by Evan Graver
It was Barry’s turn to laugh. “I know. So am I. Meet me in a half-hour.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ryan retrieved a stack of cash from a hiding spot above Windseeker’s engine to pay the hacker and locked the cabin door. He took a cab up the hill to the rental house and told the driver to wait while he went inside to fetch Oscar.
The Venezuelan lay on the couch with his arm over his face.
“You awake?” Ryan asked, nudging Oscar’s foot.
Oscar lowered his arm.
“We’re going to see my hacker friend. Apparently, he lives on St. Thomas.”
“You didn’t know this?”
Ryan led the way to the cab. “Nope, but he promised he has the information we need.”
They climbed into the full-sized van, and Ryan gave the man the address. The driver put the van in gear and headed for their destination.
Barry’s house sat in a wooded area at the western end of the island, surrounded by thick stands of trees and uncut brush. The narrow road ended at a stamped concrete driveway that sloped to the front of the dwelling. Ryan and Oscar stepped through a metal gate set into an eight-foot-high fence that enclosed a courtyard filled with vibrant and well-tended flowerbeds. The sidewalk led to the rear of the property and a wide patio with an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. At the far end was a massive outdoor stone fireplace under a pergola.
Before the patio was another gated arch, and a chime sounded as Ryan walked under it. A voice came through a speaker, telling him to leave his pistol on the small table beside the gate. Ryan glanced up to see a video camera and wondered how the man had known he was carrying a gun.
He set his Walther on the table as the voice admonished him. “Ah, ah, ah—the pocketknife, too, Weller.”
Ryan placed his CRKT tactical folding knife beside the gun. A shapely brunette in a blue bikini top and khaki shorts came out of the house. The first thing Ryan noticed besides her incredible body was the Walther CCP M2 in her hand.
At least she has excellent taste in handguns, he thought.
The brunette guided them to a spiral staircase leading up to the second-story porch. They followed her through a set of French doors into a large open room with windows all around, giving a 360-degree view of the surrounding property, even though the shades were partially drawn.
A man sat at a modern glass-and-steel desk with a single computer monitor resting on it. In the center of the room was a long table with a glass top. The hacker occupied the only chair in the room.
As his guests entered, Barry stood and walked over to the table. He was of average height and carried a few pounds of extra weight around his midsection. His black hair was spiked, and he had a leather cuff bracelet on his right wrist and a silver chain bracelet on his left. He also wore shorts, sandals, and a T-shirt that advertised a heavy metal band.
Barry motioned to Oscar. “Who’s this guy?”
“Oscar López. He’s a Venezuelan Marine.” Ryan stepped over beside Barry and looked down to see his passport photo and details being displayed on the computer screen integrated into the table’s glass surface. Oscar’s picture was beside his, pinpointed with facial recognition nodals but with no name registered in the database.
Barry tapped a button and their pictures disappeared from the screen. “You got the money?”
Ryan pulled the envelope from his back pocket and tossed it onto the glass. “It’s all there. But I’m sure you counted it as I walked in.”
A smile ghosted across Barry’s lips. He slipped the band off the money and laid the bills out in neat stacks until he’d fully accounted for every dollar, then gathered the cash into one large stack again and said, “Pleasure doing business with you.” He handed the money to the woman, who stepped out of the room with it. Barry watched her go and smiled. “My business associate, Carmen.”
“We’re not done,” Oscar said.
Barry winked at him. “Now that I have the horse, you can have the cart.”
“What were you so worried about on the phone?” Ryan asked.
“Look, your number corresponds with an account at Citizens RBG, a boutique bank in Panama City. It’s a ridiculously small firm with less than five employees, but they handle millions of dollars. It’s a classic money laundering set-up.” He tapped the screen and an image of a tall building appeared. From it, lines shot out in multiple directions, forming a spider’s web. Barry manipulated the screen with his fingers and the image grew smaller as a map of the world appeared behind it. The lines bounced through every major city on the globe.
“What is this?” Oscar asked.
“This is the shitstorm I was telling Ryan about,” Barry replied. “When I entered that account number into the bank’s system, I tripped every trigger known to man. The bank’s security features locked me out.” He tapped the globe. “Those lines are people pinging my tracks.”
“The question is, will they find you, Señor Barry?” Oscar asked.
“Hell no. I took my system offline as soon as I was done. I’m monitoring them through a server farm in Norway.”
“You have servers here?” Ryan asked.
“Right now, they’re air-gapped.” Seeing Oscar’s puzzled look, Barry added, “My computers don’t have any wireless features. So, when I unplug the Internet, the computers aren’t connected to the outside world. When I go live again, I’ll fabricate a different IP address for somewhere in … oh, I don’t know … say, Russia.”
“You can do that?” Oscar said.
“Easy as pie.”
Ryan pointed to the table where the spiderweb continued to grow. “How is this running if you’re offline?”
“A magician never reveals his secrets.” He smiled at Carmen, who had returned to stand beside the glass-topped computer table.
“Let’s get back to why we’re here,” Oscar said. “The bank shut you out? I thought you were a good hacker?”
Barry fake laughed. “Ha ha. You think you’re a wise guy, huh? Yes, the bank shut me out, and yes, I got back in, but the guys back tracing me will find me if I go at it again, and there’s no way in hell I’ll let them send a hit team after my ass.”
“Any idea who set the tripwire?” Ryan asked.
The hacker held up a finger. “That’s the interesting part. You’ll want to talk to a lawyer who works for the bank and set up the account.”
“What’s his name?” Oscar asked.
“Vincente Emilio Valdez. I made a file for you with everything I could gather on him.” Barry retrieved a manila folder from his desk. “I know you knuckle draggers think better with a piece of paper in your hand.” He handed it to Ryan. “Our business has now concluded. You may leave.”
Ryan tapped the folder against his thigh and eyed the hacker. “Keep your phone on.”
With a frown, Barry said, “It’ll cost you.”
“How would you like to be neighbors, Bare?” Ryan asked. “I thought I saw a ‘For Sale’ sign down the road a bit.”
The hacker’s face blanched.
“Seriously, do you know a good realtor on the island?”
“Yeah,” Barry mumbled. “Let me get her card.”
Ryan took the business card that Barry pulled from a desk drawer, and Carmen escorted them back to the garden. Ryan put his gun back in its holster and returned his knife to his pocket. He rapped a knuckle against the thick garden wall. He guessed there was a full body scanner mounted inside the archway.
They rode back to the house in silence, finding that Mango, Jennifer, and Emily had returned.
Emily cocked her head as Ryan walked into the living room. “I know that look, Weller. Where are you going?”
“Panama.”
“I’m in, bro,” Mango said.
Ryan looked past him to Jennifer, who nodded her head. He didn’t agree with her, but he’d talk to Mango privately. He left the folder with Oscar and stepped to the Langstons’ bedroom. Paul was lying on the bed, watching TV.
“I need docume
nts for Oscar. Driver’s license, passport, that sort of thing. Do you know anyone who can do it?”
“There’s a guy named Luis in Mandahl. I’ll call him.”
Ryan handed him his phone, and after Paul made the introductions, Ryan told the man what he needed. After getting off the phone, he took a photo of Oscar and texted it to Luis.
“We’ll have a full set of docs for you tomorrow,” he told Oscar, then turned to Scott. “When is the plane coming for you?”
“Ten hundred.”
Ryan nodded and stepped outside into the warm evening air. The sun was setting, and the boaters had put their toys away, leaving the bay looking like a flat mirror, reflecting the sky. He thumbed the call button for Greg Olsen.
Greg came on the line after two rings. “Let me guess. You need to borrow Scott for a bit longer?”
“No. I’m going to Panama. I’d like to ride on your plane when it comes to pick up Scott, but I need to leave later in the day.”
“I don’t see that being a problem.”
“Good. I’ll have Mango and three extra passengers with me.”
“Want to tell me what this is about?”
Ryan asked, “Are you still in Bluefields?”
“Yeah, I’m stuck here, trying to cut through the red tape. It’s like quicksand; the harder you work to get through it, the worse it gets.”
“Better you than me, buddy. Can I borrow Rick and Dark Water when I get there?”
“See? You ask me stuff like that and you pique my curiosity. I want to know details.”
“Big Brother has his ears on.”
“I get that,” Greg said. “I’ll see you when you get here.”
“Thanks again.” As Ryan ended the call, Mango leaned against the fence beside him.
“I’m going with you,” Mango said.
Ryan shook his head. “No.”
Mango gripped the fence and leaned closer to Ryan. “I’m going with you. You need my help.”
“That’s what Rick and Oscar are for. You don’t need to get involved in this.”
Mango stared out across the bay, his jaw clenched, and his brow furrowed. “I’m already involved.”
“Look,” Ryan said, “you need to think about Jennifer and your business. You’re out of danger now that the bounty is gone. Go and live your life.”
“I need it, bro. I need the action.”
“No. You don’t.”
“And neither do you.” Mango turned and thrust a finger against Ryan’s chest. “I’m going with you, whether you like it or not.”
“No,” Ryan said emphatically.
“You couldn’t stop me from going into Mexico with you, and you can’t stop me now.”
Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He let it out slowly, picturing the flames burning through his anger and trying to ignore the tip of Mango’s finger digging into his breastbone. “I promised Jennifer that I would end the bounty and that you would be safe after that. Don’t make me a liar, Mango.”
“You made yourself a liar by making promises you can’t keep.” The shorter man shoved Ryan hard in the shoulder and stalked into the house.
Ryan rubbed his face with his hands. He wasn’t going to let Mango give up all the wonderful things he had just to run into a firefight because he needed the adrenaline rush. The sad thing was that he and Mango were two of a kind, and while Ryan was willing to put his ass on the line for the Langstons and Oscar, he didn’t want Mango to do the same. He had a wife, a business, and …
It was the same stuff Ryan wanted. What a knucklehead he was for telling Mango not to do the very thing he was doing.
He walked into the house and looked around at the somber faces. It was always tough when friends argued, but it was more difficult when they did it in front of everyone. “Where is he?”
Jennifer pointed down the hall.
Ryan walked to the room and knocked on the door. “Open up, dude.”
The door opened a moment later.
He entered the room, closed the door behind him, and sat on the bed. After rubbing his neck and making a few false starts, Ryan finally said, “I’m a hypocrite, bro. I’m telling you not to get involved, yet I’m sticking my neck out for a guy I barely know.”
“Yeah. I get it.”
“We’ve got the dream in our hands, man, and if we keep riding off into the sunset to chase bad guys, we’re going to lose the dream or lose our lives. I know you’re a solid operator, and there have been so many times I wished you were there with me, but I wanted to protect you and Jennifer at the same time.”
“I get it, bro. I’m a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Ryan paused. “Shit. ‘Talk about your feelings,’ Emily says. Well, I’m feeling this will turn sour. We’re dealing with Venezuelans of the nastiest kind, and I know how they treat their prisoners. I just don’t want you to have to go through the same shit I went through down there.”
“It always goes pear-shaped, bro,” Mango said, sitting beside his friend. “The best laid plans go out the window when the bullets start flying.”
“And fly they will, Mango, because they already have. Someone killed a Marine Special Forces team to keep their secrets, and we’re over here poking the bear.”
“That’s why you need someone with my skill set. Someone who can reach out and touch them from a distance.”
“Will that same person tell me he saved my ass again?”
“Of course. What are friends for?”
Ryan chuckled and shook his head at the running joke. “We fly for Panama tomorrow afternoon. Talk it over with Jenn and see what she says.”
“Green light, bro. The ladies talked about it while we were out today. Apparently, I’m supposed to cover your sweet-looking six.” He made air quotes around ‘sweet-looking.’
“Never say that again.”
Mango suddenly turned serious. “Sure. Do me a favor, though? Don’t ever tell me I can’t come along on a job. That’s my decision, not yours.”
“Agreed. I was just trying to keep you and Jennifer out of harm’s way.”
“I know, bro, and I appreciate it, but it’s not necessary.”
Ryan grinned. “If that’s the way you feel, then let’s go get a beer. We have a mission to plan.”
Chapter Fifteen
Panama City, Panama
Ryan and Oscar waited in Vincente Valdez’s twenty-first-story apartment. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors, they could see the Pan-American Highway stretching across the waters of Panama Bay to the suburb of Costa del Este, where Valdez worked for Citizens RBG. Both men wore gloves and thin balaclavas. They’d made a careful survey of the apartment, looking for safes or other places Valdez might have hidden paperwork, but neither man had found anything unusual. Undeterred, they waited for the lawyer to return home.
Arriving in Colón a week ago, they’d driven across the narrow Isthmus of Panama in a rental van and spent their time shadowing Valdez and detailing his movements. Now, they were ready to take him off the street and interrogate him.
Ryan checked his watch. Valdez normally returned to the apartment around seven in the evening, after having dinner.
“Hey, guys? We’ve got a problem,” Mango said over their communications equipment. Each had a Bluetooth earpiece connected to Panamanian burner phones they’d bought with cash as soon as they’d arrived in the country. Mango and Rick were waiting in a Toyota HiAce minivan in the parking lot.
“What’s the matter?” Ryan asked.
“Your boy has a lady friend with him,” Mango said.
“Okay, everyone hang tight,” Ryan said. “Let’s let this play out.”
Oscar gave Ryan a questioning look.
A few minutes later, the front door opened, and Valdez and his woman stepped inside the apartment. He didn’t turn on the lights but pressed her against the wall as the door closed and kissed her deeply. Then they began tearing off each other’s
clothes.
Ryan and Oscar could have been standing in the middle of the living room with spotlights shining on them, and neither of the lovers would have seen them as they made their way to the bedroom. From his position behind the sofa, Ryan could see them making love on the bed.
“What’s going on?” Mango asked.
“Valdez is getting a blowjob,” Ryan whispered. “Do you want me to live stream it for you?”
“Actually, yes, get us a feed.” Rick said. “We could use it as leverage.”
Ryan pulled a GoPro camera from his pack and aimed it at the couple in the bedroom.
Twenty minutes passed before the woman got up from the bed, went to the bathroom, then gathered her clothes from the floor. As she pulled on her silky black underwear, Valdez shrugged into a robe and begged her to stay. She slipped the dress over her shoulders and settled it around her hips before he zipped it up for her. Ryan and Oscar remained crouched behind the sofa.
“I have to go, lover,” the woman said as she kissed Valdez.
“Please stay, Maria,” he begged. “I love you.”
“You know I can’t.” She kissed him again and stepped out the door.
Oscar had a syringe of lorazepam in his hand and he glanced at Ryan, who held up a finger, telling him to wait. They watched as Valdez walked to the kitchen and drank a glass of water before heading back to the bedroom. As he passed the sofa, Ryan rose from his hiding spot, grabbed the lawyer around the waist, and covered his mouth with his free hand. Oscar jammed the needle into Valdez’s neck.
The lawyer struggled for a moment before the drug kicked in. Ryan had ordered a low dosage so the man would be compliant but not completely knocked out. As Valdez sagged to the floor, he mumbled something.
Ryan leaned closer, prying Valdez’s eyelids open. The dilated pupils stared back at him.
“Don’t hurt me,” Valdez muttered.
Oscar helped Ryan get the lawyer to his feet and they hooked his arms over their shoulders.
“Coming out,” Ryan said.
“Roger that,” Rick said. “The security cameras are off.”
