up? The man’s dead. He died of a heart attack.”

  “Maybe. What if our efforts at virtual assassination triggered an actual assassination?”

  “God, Andy. So now I’m supposed to think we killed him?”

  “Stranger things have happened. This is geo-politics. The stakes don’t get any higher.”

  “Com’on, Andy. Let’s just hope his conspiracy will die with him. Let it go.”

  “Well, it is going to be interesting to see whether the things I’ve been linking with him continue or stop now that he’s dead.”

  “I’m going to tell Dan about this. You should send the release to Valerie and Rakesh if you haven’t already. And to your parents. This should help your folks sleep better. You too, for that matter.”

  Dan was astonished to hear Bernbach was dead. Eva expected Dan to be concerned about losing an important client for JPAC. Instead, he almost seemed relieved. It was like some huge weight had been removed from his shoulders. She wondered why.

  ◆◆◆

  Late that evening, Andy sent an email to Eva with some photos and other attachments. It was a summary of what he’d found so far on Tara Hope: “Tara Hope. About 39-40 years old. Lives near Westport. Large house. See pics. Husband and 2 kids died 2+ years ago in private plane crash in Bahamas while buzzing beach. Husband ran very successful real estate hedge fund. Hope inherited $2 billion +/-. Active in Democratic politics and social circles before and after his death. Very attractive. See society pics, many with Bernbach. Can’t find anything linking them romantically. Still digging.”

  Eva looked at the photos. She’s very rich, very pretty and very eligible, Eva thought. Let’s hope Bernbach just liked to show her off. She closed the photos and replied, “Thanks.”

  Chapter 53

  Saturday morning, Billings called Franks for their regular weekly check-in. “I have bad news. David’s dead. Had a heart attack in San Francisco early Friday morning.”

  Franks said, “David Bernbach?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so. His assistant called me late yesterday. Worst news I’ve ever had, other than the loss of my dear wife, God bless her soul. At my age, I don’t have time to recover operations like this.”

  “Uh, Mr. Billings?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you aware Mr. Bernbach called me on Thursday and asked me to do some things?”

  “He called you directly?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What did he want you to do?”

  “He wanted to take out that reporter, Andy Baker. He also wanted to do whatever necessary to make Dan Johnson stop his internet attacks on Mr. Bernbach and turn over a copy of the software and algorithms for the technology he’s doing for Rakesh Jain. Mr. Bernbach said he was out of time. He wanted things done in 48 hours, whatever the cost.”

  “Well, under the circumstances we should probably hold off on those things until we can decide what David’s passing means to our operation.”

  “Sir, I’ve already got things underway.” Franks told Billings about hiring the Seal for Andy and for capturing Dan.

  “That’s a lot of money,” Billings said. Do you have the rest of the dollars if he completes the jobs?”


  “Yes, sir, but it would just about clean out my expense funds.”

  “Can you call your man off?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve never done that. He works through some very dangerous intermediaries. I’m not sure how tight his control is once he presses the button. I can try. Do we put things on pause or completely shut things down? Either way, I’m not sure we’ll get any money back.”

  “Put them both on pause so we can decide where we are. With David gone, the reporter may just fade away. On the other hand, he might not. We just don’t know enough to take the man out. I’m more concerned about Johnson, since it sounds like David lost trust in him. They had a very close partnership. Something must have gone wrong.”

  “Alright,” Franks said. “Let me hang up and see what I can do. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

  ◆◆◆

  Franks started to call the Seal. He paused, then put his cellphone back into his pocket.

  Chapter 54

  After their usual Saturday morning breakfast by the pool, Eva and Dan were talking about their plans for the weekend when Dan’s cellphone rang. He answered the call.

  “It’s the main security gate,” he said to Eva. “The gardeners are there. Said they forgot some of our yard trash when they were here yesterday. They want to come get it. They’re on their way to the dump.”

  Eva looked around. “Probably those bags over there, by the gate to the motor court,” she said, pointing. “OK by me, but you need to deal with them. I’m not exactly dressed for it.” She was wearing a white crochet beach dress with a flouncy skirt that just covered her bare bottom.

  “It’s OK, tell them to come on up,” Dan said to the security guard on the phone.

  A few minutes later, both of their phones pinged with an alert from their drive gate. Eva stood and said, “You can get it. I’ll duck in the bedroom.”

  Eva went to her closet, which was part of the safe room they had created after the home invasion. She flipped on the large flat screen monitor for the security camera system, which showed a collage of camera images from around the property. As she watched, a white RAM pickup pulled into the motor court, with two men in the cab and a third sitting with a pile of bags in the back. The two men from the cab walked toward the gate to the pool area. Every gardener in the country must be Mexican, Eva thought. They work hard.

  Eva shifted her attention to one of the pool area cameras and hit the key to bring it to full screen with audio. This is cool, Eva mused.

  “Mr. Johnson,” one of the men called over the gate. “It’s the gardeners. Can we come get the yard trash?”

  “Si, entra,” Dan replied as he unlatched the gate.

  The two men came through the gate.

  The first said, “Sorry to bother you. Is your wife here?”

  Dan said, “No problem. My wife’s not here.”

  Eva turned away from the display to pull out a top she was thinking about wearing later. Hearing a muffled thud on the audio, she turned to see Dan on the ground, with the two Mexicans leaning over him. As she was wondering whether he might have fainted, she saw the two men jamming his body into a large duffel bag. She flipped the display back to collage mode and saw the third man in the truck was no longer there. Seconds later, he appeared at the gate to the pool and the three men carried the Dan’s bagged body toward the truck.

  Eva’s security training flashed through her mind. Secure. Alert. Respond. Eva shut and bolted the reinforced door to the safe room. She’d left her iPhone by the pool. Damn. She grabbed her Apple Watch from the charger. Accessing the drive gate control app from her watch, she locked the gate in both directions. Then she hit the silent alarm button on the security system, which would send a coded alert to the monitoring station in seconds.

  She looked up at the screen. The men had tossed the bag containing Dan into the back of the truck. They were getting into the truck, two in the front and one in the bed with the bags. At least they’re not coming back for me, she thought.

  Eva entered the access code for the gun safe and opened it. She pulled out the Colt M4 Carbine rifle, popped the magazine in and out, and slung it over her shoulder. Next, she grabbed the Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun and checked the 6+1 load.

  She watched the camera display as she slipped on her Skechers sneakers. No sign of the truck in the motor court or at the drive gate. Eva opened the door to the safe room and called 911 on her watch as she ran toward the front door carrying the shotgun.

  For privacy and aesthetics, the landscape architect had curved the driveway up to the house, both below and above the drive gate. Thickets of trees and shrubs shielded the gate from the road and the motor court. Eva had made a narrow footpath directly through the woods from the motor court to the gate. By the time she was a few feet along the path, Eva had given the 911 operator her name and location, the nature of her emergency and a description of the men and the truck. She told the operator she was trying to reach the kidnappers before they cleared the drive gate to her house. “I’m going to leave the line open, but please don’t say anything,” Eva said, “They may hear you.”

  As she approached the drive gate, Eva veered off the footpath, staying out of sight as she made her way through the trees and bushes. The truck was stopped in front of the closed gate. She had a side view, on the driver’s side. The two men from the cab were standing by the gate, shaking it.

  Unlike a typical residential drive gate, this one was made of self-rusting Cor-Ten steel plate over a Cor-Ten frame. When the two-way lock was engaged, heavy steel pipes jammed both ends of the gate. With concrete filled Cor-Ten posts at each end and tank trap rails angling off to the trees on both sides, the gate was designed to take whatever punishment a car or truck could give.

  Eva listened as the two men argued. Thank God my Spanish is still good, she thought.

  Her problem was what to do with three men and Dan in the back of the truck. Be cautious using shotguns in your house. They can over-penetrate and kill your kids in another room, she remembered the instructor saying. She decided to stay out of sight and wait for the police.

  A few minutes later, the driver tried to force the truck through the gate. “Fuck this,” the driver said in Spanish. “We can’t stay here. Let’s go back to the house. We can take him down to the lake and hot wire the boat we saw when we brought in the yard bags last night. If we can’t get it started, we can hide out by the shoreline until we can get picked up.”

  Ah, so that’s why the sensors went off last night, Eva thought. Wasn’t a coyote.

  “That’s crazy,” the man from the passenger seat said. “We need to go. Let’s leave him and the truck. We can try again.”

  “You want to tell Ramos we failed? Go ahead. You do that. I like staying alive. We go to the house while we still can.”

  The driver got in the cab and started a three-point maneuver to turn the truck around. The other man jumped back into the passenger seat.

  As the truck turned and backed toward the bushes where Eva was hiding, the man in the pickup bed yelled and banged on the rear window of the cab. “Hey, hey, somebody’s in the woods behind the truck. It’s a woman with a gun. No shit, she’s got a shotgun.”

  The driver jammed on the brakes, which threw the man in the back down into the pile of bags that included Dan. Eva saw the man fall but didn’t see whether he had a gun. The tailgate of the truck was only ten or twelve feet away.

  The man clambered to his feet with a pistol in his hand just as Eva saw the driver’s door swing open. Eva stood and raised the shotgun at the man’s chest. Jamming the stock tight against her shoulder, she fired. The #00 buckshot exploded out of the 12-guage, driving eight steel pellets through the man’s chest and slamming him back against the cab. Even with the managed-recoil shells, Eva was momentarily stunned by the noise and the force on her shoulder. Fortunately, the driver was also stunned. He slammed the door closed and pulled the truck forward to complete his turn. As he tried to pull around, the
front of the truck wedged against a small tree, forcing the driver to back up again to get the clearance he needed. This put the passenger side closest to Eva.

  As the driver backed up, Eva watched as the passenger side window descended and a pistol came out and fired. The round went into the woods beside her. Acting on instinct, Eva aimed the shotgun at the open window and fired from 25 feet away. The pistol fell to the ground as the #00 pellets slammed into the side of the passenger’s head, blowing brains, blood and bone across the cab onto the driver. Two of the pellets ricocheted into the driver’s right shoulder and neck, just missing his carotid artery.

  Bleeding but conscious, the driver opened his door and fell onto the driveway. Eva saw the door open, but lost sight of the driver. Lying down on the ground, she looked under the truck and saw him slumped on the driveway. She lay still, watching him. Where the hell are the police, she thought. She raised her watch to her face and said, “911, are you still there?”

  “Yes, Ma’am, Mrs. Johnson. Are you OK? The police are coming up your driveway now.” Thank God, she thought. She told them where she was and where the driver was.

  “What about the other two men,” the 911 operator asked.

  “They’re both dead, I think. My husband’s still in a bag in the back of the truck. He may need an ambulance.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Blocked by the drive gate, the two police officers climbed through the tank guard fence with their weapons drawn. One yelled, “Police. Mrs. Johnson, we see you. Are you OK?”