by Mike Ryan
“Where does Gary fit in?”
“He wanted to help me. I told him how frustrated I’d become, what I wanted, and he offered to help me. And I let him. Because I loved him.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“There was an illegal drug trafficking ring being run out of Ukraine. That’s where I met those other guys. Anyway, without getting into a lot of those boring details, we basically took a bunch of money and merchandise from this group.”
“You mean you stole it?”
Dalton shrugged. “I guess you can call it whatever you like. We took what we wanted.”
“And Gary helped with all this?”
“He did. He did it for me. For us. Once I disappeared, he was going to come with me.”
“He never said a word.”
“He couldn’t. He was already involved with the CIA at that point. Anyway, we sold the drugs for cash, but we had to move quickly. The group we took everything from was onto us and closing in. We had to split up, stash the money, then go our separate ways for a while.”
“What does that mean?”
“We stashed the money in a local bank here,” Dalton replied. “Well, it’s not a real bank. It’s basically run by criminals for criminals. It’s almost like a safe house. It’s heavily guarded by armed men and you can’t get inside without a pass, which you receive when you drop money off.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“You may find this hard to believe with a place like that, but there are certain rules you must abide by to use their services. One, they take a cut of whatever money is deposited once it’s taken out. Two, whoever deposits the money must also be there to take it out. It’s a way to be sure there’s no double-crossing beforehand. Though I guess that doesn’t preclude anyone from killing the other when it’s removed. Anyway, Gary and I were both there. I needed him to withdraw the money.”
“So why have him killed?”
“I didn’t want him killed. I wanted him. I needed him. He’d been having second thoughts about everything. He didn’t want to come back over. He thought we could start a new life without it. I tried to explain that for someone like me to disappear, for us to disappear, we needed a lot of money to make that happen. There’s new identities, new passports, cars, houses, plus money to pick up and move if we were ever compromised. You can’t do that on a shoestring budget. You need millions to make sure you’re comfortable.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on. If you needed Gary to take the money out, what am I doing here?”
“You’re going to take his place.”
“What?”
“You look similar. They’ll require your signature, which you’ll have to match up with Gary’s.”
“We don’t sound alike.”
“It’s fine. Gary only said one word when we were there. They won’t remember.”
“I don’t know…”
“Chris, you have to do this. I loved Gary. He’d want you to do this for me.”
A look of confusion appeared in Abbott’s eyes. “But, I don’t…”
“Just help me get the money out, and I’ll make sure you get back home safely and with something extra in your pocket too.”
“Why did Kenny kill him?”
“As I said, Gary was having second thoughts about it. Kenny followed him back to New York. They apparently had some words, Gary said he was through, and Kenny killed him. It was all done without my knowledge. I wouldn’t have let that happen to Gary if I had known. You have to believe that.”
“But why wait so long? Gary died over a year ago.”
“One of the rules of the bank is that you have to wait six months before withdrawing the money. I believe they also use the money for other things in the meantime, though for what I’m not exactly sure. It’s probably not legal. Anyway, I thought after Gary’s death it would be prudent to wait another six months or so to let the heat die down a little. I figured if enough time had passed, everyone would forget about this. And it probably would have too if you hadn’t kept trying to keep your brother’s name alive.”
“I just wanted to know what happened.”
“I know. And I wish I could’ve told you. Maybe I should have, I don’t know. Can’t really do anything about that now.”
Abbott sat there, somewhat stunned, staring at the clear blue water of the pool. He could hardly believe any of this. In his wildest dreams—or nightmares—none of this is what he could have expected to find when he started poking around into his brother’s death.
“So his death didn’t have anything to do with the CIA? They were saying something about him finding a mole in the agency.”
“No,” Dalton said. “That was just a cover story that we made up.”
“You made it up?”
“Gary knew that the agency was using him. They didn’t care about him. They were using him for information and when they were done with him, or he outlived his usefulness to them, they’d just throw him away. In order for us to help cover our tracks and prevent anyone, the CIA, MI6, anyone, we came up with a plan. We decided to invent a story about a mole within the CIA’s ranks. We planted a similar story within MI6. We even created documents to help support that.”
“It was all fake?”
“Yes. It was all done to prevent anyone from looking into our activities within Ukraine and here. They’d be more worried about finding a possible mole within their ranks.”
“It’s unbelievable.”
“Seems to have worked too, because a year later, from what I understand, they’re still looking at mole targets.”
“I just can’t believe it.”
Dalton put her hand on Abbott’s knee. “Chris, all you have to do is accompany me to this bank. You’ll put down your signature, we take out the money, we split it with the others, and you can go back home. Then you can at least have the knowledge of what really happened with your brother.”
“But what about them? If they know I know they killed Gary then…”
“Don’t worry about them. I can take care of them. And if it ever comes down to them versus you, well, you’re Gary’s brother. I owe it to him to protect you. Don’t worry. You can trust me.”
17
Bridge was still at the hotel, on the phone with a few contacts, hoping he could get some kind of lead on their targets. Nicole was already at the substation, working on a computer as she waited for him. As she typed away, Steve took a seat next to her and also started working. Work wasn’t really what he had on his mind, though. It wasn’t every day there was someone as pretty as Nicole sitting next to him.
“So… uh… what’s up with you and Luke?”
Nicole stopped typing, thinking the question was strange. She turned her head toward him. “What?”
“You and Luke. Are you guys… you know, together or anything?”
“Now why would you ask that?”
“Well, you came in together, at the same hotel and all. I was just wondering if you and him were…”
“He’s taken. Sorry.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean… I mean, that’s all good and all. I don’t have any problem with people who go that way, but…”
Nicole smiled. “I know what you meant.”
“Oh. So, uh, if he’s taken, then maybe you and I could go somewhere later? Maybe somewhere quiet without a lot of lighting?”
“Why without lighting? Embarrassed about something?”
“Oh, no, no, not at all. Nothing to be ashamed about here. I just thought that… you know, you’re very attractive, and you’re probably not going to be here very long, so, maybe we could take advantage of the moment.”
“Listen, Steve, you seem like a nice guy, and I’m sure a lot of women around these parts find you attractive, but when I said Luke’s taken, I meant he’s taken by me. And that means vice versa, too.”
Steve put his hands up. “Hey, no worries, not trying to cut in on anyone’s turf or anything. Just figured I’d take
a shot.”
Nicole smiled. “Find anything interesting yet today?”
“No, I just got here a little while ago myself, but we’re pretty much still in a holding pattern. Something will break. It always does.”
“Question is, will it break in time for us to do something about it? And before Chris Abbott ends up on the side of the road somewhere?”
Bridge came into the building a few seconds later, looking like he was out of breath.
“You all right?” Nicole asked.
“Got here as quick as I could.”
“Why? Someone chasing you?”
“No. Was just on the phone with Pinnacle One. Said to get over here right away. Said they got a lead for us and wanted to wait until we were all here to share it.”
Steve immediately dialed their New York number to get a video conference going. There was a huge sixty-five-inch monitor on one of the walls that they all turned to. A minute later, Joe appeared on the screen.
“Everyone ready?” Joe asked.
“We’re all here, Chief,” Steve replied.
“Good. A few hours ago, we finally got a hit on our mysterious fourth man.” A picture of Kanelos appeared on the screen. “His name is Argus Kanelos. He’s a Greek national. He comes from a wealthy family, though he himself has done very little to expand on that fortune. All he’s really done with it is spend it.”
“How do we know that’s him?” Bridge asked.
“We got him on a surveillance camera in Italy. He was behind the wheel of the same car we saw at the Paris airport.”
“So they did drive all the way here,” Nicole said.
“Most likely they didn’t want to take the risk of getting spotted at another airport and giving their exact location away. It’s a thirty-hour drive from Paris to Athens with no stops. If they took turns at the wheel, might have been more preferable to them than taking a plane to get there faster.”
“What about this Kanelos?” Bridge asked.
“His family owns a string of houses all over Greece. It’s possible the gang’s using one of them, assuming they’re actually in the country and we haven’t got it all wrong. Now, we’ve already compiled a list of addresses that his family owns, so I would say our next move is for you guys to hit those houses and see if they’re there.”
“How do you want us to work it, Chief?” Steve asked.
“Well, time is of the essence on this, so with that in mind, I would say to split up into two teams of four. You’ll cover more ground that way. And you’re looking at four targets. I don’t want any smaller number of teams going up against them if we can help it. They’re a very dangerous group. Luke and Nicole can attest to that. You’ll have to be on your toes. Any objections with that?”
“None here, Chief.”
“Good.”
“Should we inform the locals and have them go along with us?”
“No. I want this handled in-house. They don’t know you’re there right now, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. You’ve provided some good intel while stationed there, I don’t wanna blow that cover over this. You guys take care of this. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Everyone’s to drop what they’re doing and handle this. This is our top priority at the moment.”
“Understood.”
“We’ll send over all the photos that we got from the cameras so you can look at them. Keep me updated as you move along.”
“Will do.” Steve looked at the others. “So you two physically ran into them already?”
Bridge instinctively put his hand on the back of his head. “Yeah. Didn’t turn out so well.”
“They the shoot first and ask questions later type of people?”
“They definitely are.”
Steve went over to one of the other men in the room. “Put those pictures on screen as soon as we get them.”
“They’re coming through now,” the man replied.
Steve went back to his seat as the pictures came on the monitor.
“There’s Kanelos driving,” Bridge said, pointing to him.
“Tough to make out the other ones,” Steve said.
“Well, that’s Dalton in the front passenger seat.”
“Can’t really see who’s in the back too well,” Nicole said.
“It’s clear enough. You can’t see faces, but you can see bodies. And you can see three of them.”
“That means one of them is Abbott.”
Bridge nodded. “Assuming the other two in the back are Kenny and Magareth, yeah, he’s still alive.”
“What do they want with this guy?” Steve asked.
“I think that’s gonna be your job to track that down.”
“Huh?”
“They obviously need him for something specific, otherwise they would have dumped his body long ago. And they need him for something here in Greece. What is it?”
Steve leaned back in his chair and put his hand over his mouth as he thought. He could only shake his head. He couldn’t think of anything specifically. Then the list of houses that the Kanelos family owned appeared on the screen. There were eight of them. And they were spread all over the country.
“Looks like we each take four,” Steve said.
“How far away are all of these?”
“They’re scattered, man. A couple of these are about eight or nine hours away. A couple are closer.”
“I guess we should start with the closest and work from there.”
“Yeah. I’ll take you two with me. I’ll get the other team started. I’ll have them start with the ones further away while we take the closer ones.”
As Steve was talking to his other men, Nicole sat down and plugged Kanelos’ name into the computer. A fairly decent list of things popped up on his report. He was known to skirt on the opposite side of the law, though nothing as big as this before. He mostly stuck to the drug trade.
“How’s this guy factor into this?” Nicole asked.
“Maybe he’s trying to step up in class.”
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe he’s not really involved much other than them using him for a place or transportation,” Bridge said. “Since he hasn’t been with the others, it could indicate he’s not in as deep as them.”
“Something else on your mind?”
“I dunno. Just seems like we’re not gonna find these guys by knocking over houses. Seems like we need to figure out what they’re planning; what they’re up to. And we still don’t have a clue yet.”
“Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Steve came over to them a minute later. “Gun cabinet’s over here.” He led them over to the large army green cabinet. “Take your pick.”
Bridge and Nicole both took a rifle as well as a handgun, along with some extra ammo. If they did find Dalton and the others, they were fairly sure they wouldn’t come along quietly.
“If we find these guys, sounds like the most action we’ll have had here in a while,” Steve said energetically, a huge smile on his face like he was actually looking forward to running into their targets. “Let’s do this. You guys ready?”
Bridge looked at Nicole, a little surprised at the enthusiasm. He’d been through too many of these to get that excited over them anymore. He gave her a shrug.
“Yeah, sure. I’m ready.”
“Me too,” Nicole said.
Steve continued smiling with a slight nod. “Let’s rock-and-roll.”
18
They were down to their last house. They’d started searching these houses almost twenty-four hours before. So far, everything had come up empty. A couple of the houses were empty, but there were no signs anyone was actually living there. And a few of the houses actually had people living there, but there were no signs their targets were among them. For the houses that had people in them, they sat on those for a while, making sure they could rule them out.
Now, they were sitting in their car, their eyes on the last remaining house
. There were no cars parked in front. Of course, that didn’t mean no one was inside. They could have ditched the car. Or one of them might have been out using it with the others still in there. Or they could have left entirely, leaving a clue behind. The only thing they didn’t hope for was that it was the wrong house completely. They had been watching it for close to thirty minutes, not a sign of life anywhere. A few of them were starting to get impatient.
“I say we move,” Steve said.
“I agree,” Nicole replied. “We’re not getting anywhere just sitting here.”
They both looked at Bridge to see what he thought. For once, he really didn’t have an opinion either way. He looked at the both of them and shrugged. He was OK with either choice.
“Let’s take it down,” Steve said. “Even if no one’s there, then we can move on. We can’t be wasting time here on an empty house.”
Bridge nodded, then checked his weapon. “Ready.”
“Everyone good?”
Once everyone said they were, they all got out of the car. The house was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Not exactly the best location for someone who wanted to stay hidden. But like they always said, sometimes the best spot to hide was in the middle of a crowd. As they approached the house, they looked around to make sure they weren’t spotted. Steve and his partner took the front, while Bridge and Nicole made their way around to the back. Still no sign of anything.
“You good back there?” Steve asked.
“Ready when you are,” Bridge replied.
“Let’s move.”
Steve and his partner broke through the front door while Bridge and Nicole went through the back. With guns locked in front of their bodies, they swept through the house, going room by room. Within a few minutes, every room had been checked. There was nothing there. Not even an empty candy wrapper. They checked the refrigerator. If someone had been there, they took everything with them. They put their guns away and convened in the living room.
“The last house on the list,” Steve said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Bridge sighed. “It really does if you think about it.”
“How’s that?”
