Sabotage: A Reece Culver Thriller - Book 2

by Bryan Koepke

  The car merged into the left lane. From what Julian could see, it looked like three people, with a man and a woman in the front. He looked down at the parking lot below and spotted a white police car with blue markings, Denver Police Department, but no ambulance. That meant Rhodes was either dead, hiding somewhere in the building, or wounded and lying in that car.

  He ran back to the stairwell, preparing to shed the coat, but then he thought about the guns, and decided to keep it on. Sweat was pouring off his forehead. The altitude was catching up with him. He thought about the cops. If he was lucky there’d only be one or two of them, and once inside the elevator he’d be able to egress the building.

  *

  Julian stood behind several large potted plants in the lobby. The green plastic leaves were interspersed with yellow and red flowers, and from a distance they almost looked real. If anyone spotted him between the plants and the wall, it would be obvious he was hiding, but it was the best he could do. He heard someone entering the building. Two policemen, one tall with thick black hair, talked loudly into a hand-held radio. The other, leading the way, was shorter and a little older. They had a look of grim determination that Julian didn’t like.

  He’d had nightmares of his long and illustrious career going bad like this. All these years of preparing for jobs, stacking all the cards in his favor, and then he takes on some half-assed high-paying gig and that’s the one that ends him. Yet this wasn’t going to be the end here. He’d checked his weapons on the way down from the twenty-fifth floor and he was ready for anything.

  The elevator doors opened and the taller one got in, the second guy followed. Then, he stopped and looked right toward Julian, who had just walked out from behind the fake plants. Julian watched in his peripheral vision until he saw the elevator doors close.

  Now to track down his gallivanting prey.

  Chapter 44

  The doors to the elevator kissed, then popped open, and then shut again on the twenty-third floor. Reece felt the downward motion of the car and was glad to be surrounded by four walls of steel during the decent. They were leaving the apartment, but he knew they weren’t safe. He thought about the shots into the apartment. They’d be easy targets down in the wide open space of the parking lot to that same marksman.

  “Okay, here’s the plan when we get down to the lobby. I want the three of you to stay inside the building until I pull my car up to the curb. I’ll be driving the green Pontiac. The shooter is still out there, and I’m guessing you and Candice are the targets,” Reece said, pointing toward Karl Rhodes, who was still holding one of the kitchen towels against the side of his head. The man looked disjointed to Reece, almost as if he might collapse. “When you see me, wave. I want all three of you to race to the car, get in, and get down. Got it?”

  Marie gave him a nod and he felt the warmth of her hand on his arm as she sidestepped toward him. Karl and Candice stood in the front of the elevator. It slowed and then came to a soft cushioned stop on the lobby floor. The doors opened and Reece pushed past them. He looked both ways as he emerged, expecting gunfire.

  The floor was full of people milling around excitedly, as if they’d heard the sound of the shots, but once they had fled to the lobby, they weren’t sure where to go from there. He wasted no time heading for his car parked out in the lot. Once past the circular turnstile entry doors he trained his eyes on the horizon and his mind on what the shooter might do next. For all he knew, the guy was already in the building and on his way up to the twenty-fifth floor. That would be better than having him hanging out of a window with a high-powered rifle zeroing in.

  With his hand slightly trembling from the strain of feeling exposed, he shoved the key into the door lock of his 1970 Pontiac GTO and jumped in. The car started with the first turn of the key with a gentle rumble—that sound always brought joy to him. Reece shifted into reverse and eased the car out of the parking place, then circled under the entrance awning to collect his guests.

  “Dammit,” Reece said as Candice and Karl walked at a leisurely pace across the lawn in front of the building. He waited impatiently as they piled into the back of his car. He was quickly losing his composure, wanting to ask why they hadn’t followed his directions, but he knew it was useless. These weren’t the kind of people that were used to being told what to do. They were clueless, and if they didn’t do some thinking they’d soon be dead.

  “I like this car,” Karl uttered, speaking his first words since coming too on the kitchen floor. “Did you buy it used or—?”

  “It was my father’s,” Reece said, cutting him off. “I got the car as part of my inheritance.”

  The shrill ring of a cell phone interrupted them. Reece glanced up toward the rearview mirror and watched as Candice reached down to the floorboard.

  “Don’t answer that.”

  “I’ve got to, it may be work,” she said.

  “If you want me to keep you alive, you won’t answer,” Reece yelled, turning toward her, and in doing so yanking the steering wheel sideways.

  “Watch it,” Marie yelled.

  Reece turned his attention back toward the road and pulled the car to the right, just missing the side of a utility truck in the left lane on the highway they were following south.

  “Oh, Okay then,” Candice whined as the phone continued to play her personal ringtone. It was a song by Adele.

  “Marie, give me everyone’s cell phones, pagers, tablets. Anything electronic,” Reece said. “Hand them all over.”

  He pulled his foot off the gas pedal and eased off C-470 and onto Morrison Road. He turned into a gas station and took a parking spot on the far right side of the lot. Reaching toward Marie’s knee, he turned the chrome knob to open the glove box. There were three cell phones. The two from Candice and Karl were thicker than the one he’d taken from Marie. He pried the black plastic rear covers off Karl and Candice’s Android smart phones, and then pulled out the batteries and SIM cards, knowing without them the devices would be dead. He was acting on a feeling he’d had since the shots back at the apartment. Someone had tracked them all the way from London, across the Atlantic Ocean, to an apartment in Denver, but how?

  He stowed the SIM cards beside a stack of maps that had filled the glove box since the day he’d inherited the car. The batteries went into the armrest between the front seats. He saw Marie pulling the battery and SIM card from own her cellphone and was pleased. She was the only one in this whole bunch worth a damn.

  “Okay, it’s obvious that the guy who shot at Karl is tracking us. When we were in London a few days ago, somebody took a shot at us in his Jaguar,” Reece said.

  “Karl, is that true?” Candice said, alarmed.

  “It is, but we’re in good hands.” Karl looked over at Reece, but he wasn’t in the mood for useless flattery. This wasn’t some corporate luncheon they were on, where everybody could make nice.

  “There’s a very good chance we’re being tracked via your cell phones. From now on they stay in the glove box and I’ll keep the batteries in the arm rest,” Reece said.

  “But what if I need to be in contact with my office?” Candice said.

  “What, are you stupid or something?” Marie said. “Didn’t you just hear what he said?”

  Reece left the car and went into the gas station’s convenience store.

  “When are we going to ditch this guy?” Candice said to the others. “I’ve never met anyone so rude.”

  “He just saved your life back there at the condo,” Marie said. “If anyone has been rude, it’s been you. I still can’t believe what you did. What both of you did..”

  “You’re right, Marie,” Karl said, interrupting. “We should be grateful to Mr. Culver for saving our lives.”

  “God damn you, Karl Rhodes, what is wrong with you?” Marie said. “You always have to interrupt. Have to change the subject. Can’t you for once listen to what I have to say?”

  Marie opened the door, got out, and slammed it shut behind. She ran to t
he front of the gas station with her hands against the sides of her head.

  *

  Reece paid the clerk, picked up the bag of medical supplies, and thought about the scene back at the condo from which they’d just fled. He spotted Marie on the sidewalk out in front. Her back was to him, and she was facing toward his green Pontiac. Reece pulled his phone out and found the number for Haisley.

  “Culver, it’s about time you called. Is everything all right?” Haisley said.

  “Well, it is now,” Reece said, thinking about the attempt on Karl’s life. “Whoever it was that tried to nail Karl back in London has followed us here.”

  Haisley was instantly worried. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine. Rhodes got a little bullet graze, but other than that I think he’ll survive. How about you? What happened at the secret factory you found? I got your voicemail and then the phone went dead,” Reece said. “Next time call me and let me know you’re safe.”

  “Sorry about that. I had to run for it. A couple of dogs showed up just as I was on my way into the drone hanger. That place is guarded like Fort Knox. It definitely has a military flavor. I don’t know who’s behind it at Draecon, but they are definitely working on something that someone doesn’t want seen,” Haisley said.

  “Did you get eyes on the hardware?” Reece said.

  “No, there wasn’t anything to see other than the outside of a big hanger, but if they are building a drone, there are at least two areas they could use as a runway.

  “Are you planning to go back?” Reece said.

  “Yeah, I’d like to come up with a way to get inside of that place, but without your help it may take some time to figure out how to go about it solo.”

  “Okay, then. Keep your head down. The way things are going here, I might need you to get on a plane and come help me,” Reece said.

  *

  Once inside the car, it was dead silent, and he knew they’d been talking about him. Probably bitching about their damned phones. If I don’t have my up-to-the-minute stock quote, I’ll be lost…

  He reached into the bag and tore the indelible marker out of its plastic and cardboard housing. Opening the glove box, Reece pulled out the stack of SIM cards and with the black marker he wrote their initials on the back of each card, indicating who’s phone it belonged to. Then he handed the bag over the seat to Candice. “There’s some first aid equipment in here. Bandage his head.”

  “Oh, so I get to play nurse,” Candice said sarcastically as she reached into the bag and emptied the contents onto her lap.

  Marie flung open her door and just as hard she tore open the back door. “Don’t touch him, you moron,” she said, grabbing the medical supplies off the other woman’s lap, and then pulling at her arm to get her out of the car.

  Reece watched the two women shoving and pushing one another outside the car. They yelled back and forth, but Marie was not going to be turned aside from her mission. Then they switched places with Marie getting into the backseat with Karl and Candice sliding into the front seat. Marie tore open one of the bandages and, using great care, she smoothed antiseptic ointment onto the scrape before covering it with the bandage.

  Reece let out a silent sigh. Marie’s lust for him was no match for her jealousy about her former husband. Reece couldn’t think of a single thing that was going right on this trip.

  “Oh, that feels much better, dear,” Karl said.

  Reece pretended not to notice as Candice reached over the seat and gave Karl a solid jab in the shoulder. What was he missing here? What did they both see in this guy?

  Chapter 45

  After a two-hour drive that traversed ninety miles of Colorado countryside running from the city to the foothills, and finally to the mountains, Reece pulled off the pavement high above the town of Breckenridge. They were at a spot he’d brought others to, and where he and his dog Manchego went on their morning walks to check the mailbox for the newspaper. Being here brought a good feeling to Reece. It was his happy place. The spot he’d come to often over the past year to rest and regroup.

  They drove the two miles down a dirt road to the entrance to his mountain cabin.

  The driveway had suffered from the past rains of early summer, and the scrape of the GTO’s undercarriage as he tried to glide over the rutted driveway reminded him that he needed to spend time doing tractor work—if he could borrow a tractor—once he relieved himself of his present predicament. Marie was fabulous, but Reece was more than done with the pompous rhetoric from the other two taking up the backseat of his 1970 muscle car.

  As soon as he could dump them, and have a free conscience about doing it, they’d be out of his life for good. Karl wasn’t bad. In fact, Reece liked talking cars with him and about the only thing he had against the man was the shitty way he treated his wife. Tromping around with his workmate bimbo friend, Candice Carlyle, and making out with her in the backseat of a car while the woman he once loved listened a few feet away, was enough for Reece to want to pitch him too.

  As the three of them looked around at the high mountain view to the west, Reece wasted no time unlocking the front door, going inside, and turning on the switch for the well water. Not long after, he’d built a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off. The ranch-style, cedar-sided home had a walkout basement that faced an area of pine forest. A couple of miles beyond, large mountains ran north to south, forming the Continental Divide.

  Once the GTO was parked inside the stand-alone two-car garage, he went back inside to join the others. They were camped out on his back porch. Karl and Candice sat side by side on two of the four Adirondack chairs that Reece had hand-made out of wood scraps he’d found in the garage rafters after he and his brother Raymond bought the place. Marie was on the opposite end of the forty-foot deck, staring out across the tree-covered expanse.

  Reece walked up beside her at the rail and ran a hand down her back, enjoying the feel of her firm warm flesh.

  “It’s beautiful here,” she said in her soft French accent.

  “My brother Raymond and I bought it with the money from our inheritance after we lost Mom,” Reece said. He felt himself flush almost as if on cue. He reached up toward his eyes, but no tears had come this time.

  “I’m sorry you had to lose your parents at such a young age, Reece. Sometimes it seems like life isn’t so fair.”

  “This cabin makes up for it, at least in part. I try to get up here at least every other weekend in the summer, and we come skiing in the winter,” Reece said.

  “Are you close to your brother Raymond?”

  “Sometimes,” Reece said, knowing he felt closer to his brother’s wife, Gwen, and the two boys than to his own brother. Growing up in the shadow of his older brother’s sports career had been tough, but now that both of his parents were gone Raymond was all the family he had left.

  For the time being, it was an ideal hideout until he figured out what to do next.

  Chapter 46

  Alex James entered the hangar, surprised to find it empty. All that remained was a stack of wrenches lying on a toolbox. He turned in a half circle, looking at the expansive space, and wondered what had become of the drones. Just then he felt the buzz of his cellphone in the breast pocket of his black pinstripe suit jacket. He hadn’t had time to change since leaving Draecon.

  “Yes,”

  “I see you’re here,” Professor Nevius said.

  “I am. Where are the drones?”

  “We moved everything down,” Nevius said.

  “Down? I didn’t know there was a down.”

  “Yeah, see the old door that looks like it leads into that small office in the southeast corner? Go to it. Once there you’ll see a doorbell to the right of the knob,” Nevius said, ending the call.

  Alex walked across the hangar and could see that someone, a long time past, had framed out a six-by-six meter room. The ceiling was flat, and as he reached the door, a group of white birds fluttered into the air letting out a squawk. He pr
essed the small circular black button. He heard a buzz and felt the doorknob in his hand turn.

  Once inside, he took a few steps down the dark, narrow hallway. Stairs descended down toward a landing and then turned to the right. Alex stopped eyeing the darkness ahead and pulled his cellphone out. With a swipe the flashlight app of his phone lit up, and he moved onward down twenty or so steps until he came to a second landing. At the door the beam of his light exposed a pair of legs.

  “Mr. James. We haven’t had time to install lighting. I’m glad you came,” Nevius said as he led him through a second doorway into a brightly lit corridor that led to what looked like an army barracks. The walls were painted gray over concrete brick.

  “How did you get them down here?” Alex said.

  “There’s a lift in the center of the hangar floor up above. It’s left over from the war when the RAF used this base.”

  “A lift. Why didn’t I see any sign of it?” Alex said.

  “We caulked and repainted the floor last night,” Nevius said.

  “Why all of this? Why now?” Alex said.

  “We had something pop up on that journalist’s computer. Mira doesn’t know who it is, but they seem to have found some of the documents that were hidden,” Nevius said.

  “How did that happen,” Alex said, raising his voice. “See, it’s just like I told you before. These are the kinds of things that sneak up and bite you in the ass.”

  “You did, sir. And I listened. That’s why we moved down here. It’s okay. The threat has passed. We’ve taken steps to ensure nothing gets in the way of our work, sir.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Alex said as he took a seat in front of the other man’s desk. There was a silver date calendar with twin pens and an ashtray. The entire arrangement on the man’s desk looked like something out of the 1970s.

  “If you’ll look at the calendar, you’ll see that we are making great progress toward the date of the attack,” Nevius said.