Moving Target

by Desiree Holt

  The group of men was just dispersing. Those who knew Quinn from before stopped to express concern. Then they were gone, back to their offices or out on the streets to piece together the night’s fiasco.

  Jake was back in less than ten minutes carrying the top half of a set of hospital scrubs which he handed to Quinn. “Put this on. At least when Kate opens her eyes you’ll look semi-presentable.”

  Kane Barton waited until Quinn had exchanged his bloody clothes for the cotton garment, then looked at him and said, “Give.”

  Quinn forced himself to focus, dredging up every detail, every scrap of information, he could remember. How he’d met Kate, everything she’d told him, all the information he and Jake had pulled from her. Jake added details that Quinn forgot. And then everything he could remember about the shooting. They went back and forth until Kane was satisfied there was nothing more to be had.

  “You realize that first bullet was meant for you,” Jake pointed out. “If you hadn’t bent over to put your gun back in the truck, you’d be in the morgue right now.”

  “A gun?” Dean, leaning against the wall, raised an eyebrow. “You were bringing a gun to the federal prosecutor’s office?”

  “Yeah, and it looks like I needed it, doesn’t it.” Quinn dry washed his face with his hands. “I don’t understand, though. I thought Kate was already out of the truck when he fired.”

  “She was just getting out,” Jake told him. “Another two seconds and she would have been safe.”

  “They weren’t aiming that first shot at her, anyway,” Dean added.

  Quinn’s face was set in angry lines. “They needed to take me out to get to her. If the shooter had gotten me, the next bullet would have been for you, Jake, and Kate would be history. They want her alive, so they can find out what she’s told to who. And retrieve their flash drive.”

  Jake’s face when he turned to his two bosses was grim. “I told you she was worried about a leak in our office. Looks like she wasn’t wrong after all.”

  “Yeah, Quinn’s mentioned that once or twice.” Dean Morgan’s expression was dour.

  “Speaking of that little item,” Kane, said, “do you happen to know where it is now?”

  Quinn reached into his pocket and pulled out the little silver rectangle. He’d retrieved it from Kate’s purse while the paramedics were attending to her. “You’d better take damn good care of this thing. She may have given her life to protect it.”

  Kane’s face was dark with fury but not at Quinn. “You can be sure as hell I’ll be asking a lot of questions in the morning. We also have to figure out where to stash Kate when the hospital releases her. A safe house. At least until we’ve got the Osunas locked up nice and tight.”

  “Forget it,” Quinn said, in a voice that said don’t interfere. “I’ll be taking care of that. This is not up for discussion.”

  “We’ll get back to that as soon as I find out how tonight happened.” Kane rose from the bench where he’d been sitting. “Dean and I need to get back to the office. We have a lot to do right now to figure out this mess.” He shook hands again with Quinn. “I want to make some other security arrangements here at the hospital, too. Jake, you want to walk to the elevator with me?”

  Quinn watched the men speaking quietly in the hallway. He’d take whatever help he could get here, but then Kate was all his. He’d let her down once by listening to other people. It wouldn’t happen again. Next time, he’d make the choices.

  In a moment, Jake was back, carrying two cups of vending machine coffee. Quinn drank without even tasting it. He paced. He sat. He paced again. Jake brought more coffee, which he barely remembered drinking. Each time the doors to the operating suites opened, he held himself erect, rigid, preparing himself for the expected blow. Each time, when only strangers emerged, he looked away.

  At last, when he was sure he’d lose his mind, Dr. DeWitt came through the double doors, scraping his surgical cap from his head. He looked tired but not solemn.

  “She’ll be all right,” he said before Quinn could get the question out of his mouth. “The bullet caught her arm because of the angle as it entered her side. It hit a rib and splintered, scattering fragments and nicking a lot of internal organs.” He wiped a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead. “We had to do a lot of repair work, and she’ll be in quite a lot of pain at first, but she’s going to be fine. She just won’t be running any relays for a while.”

  “Can I see her?”

  “Just for a second. She’s on her way to Recovery. We’ll notify you as soon as we move her to a room. I wanted to put her in ICU, but Kane Barton killed that idea. He wants her isolated.”

  Quinn nodded. “I agree.”

  “We’ll set her up in a private room with whatever she needs. And Kane’s sending over his own nurses once she’s settled.” He turned his head as the doors opened behind him. “Here she comes now.”

  If Kate’s appearance had scared Quinn before, the way she looked now terrified him. She was even paler, if that was possible, blending into the whiteness of the sheets. One arm was in the hospital gown, the other uncovered and swathed with bandages. More bulky bandages peeked out the side of the gown. But it was her utter stillness that made his heart stop.

  “Are you sure she’s okay?” Quinn persisted, gripped by anxiety. “She doesn’t look it.”

  “She’s just had some very extensive surgery,” the doctor reminded him. “She lost a lot of blood, and she’s still not out from under the anesthetic. Give her a couple of hours. Even then, I wouldn’t expect too much for a day or two.”

  “All right.” He reached for Kate’s limp hand and squeezed it to assure himself there was still some warmth in her body.

  They reached the far end of the hall where another set of doors opened, the gurney was rolled through it and once again Quinn was left behind in the antiseptic-smelling corridor. He didn’t even hear Jake come up behind him until he spoke.

  “I called my office and gave them an update on Kate’s situation. The cops have moved to Recovery, although I don’t think the nurses are too excited about it. Kane also called the hospital administrator who should be in his office by now. Let’s go hunt him up.”

  “I want to wait until they move Kate to a room.”

  “That will be at least two hours, Ace. They’ll let us know when it happens. Come on, buddy. You can’t do her any good standing here.”

  Quinn stared at the doors through which Kate had disappeared, unwilling to move and be somehow disconnected from her. Then, reluctantly, he turned and followed Jake to the elevator.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When the phone at Esai Osuna’s house rang shortly after midnight, the message cryptic and urgent, he and Peter raced to a condo on the far north side of San Antonio, knowing all hell was about to break loose.

  Everything had turned to shit. Salazar had dropped Pendera’s lifeless body in the dumpster and positioned himself in the garage. But then he’d shot Kathryn by mistake. Pendera’s body was likely to be found any moment and Salazar was somewhere on the loose. Kathryn was either dead or dying, and in any event, surrounded by so much protection a fly couldn’t get through.

  And it was a certainty the feds had the all-important flash drive. The one thing that could sink them if they didn’t work fast.

  The cartel operations had literally ground to a standstill. The key players were gathered for a council of war at the home of the leader who had returned to San Antonio filled with wrath. Miguel had flown in on his jet from Florida and was staying in one of the guest suites at el jefe’s condo. Peter and Esai had been summoned to join the happy group.

  Peter wondered if he closed his eyes and wished very hard as he’d done when he was a young child, would he be transported to another place where none of what was happening was real.

  A tall, striking woman, jet black hair swept back in a French twist, lips a bright slash of scarlet, smoked furiously as she paced the thick carpet in the lavish living room. The air was thi
ck with rage and frustration. She stared viciously at Peter.

  He stared back, said simply, “Hello, Mother.”

  “I can’t imagine what possible explanation there can be for this fiasco.” Eva Osuna Fleming Gallagher Burke’s voice was cold and hard, her eyes filled with rage as she looked around the room, first at one person, then another.

  “There is none.” Esai Osuna looked as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. “Your son lost the girl, and the feds have the flash drive, also thanks to Peter. I don’t imagine things could be any worse.”

  “You know this isn’t all my fault,” Peter protested. “I tracked the car and pinpointed the area she was in. Can I help it if the incompetents you people sent out there couldn’t find her in such a small area?”

  “That does not change the fact that the government now has that flash drive,” Esai reminded him, “with all the details of our operation. All of them.”

  “The drive is encrypted,” Peter reminded them. He was sure he’d repeated the same words a thousand times over the past few days. “I wrote the code myself. It won’t be one they can break.”

  “Don’t delude yourself,” Eva told him. “Today the government has cryptologists who can break any code ever written. We just have to hope it takes them long enough that we can restructure ourselves first. The physical process is already underway. When they start looking for money and merchandise, they’ll find nothing but empty warehouses and bank accounts with zero balances.”

  “I think we all need to step back a bit and take a deep breath,” Peter told her. “Stop pointing fingers at each other. That doesn’t do a damn bit of good.” God, anything to shut her up. He was getting tired of being the evening’s whipping boy.

  “Peter, in case the degree of your stupidity has escaped you, let me spell it out for you.” She lit a cigarette and blew out a thin stream of smoke. “You of all people know the lengths we went to in creating a dummy corporate structure that mimics a multi-national operation. It allows us to move goods and supplies and exchange money all under the guise of corporate business. People might suspect, but there was no way to prove anything.”

  “Yes,” he interrupted, “but—”

  “I’m not finished.” She inhaled another lungful of smoke. “Now, in a blink, all of that has changed, putting us at an extreme disadvantage. I wouldn’t think you’d need me to point this out to you. Every bank account we set up so painstakingly. Every supplier and distributor. Everything is on that little piece of technology you so stupidly left out in plain sight. Now we have to recreate everything from scratch.”

  “And that doesn’t include what could be our biggest problem,” Miguel interjected.

  Eva whipped around. “And what would that be?”

  “The people on the payoff list. When they discover they’ve been exposed, they might turn on us to save their own necks.”

  “Cristo!” She stubbed out her cigarette with vicious strokes. “Too bad we can’t kill them all. We’re exposed in a way I never thought we would be. Well, let’s start with the most important names and figure out how to handle them”

  “I’ll take on that responsibility,” Miguel said. “I think we can safeguard most of them. The others will just have to be smart enough to keep their mouths shut.”

  “If you’ll just let me explain something,” Peter tried again.

  “There is nothing for you to explain. I am ashamed to think that a son of mine is so brainless he’s put us in this position.” She paced, her skirt swishing around her legs as she moved from one side of the room to another. “And the bodies that keep piling up in plain sight. Can no one carry out a simple assignment anymore? The fiascos in Charlotte and Los Angeles were bad enough, not to mention the library debacle. But what happened at the federal building is a disaster. We should have gotten rid of Salazar long ago.”

  The Osuna brothers sat quietly, listening. Esai shifted in his chair, watching his sister. What would the reaction be, Peter wondered, if the world knew that this woman was the true brains and power behind their cartel? That it was her money that seeded it, her brilliant idea to create a phony law firm to cover all their activities? Her idea to educate the brightest sons and daughters of their distributors as lawyers to do the grunt work?

  He often wondered where the loyalties of their people would lie in the event of a power struggle. Whose side would they be on? His? Miguel’s? Eva’s?

  “At least he also took care of Pendera,” Peter pointed out. “You can bet there’ll be a full scale rout in the prosecutor’s office tomorrow. We won’t have to worry about him cracking under the pressure.”

  “Pah!” She waved a hand in the air. “Pendera was a flea. But now any chance at the female is lost. The data transporter is gone. All we have to show for our poor efforts is a string of dead bodies and a Herculean task ahead of us.”

  “Regardless, we need to get busy regrouping,” Esai said. “We still have an operation to run. We can’t just stand still.”

  Miguel turned to Eva. “How long do you think it will take before they are at our door with warrants in hand?”

  “I won’t even speculate. But I’m preparing for anything. Remember, they still have no idea I even exist, so this condo is our safest place.” She blew another stream of smoke. “Peter, you’ll be setting up shop in the den for the foreseeable future.”

  “Here?” Please, no. He had to get out of here. He dug two antacid tablets from his pocket and tossed them in his mouth.

  “Meanwhile,” Eva said, ignoring him, “we’ll go about our business quietly. As long as the basic system still functions we’re in business, and no one will be the wiser.

  “How will we keep track of things?” Miguel asked.

  “Peter can set up an encrypted file just to keep a running list. As he gets the new structure in place he can plug in the information.”

  “And the people on the payoff list?”

  “I leave that in your hands, Miguel. Handle it however you see fit. Warn them. Eliminate them. Whatever works best and fastest. Peter, you’d better get started on this immediately. The new bank accounts are critical.”

  “Of course, Mother.” He made no effort to hide the sarcasm. “Whatever you say.”

  “This is your mess,” she spat at him. “Clean it up.”

  Peter said nothing, just poured himself a drink from the bar against the mirrored wall. What shocked him most was the news that Kathryn had somehow hooked up with the legendary Quinn. How the hell had that happened? What an incredible piece of bad luck.

  How in God’s name had everything fallen apart like this? He’d had such a sweet deal. Now he saw his cherished lifestyle disappearing like a wisp of smoke. But he had an ace in the hole, which was why he was here rather than exiled to some godforsaken mud hole. He was the only one who could rebuild the corporate structure and encrypt everything.

  Taking his drink with him, he quietly slipped out of the room into the den. Once he was finished with his work, he absolutely had to find a way out of this.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Thank you for coming down here,” Quinn told the man standing in front of him.

  Roused from his home, hospital administrator David Nolan was only too happy to help the U.S. Attorney any way he could. Now he was in his office, explaining the situation to Jake and Quinn.

  “Kane Barton outlined the security measures the DOJ has in place,” he told them. “He’s asked me to personally supervise everything in this situation. Miss Griffin’s room is now effectively sealed off from normal activity. Kane told me he’s sending over special private nurses, but I believe you already know that. They’ll be the only ones who’ll have access to whatever she needs. Usually every chart is electronic and the nurses and doctors can access them when they need to. For this situation we’re going back to paper only. We’ll keep her chart in the room and DeWitt will be the only doctor to see her. Eliminates a lot of hospital traffic that might be a problem.”

  “Thanks” Jake sho
ok administrator’s hand. “We can’t afford to take any chances with her. I want no information at the nurse’s station, nobody but our people in and out of this room.”

  “Understood. I’ll take care of it.”

  Quinn stood silently listening, making his own plans in his head.

  It was nearly two in the morning when Kate was ready to be transferred to a private room and was moved from Recovery under heavy guard. Jake walked to her room with Quinn, satisfying himself that everything was in order. Two SAPD policemen stood guard grimly outside the door. Inside, a woman in blue and white hospital scrubs was waiting for them.

  “I’m Nancy Quayle,” she introduced herself. “I’ll be taking care of Miss Griffin. I do this a lot for the DOJ. Which one of you is Quinn?”

  “I am,” he said. “Why?”

  “I was told to let you know that I’m also a licensed federal agent.” She lifted her top slightly to show them a badge and a gun clipped to the waistband of her pants. “Your girl will be well guarded.”

  “That’s fine,” he said, his voice flat, “but I won’t be leaving this room and I have my own hardware.” Kane had arranged the okay on that.

  Nancy looked at Jake.

  “He used to be with our office” Jake told her. “It’s all right. Whatever he says, don’t argue with him. Maybe Kane forgot to mention that.”

  Her eyes widened just a fraction in surprise, then she turned to back to Quinn. “Fine. Just don’t get in the way of my taking care of my patient.”

  “No problem.”

  “There’s one more of us coming,” she informed him as she busied herself with Kate. “She’s also an agent. We’ll be taking twelve-hour shifts. Keeps the traffic down and limits access to Miss Griffin.”

  Jake touched Quinn’s arm. “All right, Ace, I’m going back to the office. There’s nothing more I can do here. I’ll come by in the morning to check on things.”

  “I want to know whatever you find out.”

  “Will do.”

  “I mean it, Jake,” he warned. “No keeping things from me.”