Body Count

by mike Evans

  “Crystal sir, I will start working through them now in our federal database and see what pops up. Anything else that you can think of that we need to look into sir?”

  “Rewind your tape or videos or whatever the hell they are using. You look and see where this boy went before he came back to our office. There is a strong chance that if someone took two shots like that, that there was a serious reason why it took place and happened. The man knew that he was taking a hell of a chance purposely taking shots into our office. You need to connect the dots. Christ, if you’ve been out of it for too long, say the word and I’ll find someone that doesn’t have quite your years on to do it, maybe we can get answers before the questions really start to come in. I'm not going to get my ass chewed because you guys fucked up. I mean you really fucked up. It amazes me that this kind of shit happened, didn’t we up the security on the building, didn’t we put in all those extra cameras?”

  “Cameras over men aren’t always the best thing sir. Those cameras will record everything but they aren’t going to do what eyeballs can sir.”

  “Howard, how goddamn hard did you hit your head today? You aren’t making any sense at all.”

  “What I'm saying sir is that you could have five hundred cameras, but if you don’t have someone monitoring those cameras constantly then what good are they going to be other than being used as evidence later?”

  “Howard, I'm sorry but are you trying to say that this is my fault? Because if you are, you and I are going to have one serious come to Jesus meeting.”

  Howard got his head back into the game and switched topics. “You know that I would never go there sir. Look, I'm running his prints through right now, and it is coming back sir with answers, but it’s out of my clearance level. What class would be out of my level?”

  “Anything above your pay grade Howard. All you need to do is send it to me and I’ll get you the information that you need. You keep your distance from him and make sure that you don’t let him get out until we know what is going on. Do you understand that, do you have any questions about it?”

  “The last thing that we want to do is get within a foot of him. I just sent you the prints if you can get us information ASAP, that would be the best sir.”

  “You just head up there with your boys and see what you can find out. You don’t have to tell them what is going on. They don’t need to know what is in his past until we decide they need to know. Now get your ass up there before it is too late ok?”

  Howard got up from his seat saying, “I am on my way there now sir. You can buzz me up there if you have any questions. I will have my cellular on me as well.”

  Chapter

  Five

  Howard rose from his desk and then sat back down for a second. He thought of the man and the look in his eyes. He would not underestimate the stranger twice. He didn’t know who had trained him but whoever it was knew for sure what they were doing. He waited until the spins in his head quit and got up a second time. He went by the infirmary and checked on his men. He saw Derek and Gordy sitting in infirmary beds and being worked on. He said, “Are either of you going to be able to question this guy or are you going to need to go to the real hospital?”

  Gordy looked up from his bed and said, “Just give me a couple minutes and get me a pair of crutches will you?”

  Howard walked in, examined him and said, “Jesus you guys look like shit. If you need to go see a real doctor, it would be one of the few times that I would say that I understood. I’m not feeling a hundred percent myself but you guys look a long way off from it.”

  Derek said, “I’d like to see him try that again.”

  “I don’t think you could handle a second round with this guy Derek,” Howard said.

  Derek stared across the room at the mirror and could see the shadows already appearing around his eyes. He was not looking forward to coming up with an excuse when he had to try and explain to his wife what had happened. Derek knew that she was perfectly happy with him taking a desk job and that his current position and the risk pay which he got did little to impress her. He rose up from the bed knowing the next day was going to be one where he was going to feel at least ten years older.

  Howard grabbed two crutches from the wall for Gordy and the three men slowly made their way to the elevator. By the time that they got there, they were ready and had their game faces on. Howard said, “You boys let me do the speaking in there. We know nothing about this guy, and he doesn't know what charges, if any, will be brought upon him, or if we are going to just drop him into the black abyss without explanation or trial. Let him think the worse and we can go from there.”

  The two men nodded and when the doors parted they made their way across the interrogation floor. They walked along, looking upon rooms that had lights on. Some were filled with witnesses or criminals being interrogated. Each of them were equipped with two way mirrors, making it easy to walk the length of the rooms without the third party being wise to when or if someone was watching them. When they made it to the end of the hallway, they went past the men who had finally taken down the stranger. Howard held out a hand, shaking Captain Connett's. He was the same man that Gabriel had let know he would kill one day soon. Howard said, “You guys really saved our asses. My boss is pretty pissed about the circumstances of today and the idea of this piece of shit getting back out on the streets after doing that would not say very much for our department. That’s probably the easiest way to lose your budget, to have a facility that people can break in and out of as wanted.”

  The captain shook his hand and said, “We were just doing our job. You know I've had a lot of people threaten me over the years, and I really do mean a lot, but I gotta tell you, I really believed that son of a bitch when he told me that he was going to kill me. I mean, we beat the living piss out of him; most men would have been scared, crying, or passed out. All that he said was that one day he was going to take me out, and I definitely believed him.”

  Howard said, “He does not seem to be the type that would be kidding about something like that. I haven't ever seen anyone with moves like that so quickly take out so many. I sent my men into his cell thinking that they would be safe. The man was passed out, and in the blink of an eye, the son of a bitch was on his feet and on his way out of the cell towards me. He held Gordy, ready to kill him, if I didn't open the door. It was within seconds, with just the twist of the lock that he was smashing the door backwards and then was on top of me. That’s about the end of what I remembered. I woke up without shoes or a shirt and he was on his way up the stairs ready to take on anything that kept him from his freedom. I hate to say that we couldn't stop him, but whoever put this guy through training was either a genius or didn't know what they were getting the world into.”

  “So are you saying that we still don't know who this guy is? He is not in the criminal or the friendly database?”

  “As of right now, we don't have a clue who he is. When his prints came back they were out of my clearance level. I contacted Director Lincoln and asked him to look into the man's records. I do fear that there might be a chance that he is in ours. I would hate to think that he is one of our own but that might be why he was able to beat the hell out of so many of us. It’s a little fucked up, thinking that at one point in time he might have been down the hallway from one of us working and we might not have ever known it. I figure it might have been the last few presidents that took office and tried to do a cleanup on the agencies.”

  “But he took two shots at a very long distance right? I don't know how far the shots were, but from what the other men who have gone over to the building said, it was easily over a thousand yards and he pegged two people.”

  “Yes he got two of them, one was a fellow director, and the other was one of the men that had worked for him. We don't know what tie he has to them but we assume there has to be something, because we would not think that a hit man would be sent to the CIA building to take out targets. I am confident this is personal,
but we are going to treat him like anyone else until we know more. This whole thing would be a lot easier if one of the two men had survived, or if this guy is open to speaking to us. I guess we'll find out very soon, but I am sure as hell not going to hold my breath with the thought this guy is going to want to speak to us.”

  The captain patted Howard on the shoulder and said, “Well either way, just don't tell the guy that I'm out here. There's a good chance if you keep him pissed off, it's not going to do anything in your benefit to get him to talk to you. Besides, if by some chance you guys fuck up again, I don't want him coming after me today.”

  “Well Captain, your confidence in the three of us steals my breath.”

  “It doesn't have anything to do with my confidence in you. I just think that there's a good chance that guy knows a hell of a lot more than you do about how to take care of himself. Just make sure that you don't let him go. We are only going to get so many chances at keeping him here when he escapes. I think if it wasn’t for a few good knocks on the head he’d have been a hell of a lot more to deal with.”

  “Thanks again for your help. You guys stay available in case anything else bad happens.”

  “Oh I would have to say that bad would be putting it very, very, very lightly. We will be around though; we aren't going anywhere anytime soon. You call down, even if you want help just transporting him back to his cell, unless you get a green light and he doesn't go anywhere except in the ground.”

  “Fat chance that is going to happen.” Howard looked at his two men and said, “You got someone still on the inside with him?”

  The captain nodded and said, “You want to keep him in there, or you want to send them packing with us?”

  “You can take them you just make sure that you don’t go anywhere too far. Be ready for anything. He’s not getting off of this floor if he doesn’t have the key.”

  The captain said, “Do you think that you and the key, being the only way he has to get out, is a good thing or a bad thing for you?”

  Howard shrugged and said, “I don’t know? I was kind of banking on the fact that you have the guy handcuffed to a metal chair in the room is more than enough to keep him secured while we speak to him.”

  The captain shook his hand and pounded four times on the door, letting his men know to leave the interrogation room. The small group headed for the elevator to debrief and go over what they did well and what they did wrong. They were thankful they’d been on the second team or they would have had to deal with some serious conversations they were not interested in having. The first group that had been taken out had already had an intense ass chewing and had been reminded time and time again that if they had live shotgun shells on them, that they’d all be wearing toe tags at the moment and not going home to their families. They knew that Connett wasn’t joking and that the words he spoke were true.

  Howard opened the door and saw the man sitting with his arms handcuffed behind the metal chair. Derek looked for a moment and without thinking said, “He’s still out for the count.”

  Howard went to say something and Gabriel whispered, “He doesn’t learn very quickly does he? How the hell did he get a job like this? Did someone want to make sure that he dies or let me guess, he is a nephew, always a relative?”

  Derek started to retort but Gordy gripped him by the shoulder, motioning to him with a finger to shut up and be quiet until he was told that he needed to speak. When the man didn’t answer, Gabriel said, “So he isn’t in charge that is for sure. I’m guessing it is the man that was on the outside of the cell and not the future dancer.”

  Gordy’s face went red thinking of his knee and went to walk forward, but Howard gripped his shoulder, shaking his head not now. He walked around the front of Gabriel, pulled a metal chair out and said, “I’m the one that is in charge. We have got some questions for you, and if you want to get out of here, you're going to need to answer them. Do you have any questions about what I just said to you?”

  Gabriel looked up, trying to open his left eye but it was starting to swell shut, the blood from his wounds had dried where it was running down his face and neck. “That sure as hell wasn’t my Miranda rights was it?” he asked.

  “Did you read them or have them read to you? How do you know what those are anyways?”

  “Really, is that going to hold up with a judge? Well your Honor, the criminal clearly told me that they read his rights to him. You think I'm a cop? Any idiot out there knows what those are.”

  “Oh I definitely don’t think that you are a cop. I think that you were something else much darker. Is there a reason that you wouldn’t have been in the database system for fingerprints?”

  Gabriel shrugged and said, “I’m not a big computer guy. I can’t explain your issues for you. I can only assume it’s because of the upstanding jobs that I have done in my life. I have been a fair and upstanding individual my entire life, haven’t even got a parking ticket.”

  Howard slammed his hand down on the metal table and screamed, “You have got to be shitting me. Did you hit your head today? You shot two agents of the CIA!”

  “I didn’t hit my head; your fucking agents hit me in the back of the head and knocked me out, twice now! I’ve probably got a damn concussion.”

  “You’re breaking my heart. Let me guess, we need to be worried about you suing us?”

  Gabriel smiled a bit at this, but it was one that was a darkness the men didn’t get too often. He said, “You know in all actuality I was going to retire. I was out, I was done. With what, I won’t tell you, but the world or at least the pieces of shit in it, weren’t going to have nearly as much to worry about as they once did. Now that this has all started I decided to make a list. I decided to come out of retirement, and if you aren’t careful, I promise you that you are going to be on it. When I get out of here I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that I take care of whoever gets on it.”

  “You realize that isn’t how you are going to get out of here right? Making threats that you can’t keep isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

  Gabriel leaned forward until the cuffs bit into his wrist and said with confidence, “I don’t think you know me well enough to assume what I am capable of.”

  Howard rubbed his hands up and down his face, wincing when he touched where Gabriel had bruised him. “Fine, you know what; let’s start with something easy, why did you kill them? You said they took everything, what is everything, is it money, did they blackmail you?” he asked.

  Gabriel didn’t realize he’d even said it at that moment; he’d been as close to passing out as he had been to escaping. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t know anything about killing two men. Are you sure you have the right guy?”

  “Did you want me to show you the footage of you holding a rifle and taking two perfect shots, killing two men one right after another?”

  “Did you take ballistics off of the bullets already?”

  “What are you talking about? We have video of you firing your rifle two times toward the building.”

  “Do you have proof that it was my gun that struck the two men that you claim were killed?”

  “Look you son of a bitch, we know that it was you. There is no reason that this has to be difficult. I ask the question, you answer it. Maybe we will be able to help you work out a deal that will let you see sunlight again before you go gray and while your dick still works.”

  “You got any of those guys sitting outside in case I don’t cooperate? You know, some of the mean guys that are going to rough me up,” Gabriel asked.

  “So you aren’t going to cooperate, can I ask why you are making things so hard on yourself?”

  “Because I have higher priorities and staying in this place isn’t going to be one of them. You need to let me go, and I need you to do it now. It’s about the best offer I can give you.”

  Gordy laughed at this but he shut up when Gabriel and Howard both gave him the same look. They both wanted to
kill him at that exact moment, but he looked at the captive man’s face and thought that if he had the opportunity, he’d happily snap his neck. “Well we aren’t going to be letting you lose anytime soon. Why did you kill the men? Who are you, maybe that is where we need to start with, or should we wait until my boss comes back with the information? You know, you’d be cooperating something a bit extra if you just went ahead and told us,” Howard replied.

  “So what does that mean, whatever shithole you stick me in you will offer me an extra fifteen minutes in the yard a week? Other than letting me go, there isn’t anything that you can do to get me to talk. I don’t have anything that I can tell you that wouldn’t make your head spin. You have been in the new CIA for too long and you wouldn’t be able to wrap your head around what I could tell you. It’d just sound like crazy talk if I said anything.”

  “Well, why don’t you let me be the judge of that and I will figure out if I can believe you or not? I like to think that I'm a pretty opened minded guy. You never know, maybe by the time that this is done I might actually believe you and put in orders to let you leave.”

  Gabriel smiled and stared at him, tilting his head he said, “So you are either the dumb cop or the good cop right? I am not quite sure how fucking stupid you must think I am though.” Gabriel looked at the men’s hands and saw that the older two had wedding rings on. “So did you two tell your wives that you loved them before you left this morning?” he asked.

  Gordy thought of his wife Susan and puffed up his chest and said, “Why, what the fuck do you care?”

  Gabriel looked at him and replied, “Because you don’t always know when you're going to have another chance to tell someone that again. And if you don’t let me go, I'm going to get impatient and not want to ask you again.”

  “Yes and you’ll still be locked to this chair when it is all said and done. Now stop trying to intimidate us asshole and quit wasting our time. Start answering the questions that he’s asking,” Derek demanded.