by Dan Decker
“Where are you?” Shannon demanded.
“Why?”
“Your fingerprints turned up on the train. Your pistol?”
I swore. In everything that had gone on, I’d forgotten to tell Beltran that I’d lost a pistol. “Impossible. I had latex covering my prints.”
“What about the last time you cleaned it?”
“Please, I follow the rules. Is my face all over the news?”
“No, Beltran caught wind of this before it got too far. He’s also managed to suppress a video or two from the phones of bystanders. We both owe him big time. Come quickly, he’s changed his mind about having us work the Martinez case.” Shannon hung up.
So much for a quiet evening of reflection.
There was no way that I’d left a fingerprint. I’d worn gloves the last time I cleaned it, I always did. I didn’t realize that I was sweating until I wiped my brow and pulled away a moist hand. Growling, I stood up.
Martinez could have lifted my fingerprints before defecting; he probably had the fingerprints of all of us. Payne could have planted a gun on the train that led back to me. I threw my tablet in my bag and left the library.
As I walked back to Black Brick, I tried to imagine going to a study group or having the option of getting mixed up with a girl like Kris. It might be nice to date somebody who wasn’t able to kill me with her bare hands.
Try as I might, I couldn’t picture that kind of life.
Chapter 7
Steeling myself for what lay on the other side, I opened the door to the conference room and entered. Shannon, Cherry, and Tom were already sitting around the table. Beltran was pacing.
My eyes locked onto Shannon first and she gave me a small frown.
“You didn’t think it was important to mention that you lost a pistol?” Beltran snarled.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, the pain flared in my back as I sat down and my chest felt like I had large leaden weights fastened to my ribs. “I always wear the latex covers.” That had been one of the principal rules from the very beginning and I’d never broken it. I always wore gloves when cleaning my guns and was religious about changing the latex fingerprint covers that I wore on my fingers. Every morning I’d peel off the set I’d worn the previous day and put on new ones. “This is a setup. In the report, did it mention two pistols found in the train car?”
“When we screw up, we admit it,” Beltran grimaced, dodging my question, I could tell that I’d scored a point. There had been two pistols.
“I lost a pistol, but it shouldn’t matter, it didn’t have my prints. Martinez gave Payne a pistol to plant.”
My words hung in the air. Usually, I would have apologized by now, because that’s what Beltran was looking for, but I’d been given enough trouble for how the train incident had gone down, that I just couldn’t bring myself to utter the words.
“You should never lose a pistol,” Beltran said, much of his anger dissipating. He picked up a remote and pressed a button. When the screen came on, it showed a picture of Martinez with an older man. “We have an emergency and unfortunately, you’re the only team I have available. This picture was taken earlier this morning. We caught this by accident, neither Martinez nor the old man were the subject of the surveillance.”
“Who was?” I asked.
“Somebody else.” Beltran pointed to the man beside Martinez. “This man has access to the old Diggon headquarters. The problem ladies and gentlemen is that Martinez knows about an operative I have at that location. Nothing has happened to her yet, but she’s close enough to finishing her mission that we are going to complete it tonight. Hopefully, whatever Martinez has planned won’t go down before that. We can’t allow Martinez to compromise this mission.”
Beltran met my gaze. “This cannot go down like the train.”
I growled, both because of the guilt and all the condemning looks I was receiving from the others on my team. I was grateful that Shannon was staring at the table instead of at me.
The death count was up to twenty seven. I'd given in and checked the news on my way back to Black Brick. Several drawings had been made of Shannon and me, but they were nondescript enough to not be alarming. I was relieved that Beltran had been able to keep some of the videos and pictures from coming out but I was afraid it was just a matter of time before others did.
The conflicting accounts of the survivors alleviated some of the worry I felt, but none of the guilt.
“This is a very simple mission.” Beltran’s eyes bored into me; it made me want to punch him. “Protect agent Lisa Hooper as she copies files from the Diggon data center. Nobody knows we’re coming and passing security will be a breeze. Zero body count. Can I be clearer?”
Tom smirked. “Careful, Jake may take that as a personal challenge.”
“What aren’t you telling us?” Cherry asked.
Beltran looked at Cherry, cracks appearing in his forced calm demeanor. “You’re reaching the end of your slack. Push me further. See what happens.” His voice held no emotion, and he spoke quietly, but the words hung in the air, the latent threat all but spoken.
“Who’s Lisa?” Tom asked.
“She’s a professional and you’ll all obey her as you obey me.”
“At last an order I understand,” Tom said with a mock salute.
“Shannon and Lisa go in,” Beltran said. “The rest of you wait as lookout and backup.”
The instructions bothered me. Cherry was right, there was something that Beltran wasn’t telling us. If it was a simple pickup mission, why did he want three of us sitting in the car twiddling our thumbs instead of providing backup on site?
“I don’t like being partnered with someone I don't know,” Shannon said.
“It’s bad enough we have Jake,” Tom said, “who has a tendency to leave things in flames, but at least I know what to expect. Lisa’s unknown, she could do anything.”
“Cherry and Tom,” Beltran said, through clenched teeth. “You are dismissed.” Surprise at the dismissal registered on Cherry’s face, she blinked, her face frozen. Tom took it better, but not by much. They stood, took their things, and left without another word.
“I wish that I could keep Cherry out of this.” Beltran said once they were gone, rubbing the sides of his head with his hands. His eyes gave away the lie.
That was it. This is what was bothering me. Our mission wasn’t about helping Lisa. No, this whole thing was about Cherry. Beltran wanted Martinez to think that we were there for Lisa, but in reality he was counting on Martinez taking advantage of the opportunity to grab Cherry.
My bet was that Beltran had reason to believe Martinez was going to be there tonight and wanted to dangle a carrot in front of him.
“You’re using her as bait,” I said.
“Just take care of her.”
“If anything happens to Cherry.…” Shannon pushed her lips together and narrowed her eyes, but didn’t finish her sentence.
I thought back to how Shannon had rushed headlong into Payne and his men to protect Cherry. I hoped that Shannon had learned her lesson, but I doubted it. The next time Cherry was in danger, Shannon would act rashly to protect her. The bruise on my chest was a good reminder. If I took too deep of a breath, my chest filled with pain. I wouldn't be forgetting that lesson anytime soon.
Beltran’s words were forced. “We have a job to do. I don’t have time to worry about Cherry. Or either of you. Get it done and get back here.”
Chapter 8
Before the last light of day was gone, I checked my phone for any new email or text messages and put it away. The windows of our black Chevy suburban where tinted, but I didn’t want to take the chance that the light from the screen would draw attention to our vehicle. There was small chance of that happening because we were parked on a busy street outside of the building that used to be Diggon’s headquarters, but it was best to be cautious.
The new Diggon headquarters was several miles away and had just been completed. I hadn’t
been into the building, but there had been a lot of publicity associated with its completion. Not only did it tower above all the other buildings in the city, it had a fully fledged zoo and aquarium on the premises.
The old building in front of us was still being used by Diggon but it was slowly getting phased out.
I thought about reaching out to Vargo’s surveillance team to see if Vargo was in the area but decided against it. They wouldn’t appreciate me bothering them while they were on the job. With the events of the last couple of days, I’d been too busy to keep tabs on the information they’d been gathering about him. I made a mental note to review the logs when we returned to Black Brick later tonight.
I mulled over Vargo’s strange words the night that the Kurt family had been killed. They made more sense now that we knew Martinez was behind things. Vargo’s denial of involvement to Janessa may have been genuine.
I wish we knew what Vargo and Andrews had hired Payne to do because it might help us understand why Martinez had recruited Payne out from underneath them. We couldn’t find any evidence from the files we’d taken from Kurt’s home.
Tom and Cherry sat in front, she was monitoring the radio and he was on lookout. It had been a quiet couple of hours but we hadn't gotten out to stretch. My legs were in danger of falling asleep, so I shifted. A moment later I could feel the blood running back into my feet, but my legs still ached.
I hadn’t mentioned my concerns to Tom or Cherry. I didn’t trust them to keep my theory to themselves. Beltran was dangerous enough that I needed proof that he was using Cherry as bait before I spread it around.
If I were to tell them, I’d be running the risk of learning what Beltran was like when he really got angry. It was bad enough that I’d said some of the things I had. If I started trying to poison his subordinates against him, I might not be able to come back from that.
Despite our vigilance, the evening had been uneventful and it had been over two hours since Shannon and Lisa had disappeared into the building.
“They should finish any minute now,” Cherry said looking at her watch. We’d had an update fifteen minutes ago that they were almost done.
“About time,” Tom said, “my back is starting to hurt.”
If Martinez was going to make a move on Cherry, he would have done it by now. I looked out the back window, shifted and brought my legs up onto the bench seat. That was better. Laying my head back against the window, I took a deep breath, ignoring the pain in my chest and back, and let it out slowly.
I was bothered that my fingerprints had turned up on the train, what did Martinez have to gain by planting evidence of my involvement? Beltran had made it clear that he thought Martinez was in this for Payne’s Diggon money, but what if he was wrong? What if Martinez was trying to destroy and discredit our organization as well? He could just pick us off one at a time.
The thought stopped me cold.
If that was Martinez’s game, the person that would be in danger here would be the only person by herself.
Shannon.
Lisa wasn’t a tactical specialist and wouldn't be any help if they got into trouble. If I was Martinez, I wouldn’t come after the three of us as we sat armed to the teeth waiting for him to show. No, I’d go after Shannon.
I pulled out my phone and dialed. They were on the twenty-fifth floor, if something were to happen to them, we wouldn’t be able to get there in time. A moment later, I was relieved to hear Shannon’s voice on the other end.
“Idiot,” she said. “Communication is supposed to go over the radio.”
“Anything unusual happening up there?” I asked, Cherry and Tom looked back at me, but I didn’t heed the questioning looks on their faces. When she didn’t answer, I continued. “I was wrong. Martinez is going to come after you.” I noticed a startled look on Cherry’s face as she realized what I meant. She’d probably been worried she was bait but hadn’t been willing to speak it aloud.
“You’re worried about nothing, we’re—” Shannon stopped, and I could hear her phone clattering to the ground and her pistol being pulled from her holster. “Lisa, behind you!”
Gunshots came out of the tinny speaker of my phone. There was screaming, but I couldn’t tell from who. Probably Lisa, Shannon was too busy firing her gun. After that, there were voices, but I couldn’t make out what was being said.
I covered the mouthpiece of the phone. “Gunfire.”
Tom was already opening his door and I was trying to make out what was happening. I didn’t want the sound from outside to drown out what I could hear so I hit the front seat and motioned for Tom to shut his door and pointed to my ear. He did.
Cursing, I had to suppress the same instinct as Tom to rush up there. There wasn’t much that we could have accomplished, we were too far away.
The gunshots had stopped, but there was still yelling. I thought one of the voices belonged to Shannon but I couldn’t tell for certain. When I recognized Martinez, I gripped the phone tighter.
I could make out other muffled voices, but that was the extent of it. At one point, I could have sworn that I’d heard Lisa say that Martinez had taken long enough. I gripped my phone tight, wondering if I'd misheard.
Her voice had been calm and collected. Hadn't she been screaming moments before? Had it been an act to distract Shannon so Martinez had the opportunity to take her out?
There was a pause in the conversation and I wondered if somebody had noticed Shannon’s phone lying on the ground.
There were scraping sounds as it was picked up and heavy breathing came through the phone.
Closing my eyes, I focused, trying to make out every last whisper that I could. An image of Shannon, lying in her blood came to mind. Taking a deep breath, I pushed away the thought and refrained from speaking.
“Follow us and she dies,” Payne said. The line went dead.
Chapter 9
The flashing strobe lights and pulsing music were enough to deaden my senses. The club was teeming with people and the air was hot and smelled of body odor, perfume, and sweat. I scanned the crowd looking for my target and hoped that I hadn’t missed him.
“Want to buy me a drink?” asked a voice from beside me.
It was a surprise that I was able to hear her shouting over the beat of the music. I wondered how long it would take my hearing to return to normal after I left as I focused on the woman who had spoken. A flash of light revealed her face and somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that she was pretty but I didn’t let the realization surface as I smiled my best smile and looked over her shoulder.
Where was my target?
Shannon had been missing for a week. I hadn't been able to sleep and was more tired than I had ever been. I was afraid of making a mistake that could cost Shannon her life. The last thing I needed right now was somebody making it even harder to concentrate.
“A drink?” the woman repeated as she moved in closer and dragged her hand down my chest. The bruise from where I’d been shot was gone, but I still felt a small tingle of pain when she touched it. Maybe it was just my imagination.
“Sure, whatever.” The response had been automatic before I could stop it. The light flashed on her face again and I realized I knew her. The name came to me slowly. The last week had been long and painful, everything had become a blur.
It was Kris, the girl who always stared at me during class and had stalked me in the library.
“Forget the drink,” Kris suggested. “Let’s get outta here.”
“Where to?” It just popped out because I had spotted my target.
Cole Gurley. He was a tall man and stood a head above the other people in the crowd. For all his height, he was still thin. Despite his lanky appearance, rumor had it that he could be vicious.
Kris grabbed my hand. “Anywhere, just not here.”
I barely heard her as I watched Gurley move towards a doorway on the far side of the room. I didn’t have time for Kris and pushed her hand away with a smile.
“Maybe another time, I gotta run.” I moved towards my target before she could answer. The flashes of light and thunderous reverberations of the music fell to the background as I approached Gurley.
My arm was grabbed from behind. My first instinct was to throw off the hand as if I was being attacked, but when I looked over my shoulder I saw that it was Kris. Given what I was about to do, I couldn't afford the attention I'd get for pushing a woman.
“I’m sorry. I came on too fast. It’s just that—” Her words were drowned out by the throbbing music. Gurley was moving away. Had he recognized me?
“It’s nothing to do with you,” I said. “Really, you seem nice.” I pushed past the desperate woman and into the crowd. I would have preferred to use the pistol in my jacket but leaving a corpse would have defeated the point. I wanted Martinez and Payne to know that I'd found their man. It was a risky move chasing after Shannon, but I didn't think they'd kill her. Martinez had kidnapped her for a reason.
I was a step away from Gurley when Kris stepped in front of me.
“Men don’t usually walk away from me. You made your point.”
I didn’t respond as I moved her aside and grabbed Gurley from behind, slamming him into the floor. His screams were drowned out by the blaring music. I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head into the ground.
“Tell Martinez that I’m coming for him,” I said, slipping a bug into his coat while he was trying to focus his eyes on me. I was certain I knew where Gurley would go after this, but in case he did something unexpected I needed to know what it was.
I moved back into the crowd. One or two people had noticed my actions, but most were oblivious. The music and flashing lights had hid what I’d done. I heaved a sigh of relief when I left the club. It had been too stuffy for my taste and the cold night air felt good.
The streetlamp outside was covered with multi-colored fliers. The old blackened decomposing gum dotting the sidewalk made me wonder if anybody ever used the garbage can that was located to the side of the light.
