“Did you and Blake have a good talk?”
“No, and for some reason I can’t read her at all.”
“I haven’t known Blake for very long, but I do know one thing about her.”
“What’s that?”
“Whenever she does anything she gives it her all.”
“Even in affairs of the heart?”
“Especially in affairs of the heart. It’s why her hate for me burned so bright when I killed her lover.”
“And you think that the hate she felt for you just simply dissipated?”
“No, Blake killed it herself when she inadvertently caused Johnny Rossetti’s death. If I had to die for killing one lover, then shouldn’t she have died for causing the death of another?”
“You’re talking about suicide, but she’s not suicidal.”
“No, but she is shut down, and she’s definitely not the same woman who tried to kill me last year.”
“Did you really sleep in the same bed with that bitch?”
“I see you had an interesting talk, and yes, we slept in the same bed.”
“And if she had been willing, would you have had sex with her?”
“Alexa?”
“Yes?”
“I am far too skilled at survival to answer that question.”
Alexa laughed and punched Tanner in the stomach playfully.
“It was a stupid question anyway. Of course you would have slept with her.”
“No comment.”
“Horny bastard.”
“Guilty,” Tanner said.
CHAPTER 10 – Disgusting
Tanner used the van to block the view of the camera in the area of the underground parking garage he was in, then left the vehicle by its sliding side door.
After picking a lock, Tanner entered the building’s electrical room, where he used an adhesive to attach a small charge onto the main breaker of the electrical panel.
Deke Mercer had made the small explosive device by using parts from a garage door opener, the gunpowder from a score of bullet cartridges, and the high-voltage capacitor from a small microwave oven.
He assured Tanner that the device would destroy the circuit breaker, and thanks to the transmitter and receiver from the garage door opener, Tanner could detonate the device with a remote control.
Once the explosive was in place, Tanner locked the door on the electrical room and climbed back inside the van.
As he waited for Omar Ali Rashid and his two bodyguards to arrive, Tanner went over the plan in his head. He had been in Boston for over three hours and had spent some of that time finding a proper place to interrogate Rashid.
Sara had accompanied him as he searched, saying that she was interested in learning how he worked. Alexa didn’t seem pleased that Tanner and Sara would be alone, but she wanted to stay behind and watch Deke create his bomb.
When Tanner had taken Sara to a construction site on the Charles River, she agreed that it was secluded. However, there was nothing there but muddy ground that was in the process of having a sewage system installed.
The mud was growing stiff as the temperature dropped. They were both dressed warmly, while standing atop an oasis of graveled road surface.
When Sara spotted a construction trailer, she pointed at it.
“Where will you torture him, in there?”
Tanner grabbed her gloved hand and moved it until she was pointing out at the expanse of muddy land.
“That’s where I’ll talk to him.”
Sara squinted in the moonlight.
“There’s nothing out there but a row of portable toilets.”
“Exactly,” Tanner said.
Sara laughed.
“Rashid is germophobic. That will be torture to him.”
“Yes, and he won’t dare warn Adams that I’m coming for the man, not if he ever wants to be clean again.”
Sara shivered, but not from the cold.
“I can just imagine what one of those toilets smell like. I’m not germophobic, but I might tell you anything you wanted to know if you stuck my head down in one of those things.”
“Don’t give me any ideas, Blake.”
“Was that a joke?” Sara said.
“Yes.”
“Good,” Sara said, but she rushed back to the van.
***
The limo arrived less than an hour after Tanner had placed the explosive in the electrical room.
Tanner, still in the van, readied his night vision device and hit the remote control just as Rashid and his men left their limo.
The sound of the small explosion was muffled behind the closed door of the electrical room, but it had the required effect and the parking garage went dark.
The darkness wasn’t complete, as the battery-powered EXIT signs cast their red glow, but the sudden loss of illumination disoriented Rashid’s security guards long enough for Tanner to come up behind them unnoticed.
Tanner’s sight was enhanced by the night vision monocular he wore, and he used a metal baton on the two security guards. He rendered one of the men unconscious with a blow to the side of the head, while the other man had his right kneecap broken. After disarming both men and tossing away their phones, Tanner hit a button on the van’s remote and slid the side door open again.
By the time Rashid recovered from his shock and fled, it was too late. Tanner caught up to the fleeing man, grabbed him by the collar, and began dragging him towards the van. When Rashid attempted to struggle free, Tanner landed a punch into the man’s gut and doubled him over.
The bodyguard with the busted knee was crawling towards Tanner and waving a short knife. The blade had been in a sheath on the guard’s belt. Tanner had left it in place, thinking it to be no threat, and at the time it was a more urgent matter to nab the fleeing Rashid, rather than discard the knife.
Tanner ignored the guard long enough to blast the whimpering Rashid into silence with a stun gun. He then returned to the man with the busted knee and gave him a broken arm to go along with it. That caused the knife to fall to the ground and Tanner kicked it away.
A minute later, Rashid was bound, gagged, and being driven from the parking garage. While stopped at a traffic light, Tanner saw that the man was crying. That was good. It told Tanner that Rashid would talk.
The soft ones always did.
***
Tanner wore tightly-laced work boots along with a pair of cheap black jeans, leather gloves, a ski mask, and a hoodie. All-together, the clothing had cost about fifty bucks.
On the other hand, Omar Ali Rashid was wearing a $2,000.00 suit and a pair of $800.00 shoes. One of the shoes came off while Tanner was dragging him through the thick mud of the Boston construction site, and there wasn’t enough dry cleaning in the world to save the suit from what lay in store for it.
Tanner had yet to utter a word to Rashid by the time he opened the door on the first of the green portable toilets, and attempted to shove Rashid into it.
The pudgy Arab resisted the attempt as if Tanner were trying to toss him into a flaming pit.
A well placed punch to a kidney ended Rashid’s struggles. Tanner dragged him inside and held his head above the reeking toilet, which contained a mixture of shit and piss from numerous donors.
There was a blue chemical in the bowl as well, but it did nothing to mask the stench. Rashid added to the vile mixture when he vomited up the remains of a lobster dinner. When he had finished retching, Tanner spoke.
“I want to know everything you know about Julien Adams, particularly his current whereabouts.”
Rashid coughed, spat, and then spoke.
“My brother is an important man. If you release me now and tell me who sent you, I’ll tell him to let you live.”
“Where is your brother?”
“He lives in New York City, but he knows people who can track you down. He is not a man you can hide from.”
Tanner leaned in and whispered in Rashid’s ear.
“Your brother isn’t he
re. Right now, it’s just you and me.”
Tanner gripped Rashid’s right sleeve at the elbow and forced his bound hands down inside the toilet until they were submerged.
Rashid said, “No, no, no,” in Arabic before cursing and crying.
A relieved sigh followed when Tanner let him yank his arms free, but it died in his throat as Tanner gripped him by the hair and began pushing his face towards the toilet bowl.
After a yelp of terror, Rashid shouted Adams location. His voice echoed with a hollow tone from the confines of the toilet.
“Greece! Julien Adams is on a private island off the coast of Greece.”
Tanner interrogated Rashid for another ten minutes and became certain that the man had told him everything he knew about Julien Adams.
Tanner gave Rashid another blast of the stun gun and called Sara to give her the information. She informed him that Burke personnel in Greece would be able to keep the island under surveillance and would begin issuing regular reports by morning. She would also coordinate with them for a place to work out of, and it would all be ready by the time they landed in the country.
“How soon can we get a flight to Greece?” Tanner asked Sara.
“I’ll have a jet ready to leave by eight a.m., and Tanner?”
“Yes?”
“Is Rashid still alive?”
“Yes, Blake. I don’t kill when I don’t have to.”
“And was it really necessary to kill that guard earlier at the Burke Corporate Campus?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It set a tone. Sloane Lennox was attempting to set the tone with his stupid test, and I reset it by killing that guard. I’m not one of Burke’s employees. I want that understood from day one.”
“You’re the best killer on the planet and they’re lucky to have your services.”
There was a pause, and then Tanner spoke.
“Are you mocking me, Blake?”
“No Tanner, I was simply stating a fact. Even when I wanted to kill you I never doubted your abilities; it’s why I lobbied so hard to have you work with us.”
“Lennox had someone else in mind, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“That Sicilian, Scallato.”
“Maurice Scallato, yes, Julien Adams wouldn’t survive him either.”
“You know Scallato?”
“By reputation only,” Tanner said, as he caught movement from the corner of his eye and saw that Rashid had recovered from the blast and was crying again. “I have to go, Blake, but I’ll be back soon.”
“Goodbye, Tanner. I’ll meet you in the hotel lobby after seven a.m.”
“Fine.”
Before leaving the construction site, Tanner promised Rashid that he would kill him painfully if he were to warn Adams.
Rashid said that he owed Adams nothing and cursed the day he’d met him.
Tanner stunned Rashid with an elbow to the side of his head, gripped him with both hands, and dunked him headfirst into the muck of the toilet, but just deep enough to immerse the man’s hair.
“Warn Adams or attempt to seek revenge and I’ll drown you in something that will make this smell sweet.”
Tanner left Rashid sobbing inside the toilet, trod through the mud, and drove off into the night.
Tanner knew where to find Adams. Now came the hard part, killing the man.
CHAPTER 11 – Food for thought
One of the Burke Corporation’s Gulfstream jets flew at over five-hundred miles an hour, as it winged its way to Rhodes, Greece.
Aboard the luxury jet were Tanner, Alexa, Sara, Deke Mercer, and Garber, the head of the armory, and a man who had once been a member of the British Special Forces, the SAS.
Garber spent the flight either asleep or on the phone with his wife, who was six months pregnant. Garber was unaware of the true purpose of the trip, although he could certainly guess. Deke assured Tanner and Sara that Garber was trustworthy, and also needed, as he possessed an expertise that Deke didn’t.
“What would that be?” Tanner asked.
“Sea craft, personal sea craft to be more accurate. You’ll need a way to get on and off the island. With the security that Adams has in place, you’ll have to be stealthy about it.”
“I’ve done some scuba diving; I thought that I would just swim in underwater,” Tanner said.
Deke shook his head.
“We’ll hook you up with something better. If the shit hits the fan, you’ll need to move fast.”
“I don’t plan to fail, Deke,” Tanner said.
“I get that, but it’s my job to help you, and part of helping you will be to plan for a retreat.”
Alexa smiled at Deke.
“You have something in mind?”
“Yes, a Seabob water sled. Have you ever used one, Tanner?”
“No, but they’re like an underwater jet ski, correct?”
“Yes, and once we get to Greece, Garber there will train you in the use of one. The Seabob will help you get on and off the island much faster than swimming, and because it works underwater you’ll have less chance of being spotted.”
Sara let out a sigh and showed Tanner her phone.
“That’s the preliminary report from our surveillance. Adams hasn’t been spotted, but there are at least sixteen armed guards and several servants. There are also three guard towers. The towers are all temporary structures, but they offer the guards a good view.”
“How big is this island?” Tanner asked.
Sara fiddled with her phone and brought up an aerial view.
“As you can see it’s very small. The house and the surrounding servant quarters take up nearly half of the useable land. Adams has three fast boats standing by. My guess is that once he knows he’s in danger he’ll take off in one of them, which one he’ll use would be anyone’s guess.”
Tanner studied the aerial view and made a comment.
“I’m surprised that the government doesn’t send in a commando team.”
“That’s a private island on Greek soil,” Sara said. “As much as our government wants Adams dead, they don’t want to advertise to the world that a prominent American is engaged in terrorist activities.”
“Once I get on that island he’ll no longer be involved in anything, including breathing,” Tanner said.
***
After landing at Rhodes International Airport, Tanner and the others were taken to an estate in Paradisi, Greece. The estate was on the water and had its own private white sand beach, along with a dock and a sailboat.
Tanner and Alexi’s accommodations were large and well-appointed, as was Sara’s room, which was across the hall. After unpacking, showering, and changing, Tanner went in search of Garber.
There were still a few of hours of daylight left when they arrived in Greece. On the limo ride to the house from the airport, Tanner asked Garber if he could give him his first lesson on the underwater craft.
“I’ll do better than that, sir. If you’re willing we can continue your training all evening, after all, you’ll be using the Seabob at night.”
“Good point, Garber, and just call me Tanner, I’m nobody’s sir.”
Garber looked over at Deke.
“You’re right, he’s a regular bloke.”
“Do you have to deal with a lot of assholes, Garber?” Tanner asked.
Garber shrugged.
“The corporate types all like to be called sir or ma’am.”
“That doesn’t apply to me,” Sara said.
Garber grinned at her.
“Not yet, but if you stay at Burke long enough you’ll become infected.”
***
Tanner found Deke and Garber in the four-car garage that had been converted into a staging area for the assault on Adams’ island.
There were two Seabobs, and Garber and Deke were already busy modifying them to be as silent as possible. Both of the men were dressed in swim trunks, as was Tanner, who wa
s eager to get his first lesson on the Seabob.
Sara walked through the doorway that connected the house to the garage. She was dressed in a white bikini, but also wore a translucent red beach robe, which was unfastened. Alexa followed behind her, wearing a very flattering, and revealing, one-piece bathing suit.
Both Deke and Garber stared openly at the women with admiring stares.
“You ladies look lovely,” Deke said. “I take it you’ll be joining us on the beach?”
Alexa nodded as she stared back at Deke. A look of concern flashed across her face as she took in the scar from a healed wound on Deke’s left side, beneath the ribs.
“That’s a nasty knife wound.”
Deke raised his arm and looked at it.
“I was careless once.”
“In combat?” Alexa asked.
“Yes,” Deke said, but didn’t elaborate. He then pointed over at Tanner and made reference to the old scar on Tanner’s chest. “I’ve never seen anyone who was hit there get back up. You must have been very lucky.”
“I was,” Tanner said, as Sara moved closer and studied the healed wound.
“I’ve wondered about this old scar,” she said, and then touched it lightly, almost as a caress, while looking up into Tanner’s eyes. “Who did this to you?”
“Alonso Alvarado.”
“Alvarado? So I guess you two had some history?”
“We did.”
“He failed to kill you and you eventually killed him.”
“Something to keep in mind,” Alexa said, as Sara took her hand from Tanner’s chest.
“Are we ready to begin, Garber?” Tanner asked.
“We are.”
“Then let’s get to it. I plan to make my move tomorrow night.”
***
Tanner, while naturally athletic, turned out not to be a natural when it came to being adept at using the Seabob. He was fine while the craft moved straight, but had trouble handling quick course changes.
It frustrated him, as he had always been swift at mastering new skills. It wasn’t enough that he be good with the machine, he needed to be expert with it, as he would be using it at night, in almost total darkness.
Deke and Garber had equipped the Seabobs with subdued headlights, but they only gave illumination out to a dozen yards or so.
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