Death and Dark Money

by Seeley James

  My mental countdown had a maximum of twenty-three Velox men still capable of shooting at us, minus those Carlos neutralized.

  I moved through the room and found a back door to Tania’s hall. She’d just put down the poor dog by ripping the table to shreds with lead. I could only hope she had a whole lot of spare magazines.

  Tania covered the rear while I joined Dhanpal in the entry. Miguel and Ms. Sabel worked on some guys on a staircase.

  Seven-Death, no stranger to all-out war, reached across her body and nudged Ms. Sabel’s muzzle. She fired and a body tumbled down the stairs. Mercury leaned against an oak bookcase, staring at me, and shrugged.

  I have to admit, sometimes gods come in handy.

  Over the comm link, I heard Carlos check in. “They’re getting past me.” The SAW kept a gut-wrenching beat in the background. “Can’t hold them much longer.”

  “Hang in there, we’re coming,” Ms. Sabel said.

  I looked over Dhanpal’s shoulder to the route we would have to take. At least four guns fired at us from that direction.

  “Did you get your dad?” Carlos called as he fired his SAW.

  “Not yet,” she said.

  Something in her eyes caught my attention, some kind of conflicted decision making. She was torn between saving a gangbanger and saving the man who adopted her as an orphan.

  “You go get him first, chica,” Carlos said.

  “I’ll go.” I patted her shoulder. “He saved my ass in Tokyo, McLean, and the tunnel. I owe him big time.”

  Mercury leaned against the wall and shook his head. He’s a dead man, and you will be too if you try any hero shit.

  I said, Aren’t you always trying to get me to die in glory?

  Mercury said, That’s not where this will lead, bro.

  “Don’t come down, ése. A bunch of them peeled off and went through the citadel.” Carlos clicked off in the middle of an explosion.

  I leaned over Dhanpal and aimed outside. He aimed right and I aimed left. A heat signature lurked beneath an overhang. I fired and nailed the guy.

  Dhanpal backed up and I pushed through. He covered my run to the next safe spot behind a wall.

  Mercury stepped in nose-to-nose with me, blocking my path. Where do you think you’re going? He’s a goner, dude. Let it go.

  I said, Are you saying the Moirai have already decided his fate? I’m going to help—

  Mercury said, Moirai? Fuck. You throw Greeks at me? Greeks are nothing. Nobody listens to them anymore. Hermes is in Paris, designing women’s fashions. Did you even read that book on Roman religion I gave you?

  I said, Yeah, I read, you know, some. A little. I skimmed it.

  Mercury said, You’re talking about the Parcae. Nona spins the thread of your life, Decima measures it, and Morta cuts it. Don’t worry about Carlos, dawg. His thread’s been spun, measured, and cut. He knows how his life ends. Remember that little dream of his? He’s living it now. Pia-Caesar-Sabel knows it too. Now get back in there, she needs you.

  Staring at death from any angle was never easy. I had a great deal of unwanted expertise on the topic. Once someone fought alongside you, it was hard to let him go, even if he was a murderous gangbanger who claimed he deserved the death penalty. Through the ether or the Force or whatever, I could feel him taking bullets to the chest and head, getting knocked around. Carlos was dying two hundred yards away and there was nothing I could do.

  It didn’t take long. His earbud was still transmitting a few seconds later when we heard him choke down his agony, breathing hard. Then we heard a lone execution shot followed by nothing.

  Hate and anger filled my chest. I wanted to scream. I wanted to kill every murdering Velox man in the castle.

  Bullets pinged the stones next to me. The flash came from my right.

  I rolled left and fired as I landed on Mercury’s feet. I fired from a prone position while Mercury stuck his foot under my barrel, raising it significantly. My next shot hit the Velox man in the neck.

  Running back into the Eifel House, I passed Dhanpal and burst into the hall where Miguel and Ms. Sabel fired up the staircase. I charged up it like a madman and took out a man on the landing. At the top of the stairs three men ran at me. I turned and fled. They gave chase.

  The three guys clomped down the stairs at a full run. They ran straight into the bullets Miguel and Ms. Sabel fired. A classic ambush.

  We called out “clear” from our various positions and joined up near the stairway.

  Dhanpal led us to the dungeon’s door and opened it. Inside was stone, dark, and cold. I took the lead as we inched down the steps.

  We maintained separation to prevent any enemy fire from taking us all out at once. I crept into the dark, switching my visor from thermal to night vision and back. There was nothing to see. The stone was too cold to register on thermals, there was no light for night vision to amplify, and there was nothing for the naked eye either.

  I felt the wall with one hand and tested the way forward with my foot. We descended a curved stairway with a cold wall on one side and empty space on the other.

  “Lights go on together,” Ms. Sabel whispered in our earbuds. “On three.”

  She counted off and our five lights snapped on. A long shaft stretched below us with the steps built into the wall, curving downward into the dark. Leaning over a good stretch, I could make out the bottom. No soldiers between here and there.

  I looked up.

  There was only one way in or out of this hole. One grenade and we were cooked. Miguel followed my gaze and ran up, taking two steps at a time. He would keep us covered from above.

  We made the landing and opened a thick ancient door. I found a light switch and turned it on. Inside was a store room filled with boxes.

  At the far end was a cage.

  Empty.

  Dhanpal stepped around me and stared at the empty frame. “Damn. They’ve moved him.”

  Forty feet above us, bullets ricocheted in the round chamber. Miguel returned fire.

  CHAPTER 45

  Pia charged up the stone spiral and knelt at the doorway opposite Miguel, observing the scene across her iron sights. She fired blindly into the hall while Miguel fired the other direction. Incoming bullets shrieked past her ear.

  Miguel waved to her: hold up. She stopped and watched smoke sift through the bullet-riddled gathering room.

  Lead splintered the door jamb next to her. She’d always been a fatalist, unconcerned about her life in this world, but the splinters she brushed off her cheek reminded her of the danger facing her agents.

  She gave orders and her people readied for the counterattack.

  Pia counted off and opened fire with Miguel, unloading half a magazine each, brushing back the Velox men. They paused while her people ran through the kill zone to the back hall, then unloaded the second half of their magazines. She swapped mags and switched to three-round bursts with more precision in her aim.

  Jacob, Tania, and Dhanpal did the same from the rear.

  The surviving Velox soldiers ran out a side door. Pia picked off one, Tania nailed another one.

  They checked the building before working their way outside. The castle was quiet, the snow falling faster. They sprinted into positions to cover each other, advancing one at a time.

  With the courtyard cleared, they had a tense moment to collect their thoughts.

  From across the courtyard, Dhanpal and Jacob laid down covering fire.

  Miguel ran under the bullets to find cover behind a planter. Tania followed a moment later.

  Pia took her turn running through the crossfire.

  Dhanpal noticed it first and brought it to Pia’s attention: the sound of muffled boots in the courtyard beyond the gambling house. They stopped advancing when they reached the archway between courtyards. Tania tossed a flare ahead, blinding anyone wearing NVGs. Dhanpal and Miguel ran through while Jacob and Pia covered them. Tania ran through next.

  The gunfire began, but something behind he
r caught Pia’s attention.

  She turned in time to see a man strangely dressed in a business suit with a heavy vest over it. He had no helmet and no NVGs, but he carried a Beretta pointed at the ground. He staggered toward them, unable to see Pia and Jacob in the dark.

  Jacob kept his rifle trained on the man. Pia waved him off.

  Tania reported over the comm link. “Cornered the last of the Velox guys behind a kiosk. Are you coming for the mop-up?”

  The strange man walked like a zombie past them and through the arch, still blind to their huddled forms.

  Pia texted the others to let the man pass. “It’s Koven. He can join his men and surrender or die.”

  The snow fell. A tense, eerie quiet enveloped them as Koven plodded his way to the lower courtyard.

  He called out in the darkness. “Kasey! Kasey, where are you?”

  Hushed answers guided him to the stone planter where his men hid.

  Pia rose and slinked to the archway, found a spot, and aimed.

  When Koven reached the edge of the planter, one soldier ran from the group in the opposite direction from Koven.

  Pia began to squeeze her trigger, but before it reached the sear point, Koven’s vest exploded.

  A brilliant yellow-orange fireball rose into the sky, lobbing body parts across the cobblestones.

  Pia and her agents approached the wreckage with caution. One man lay on the ground ten yards away. The rest were killed by the blast.

  “What the hell?” Tania asked.

  “The Velox suicide vest.” Pia stared at the gore. “They’re made to look like body armor.”

  “He was going to blow us up?”

  From a few yards away, Miguel called out. “Guess who’s the lone survivor?”

  Jacob answered him. “My money’s on Kasey Earl.”

  “How’d you know?”

  A tentative voice called from inside the citadel. “Pia Sabel, thank god it’s you. Is it safe to come out?”

  Dhanpal and Jacob slid into positions to cover the door, then nodded to her.

  “Identify yourselves and come out with your hands up.”

  Two figures stepped into the dark, hands in the air. “I’m Senator Hyde, and this is—”

  “Jago Seyton,” Jacob pressed his rifle in one man’s back. “How’ve you been, Skippy?”

  Miguel searched them and gave the cleared sign.

  Pia pushed the men inside the nearest building. A large fireplace dominated a stone foyer big enough to park trucks in.

  “Where’s my father?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.” Hyde held his hands out, palms up. “Daryl lost his mind. He kidnapped us and has been holding us against our will.”

  “You look pretty liquored up for a hostage,” Tania said.

  “He was civil about it.” Firelight flickered on the side of his face.

  “Tania, go check on Carlos.” Pia turned to the others. “The rest of you men, clear the house and find Dad.”

  When the room emptied, Jago moved to her left, away from Hyde.

  “Do you think I’m dumb enough to let you get behind me, Seyton?” Pia fired a round that creased his ear.

  Both men blanched.

  She spoke softly. “Stand still. I want to have a look at you.”

  She walked around them, checking out Hyde first. Then came around Jago’s back. She said, “I’m betting it wasn’t Hyde who burned down the Blackson home.”

  Jago’s eyes followed her.

  She had a five-inch height advantage over him and used it to intimidate him, but he showed no concern. As she came around his right side, she stretched her right arm out in front of him. His eyes followed her hand as she placed her middle finger on her thumb. She snapped her fingers.

  At the same time, she twisted off her back foot and crashed her left elbow to his temple.

  He never saw it coming.

  Jago fell to the floor, stunned and concussed but not out. He rose to his hands and knees and shook his head.

  She pulled her Glock and pushed it into Hyde’s groin. “I’m twitchy as hell, Senator. Try not to spook me.”

  She squatted to Jago’s level. She grabbed his chin and tried to catch his wandering gaze. “Can you hear me? Are you in there?”

  His eyes found her and, after a moment, focused.

  Pia stuffed the barrel of her assault rifle in his open mouth. “Men like you killed my parents right in front of me, Skippy. When I look at a man who burned an entire family alive, I wonder if I should turn you over to the police or find a more satisfying form of justice for you.”

  Jago looked up with pleading eyes.

  She rose and faced Hyde, a weapon holding each man in place. “Did you know Kasey designed the suicide vests for Velox?”

  “Is that so?” Hyde’s swollen eyes lolled.

  “He knew what Koven was wearing. That’s why he ran away.” Pia tilted her head. “Since he didn’t get very far before Koven blew up, we can assume he didn’t pull the trigger on that vest. Which leaves us with the question: who did?”

  Hyde shrugged. “We’re victims here, Pia. Koven held us prisoner. Just like your father.”

  “Sounds like you’re not going to confess,” Pia said. “Jacob knew early on that Shane was the guy who tried to pin Gottleib’s murder on him. What we couldn’t figure out was how he got Detective Lovett involved. I missed my first clue when Kasey Earl told me they were building a global outfit. But when we found out LOCI was founded by a long-dead soldier, we knew Shane was fronting a worldwide crooked-cop network. Only Shane Diabulus would do something that low. But where would he get the start-up capital?”

  “Katy Hellman of the Fuchs News empire,” Hyde said as reflected flames danced on his soft skin, “is waiting for me down the hill. She’ll vouch for me.”

  “Jacob noticed the lipstick she left on your collar when he first met you. It took me a few days to piece it together but that’s how I knew it was you and not Koven.”

  She adjusted both barrels. Each man twitched and held his breath.

  “Prince Taimur showed up in Dubai and said DHK told him where to find me.” Pia held Hyde’s gaze. “You were the only guy left in the DHK offices.”

  Hyde blubbered a couple false starts before finding some coherent words. “Why would I kill Taimur or any of our clients? It was Koven. He went mad.”

  “What will we do for love?” Pia watched the old man’s eyes wander in search of a new way out. “Of all your heinous crimes, the Blackson murders sickened us the most.”

  Hyde cringed.

  “Why burn the Blacksons alive?” she asked. “Why the innocent children?”

  “It was Koven. He ordered Jago to do that one. I had nothing to do with it.”

  Jago growled.

  “Squealing on your partner already?” Pia looked down at Jago. “Is that right, Skippy? Did you murder a mother and two children because Koven told you to?”

  Jago stared daggers at Hyde.

  “Did Koven know you stole his money?” Pia turned back to Hyde. “My people traced over a hundred million winging its way around the world.”

  “It’s my money.” Hyde watched the flames.

  “Want the bad news, Senator?” Pia smiled. “I have a brilliant analyst from the NSA. She figured out your password and transferred the money to Médecins Sans Frontières—Doctors Without Borders—on behalf of Gottleib, Zola, and Blackson.”

  Hyde’s fire-flecked face turned red and began to swell with rage. “You can’t do that. The transactions will be reversed right—”

  “Who’s going to report it?” She reached in his coat pocket and pulled out the remote trigger for Koven’s suicide vest. She held it between them.

  “Carlos didn’t make it.” Tania walked in carrying two heavy vests. “He did damn fine job of holding our six. A dozen bodies are scattered around his.”

  Pia nodded and bit her lip. She took a deep breath through her nose.

  Tania draped one vest around Jago, th
e other around Hyde and sealed them in with Velcro.

  “Sorry, guys,” Tania said. “We ran out of plasticuffs. All I could find are these suicide vests. From the look on your faces, I’m guessing you know how the remote triggers work. Nothing happens if I press down, but when I let go—boom. That was in case someone shot the terrorist before he worked up the nerve.”

  Tania put the detonator for Hyde in Jago’s hand and Jago’s in Hyde’s. She pressed their thumbs down on the triggers. “Now you’re his bitch. If he dies, you die a nanosecond later. You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game.”

  “Pia, I was duped.” Hyde’s voice shook and his jowls trembled. “Surely you can see that.”

  “That’s ‘Ms. Sabel’ to you.” Pia kept her voice low and soft. “Someone gave Shane Diabulus enough money to start LOCI. If you know your etymology, the Latin for ‘local’ is locus, and the plural is loci. Your investment allowed him to expand into foreign countries with a ‘buy local’ marketing campaign. He started a service that competes with me in fifty international cities.”

  “So what?” Hyde’s forehead poured sweat. “Take these vests off of us.”

  “We followed the money. Guess where it led?” Pia gave him a few seconds, but he didn’t speak. “It led back to your girlfriend, Katy Hellman. The two of you engineered a way to get the Mercenary Restrictions Act through Congress so Shane could corner the market. Then Koven blew up your business by hiring us for the Oman deal. What I don’t understand is why you blame Koven when your mistake was investing in Shane.”

  She lifted the pistol from his crotch and smiled.

  “Even though he went to a fancy private school and an Ivy League college, he’s never been as smart as he thinks. When a grown man changes his name to Diabulus—Latin for ‘the devil’—then opens Velox—Latin for ‘rapid’—and then starts up LOCI, he should expect people to connect the dots.”

  Jacob buzzed her comm link. “We found your dad, but we have a problem—there’s a bomb.”

  Pia looked at the pair in deadly vests. “Hope your thumbs can take the strain.”