by Dale Mayer
“What the hell happened?”
Quietly she explained what happened and where she was.
“And the police are on their way? Tell me they will handle this right now,” he asked, his voice rising.
“Yes, that’s what Carl said.” She realized she’d forgotten to tell Kanen about him. “Carl is a cop.”
“Good. I’m on my way to Ipswich. I should be at your apartment building in a few hours.”
“No, no, no, no. You can’t come.”
He snickered. “Too bad. Two more guys are with me.”
She shook her head. “You have to look after yourself. He’s after me and you now. When you come, he’ll capture you too.”
“Let him try,” Kanen said, his voice hard, rough. “He’ll pay for hurting you.” There was silence, and then he asked, “Are you okay?”
She sighed. “I’m fine. He didn’t rape me. He didn’t really hurt me too badly, considering he could have killed me. Carl wants me to go to the hospital and get examined and have the hospital do a forensic something or other.” She was still so shocked that her words completely escaped her. “To make sure they collect any evidence there might be.”
“I agree. Make sure you’re never alone. If you need security until I get there, then you let me know. I’ll have somebody by your side.”
“No. No, it’ll be fine. I can get Carl’s help too,” she said. Now that she was free, she was sorry Kanen was involved. It had put him in terrible danger.
“Don’t ever try to stop me from coming to help or ever be afraid of calling me,” he said sharply. “Our friendship goes too far back for that.”
She smiled tremulously. “I was just thinking that. But thank you. I need this guy caught. I want this over with.”
“I’m sure he’s gone,” Kanen said reassuringly. “But he won’t have gone far. Be extra careful.”
“Will do.” Outside she could hear sirens approaching. “That’s the police now,” she said, starting to relax. “If he wasn’t gone before, he will be now.”
“Good. I’ll call you as soon as I land.” He hung up.
She cradled the phone against her chest, buried her face in her knees and waited. Sure enough she could hear shouts as the police entered the building and raced toward them.
Carl never moved. When a hard knock came on the door, he called out, “Identify yourself.” The constable replied with his name and number, then asking, “Are you Investigating Officer Carl McMaster?”
Instead of answering, Carl rose and opened the door. “I am. Come on in.”
Six men entered, their weapons drawn. They thoroughly searched the apartment, and then two stayed while the other four continued to search the building.
Laysa’s captivity was really over.
*
Taylor’s a go. Transport’s on another exercise. Available at 1:00 a.m. as planned. To take you wherever you want to go.
“Damn,” Kanen said, showing the text to Nelson and Taylor.
“Not to mention,” Nelson said, “we could have beat everybody’s time on this molehill tonight.”
Kanen slapped his newest SEAL buddy on the back. “Thanks, man. Glad you’re coming with us.”
*
Landing the naval transport took special clearance. Kanen winced at that. Our hacker asshole will note this special clearance. At 4:00 a.m. on the dot, UK time, Kanen strode through customs and headed straight outside, ever alert. The minute he was free and clear from the crowds, he called Laysa. Her sleepy voice answered the phone, and he winced. “Sorry to wake you,” he said gently. “It’s your nighttime here. I just needed to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I spent hours at the hospital, but I’m home now. Well, I’m in Carl’s spare bedroom, not my own apartment.”
“Good,” Kanen said. “I’m walking out of the airport now. I’ll be at my hotel soon.”
“Why?” she wailed softly. “He’ll come after you. You know that, right?”
“Like I said, he’s welcome to try. I’ll be waiting and watching for him.” Kanen’s voice was harsh. “If he wants a piece of me, that’s good because I want a piece of him. Go back to sleep. I’ll call you in a couple hours.” Not giving her a chance to argue, he shut off the call and pocketed his phone.
Even at this ungodly hour, he caught sight of three guys in suits—MI6—spread about along the well-lit front of the airport, near the departing vehicles. One gave a gentle tap of his watch, without ever locking gazes with Kanen. He responded by tilting his chin upward ever-so-slightly, as if to say, Message received. The watch tap either meant MI6 was watching Kanen or how MI6 would catch up with him later. Or possibly both.
As expected, a shuttle waited for Kanen, and the two men he had traveled with converged here, each giving a subtle headshake. Granted, they had no facial description on this asshole—and he could have sent in any number of lookouts—but the guys didn’t see any suspicious-looking characters in their brief tour of the airport. No one seemed particularly interested in them. No one followed them. Nelson had made a side trip to an out-of-the way men’s room, while Taylor had gone to baggage claim, despite all three men only having carry-on luggage.
The trio got into the back of the shuttle vehicle. The twenty-minute ride to the hotel was just enough time for the men to get acquainted with their new surroundings. Upon arrival at the hotel, Kanen registered and asked for a rental car to be available as soon as possible—a particularly nice perk with this hotel. The front desk manager explained the car keys would be here within the hour, Kanen grabbed his bags, nodded his thanks and headed for the stairs. The three walked to the second floor. Checking that no one watched, they entered through their door and headed straight for the adjoining suite via a hidden connecting door. Charles had recommended this hotel specifically for that reason and the rental car availability.
Kanen’s phone pinged. He checked his alert, shaking his head. “That asshole never sleeps. He’s already made us as checked in here.”
“So he’s a hacker,” Taylor suggested.
“Or,” Nelson added, “he paid a cabbie to loop around the block until the three of us arrived via the airport shuttle.”
Kanen shrugged. “Or he could have paid the front desk employee to send him a physical signal or a text.” Kanen stared at his phone, then addressed the guys. “I don’t think he’ll make an appearance this soon. Or ever. He’s a bully, hitting women. Doubt he’d attack one SEAL, much less three. But … my money’s on him being a hacker, tracking our every move.”
In the adjoining suite, with the disappearing door closed and locked, they set up a command center and connected a video chat to their US contact and to Charles in England. Charles’s face came on the video. It was really early here, still dark outside, but, according to Ice, Charles always looked dapper and friendly.
“Hello, young man,” Charles said with a smile. “Nice to see you again too, Mason.”
Mason acknowledged he was available to help any fellow SEAL abroad.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you face-to-face before, Kanen,” Charles noted.
Kanen grinned at him. “No, you haven’t. But we’ve talked.”
“There’s a first time for everything. I hear you have trouble knocking on your door.”
Kanen nodded. “Laysa is now in trouble. Apparently her captor gave Blake something to hold for him. Now the asshole wants it back, but Laysa doesn’t know anything about it. Neither do I.”
“And neither of you have anything that you’re aware of, correct?”
Kanen nodded. “It’s not like Blake sent me a parcel before he died, asking me to hold on to it in case anything happened to him.”
“We’re assuming that’s what happened to Blake himself, correct? That somebody did hand him this package and told him to hang on to it for a few minutes, a few months, a lifetime?”
“As close as we can figure from Laysa’s assailant’s words, yes,” Kanen said. “But Blake may have th
ought it was completely innocent. For all we know, Blake thought he was holding on to a package of mementos of the guy’s former girlfriends or something.”
“Right. And nothing has been said as to why her captor wants it now?”
“The situation has changed,” Kanen paraphrased Laysa’s earlier words. “Apparently he needs this for insurance. I did help put some of Blake’s belongings into a storage unit after his funeral, and her captor headed for that unit, leaving her tied up. But it wouldn’t take him long to figure out that, while the address was correct, the unit number was not.”
“So she sent him to a storage facility but not to the right unit. Interesting,” Charles said. “That almost makes it seem like she does know what he’s talking about.”
“No. You have to understand it from her point of view. She cleared out much of Blake’s stuff immediately, finding it hard to keep so many memories around. We put some in the storage unit for her to deal with later, and some of the more personal items were boxed up but left at home, and lots we gave away. I doubt she even remembers what went where. Although she did say that she had been through most of Blake’s personal items, putting his cards and letters to her in their picture album. I don’t believe she has much still boxed up at home.”
At that, Charles nodded slowly. “She’s a very resourceful lady, even under duress.” His face was drawn with another understanding. “That does make sense. I’m so sorry for her.”
“I am too,” Kanen said. “I’ve stayed in touch with her. We usually talk weekly. And lately she’s been much better. We haven’t needed to connect quite as often. She’s a really good woman, and she was very much in love with Blake.”
“So you helped her pack everything away?”
“I helped her move most of it to the storage unit. I didn’t pack up anything. I did the heavy lifting. She packed the boxes.”
“So you have no clue what was boxed and moved in the storage unit, much less what the assailant is looking for?”
“No. I didn’t see anything unusual as she packed up Blake’s things,” Kanen said, “but obviously we have to go through the storage unit more carefully now to see what this guy is after.”
“It could be as small as a CD or a USB,” Charles said. “That makes the unidentified item even more difficult to find.”
“I know,” Kanen said quietly. “If he’s tech-savvy, a real hacker, the best way to handle that might be to set up a team at the storage facility itself. The cops did when Laysa escaped but found no sign of her assailant. We should check it again. And we’ll slowly search through the storage items, careful to check out all electronics. I assume this insurance entails some sensitive data. So it would make sense that it’s computer-oriented. But it could just as easily be paperwork.”
“True,” Charles said, looking away, then glanced back. “Do you have enough manpower? I could help with that.”
“No, we’re good,” Kanen said. “I have two men with me. MI6 is not impressed we’re here.”
At that, Charles’s face split into a wide knowing grin. “With good reason. They’ve dealt with a few other US Navy personnel, current and former, coming over and raising a bit of Cain.”
“You’re talking about Badger, aren’t you? I heard through the grapevine how he and his team were here a couple times.”
“I never had a chance to meet him myself,” Charles said, laughing. “But anything that happens in Levi’s world, I’m usually apprised of it, especially when it overflows into my own backyard.”
“Too bad Badger didn’t contact you,” Kanen said. “You probably could have helped him out.”
“I think we’ll connect sometime in the near future,” Charles said with a smile. “People like Badger have to go off as a lone ranger to deal with the emotions that drive them. And then they slowly realize how they aren’t alone and that teams are required, and it helps a lot to have skillful and gifted men in your corner. Badger accomplished what he needed to, and, for that, I’m grateful. But I also know England is grateful too—that they left, that is.”
Kanen laughed. “I take it a few dead bodies littered his visit.”
Charles nodded. “MI6 contacted me back then to see if I knew anything about him. But Levi helped to explain that scenario.”
Kanen sat back and smiled. “You know? The more I work in this field, the more I realize how interconnected we all are. Levi is no longer in the military, but he’s doing just as much of a service for the world as anybody could possibly do. And Badger is the same. Plus, both remain close to Mason and his various navy teams.”
“Not exactly sure what Badger is doing these days,” Charles said. “I believe he has some contract work with Levi, and that would be good because, once you’re a protector and a defender, it’s very hard to turn off those traits. He’d probably drive his partner nuts if he wasn’t involved in a similar line of work. Although I guess Kat is his wife now. I did get an invitation but couldn’t make their wedding date.”
“Yes, so I heard. He’s a good man, and, from the bit of gossip I heard, that was one hell of a wedding.” Kanen still chuckled as he disconnected his video call with Charles and Mason, then turned to see the guys had set up both audio and video in this room. At his nod, they slipped into the decoy room—where they were booked into for registration purposes—and set it up to look like they had been there, laying out a few pieces of clothing and some personal items, pulling back the covers and making it look like somebody had been sitting on the bed. They also set up more audio and video devices. With the bugs in place, the Do Not Disturb sign hanging outside on the doorknob and a single strand of hair on the door inside to show whether anyone entered this room, they slipped back over to the other side, closed the wall panel so it hid the connection to the next room, and relaxed.
Kanen glanced around and nodded. “This is perfect.”
“Need a plan of action,” Nelson said.
“We’ll go to her apartment and to the storage unit,” Kanen said, “and set up electronics with laptops at each place. That way we can open any USB keys and other devices we might find.”
“Is there power at the storage unit?” Taylor asked.
Kanen nodded. “There is. I don’t know exactly how much though. We’ll need to bring a power bar and must be prepared to slip out and get more equipment, if need be. We’ll be working in the dark, so as not to give away our position, and thus we have to plan in task lighting. We can’t have the door open because this guy is looking for this particular unit. I don’t know if he believed the information she gave him. It was the right address but the wrong storage unit.”
“That was smart of Laysa to do that,” Nelson noted.
Kanen nodded. “If our asshole has access online, or if he’s any kind of a hacker, he might find out the names of the renters of the storage units as well. So he could locate Blake’s locker without Laysa’s help. Even a good sob story is likely to loosen the lips of whoever is in the office. We’ve seen it happen time and time again. Just because there are rules, that doesn’t mean they aren’t broken.”
Taylor nodded. “We’ll double-check that we have everything we need before we get there, so we can camp out and go through the place.”
“What about letting Laysa know what we’re doing?” Nelson asked.
Kanen hesitated. “She’d be pissed if we were doing this without her knowledge. She’s kind of a control freak. Probably from her schoolteacher mentality. But we have to get this done regardless. I’m not sure what the appropriate answer is here.”
“You should probably involve her,” Nelson said.
Kanen shook his head. “Not sure I want to do that. She can be fairly obstinate when she puts her foot down.”
“But still, it’s her personal belongings,” Nelson said. “Her dead husband’s personal belongings.”
Kanen nodded slowly. “Good point. Okay, so I’ll tell her what we’re doing and that I don’t want her going to either place alone. Not until we’ve caught this asshole
.”
“He didn’t find whatever it was while he was there in her apartment yesterday,” Nelson said, “so …”
“What are the chances he missed it?” Taylor asked.
“No way to know,” Kanen said simply. “We don’t know how big this insurance policy is or even what it is. But she has lived there for a while.”
“It would be faster to search the apartment first, rather than a storage unit,” Nelson said.
Kanen looked at him. “Probably, yes. While we were transported here, her place was full of police, taking fingerprints and checking for any DNA. I don’t know that she’ll sleep there ever again. Seems she was beaten up pretty good. At the moment, she’s still in the apartment building, staying with the cop and his wife who she’d run to in the first place. That’ll give her a certain amount of protection.”
“Well, the cops should be done, so why don’t we move on to her place and do a quick search ourselves?” Taylor asked.
Kanen thought about that and nodded. “That works. Her captor will be watching. We can count on that. It might lure him to us.”
“That’s a good thing,” Nelson said. “We need to capture this guy before he tries to snag you next.”
Kanen shook his head. “I would welcome that,” he said. “What I don’t want is him getting his hands on Laysa again. She’s valiant, but she can only handle so much. She’s had a tough year as it is. I don’t want this to ruin her life, to sour her outlook on everything.” Kanen checked his watch. “We could get in now, do a full search and get out. It’s not yet sunrise.”
The men jumped to their feet.
Kanen stood too. “Agreed. Let’s do that first. And let’s go now.”
Chapter 4
Laysa woke early that morning. She reached for her cell phone, checking the time. It wasn’t even five-thirty yet. She lay here for a long moment, wondering if she could go back to sleep. But, now that her body and mind were awake, all she could think about was getting up. She was normally an early riser, but she was in Carl’s apartment and didn’t feel she could get up and walk around freely.
