The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart

by Remington Kane

  “Why the doubt?”

  “The group is fractured, most of them are driven by their idea of religion and practice it fanatically, but then there are those committing kidnappings as a way to enrich themselves.”

  Tanner nodded. “I see, both groups ask for money, one to get rich and the other to fund their ideals. If that’s true, then there’s probably no way to know who has her.”

  “Yes, but I pray that the extremists have her. Their religion is very strict in matters dealing with sex… which means she’s less likely to have been raped.”

  “How much is the ransom?”

  “Ten million.”

  Tanner cocked an eyebrow at the figure. “Your family has that kind of money?”

  “We can raise it, yes, but it will take time, and during the last conflict in the country, it sometimes took months before they released the hostages, even after the ransom had been paid. They were also known to arbitrarily kill hostages for reasons only they understood, but it was usually when the hostage had offended them somehow, such as the men whose bodies were found. They were gay.”

  “And once the ransom is paid, they ask for more, right?”

  “Yes, and again, sometimes, they just, just kill their hostage.”

  The doorbell rang, and Sara stood. “That’s Duke, please don’t harm him; he was only following my orders.”

  Sara waited for Tanner to reply, but he said nothing. After sighing, Sara went to open the door.

  Duke’s eyes grew wide with fear as the door opened. Tanner reached past Sara and pulled the older man into the apartment, then tripped him. As Duke fell onto his back, Tanner placed his gun against Duke’s forehead, right above the broken nose he had inflicted upon him in their previous encounter.

  “Please don’t kill him, Tanner,” Sara said.

  Tanner ignored her and spoke to Duke. “You do things for her. From now on, you’ll also do things for me. Do you understand?”

  “I do,” Duke said, and Tanner was impressed that there was no tremor in the man’s voice.

  Tanner put the gun away and Sara helped Duke from the floor.

  “I’d much rather work with you than against you, Tanner,” Duke said.

  Tanner raised up a finger. “For me, you’ll work for me, not with me.”

  “Whatever you say, I’m just glad you two aren’t still trying to kill each other.”

  Sara suggested that they move back onto the balcony. Once there, Duke told them what little he knew.

  “As you can guess, Guambi isn’t exactly a place where I have a lot of contacts, so the two of you will be going in blind.”

  Tanner stared at Sara. “The two of us? You’re not planning on coming along after we get there, are you?”

  “Of course, I am. This is my sister we’re talking about, and I think you know that I can take care of myself.”

  “Yes, you can, here in the city, but the jungle is different. As a woman you won’t be able to keep up.”

  Sara’s eyes blazed. “That’s sexist!”

  “No, that’s a fact and simple physiology. I’m faster than you, Blake. My legs are longer, and I have greater stamina. I may need to cover long distances quickly without resting, and if I do, you won’t be able to keep up.”

  Sara made a face of displeasure, followed by a nod of assent. “That’s all true. I may lag behind, but I’m still coming with you to find my sister. I’ll be responsible for myself. Your only job is to find Jenny and get her to safety, agreed?”

  Tanner didn’t appear pleased, but he nodded in agreement and spoke to Duke.

  “Fine, now what about weapons?”

  Duke grimaced. “I do have contacts in Jakarta through an old friend. He says that the con artists and thieves in the region outnumber the legitimate gun dealers. So be advised, my friend says that this arms dealer in Telunas can be trusted, but not always, and that you’ll have to check your weapons carefully to make sure he’s not trying to sell you junk.”

  “That’s not reassuring,” Tanner said.

  Duke shrugged. “It is what it is.”

  “How well armed are the rebels?”

  Duke brightened, as he rubbed his palms together. “There’s one piece of good news there. When they attacked the capital, they were unable to breach the armory and the military there remains loyal to the government. Few of the rebels will have guns and most of them will be armed with machetes or knives.”

  “What about the passports?” Sara said.

  Duke reached into an inside pocket of his suit coat and his hand emerged with an envelope that contained two complete sets of phony IDs.

  He laid them out on a glass-top coffee table before Sara and Tanner. After reading them, they both jerked their heads up and asked Duke the same question.

  “We’re supposed to be married?”

  Duke grinned. “It will arouse less suspicion.”

  His hand went into a side pocket and this time it emerged with two gold bands.

  “I guessed on the sizes; I hope they fit.”

  They tried the rings on and saw that they were about the right size, then they both removed them until they would be needed.

  Duke typed on Sara’s laptop for a few moments and brought up a map of Guambi. Afterwards, he pointed toward a large section of the northwestern part of the nation, which was bordered on two sides by the Indian Ocean and the country of Telunas.

  “It’s believed by some that most of the rebels are based in this area, although satellites have been unable to verify that, and they’ll likely move their camp frequently. Aside from the kidnappings, they’re also suspected of pirating small pleasure craft. The area is just a mess right now.”

  “How do we get to Guambi, by plane?” Tanner asked.

  “The airfield is still closed, and the State Department is advising all Americans to stay away, so you’ll have to travel in on foot. This chaos all broke out while Sara’s sister was in the air. If she had left a day later, her flight would have been cancelled.”

  Duke looked up from the screen and stared at both of them.

  “What you two are planning to do is hopeless. A native of the country would have a problem locating the rebels. And if you did find a group of them, there’s no guarantee that they would be the ones that took Sara’s sister.”

  “What do you think Jenny’s odds are, Duke?”

  Duke sighed loudly. “The truth, fifty-fifty, and that’s only because your father is willing and able to pay. Most of the time, the negotiations fall apart because the rebels ask too much, but luckily for your sister, your old man is loaded.”

  “I’m not willing to sit back and just hope for the best,” Sara said, then she looked at Tanner. “I studied you when I was tracking you down and over the last few weeks I’ve seen you do some incredible things, including today inside that freezer. If anyone can find and free my sister, it’s you.”

  Duke looked at Tanner and then Sara. “What happened inside the freezer?”

  “Tanner got free from the cuffs and rigged a trap. Once I stepped inside, he could have killed me.”

  “And she could have stayed outside the freezer and shot me to death, but she didn’t,” Tanner said. “Instead, she gave me her gun.”

  Sara leaned toward him. “I need you to trust me again. I really think you’re the only chance my sister has.”

  “I’ll do my best, Blake, but honestly, a team of mercenaries might be a better option.”

  Duke cleared his throat. “Not so, I heard a news report on the way here. The father of one of the other hostages is Conrad Burke, as in Burke, the multi-national, the defense contractor. He allegedly assembled a team of ten men and sent them in after his youngest daughter. One of them stumbled out of the jungle today with third-degree burns and said that they were ambushed and slaughtered, as far as they know, he was the only survivor.”

  “An ambush that was set up that quickly tells me they have eyes everywhere,” Tanner said.

  Duke nodded in agreement. “Yeah,
Burke’s group had been headquartered in the neighboring country of Telunas, which is where you’ll be staying after your night in Jakarta, at their resort area. The extremists are gaining ground there as well. Someone on the hotel staff, a taxi driver, or even someone at the airfield could have tipped the rebels. Trust no one.”

  Tanner pointed at the map. “From what part of the country was Blake’s sister kidnapped?”

  “She and two other hostages were at a relief center in the eastern part of Guambi,” Duke said.

  “How certain are you that she and the other hostages are being marched northward?”

  “I’m not certain at all. This is all just extrapolation from known facts, but the mercenaries were attacked north of the area where the hostages were taken, which does indicate that they’re moving in that direction.”

  “That’s good; it means that we’ll have a chance of intercepting them.”

  Duke wished them luck before leaving, and soon after, Tanner and Sara left the apartment and climbed into the limo that would take them to the airport.

  Sara offered Tanner her phone. “Do you want to call someone, maybe Laurel?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? You should let her know you’re alive.”

  “I’ll do that if I live through this. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

  Sara turned in her seat until she was facing him. “You’ll find my sister and then we’ll go our separate ways. I hated you for a long time, Tanner, but I never doubted your abilities. I locked you in a room with your feet shackled and your hands cuffed behind your back and I returned to a death trap. Most men would have surrendered, one or two might have gotten free of the handcuffs, but only you could turn the tables like that. Use that devious brain of yours to find my sister and bring her home.”

  Tanner said nothing in return and Sara shifted back in her seat until she was staring forward once more. Five minutes passed before she spoke again.

  “I don’t hate you, not anymore. I don’t have the strength for it and it was my hatred for you that caused Johnny’s death. I have to live with that.”

  She cried softly as Tanner watched her impassively, but as the taxi drove onto the Grand Central Parkway, he offered some advice.

  “You’ve stopped hating me, now stop hating yourself.”

  “That’s easier said than done,” Sara said.

  “Yes, but then, what isn’t?”

  Sara pondered those words, and despite her somber mood, she smiled.

  272

  When It Rains

  Laurel Ivy opened her front door before Joe Pullo could ring the bell.

  After Pullo entered, they hugged each other in greeting and Laurel noticed that Joe held her longer than usual. When they separated, she searched his face.

  “How was your day?”

  “Insane. With Johnny gone, I’m running things and there’s a lot I don’t know. I spent most of my life on the streets. I’m not a manager.”

  “Has there been more trouble?”

  “No, which I find odd, but I’ll take the break.”

  Laurel took his hand and began leading him toward the kitchen.

  “I’ll heat up some food for you.”

  Joe pulled her back and searched her eyes. “How are you doing? I mean, we have to assume that Sara killed Tanner, and I know you loved him.”

  Laurel looked away for a moment as her eyes grew moist, but when she looked back at Joe, she gave his hand a squeeze.

  “I don’t know if Tanner is dead, but I do know that he loved me, loves me, and knowing that… it’s freed me from the past.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “For years, I thought that maybe I had fooled myself into thinking he loved me. Now that I know he did, I also realize we never would have lasted, not if he could feel that way about me and still leave me.”

  “And if he’s alive… if he wants you?”

  Laurel smiled, then kissed Joe. “I’m with you now. Tanner is part of my past.”

  Joe hugged her again. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you too. First Johnny, and now Tanner. Laurel, do you think Tanner could still be alive?”

  “I do. He’s already come back from the dead once, and until I know differently, I’ll assume he’s out there somewhere.”

  Joe looked toward the kitchen. “I’m not really hungry.”

  Laurel smiled. “Let’s go to bed.”

  Joe’s phone rang. When he looked at the caller ID, his face paled two shades.

  “This can’t be good news.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Sam’s nursing home.”

  Joe answered the phone, and as the caller spoke, Joe’s shoulders sagged, and he lowered himself to take a seat on the stairs.

  “I understand, yes, thank you and… um, I’ll be there in the morning.”

  When he put away the phone, Laurel saw that he looked utterly lost.

  “Joe?”

  “Sam’s dead. They say he died in his sleep. Oh Jesus, Laurel, I’m losing everyone.”

  Laurel sat beside him and hugged him, as Pullo cried fresh tears of grief.

  Duke stepped out of his van in front of his home in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and felt the barrel of a gun get jammed against his ribs.

  “Take the wallet, hell, take the van, the damn thing isn’t worth my life.”

  “Is he dead?”

  The female voice surprised Duke. When he turned his head, he saw Sophia Verona.

  “Tanner is alive, I swear.”

  “Where is he?”

  Duke turned to face her and smiled. “Right now, I’d say he’s cruising at about forty thousand feet.”

  Inside a private jet, Tanner, his own eyelids heavy from lack of sleep, stared across the aisle at Sara’s slumbering form. As young as she was, she had already lost two lovers, and now there was a good chance she would lose her sister as well.

  Tanner believed her when she said she no longer hated him and assumed that her passion for revenge had died along with Johnny Rossetti.

  He kept staring at her and asked himself again why he hadn’t killed her. The only answer he could come up with was that he respected her.

  Sara had bested him, pure and simple, despite the method employed. He was only still alive because she had decided not to end his life.

  He would find her sister, free her from her captors, then consider the slate clean between them.

  Tanner drifted off to the first sleep he’d had in nearly forty-eight hours, as the jet he rode in drew ever nearer to danger, and possibly, the greatest challenge of his life.

  273

  In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle

  In the jungle region of Guambi, Jennifer Blake looked up at the noon sun and thought that she would pass out if they didn’t stop to rest soon.

  She was one of six hostages being held by a group of nearly three dozen men, most of whom were armed only with machetes, or goloks, as the locals called them. They had already proven that they would use the weapons, because when they started out, there were two more hostages.

  The men had been a couple on vacation at the resort in Telunas, a gay couple named Philip and Lawrence, who were well educated, and both Australians in their thirties.

  When the so-called freedom fighters realized the men were homosexuals, they had beaten them mercilessly before hacking them to death with the machetes.

  It was the most horrific and inhumane sight Jennifer had ever witnessed, and it made her vomit what little food she’d had in her stomach.

  The brutality had sickened and dispirited her fellow remaining hostages as well, for it had shown them that their lives could end at any moment, ransom demands or not.

  Philip and Lawrence had been successful businessmen and their lawyer, or solicitor, would have gathered the ransom money and paid for their release within a day or two.

  However, their captors found the men’s obvious love for each other an affront to their religious beliefs. They forfeited the ransom
for the opportunity to “cleanse the world of them” and would simply increase their ransom demands for the remaining hostages.

  Besides Jennifer, there was a young woman named Melissa Burke. Melissa was eighteen and the daughter of Conrad Burke, whose mercenaries were bested earlier that day.

  Burke’s men had been expected and had walked right into a trap near a stream, where nets were dropped upon them and then set ablaze. The men fought back by emptying their guns in all directions, but they couldn’t fight the flames and soon succumbed to the fire.

  Jennifer had hugged the ground along with the other hostages when the fighting began and wondered if any of them would survive the rescue attempt.

  When the conflict ended, they were all herded away through the jungle as fast as they could move, which wasn’t very fast, because they were paired off and lashed together at the ankles.

  Jennifer was bound to Melissa with a piece of coarse rope, while the other four hostages were likewise tied together.

  There was a married couple from Florida named George and Reba Hough, who had been on their honeymoon in Telunas, when they were kidnapped while shopping at the marketplace in Guambi. They were in their fifties and the marriage was the second one for each of them.

  The final two hostages were both men, a man of Asian heritage with the improbable name of Juan Rio, who was also a native-born Brit. Juan reverted to a Cockney accent when agitated. The other man was a pediatrician, Dr. Bill Washburn, who was black and a Canadian citizen.

  Juan Rio was an engineer who had been working in the area, but both Melissa and Dr. Washburn had accompanied Jennifer to the country as volunteer workers for the charity she ran. She felt responsible for their safety, even though none of what was transpiring was her fault.

  The leader of their captors was named Firman. He was a very thin man with wiry limbs and lots of dark hair, a beard, and bushy eyebrows.