by Hawk, Nate
Perhaps the simplest, and best, bit of info that he came across early on was that he was now able to send money, instantly, to anyone, anywhere, without the approval of any third party. Every analysis that he performed led him to the same conclusion. The newly released currency had potential to grow rapidly as society began to understand the underlying principles of the network’s foundation. So he purchased a satisfying supply of Bitcoins for $0.10 each. Then he put them away and waited for the price rise. He was shocked at how fast the technology and price grew.
However, he wasn’t currently considering the philosophical benefits of Bitcoin. He was contemplating his desire to buy what he needed, anonymously, without raising the interest of anyone else in law enforcement. He logged on to the dark net and made several purchases.
First he sent the requested amount of Bitcoin that an anonymous but trusted supplier required for ten thousand USD, cash. Kelly could see by the seller’s rating on the online platform that “he” was quick and reliable. The rating indicated the seller had conducted many such transactions. The money that Kelly needed to conduct the operations that he was planning would be mailed to him overnight. Next, he needed throwaway guns that by definition were not tied to him. He knew where to procure them, on a different site. He ordered 2 full auto M4A1 rifles chambered in 5.56, complete with custom accessories. The guns’ design included take down features allowing him to retain his zero. He needed the Trijicon optics to stay on target when he broke down the firearms for discreet transport or stuffed them in a pack for concealment.
Kelly preferred the feeling of 1911-style pistols in his grip, especially compared to the plastic grips of other guns such as his duty Glock. He knew the Glock to be a fine weapon but the American in him continued to leave him grasping at nostalgic straws from his country’s past. He didn’t fight it, though. Why should he? He would take his own .45 since there was no paper trail for it if the need arose to toss it. Despite every gun enthusiast’s concurring or disagreeing opinion, Kelly knew the round to be hard hitting. It would be a good sidearm to complement the M4s. His battlefield experience told him to hope that no sidearm would be needed. If it came down to handguns, he knew they would be in a tight spot.
From another vendor he ordered 100 rounds of .45 ACP jacked-hollow-points and 500 rounds of 77-grain open tip match ammo in 5.56. Finally, he did a search for items that he knew well and that he also knew were going to be pricey. He loaded up his digital shopping cart with two antipersonnel Claymore mines. He located two Eagle chest rigs that would suit him and his gear well. He ordered them. He went to AWS’s site and purchased two Light Assault Belts with corresponding pouches for all of his needs. For his last purchase he went to his favorite online auction site, and using the Buy It Now option, he bought five M4 Airsoft Rifles, in various configurations. Kelly smiled at the thought of all of the gear that was being overnighted to him.
***
Chapter 35
Niko was aware that the lady across the aisle was eyeballing him. All of his life, Niko had some quality about him that made strangers want to figure out who he was and what he was into. Niko sat quietly and fought the urge to tell her to mind her own business.
The woman was dressed like a Romanian gypsy; giving her a transient look. There had to be some herd of Eastern European nomads within her gene pool. The woman looked as if she hoped that Niko might talk to her. Instead, he turned slightly towards the side of the train and looked out the window and into the tunnel. The train continued its journey through the bowels of Hamburg, giving no hints in the darkness as to its geographic location.
Niko remembered hearing that at one point the tunnel went under a major river. Was it the Elbe or the Alster? He didn’t care; he was thinking of the twisted things that he’d like to do to the woman across the aisle from him. Niko’s stop finally came so he fought his way towards the door with his luggage in tow. As he walked, the rage inside of him continued growing.
She didn’t know it yet, but her interest in him had pushed Niko over the edge. He felt himself losing control. He hated part of himself for what he knew was coming. After all, it would have to be addressed. Yet knowing this, he attempted to push it out of his mind a little while longer in an effort to convince himself that he was still in control.
Niko emerged outside into an overcast day and quickly hailed a cab to his hotel. The cabbie either wasn’t good with English or was great at reading Niko because he didn’t offer any conversation past asking the man’s desired location with a rough German accent. The driver zipped out into traffic, accelerating like a madman through the city streets, with no apparent regard for safety. They pulled up in front of a towering glass building with a sign indicating it was just the place he had requested. It had a great location near the gritty Reeperbahn and he knew that would suit him well, later on.
But right then, he was interested in breakfast. He paid the driver and included a decent tip for getting him there with such panache. He peeled himself out of the seat, grabbed his bag and began walking up to the building. On its ground floor he noticed a restaurant. It was a modern styled joint, complete with hanging globe lights, stainless furnishings, glass tables and chairs that looked like they might be from the control bridge of a space ship. He entered and seated himself near a wall of windows.
Niko ordered coffee and told the waitress that he had no need for a menu. When eating breakfast in Hamburg, he knew there was one dish that you just had to order. He ordered two franzbroetchen pastries. Deciding that he was especially hungry, he changed his mind about the one dish idea and added an order of frikadeller (meatballs) for some added protein. The waitress gave him a funny look like she didn’t believe that a medium sized man, like himself, could eat all of that food alone. The look was lost on him though because he wasn’t minding her. His attention was focused on something strange outside the window. It was a familiar face. What the hell is she doing here? he asked himself.
Glancing his way while entering a boutique across the street was the woman from the train. With her look she was unmistakable. Why was she following him around? Then he realized the waitress was still standing there.
“Usually we don’t serve those two dishes together,” she informed him.
“Look…today, we are doing things differently,” he said. “Just bring me the damn food. And do it quick. Capiche?”
Niko’s mind was being overtaken. He could hear the tension in his own voice. He could feel it in his interactions. It was clear to him that another one of his episodes was coming. The more that he tried to shake it, the more that the symptoms continued to build inside of him. He ran his fingers through his long hair and set his gaze across the street.
***
Kelly’s was in the process of cleaning out the remaining items from Jen’s apartment. There were only a few items left and he was ready to have the task completed. It was bringing up too many memories of a life that wasn’t to be.
Kelly’s friend Steven had come by to help with a few heavy items. He needed to stop by anyway since he was in possession of more Jamaat Al Fuqra Intel that his friend had requested. The ASAC knew Kelly would eventually find a way to get past the tragedy but in the current time and space he didn’t see that happening soon. Despite Kelly’s constant focus on vengeance, Steven thought that Kelly should take some time to get away from it all. Steven had heard the fishing down south was good this time of year.
Kelly didn’t give a shit about the fishing. He also wasn’t the type to really desire any help but it was nice to have someone else to make the loneliness less bitter. Steven had needed to drop off some paperwork and besides, Kelly figured that Steven could lighten the mood of the depressing chore with some stale jokes.
“… So then I say, ‘Women may be able to fake orgasms but a man can fake an entire relationship!’” Steven concluded with a nerdy laugh.
Kelly smiled and shook his head.
“I don’t know if that joke was any better than the last one, Steven!”
“Well, I’ve been saving a few up. I’ve got a better one… what do sex and bridge have in common?”
Kelly shook his head.
“If you don’t have a good partner then you better have a good hand!”
Steven laughed boisterously and Kelly even laughed out loud.
“Alright Steven, you’ve got me laughing! I guess we better get this stuff moved though.”
Steven shrugged his shoulders and threw up his hands in surrender.
“What else needs to go next door?” he asked, as he analyzed the nearly abandoned flat. Kelly rested his left hand on the moving dolly and pointed with his right.
“Those cabinets are it.”
Steven rotated the white file cabinets on one edge and Kelly pushed the base of the dolly underneath. For its size, it had some unexpected weight.
“We’re about there,” Kelly said as they struggled with the heavy cabinet.
“Yeah, it’s got to be a relief,” Steven said. “Funny how much junk we accumulate. Half of it I’m sure we don’t need.”
With a level of agreement, Kelly added, “Yeah, and I’m not so sure about the second half either. This makes me want to become a minimalist.”
They wheeled the cabinet around, Kelly growing more confident now in his ability to balance himself with only eight toes. Still, a strange sensation seemed to travel from the toes that he didn’t have, continuing up his leg. It was as if his body was trying to fool him into thinking that his toes were still there. Something else more important was on his mind, though.
“Jen’s parents didn’t say anything about Brady’s father. I’ve been turning this around in my mind the last several weeks and I just don’t get it.”
“Is he American?”
“I don’t even know if the guy is alive. I tried to talk to her about it a while back but she was anything but forthcoming. I have no idea where or even who he is.”
“Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”
“It does, now. But before, not really. You know some of where I’ve been and some of the experiences I had in those places. There’s a lot more to it than even what I have told you, Steven, and I sure didn’t provide any details to Jen.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. It never really mattered to me,” Steven said, now understanding Kelly’s point.
“Exactly,” Kelly confirmed. “I’m hoping the answer to that question is in there.”
He nodded to the file cabinet.
“It’s the last place left for answers.”
Steven looked at the beat-up metal cabinet and suddenly understood its importance. Kelly set it down in the middle of his living room. The file organizer hadn’t even been opened and was proving to be burdensome in both weight and emotional toll. On one hand he felt like he was violating Jen’s privacy. He was big on allowing for personal latitude, especially in a marriage. The practical part of his conscience assured him that it didn’t matter but repressed feelings of betrayal by omission still remained somewhere inside. He pulled the uppermost of two trays out. He found the cabinet to be top-heavy so he balanced it carefully as he eyed the documents in the first drawer. He saw that the entire drawer seemed to be dedicated solely to bills. Jen had been thorough in her record keeping, to be sure. He saw bills for everything. There was one folder for electricity. Another for water and sewer. There was a folder for the cash purchase of a new car about seven years before. There was the renter’s insurance. Next, Kelly found a folder for the car insurance; behind that was gas receipts. Kelly looked through all of the files and confirmed his initial suspicion that the top drawer was solely for utilities paperwork and various bills. Failing to find anything of importance, he closed it up and prepared to revisit the documents when there was a need to. Then he pushed the tab to open the bottom door’s latch and realized that it was locked. Some area of his mind told him to leave it that way, it just wasn’t his to open. But it was and he knew he had to. If it wasn’t his responsibility, then whose was it?
He knew that along with the obligation of opening it came the responsibility of seeing through to the end anything he was about to stir up. Kelly had no idea where the key was so he grabbed a screwdriver and began prying the drawer from all sides. As a result, it gave quickly under the leverage of his strength. The drawer was not full like the one above it had been. There were a few files and a few boxes. Underneath that, Kelly could see the dull gray of old newspaper pages. The collection of old newsprint released a unique smell, taking Kelly back to the times when printed newspapers had been more common. He opened the first folder where he saw legal documents that had been filed in Massachusetts. He scrolled through the pages fairly quickly and promptly got the essence of it. A Jenny Mayer had filed legal documents about seven years prior, changing her legal name to Jennifer Myers. What the hell is this? he wondered, as Jen had never volunteered any information of a name change. Kelly had never noticed any difference between her last name and her parents’ last name. Of course, he hadn’t ever thought to look, either. What the hell is this? he asked himself again.
He was starting to wonder what else she may have failed to mention when he spotted the newspaper articles titled, “Local Woman Missing For 2 Weeks”, “Search For Local Woman Continues”, “Massachusetts Woman Missing, Foul Play Presumed” and finally, “After Three Months’ Captivity & FBI Bust, Jenny Mayer Found Alive, Sources Confirm”. Kelly started reading the articles in order, one at a time. This was clearly the chronological documentation of the victimization of the woman whom he loved and knew as Jennifer Myers. She must have changed her name for privacy, he thought. As he continued through the articles there was a particular name that he recognized from recent events. He knew it well. All too well. The name jumped out off of the newspaper page, shaking Kelly to his core and rattling his teeth.
There Niko’s name was, stabbing at the shattered remnants of peace that Kelly had once thought he had finally found in his life. Who was this man that had just entered Kelly’s life as silent as a rising floodwater and then destroyed his family? He had been with Jen for the last eighteen months too, but he lurked invisibly, pulling strings from somewhere in the darkness. Until one day, Kelly awoke all alone and realized that Niko was everything wrong in his life. Why hadn’t Jen told him? Then, as suddenly as the new information had arrived, it all made sense to Kelly. He understood with a crystal clarity what had happened. Niko had pressured Bekhan into assaulting Kristin and Jen. He had been the second man at the café. Then he had convinced Bekhan to kill Jen. The fire and rage inside glowed brightly and his determination intensified. The inner warrior within Kelly was charged and he knew that payback time had come.
In a sense, it was like Kelly was welcoming an old friend back into his life: his dark acquaintance. The excitement of fighting and being so close to death had always made him feel alive. To Kelly, fighting meant accepting that his own death meant nothing in the bigger picture. It gave him the freedom of release and the freedom to change the world into a better place. Fighting had helped him turn tragedies right. Maybe his dark acquaintance could take the reigns of justice once again and fix what had gone so terribly wrong.
“I can’t believe that she was who Niko had held captive for three months,” Kelly said. “I had no idea.”
Kelly looked to Steven for some type of explanation.
The Bureau man took a deep breath and cycled the bit of new information that he did have through his mind.
“I’m sorry Kelly. I had an aid look up the Niko Plotnikov kidnapping case and I just never thought to check out who his victim was. I’m sorry you found out like this.”
“I don’t need a fucking apology, Steven! I need this motherfucker’s head on stake!” he screamed.
Kelly felt a sense of worthlessness for not figuring all of this out sooner. He turned and punched at a sheetrock wall, putting his hand through it.
“Fuck!” he yelled again, as tears streamed down his face.
Steven felt awful for his amateurish rol
l in all of the events that had happened. As a high-ranking counterterrorism agent, he should have paid more attention to the details. He should have looked closer. He should have tried harder. He hated himself for not being able to get ahead of this while he still had the chance.
“Kelly,” Steven said as he put his hand on the sobbing man’s shoulder. “This is probably why Jen didn’t tell you. She wanted to avoid making you feel this way.”
Kelly nodded his head, wondering if he even knew Jen well enough to make such an assessment. Maybe she was right. Maybe Kelly would have thought of her different.
“I swear to God, whatever it takes, I’ll help you hunt down this asshole,” Steven promised.
Kelly didn’t hear Steven’s previous comment because his thoughts were on Jen. She was a good person and she had been beautiful. Kelly knew that Jen had given him her all and he had trusted her one hundred percent. He thought back to some of Jen’s peculiarities that now made more sense to him. She could only respond to a gentle approach. He wondered if there were other issues that she hadn’t shared. Maybe she had in her own way and he just hadn’t put the details together yet. What other revelations might Kelly come across?
***
Chapter 36
Niko finished his breakfast slowly. There was no rush and anyway, it was a considerable amount of calories. Then he dropped off his luggage at the front desk and checked in. The hotel staff was more than happy to accommodate his request to take his luggage up for him. Niko grabbed a city map from a shelf that held literature on the local attractions, as he mulled over his options. He formulated a plan and decided to stay on foot. Nearby was more than a day’s worth of things that could help him satisfy his urges.
There were lighter things he could do, too. He began walking towards the Speicherstadt, which he knew was the “historic Warehouse District”. It was an area of Hamburg that had been conceived as a customs free zone. Niko found this area fascinating as the architects had seemingly fought Mother Nature during the creation of these buildings. Many had had entrances from the canals that ran between them, right up to the doors. There were streets and bridges that weaved between the buildings in other areas where pedestrians could enter in any number of places. Somehow, the foundations had been set extremely deep, much deeper than the canals themselves, whose water constantly lapped at the bricks. The architecture consisted of a Neo-Gothic redbrick outer layer with alcoves, small towers and glazed terra cotta ornaments adorning the exterior.
