by Jeff Abbott
Mitchell nodded. Stunned.
‘You broke his fingers,’ Evan said to Jargo.
‘Dezz did. He gets carried away. Mitchell didn’t tell us you were outside, though, if that’s what you’re wondering.’
‘I don’t doubt him,’ Evan said. ‘I’m sure I can trust him completely, the same way you can trust Dezz.’
‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’ Dezz said.
Evan’s gaze met Carrie’s. His back was to Dezz and Jargo and he mouthed, It’s okay.
She closed her eyes.
‘I can give you the files now,’ Evan said.
Jargo put the gun back to his head.
Evan leaned down to the decoy laptop’s keyboard. The laptop was powered on, a prompt screen awaiting the password.
Evan leaned down, typed the password, and stepped back.
‘There you go,’ Evan said.
The laptop digested the password, the prompt screen disappeared, a video application started automatically, a film file loaded into the application and ran.
‘What the hell is this?’ Jargo said.
‘Watch,’ Evan said.
The film opened with the Audubon Zoo on last Monday morning, the sky gray with the promise of rain. The camera zooming in close on Evan’s face, then Jargo’s. Jargo in full profile, talking rapidly, his cool starting to break.
Then Evan’s voice began to speak on the film. ‘That angry man in the picture is Steven Jargo. You’ve been doing business with him for a long time. You’ve hired him to kill people you don’t like, steal secrets you don’t have, commit operations that your government or your bosses don’t approve of. You may not have seen his face before – he hides behind other people – but here he is. Take a good look.’
On the screen, Jargo’s face turned toward Shadey’s hidden camera. Angry, almost frightened. Vulnerable.
‘Mr. Jargo’s operations have been compromised. He lost a list that had the name of every client who used his freelance spy network. Officials in every major intelligence agency. Government ministers. High-ranking executives. If you have received this e-mailed message, your name is on this list.’
Jargo made a noise in his throat.
Then the scene fell apart into gunfire, Evan punching Jargo, Evan and Carrie fleeing into the depths of the zoo, Jargo pulling himself up from the ground, he and Dezz giving chase.
‘Why am I alerting you to this problem?’ Evan’s voice resumed. ‘Because we value your business. Your loyalty to Mr. Jargo’s network. But every organization needs to grow to meet new challenges. Our time for change is now. I understand this may make you uneasy about conducting additional business with us.’
Dezz said, ‘You fuck.’
‘Please, have no fear,’ Evan’s voice said. ‘There is no need for you to order your intelligence services to kill Mr. Jargo. We are his associates, we have taken command of his network, and the situation is now under control. You will be contacted in the near future by a new representative of our company regarding your future business with us. Thank you for your attention.’
The screen faded as the crowd in the zoo continued to run past Shadey’s station. Then the film started again. Evan let it play. Let it work under their skin.
Jargo stood frozen. A man whose world had vanished. Dezz grabbed Evan’s throat.
‘Back down,’ Evan said. ‘I’m not done laying out the deal for you.’
‘Let him go. Let him talk,’ Jargo said in a cracked voice.
‘Your clients,’ Evan said in an even tone, ‘are powerful people who don’t want their dirty laundry aired. Maybe they’ll work with me and Dad, maybe not. They have reason to stick with the Deeps. We can hurt them, they can hurt us, but if we all hold our noses, they get what they want and we’ll make a lot of money.’
‘ We’ll? ’ Jargo said.
‘Yes,’ Evan said. ‘Dad and I are taking over the Deeps.’
48
T he only sound in the room was the looping video and the whisper of Evan’s recorded voice. Mitchell and Carrie stared at Evan, Dezz looked ready to murder, Jargo’s mouth worked as though struggling to form words.
‘That still cool with you, Dad?’ Evan called. ‘You want Jargo in or not?’
Mitchell found his voice. ‘I don’t want my brother dead. But, no, he can’t stay in command.’ Playing along with Evan, stepping into his son’s charade.
‘Okay, Dad.’ Evan gave Jargo a smile; the hardest gesture he’d ever made. ‘I’m not cutting you entirely out of the family business. I mean, if you want to retire, it’s your choice.’ He pulled Khan’s PDA out of his jacket pocket. ‘I took this from Thomas Khan. A copy of that film we’re all enjoying is also sitting on a computer, preset to e-mail in less than ten minutes. To every client. And to every Deep. Those kids you were raised with, endured hell with. I know you’ve killed at least two of them. That leaves twelve who don’t know what a piece of shit you are. They’ll find out in ten minutes.’
‘So I just hand over the reins to you?’ Jargo said.
Dezz bounced on the soles of his feet.
‘Yes, you do. Sound familiar? You pulled a similar stunt on Alexander Bast twenty-odd years ago. But I’m not killing you.’ Not yet , he thought. He gripped the PDA, willed his hand not to shake. ‘I can stop the e-mail program from scaring the shit out of your whole network and every client of yours. Only I have the key. You kill me, you hurt my dad or Carrie, the files go, and you’re history. The Deeps will hunt you. The clients will hunt you. And when they find you; you’ll be the one kicked to death.’
‘Dad,’ Dezz said in a strained voice, ‘this is absolute bullshit.’
‘I had a hacker break all of Khan’s files open for me,’ Evan said. ‘I know your name, Uncle Nikolai, I know who you are and who pays you. It’s done for you. Over.’
‘He’s lying!’ Dezz screamed.
‘Am I? I have Khan’s laptop. I have his files, his PDA, and that film footage.’ Evan narrowed his stare. ‘You messed with the wrong guy.’
‘It’s all a bluff,’ Dezz said. His reddened face sweated, he grimaced showing small white teeth.
Evan kept his gaze on Jargo, unlocked the PDA with his thumbprint. He tapped open a file on the PDA. Held it out for Jargo to read. A long list of names. Clients. Deeps.
‘Do I look,’ Evan said, ‘like I’m bluffing?’
The glow of the PDA played along Jargo’s face. He read the names. Closed his eyes. ‘What… do I have to do to get you to not send the e-mail?’
‘Put your guns on the floor. Unlock my father and Carrie. Leave. Immediately. Just go.’
Dezz raised his gun. ‘No!’
‘Kill me and it goes,’ Evan said. ‘Decide.’
‘You could still send the e-mail,’ Jargo said.
‘You’ll just have to trust me,’ Evan said. ‘Dad still wants to run the Deeps, I won’t destroy his business.’ The lie tasted fine in his mouth, with all the other lies. He held out his hand. ‘Your gun.’
Jargo said, ‘Mitchell. For God’s sake… you know I never would have hurt you. I gave you the life you wanted. The life we dreamed about. I cannot believe you would turn on me.’
‘You just broke his fingers,’ Evan said.
‘Not me. Dezz did. Dezz… did.’ Jargo took an unsteady step. ‘You’re doing this because you think I killed your mom. I didn’t. I did not.’ A stress on the I. ‘I just wanted to find out what she had taken, why she had taken it. I…’ He shuddered, uncertain in his sudden weakness.
‘Shut up and give me your gun. Eight minutes.’
Jargo handed him the gun. ‘Unlock Carrie. Unlock my dad.’
‘Do it,’ Jargo said to Dezz.
‘No way, no way, no way!’ Dezz’s voice morphed to a high shriek. ‘It’s a lie, he’s just telling us a story, it’s what he does!’
Evan aimed the gun at him. ‘Seven minutes. You want to get down the road, I imagine.’ He wanted to shoot Dezz, shoot him right through his lying eyes. But he
just wanted them gone, his father safe, Carrie safe. The police could pick them up on Alligator Alley, whether they fled back to Miami or headed northwest to Tampa.
Jargo grabbed the keys and knelt by Mitchell. Mitchell pushed himself away from the wall. In pain.
Dezz closed the laptop, cut off the reel of video, and swung the gun toward Evan. ‘Dad, this is a bad idea. He’s bluffing. There’s no wireless around here for him to connect to, to stop an e-mail.’
‘I can do it with a phone call, too,’ Evan said. ‘You’re running out of time.’
‘Dezz. Shut up.’ Jargo clicked loose the cuff that held Mitchell to the iron bar and glared at his son. ‘If not for your lack of self-control…’
Mitchell climbed to his feet, one circle of the handcuff open, the other dangling from his left wrist. He stared at his brother. Anger, hate, hurt, a kaleidoscope of emotions built over the years of deception, played across his face.
Evan saw it, keeping his gun trained on Dezz, thinking, Dad, just let them go, we’ve got the upper hand, play it out, they’re gone and we’re fine…
‘You killed my Donna,’ Mitchell said. His mouth sounded as if it were full of gravel. ‘You flew to Austin and killed her.’
Then he swung the heavy cuff.
The open circle of steel caught Jargo in the face, sliced through skin, hooked hard into his cheek. Jargo screamed. Mitchell yanked the cuff and tore his brother’s face open.
Dezz swung his gun toward them, but Mitchell spun with a kick and caught Dezz’s arm. The bullet blasted into the cypress flooring.
Evan ducked back to cover Carrie, who was still bound to the floor.
Dezz retreated to the door and fired. Twice. The first bullet caught Jargo in the back of the head as he staggered, his hooked face chained to his brother’s wrist. The second hit flesh with a wet pop as the two brothers collapsed together.
Evan fired. Dezz fell back from the doorway. Evan heard footsteps pounding in retreat, a howl of pain. Evan kept his gun trained on the door, frantic with fear for his dad. He knelt by the crumpled bodies. Jargo lay atop his father and he pulled him off. Jargo was dead, the back of his head a wet mess. Unseeing eyes bulged in disbelief.
Mitchell looked at his son. He moaned and closed his eyes. A circle of bullet gouged the middle of his shirt.
‘Evan!’ Carrie’s voice cut through the haze of shock. She pulled hard at the cuff that bound her to the floor.
‘Dad is shot-’ he started, then his head cleared. Get her loose. She could help Dad, he could go finish Dezz. If Dezz came back, he couldn’t leave her bound to the floor.
‘Jargo’s got the key,’ she said.
He found the keys under Jargo’s dead arm. He hurried to her, keeping the gun aimed at the doorway, jabbed the key into one lock. It popped free.
‘Keep aiming,’ she said. ‘I’ll open the other lock.’
‘Babe, he shot my dad.’ All the bluster, all the confidence bled out of Evan’s voice.
‘We’re… going to get help right now.’ She sat up, shaking. ‘I’m shot, Evan, he shot me in the leg.’
‘I’ll kill him,’ Evan started. She put a hand on Evan’s mouth. Silence.
‘I think he’ll run,’ she whispered.
‘I’ll get help for you and Dad. Then I’m going to go kill Dezz.’ Evan heard a coldness in his voice he had never heard before.
Carrie touched Mitchell’s throat. ‘Evan…’
All the lights went out.
49
I n the darkness Evan closed his hand over Carrie’s.
Silence again. But then a groan of the cypress staircase.
‘He’s coming back,’ Carrie whispered.
‘Is there another gun up here?’ Evan whispered.
‘I don’t know… they’d taken your dad’s when they brought him in.’
Another creak of a footfall.
Dezz. Dezz killed the power, plunged them into darkness. Evan’s PDA, abandoned on the floor, gave off the barest gleam. Evan groped for and found his father’s face. A slight trickle of breath tickled Evan’s fingers. Alive.
Another step below. Dezz was coming.
‘Can you walk?’ Evan asked.
‘Not far. Not fast.’
He fumbled along Jargo’s body and found the knife. Evan stuck it in the back of his pants, pulled his shirt out over the waist. In case he lost Jargo’s gun.
He handed her his cell phone. ‘See if you can get a signal in here. Call.’
‘I have no idea where we are.’
‘A mile or so south off Alligator Alley, Highway 29 south. Abandoned lodge on the right side of the road.’
The footsteps against the cypress stopped. Dezz inching along the carpet. Or simply waiting for them to run out into the hallway.
‘He’s coming,’ Carrie said. Evan heard the panic rise in her voice. A dim glow shone when she switched on his phone.
The bullet smacked hard into Evan’s right hand, where he held the gun, and he screamed and fell back. In the first few moments of shock there was no pain, then agony flared straight up his arm to his brain. He dropped Jargo’s gun, blood gushing from his palm.
‘Drop the phone,’ Dezz ordered, ‘or he dies.’
She obeyed.
‘I… see… you…’ Dezz called. ‘Still.’
No. Couldn’t be. But then he remembered the goggles. Dezz had worn them outside, tossed them on the counter. Dezz’s retreat was simply to douse the power and get the goggles. Lights out, with only him seeing. Heading back upstairs to kill them.
The bluff – Evan’s only way to defeat them – had failed. Gone. It was over.
His hand throbbed in pure pain. The gun was gone. He ran his other hand along his fingers. All still there, but his right hand was a pulpy mess of flesh, a hot hole in the back of his hand.
‘You… you killed my father.’ Dezz’s voice sounded disembodied in the darkness.
‘You shot him,’ Evan managed to say. The knife. He had Jargo’s knife, tucked in the back of his pants. He reached for it, then froze. Dezz could see him.
Bring him to you. Close enough to stab.
‘Dezz. Listen. We can talk, can’t we? Can’t we?’ Evan said. Let him think you’ve reached the end of the rope. Let him think you’re that scared boy again he almost killed in Austin. He pushed Carrie away from him. She tried to draw close to him but he shoved her away harder. ‘This is between you and me, Dezz.’
‘You don’t have to worry about Carrie.’ Dezz’s voice floated in the black. ‘I’m not killing Girl Scout. Yet. We’ll have a lot of quality time alone.’
Evan tested the bluff again. ‘You have to let us go, or those files break the Deeps.’
‘I’ll just start all over again. Running a network’s a hassle. I’ll do just fine on my own.’
Evan kicked himself up against a corner of the room, held out his bloody hand for mercy. Keep coming, you bastard, keep coming.
‘A guy like me, I can always find work.’ Dezz’s voice cracked. Evan heard the crinkle of an unwrapping caramel.
Evan closed his good hand around the knife.
‘But a guy like you…’ A flash of brilliance blinded Evan. The bullet struck the wall above his head. A hoot of laughter. Dezz, toying with him as he had outside. Evan put out his mangled hand, groped the wall. The gun fired again, above his head. He cowered to the floor. Begged in ragged cries for his life, thinking, He wants to play, please, God, just let him walk by Carrie and keep coming.
Gunfire erupted again. A series of flashes. Downward. The sound of bullets hitting flesh and flooring. Carrie screamed.
‘Bye now, Mitchell,’ Dezz said. Now the flash of light faded, just a repeating pattern in the black, an echo of death.
But Evan saw where the flashes were, ten feet away, a constellation burned against his eyes. Evan ran forward, the knife in his good hand, listening for a huff of breath. To his left. He stuck the knife out straight in front of him and slammed full force into Dezz.
&n
bsp; Dezz screamed. Evan flew into him. They fell to the floor. Evan brought the knife down, felt it pierce fabric and skin. Dezz screamed again.
Evan’s torn hand found the goggles and he stabbed below the lenses. Once. Twice. A fist slammed into his jaw, a hand closed around his shattered hand and twisted.
The pain was beyond reason. Crippling. But he smelled caramel, felt warm breath near his face. He raised the knife and drove it downward.
Dezz stiffened and gasped, died, the breath sliding out of him.
Evan yelled for Carrie. He unhooked the goggles from Dezz’s face and put them to his own eyes.
Eerie green. Dezz below him. Dead. He raised his head. Carrie crouched in the opposite corner, near his father. Her eyes clenched shut, then opened wide in the blackness. His father, his face gone.
Evan stared at his father in the greenish otherworldly light. ‘Carrie, it’s over…’ He staggered to Carrie and knelt before her. He put the goggles on her so she could see him. She touched his hand and started to cry.
Evan turned and placed his hand on his father’s chest. He felt the silence and closed his eyes. Behind him Carrie leaned into his back and her tears touched his shirt.
Finally he stood and helped Carrie to her feet, careful of her wounded leg. She held his injured hand tight to her chest.
Guided by the goggles, he and Carrie walked downstairs into the blackness.
TWENTY DAYS LATER
50
‘Y ou have a decision to make,’ the man said.
Evan stood on the wet sand, watching the tide dance around his feet. Carrie stood on the porch of the rental house, arms crossed, watching them.
‘I wanted to talk to you alone, Evan.’ The man was the new Bricklayer, Bedford’s replacement. ‘My proposal is simple. The film you made to bluff Jargo actually has a wonderful idea sewn up in it. Taking over the Deeps network. It’s brilliant in its simplicity.’
‘I only made the video to scare Jargo if he caught me.’
