Blood Of My Enemies (Birth Of Heavy Metal Book 4)

by Michael Todd

  “I think this baby’s FUBAR,” Sal said with a grin and tapped the hood of their Hammerhead that had been shot through the engine block.

  “Yeah, Gutierrez is already on her way.” She shook her head. “They took care of the guys there too easily, I think. She already didn’t like the idea of having to ram one of her babies into that blockade, and then to have the other one shot up besides?”

  “I think we need to give her a raise,” he suggested. “And hey, after this, we can even afford it without having to make daily runs into the Zoo, right?”

  “Right.” She turned to examine the merc’s ATV. “In the meantime, we can probably commandeer this Hammerhead. It looks…mostly intact—if you take out the dead man inside, of course. We can still make the drop.”

  Sal smiled. “Well, we wouldn’t want to keep our new clients waiting.”

  Kennedy raised her pack to reveal the container with the Pita plant inside. “Our little baby was happy to get some sunlight.”

  “Do you think we should name this one too?” he asked they scrambled into the ATV.

  “No, I think naming the first one Madie was more than enough, thanks.” She took the driver’s seat and started the vehicle.

  “This is amazing,” the man said and leaned in closer to the container as he adjusted his glasses to peer at the plant. “I never thought that I’d actually ever see one of these in person.”

  Sal nodded and glanced at the three men who had come to the meeting immediately outside the Staging Area. They were dressed in heavy armor—better than the suits Sal and Kennedy wore—but they seemed to be there only to transfer the plant to the buyers. Of course, before that could happen, they needed to bring a specialist in to confirm that it was precisely what it had been sold as.

  The British man’s enthusiasm was refreshing, if a little odd considering how the rest of their day had gone. He was older and wore a pair of round glasses and had a graying, pudgy appearance. That, along with the way that he swept some of his hair over his head to cover a bald spot made him look like he would have been a lot more comfortable in a laboratory or a university lecture hall than all the way out in the middle of the Sahara.

  “See, the image that was presented to me for the sale only had two budding flowers, but you can see another one already starting to grow here, look?” He pointed and tapped a pen at the glass. Sal looked more closely. He hadn’t noticed the new bud in the morning, and since he’d given it a good, solid inspection, that meant it had appeared while Kennedy hiked through the desert out to where she had set up her sniper hide.

  “Dr. Andrews, can you confirm that the item is, in fact, authentic?” one of the armored men asked. He had clearly grown more and more uncomfortable while standing out in the open like this. They appeared to already know about what happened during the transit, and while they seemed to appreciate the danger that Sal, Kennedy, and company had gone through to get the merchandise to them, they weren’t quite so willing to undergo the same kind of hardship.

  Sal studied the surroundings to determine what they were looking for as he gripped his rifle.

  “Of course it is,” Dr. Andrews said with a soft huff that made his stomach wobble under his clothes. “Look at the way the flowers glow, even when under direct sunlight. If you look closer, you can see the way that the plant itself glows due to the presence of the goop inside. It’s authentic.”

  The man nodded and said something quickly that was isolated by the helmet he wore. Kennedy was able to unravel what he’d said, however, and pulled her phone up quickly on her HUD, connected wirelessly, and checked the bank account that had been set up for the payment. It had been created as both a way to have the money transferred through the various types of red tape that were involved in overseas transfers as well as a way for the third-party salesperson to take out his share. The account itself could not have any withdrawals without consent from both parties who had opened it, those being Anja and the man she’d hired.

  “The money has been transferred,” the lead soldier said in a terse tone. “We’ll take our leave now.”

  Kennedy nodded confirmation that the money had indeed been deposited in the account.

  “I must say, Dr. Jacobs, Sergeant Kennedy,” Andrews said as the solders collected the plant and began to walk it back to the Staging Area. “I am a massive admirer of your collective work here in the Zoo. I am employed full time for the company that has purchased this marvelous specimen from you, and I hope that you think of us when you feel the need to sell anything else of value that you might have. Here is my card. Next time, please contact me personally.” He held out his card, which Sal pocketed immediately.

  “We appreciate that, Dr. Andrews, and we might take you up on that offer,” he responded cordially.

  “He’s not a doctor yet, though,” Kennedy interjected.

  “And she’s not a sergeant anymore,” Sal added. “But that’s not the point. We’ll be in touch, doctor. And have a nice flight back to…London?”

  “Liverpool, in point of fact,” Andrews said with a grin. “But I appreciate an American’s attempt. I hope to hear from you lot soon!” He waddled cheerfully away. From the way the soldiers seemed to wait for him and pay him almost as much consideration as they did their package, Sal could tell that the man had to be a high-ranking member of his company.

  “If that’s the guy in charge, I feel a lot more comfortable working with these people in the future,” Kennedy said approvingly.

  “I thought the same thing,” Sal replied. “How much will we end up with, when all’s said and done?”

  “Well, Anja’s friend running the auction said that he was willing to accept a lower percentage of the sale,” she replied as they strolled to the Hammerhead they’d appropriated from the Pegasus thugs. “His condition, of course, was that any future sales we might have had to go through him as well. He took a fifteen percent cut from the sale total. That, plus what we’re paying our muscle boys—who took some injuries that we’ll cover too—as well as what I think is a well-deserved bonus for everyone involved, you and me included… I feel confident in saying that we’ll have about three million to add to our current buffer.”

  “I’ll be honest, I’d hoped for a lot more than that.”

  “Well, you have to spend money to make money, Jacobs,” she reminded him. “With all that said, we still have the Hammerheads we appropriated, and the weapons, armor, and ammo we picked up should give us an extra bonus on the side—although we should probably wait for a while before we unload them. We don’t want a huge killing spree of mercs to be on everyone’s minds while we sell suspiciously blood-stained armor and ATVs.”

  “Right.” There would have been a time when he felt horrified by the amount of death that had come from the single sale of a plant, but he had become jaded to it, used to the fact that you couldn’t make money out in the Zoo if you weren’t willing to defend what you’d acquired.

  “Do you want to get a drink to celebrate?” she asked and nudged his shoulder.

  “I’d love to. But no drinking competitions, though.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Anja wasn’t the most trusting of people. She had studied in a field that was mostly famous for annoying and untrustworthy teenagers who thought it would be a laugh to disrupt government buildings and national security. Experience had been an excellent teacher and she had developed a series of tests that she ran people through before she decided whether or not she was willing to work with them.

  Very few people passed her test, as simple though it was. She mostly ran them through a gauntlet of innocent-sounding questions. The degree of braggadocio involved usually had a direct correlation to whether she trusted them or not. People who liked to brag about what they’d done—how they’d broken into the NSA or FBI sites on a dare or simply because they could—usually wouldn’t show any discretion about any large amounts of money they made and where it had come from.

  As a result, there were only a handful of peop
le around the globe whom she trusted, and ironically enough, she’d never met any of them face to face. Whenever she needed something done in person, she contacted one of the few people on her list and asked them to provide her with high-quality recommendations. It was a charged service, in most instances, but it was usually worth it. Not always, of course, but it was definitely better to trust people she’d worked with before than some random unknown on the internet.

  A quick conversation with her friend who had mob ties in Southern California told her that there was someone available in the area with the kind of skills Sal and his friends needed. The reality was that people didn’t like breaking into the houses of the very rich anymore. The risk-reward ratio was simply too high. Those wealthy individuals who actually kept anything high-value and easy to dispose of for a good profit—worth stealing, in other words—in their homes also fitted some of the highest-rated security systems in the world. Occasionally, however, something specific had to be acquired illegally, which was where the recommendation came in.

  The gender of the thief was never revealed, but the resume was fairly impressive. While Anja had never heard of any of the heists mentioned before, a little research revealed that they had happened and mostly been covered up to avoid some kind of embarrassment or another. Someone who didn’t need to advertise their work and only worked when referred by word of mouth was the kind of contractor she felt she could trust. It didn’t tick all the boxes in her little gauntlet of questions, but it was one hell of a start.

  She checked the security cam footage that she had used to keep track of Courtney’s progress through the city. Her intention had always been to stage the robbery once it was known that the other woman wasn’t in town. It seemed supremely logical to ensure that she had one hell of an alibi to fall back on if there was any fallout from this escapade.

  Dr. Monroe acted with extreme caution, and from the sounds of things, had good reason to do so. Her assistant was a tall fellow who, even with glasses, gave the impression that he was very dedicated to his body. The fact that he would travel with his boss to meet them in the Zoo made Anja shift uncomfortably in her seat as she leaned in to watch their progress.

  They simply waited around at this point, drank coffee, and talked constantly before they climbed into a small town car which took them to one of the smaller airports, where Courtney’s company kept a couple of jets on hand and ready for hasty travel needs. They had a few at the larger airports like LAX as well but considering the kind of schedules those places worked with, one would have to request a trip days, and sometimes weeks, in advance. The smaller airports outside the city were a lot less convenient to reach but far more flexible about hours.

  She waited until they pulled into the airport garage before she contacted her friend in the encrypted chat room.

  Tell your contact that they can expect the down payment, and the balance when the piece is delivered, she typed quickly. She had been known to be able to input almost a hundred words per minute. While it didn’t sound that impressive, it was quite a feat considering the fact that she was usually coding while she was on a computer. These were two different skill sets that both required an extensive knowledge of a keyboard and quick fingers.

  My friend agrees to your terms, came the reply. Although they would prefer to do a quick scout of the house in question before taking any money. They’ll contact you with the details once they’ve finished. We’ll be in touch.

  Anja sent a thumbs-up emoji before she deleted the chat and closed the room. She would obviously need Sal’s approval to spend that kind of money but she was fairly certain that either he or Courtney would be willing to make good on the offer. It would be money well spent considering what it was that they were after and how difficult it would be to get their hands on it.

  When her friend was ready, he would leave a message draft for her on a shared email which would provide her with details on where to open the message board again. Until then, she could do nothing but wait. She hoped that the person who scouted the place wouldn’t trigger any alarms. Since she had her metaphorical and digital fingers on the pulse of that alarm, she would know the minute it happened, if it did. And, without doubt, she would be thoroughly disappointed.

  It was, of course, very unlikely that either a rookie mistake or disappointment would occur. Anja had worked with her mob-connected friend for a few years already, and while they had never done something quite this high-profile before, she knew she could rely on him to come through for her.

  Or maybe her? Anja wasn’t quite sure. Ambiguity was a big part of their working relationship.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Security around these places was never a joke. Rich people took protection very seriously and usually went so far as to have their alarms contact private security contractors as well as the local police once anyone was stupid enough to trigger them. Fortunately, the entire premise of the security system had been based around the fact that a ton of people with guns would immediately head in once a signal was triggered. Very few people ever really considered the fact that if an alarm was never triggered, the cavalry wouldn’t arrive.

  The simple expediency of hacking into the security company’s personnel logs gave the thief an ID to work with. A couple of calls to the people who handled the account tied to Covington’s apartment provided the details of the security system in place at her home as well as access to the live logs of when the security was turned on and off. This yielded pertinent and very helpful details.

  Motion sensors were only turned on when no one was at home but were left off when she was there, which left only the perimeter alarms. The thief retrieved the information about how the security was set up, including details that only the alarm company would know about, Again, it was useful—where the alarm itself was located, how it could be disconnected, and how to prevent it from being logged into the system.

  Every person who spoke to her would have commented only on how polite and professional their superior was before she hung up. The thief made free use of a different name every time and so left nothing to tie her back to the line of questioning.

  Her next step was to park a delivery company van in front of the building. It was a tried and tested way to scout a property while setting up a heist and gave her sufficient time to obtain a good visual. The apartment she would take on came as no real surprise. It boasted a high level of security with a significant number of humans between the thief and the laptop.

  That really was nothing that couldn’t be handled. Human error was the kind of thing people in her profession relied on. Machines were difficult to beat, but when humans operated them, it almost felt like cheating except that there was no real honor system in place. There weren’t any awards for people who played by the somewhat arbitrary rules of thievery. On the other hand, many people acquired a hefty payout by breaking those rules.

  The thief gripped a package and approached the entrance, dressed in the coveralls of a delivery company that was known to make their deliveries to the doors of their clients. There weren’t many people whom she trusted with this kind of job, but she was more than willing to do it herself. She gave the name and apartment number of a place where she had previously confirmed the people were home. If they didn’t expect a delivery—which obviously would be the case—she would simply take it back.

  The security guard who manned the door was deeply engrossed in some playoff basketball game, a useful distraction she had planned for. It meant that he wouldn’t notice if the delivery took a little longer than normal. She’d made a note of that when a pizza delivery guy went up to the pool on the roof of the building to have a smoke and stayed there for over half an hour.

  She used the elevator to take her to the floor that she’d carefully selected to allow her access to Covington’s apartment. The small but very wealthy family would no doubt be having dinner at about this time. She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to open the door.

  Fortunately, she didn’t hav
e to wait long before the husband greeted her. After some awkward flirting—which she was used to considering her red hair and darker skin which gave her an exotic look that appealed to some—he realized that she wasn’t interested, told her quickly that they hadn’t ordered anything, and shut the door in her face. She didn’t mind his dismissal, although she was tempted to drop the wife a line about how her husband was in the market for a little on-the-side shenanigans.

  Temptation would have to wait, though. She sprinted through the stairwell and reached the penthouse a few seconds later. Careful to remain out of view should anyone step out of the elevator, she tapped her phone to deactivate the security system and route it through a device that she’d placed under the manhole cover she’d parked her van in front of. The door unlocked too, which provided her with a quick and easy path to the safe under the Covington woman’s bed.

  Despite all the other elaborate measures in place, the safe was a simple design made mostly for the peace of mind of the person who owned it instead of actual security. This made it easy—given that she’d done extensive research on her target—to guess the four-digit code and gain access. She retrieved the laptop, checked it for tracking devices, and made sure to gather all the accoutrements that were needed to run a laptop like this. Satisfied, she slid the device into her delivery bag. After a moment’s thought, she grinned and placed the delivery box containing a cheap teddy bear in the safe.

  There wasn’t any real reason why she did this other than the fact that she wanted to fuck around with the woman. From the research she’d done over the past couple of days, there was every indication that she was the scum of the earth.

  There were some depths that even she—thief though she might be—wouldn’t ever sink to. She made her way out of the apartment with no further delay, locked everything once more, and took the cameras off the loop her friend had programmed in. Her mission now accomplished, she jogged down the stairs and took the elevator to where the security guard remained enthralled by his game of choice.