by Mike Ryan
“What about the deal you made with Burnett? You agreed on another year with the agency.”
“That was before. When I had something to look forward to. There’s nothing really left for me now. I want more than all this.”
“And you can still get it,” Cole argued. “But you gotta want to fight for it. Nobody’s just gonna hand you happiness on a silver platter.”
“My happiness died when that car blew up. Nothing else matters. Should I just go on a dating site and find someone else to care about?”
“So what’re you gonna do? Just wither up and die?”
“I don’t know.”
“Alex, I know you’re hurting inside. Believe me I do. But you can’t just give up. You think that’s what Turner would want?”
Parker just shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“If we let him go now, if you let him go, then he will always be there hanging over your shoulder. He’ll always be that shadow that’s lurking around the corner. What happens in twenty years if you settle down, become a soccer mom, and one day you look out your kitchen window, past your white picket fence, and see his face sitting in a car across the street staking our your house? What then? Think you might kick yourself for not ending it when you had the chance?”
Parker didn’t reply, instead just looking up at her partner. He was making some sense but she didn’t know if she even had it in her anymore to do what had to be done. There was too much sadness floating around inside her. She didn’t feel like she had that killer instinct that she used to have, that she’d need to have in order to finish this. Turner was still too fresh in her mind to be worrying about where Davis was.
“I’m gonna have to call Ryan’s sister and tell her,” Parker said.
Cole shook his head. “No. Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Not until you get some kind of confirmation on the body.”
“The car blew up, Cole. What kind of confirmation do you need?”
“You see Turner’s face in there?”
“No. But I saw someone in there. Who else would it have been?”
Cole shrugged his shoulders. “Just saying. What if he had someone else in the car just to make you think it was Turner. Just to get you off your game and off his trail.”
Cole wasn’t sure that telling her that maybe it wasn’t Turner in the car was the best idea. He really didn’t even believe it to be true. But he felt Parker’s demeanor wasn’t leaving him much choice. He felt that giving her any kind of hope, even if it was false, was better than allowing her to wallow in her suffering. He actually felt a little bad for saying it. But he’d do whatever he had to do to get her up and moving and back to work. Cole could tell by the look on Parker’s face that she was thinking intently about what he just told her. She knew that she shouldn’t listen to him about it and that it was only delaying the healing process. But even if there was the slightest of chances, she’d have to hold out a sliver of hope.
About eight o’clock Burnett was ready to talk to them about their next steps. Cole was ready to go but Parker still had her reservations. She stayed off the screen, sitting in a chair, just staring into space. She still had Turner on her mind and didn’t feel like talking business.
“Is Parker still indisposed?” Burnett asked, noticing the agent’s absence.
“Uhh, no. She’s good to go. She just ran down for some breakfast. We’ve already talked. She’s on board.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” she replied, not sure if she believed what she was being told.
“Anything on the security footage from the airport?” Cole asked.
“Unfortunately no. We ran every piece of footage we had forwards and backwards at least five times. The recognition scan did not pick up Davis at all. Not even a partial match.”
“So he wasn’t even there?”
“We don’t believe so. We think it was a red herring. We don’t think he was ever there or intended to go there.”
“So why tell Parker that he was? He knew she wouldn’t go there anyway,” Cole said.
“Probably just another way to throw us off the trail. We just spent the last twelve hours going over footage. That’s valuable time to help him escape that could’ve been used elsewhere.”
Cole cleared his throat and looked at Parker out of the corner of his eye. If she wasn’t paying attention before, she would be sure to perk up after his next question, though he wasn’t sure if either of them wanted to hear the answer.
“Have we got any confirmations on the victims in the explosions?”
Parker was slouched down in the chair. When she heard Cole’s question, though, she sat up, eager to hear the response. She leaned forward a little in anticipation of the answer.
“We have,” Burnett answered. “The body recovered where you were, Cole, was indeed Aveline Favreau.”
“And from the car bomb?” Parker eagerly asked, jumping out of the chair and coming onscreen, next to Cole.
“Nice to see you Agent Parker. I hope you’re feeling better.”
“Uhh, sure. Did we get a confirmation from the car bomb?” Parker asked, hoping to get a response that it wasn’t Turner.
“They could not positively ID the victim, Alex. The body was,” Burnett said, trying to find a delicate way of putting it. “The body was in too bad a shape to ID. The French are calling the body right now a John Doe until they have further information to go off of.”
Parker had a lump in her throat from thinking that maybe Cole was right. Maybe there was a slight chance that it wasn’t Turner. They looked at each other, Cole seeing the littlest bit of hope in her eyes. It was quickly tempered though by what Burnett was about to say next.
“Unfortunately though, we believe that it was Turner in the car,” Burnett told them.
“Why? What makes you think so?” Parker asked.
“There are a few pictures we’ve analyzed,” she said, hesitating in mentioning it due to Parker’s sensitivity on the subject.
“Let me see them.”
Burnett hesitated once again. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yes,” she instantly replied.
“Uhh…maybe it’d be better if I looked at them instead,” Cole said, looking at his partner, hoping to spare Parker of further torture.
“No,” Parker objected. “If there’s proof of whether it’s him or not then I wanna see it.”
Cole nodded, not wishing to push the issue. Burnett put an image on the screen of a badly burned hand and wrist that was blown off the rest of the body. There was a watch around the wrist.
“That looks like Ryan’s watch,” a depressed Parker noted.
“We thought so too. It matched up with other pictures of him that we looked at,” Burnett responded. “I’ll spare you the pain of looking at the other pictures but suffice to say that from the other pieces of the body that they’ve recovered, they surmise that it’s around the same height and build that Turner is.”
Parker stared at the screen, a blank expression overtaking her face. She knew in her heart that he was gone. That slightest bit of hope she had had evaporated. There was now a finality to it.
“We’ll keep analyzing and digging,” Burnett said. “But if there are no other clues to the contrary, then we’ll officially conclude that it is Ryan Turner.”
“How long?” Parker asked.
“We’ll give it another week or so.”
“And what about his sister?”
“Would you like us to make the notifications?” Burnett offered.
“No. I’ll do it,” she said, fighting her emotions. “What do I tell her?”
“If the French, or us, can’t make a hundred percent identification, then you can tell him he’s officially listed as missing, though presumed dead. Or if you prefer to spare her the pain of holding out hope for him to return, I’d just tell her that he’s officially deceased.”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute as Parker trie
d not to break down in front of everyone. Sensing his partner’s pain, Cole tried to get to a different topic.
“What do you want us to do next?” he asked.
“Just sit tight for a few hours until we figure out a game plan. We know he wasn’t at the airport. So he was either leaving the country some other way or he’s still got plans in France and was trying to paralyze us temporarily. If you have any contacts there I’d suggest hitting them up.”
“Understood.”
“Alex…I’m sorry for your loss,” a contrite Burnett stated.
Parker nodded, “thank you.”
Once Burnett disappeared from the screen, Cole turned to his partner with an idea.
“What about the phone?” he asked.
“What about it?”
“Have you tried calling the number back that he called you from?”
“It’s a burner phone. He’s not gonna be dumb enough to call from a traceable number,” Parker replied.
“Have you tried it?”
“No.”
Cole nodded at her to try reverse calling the number. Parker knew it was a waste of time and just handed the phone over to him. Cole tried calling the number but it came back as not in service. He dejectedly handed the phone back to her.
“Was worth a shot,” he told her.
“After all the elaborate planning he’s done did you really think he’d be careless enough to use his own phone?” she asked, walking over to her bag.
Parker reached into it and her finger brushed up against her gun. She looked at it for a moment and then put her hand on the grip. She squeezed it and took it out of the bag, holding it up and looking at it. Cole watched her intently and wondered what she was doing. She kept staring at it, not looking away as she thought about what she would like to do with it. The longer she held it, the more she thought about everything, the more rage and anger flowed through her. She knew Cole was right. As long as Davis was out there she’d never be free of him. No matter what she did from there on out, no matter where she was, there would always be the danger of him popping up. She reached back into her bag and pulled out a new magazine clip and forcefully reloaded her semi-automatic. She shoved it in the back of her pants and started walking toward the door.
“Hey…hey…where you going?” Cole asked.
“Well we can’t just sit in here all day,” Parker replied. “Heath’s not gonna come to us. Let’s go out and find the son of a bitch and end this thing!”
Chapter 10
Parker and Cole spent the better part of the morning looking for leads and talking to any contacts they could. They even talked to contacts of their contacts. Nothing produced anything worth investigating further. They stifled their search for an hour so they could eat lunch and recharge a little bit and figure out their next step. As they finished up, Cole peppered his partner about her new attitude.
“Not that I’m complaining, but how come the new outlook?” Cole wondered. “You went from sad and despondent to angry and get-up-and-go in a matter of minutes.”
“I looked at my gun and realized you were right. It’ll never be over until Heath’s gone.”
“So what’s gonna happen when that day comes?”
“When we find him…I’m gonna put a bullet in his head,” she bluntly stated.
“I didn’t really have any doubts about that. I was more talking about after that. What’ll you do? Change plans and stick around?”
“I don’t know. I can’t think that far ahead now. Right now all that matters is finding him. Everything else can wait. All I can do is take things a day at a time now.”
Just as they were about ready to leave, Parker’s phone started ringing. It was a number she didn’t recognize. She had reservations about answering it, thinking it may have been Davis. She looked at Cole who nodded at her to answer. She hesitated for a second but did answer.
“Hello?” she unsurely answered.
“Alex. It’s been a long time. You remember my voice?”
“Uhh…it escapes me right now,” she said, looking at Cole and shaking her head to let her know it wasn’t Davis.
“It has been a long time. Several years. It’s Yosi. Yosi Breuer.”
“Yosi,” she replied in an upbeat tone. “How are you? It has been a long time.”
Yosi Breuer was a Mossad agent. The Mossad was Israel’s foreign intelligence and special operations unit. Parker and Breuer had worked together on a joint task force several years before when they were following a terrorist in Spain. Parker actually saved Breuer’s life. While they were searching a suspect’s residence, Breuer was about to be ambushed from behind. A man was hiding in secret compartment in a basement and was about to shoot Breuer in the back of the head. Parker turned and saw the shooter just in time and pushed Breuer aside. The bullet grazed Parker’s arm as she then killed the would-be-assassin. Breuer never forgot what she did. They talked for a few minutes about what each other was up to. It didn’t take long though for Breuer to get to the point of why he called.
“You remember that day you saved my life?” Breuer asked.
“Yeah.”
“I told you I would repay you someday. I said it might take years, but one day, I would repay you for what you did.”
“And I also told you it wasn’t necessary. Just doing my job and protecting the team.”
“Be that as it may…I owe you. And now I can repay,” he told her. “I have big information that may be of use to you.”
“What do you have?” she wondered.
“Are you still looking for Heath Davis?”
“Yes. Why? How’d you know I was looking for him?”
“You know the spy community. You hear things. Especially since he is a top fugitive.”
“Yeah. We just trailed him into France but he was able to slip away. We’re not sure where he’s at right now,” Parker said.
“We do. He was spotted by a Mossad agent two hours ago in Belgium,” Breuer informed her.
“In Belgium? Are you sure? Is it reliable?”
“Yes. Very. We’ve already received confirmation via a photograph that was taken. He was meeting with a delegation from Iran.”
“He was meeting Iranians,” Parker re-stated, letting Cole know.
“Our agent there is on another assignment which is very fluid and not sure how long he will be able to stay on them. I knew this was very important for you though and felt you should know.”
“Yes. We’re actually on our way right now. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” Parker said gratefully.
“No problem. You would do the same for me.”
“I would.”
“At least now I can feel I’m not in your debt anymore,” Breuer laughed.
“You never were, Yosi.”
“Yes. I know. But it feels good anyway.”
“So where is Davis at right now?”
“I will text you my agent’s number. He will be expecting your call. When you get into Belgium, set up a meet with him. He will give you all the information that he has. Do not worry. He is very trustworthy. I trained him myself.”
“I believe you. Your word is good enough for me. Thanks again, Yosi.”
Parker hung up and immediately told Cole all the information that Breuer just gave to her. Cole nodded his head, making sense of it. Belgium was neighbors with France. It made sense that he’d slip over the border while the commotion in Paris was happening and they were looking for him at the airport. Parker instantly got out her laptop, set it on the table, and started typing away. Cole wondered what she was doing.
“I’m booking a reservation on the Thalys train,” she told him.
“Why?”
“We need to get into Belgium quickly. There’s over twenty trains between Paris and Brussels everyday. We can be there in about two hours.”
“Think it’s legit? Davis meeting Iranians in Belgium?” Cole asked.
“Sure. Why not? Brussels has a large Muslim population. It makes sen
se. Over a quarter of the population is Muslim. It’d be easier for them to blend in there without anyone being suspicious. The rest of the country is more French and Dutch speaking people.”
“You seem to know quite a bit about this area.”
“You forget I’ve been here before. I’ve been in France several times. I was also stationed in Belgium for two months a few years ago. So, yes, I do know quite a bit about the area.”
“South America and Asia’s more my territory.”
“I thought you were here before?”
“Once. Only for a couple days though. Not enough to really know my way around.”
Parker’s phone rang, a message coming through. It was Breuer texting her the Mossad agent’s number. Parker replied back, once again telling him how thankful she was for the information. Cole sat there thinking about everything, trying to wrap his head around it.
“If he’s meeting with Iranians then it might still be the group that we busted up back in L.A.,” he stated.
“Has to be. Everything he’s done is about this deal. He’s tried to make it personal by throwing us off his trail. It’s never been about me. He just wants us to think it is so we won’t think clearly and make mistakes. He’s just trying to create some separation between us to give himself enough room to make the deal without fearing that we’re close enough to bust it up.”
“Any idea where he might go to make a deal if that’s what he’s intending?”
“If I had to guess I’d say either Brussels or Antwerp,” she replied.
“Why’s that?”
“Brussels is the largest city, easier to blend in. Antwerp has the port. One of the largest in the world. If I were selling government secrets that’s where I’d go.”
As soon as Parker had booked their trip, they went back to the hotel to pack up their things. The train left in an hour at the Paris North Station. Once they were on the train, Parker tried to get her partner up to speed on some of the Belgium customs. Roughly about the size of the state of Maryland, the headquarters of NATO, The European Union, and World Customs Organization were in Brussels. Most people were friendly to Americans and much of the younger generation of Dutch speaking Belgians spoke English. Once they crossed into Belgium, Parker called the Mossad agent that Breuer recommended. He told her that he was currently at Central Station in Antwerp. He’d be sitting on a bench just outside. Parker relayed the information to Cole and told him to be alert once they got there.
