Annica began thinking way ahead of herself, thinking about Cole. Wondering if Jackson would want him to stick around after Hawaii. And then she wondered if Cole would even want to. She supposed that was just as important as anything else. More so, definitely, than the little fantasy growing inside her mind.
A squeal of laughter pulled Annica from her thoughts, Macy and Mira both fleeing from a blender hysterical and covered in whatever cocktail they’d been trying to make. Margarita, was it? Apparently, one of the ladies had been too thirsty to properly seal the lid.
“It’s okay,” Macy laughed. “Maybe I didn’t need it anyway.”
Annica said, “In your mouth, you mean?”
“Yeah, but all over me is fine.”
“That’s what he said.”
Another round of hysterical laughter from the slightly drunk and considerably horny lady duo.
“That reminds me,” Macy said, turning to Annica. “Talk to me about this Cole guy.”
She startled, nearly dropping her glass. “Why does that remind you of him!?”
They laughed again, Annica too, this time, her face reddening a little.
“Come on,” Macy said. “He’s pretty hot.”
Annica tried to shrug it off.
“I think so, too,” Mira said. “Like in a legit bad-boy kind of way. I mean, he almost killed you.” She laughed but then quickly stopped herself. “Sorry. Too soon?”
“No,” Annica said. “And . . . fine. He’s hot, in the most professional way, yeah.”
“Just professional?”
“I just met him,” Annica said.
Mira shrugged at her like it hardly mattered.
“What did you guys talk about?” Macy said. “I didn’t really get a chance to because Tucker and I, at the time, still thought he was part of the problem.”
“Problem?” Annica said.
“Like bad boy for real,” Macy said. “Like too bad.”
“What if he still is?” Mira said. “Is that possible?”
“Well, that’s what I mean,” Macy said. “So what did you talk about?”
Annica said, “At the beach, you mean?”
“Or was it a non-verbal exchange?” Macy held back a laugh.
Annica hoped her cheeks wouldn’t darken when she thought back to their . . . exchange. Even the verbal parts of it were unprofessional. “It was very enlightening,” Annica finally said.
“I bet it was,” Macy said, snickering.
“Okay, let’s ease up on her,” Mira said, winking at Annica.
“Thank you.”
“Fine,” Macy said. “But I still want to know his story. Skip the romance.”
“There’s no romance,” Annica said.
“Is there even a story?”
“Cole is the story,” Annica said, glad to see Macy looking somewhat satisfied. “He’s the main whistle-blower to this thing. The smuggling operation. We’ll take it down as long as he survives for the subpoena, and as long as we can bring enough evidence. That’s what we’ll be doing in the next few days.”
“But why does he want to take down his company?” Macy said. “Why is he suddenly coming out with this?”
“He thinks it’s drugs,” Annica said.
There was a slight pause. And then Macy said, “So?”
“Not just drugs, but some seriously destructive shit. Like heroin.”
Another slight pause. A pained silence from Macy, who seemed to recoil initially at the word. “Damn,” Macy said. “Mira, have you met Jasper’s brother, Kyle?”
“No,” Mira said.
“He had a big problem with heroin a few years ago. It actually started overseas when he was deployed. In the Middle East. You know they have rat lines going all across Asia.”
“They have what?” Annica said.
“Rat lines,” Macy said. “That’s what they call it. Smuggling routes for drugs, money, human trafficking, and whatever else moving through these established paths. Rat lines, for rats.”
Annica shivered. “Stop saying that.”
“Stop saying rats?”
“We get it,” Mira said. “Thanks.”
Annica put her drink down and sat on a stool by the counter. She thought back to Cole’s emails. She may have only met him in person a few days ago, but it felt like she’d known him for a lot longer than that. He’d shared things in his emails, things beyond what she needed to know for the case. “Cole has some firsthand experience with heroin, too. Well, not heroin itself so much as its effects. He lost two friends from it back home.”
“Back home?” Macy said.
“He’s from Washington,” Annica said. “The state of Washington. A small logging town. All the jobs are gone and I guess you know the rest.”
“Idle hands,” Macy said.
“So I think part of this, for Cole, is about conscience. I’m still trying to learn the rest.”
Mira had also found her way to a stool. “How did he first contact you?”
“Online,” Annica said. “Through some proxies.”
Mira said, “A human proxy or a server?”
“Server.”
“Oh,” Mira said. “I thought Cole wasn’t very . . . tech.”
“Well, I guess it’s both tech and human. It’s his roommate, or I guess housemate. Some guy named Tommy who knows a thing or two on the web.”
“The dark web,” Mira said.
“I hope Tommy’s in hiding by now,” Macy said.
“I forgot to ask.”
“And I hope he unplugged everything and took it with him.”
“I’ll ask him that, too,” Annica said. “What else?”
Macy chuckled. “You can tell I’ve been hanging around nerds lately. You should probably have me sit in on the interview.”
“Yeah,” Annica said, “You can make sure we stay on topic.” She fought to make sure her smile didn’t grow too big. The girls already had their suspicions. There was no need to give the whole story away.
17
Cole
“I guess I feel a little outnumbered,” Tucker said, looking around at the rest of the guys. “I’m stuck with a bunch of military misfits out here.”
Jackson said to Cole, “Did we tell about Tucker here? He used to be a cop.”
Cole smiled weakly at the ex-cop. “Does that mean I’m not supposed to like you or something?”
Tucker shrugged. “No, don’t worry. I never actually made it on the force.”
“Yeah,” Jackson said, “he made it here instead.”
Tucker said, “I still haven’t figured out which was worse.”
“The military,” Cole said. “At least for me it was. It wasn’t health issues, they just wanted me gone.”
The misfits had moved on from the dirt bike, bringing their conversation around the side of the house toward the rear. They walked down the slope and onto the patio and Cole could see the beach again. It was still bathed in moonlight.
He wanted another chance to see Annica tonight. He wanted an excuse that could take her away from everyone again, some reason to be alone with her. Alone on the beach, preferably. It could be something believable, an official excuse like Annica’s need for a sudden interview. The sound of waves on the beach would provide cover against anyone listening in. Their secrets, and whatever sounds they’d need to make, would be safe there. Annica could be safe there, too, his body wrapped and protecting.
“What do you think, Cole?” Jackson said.
“Huh?”
“You trust a bunch of misfits like us? Kicked out of the army,” Jackson said, looking at Tucker, “and the police academy.”
“I wouldn’t trust it any other way,” Cole said. “Squeaky clean worries me.”
“Well, I can see that,” Jackson said. “The guys you work for definitely aren’t too clean.”
“Do you mean his security company, or the shippers?” Tucker asked.
“He means both,” Cole said. “That’s why they’re in business toget
her.” He took a moment to describe the scope of operations for both multinational companies: Blackwoods Security Corps, and Kahn Brother’s’ Import-Export. It would be almost impossible to catch them on the global scale, but here in Hilo, Cole offered DARC Ops a chance to get solid evidence on one tiny specific detail of their worldwide operations. “That way you can start super specific,” Cole said. “And work your way out from there . . . if you want.”
“We’ll go broader if we’re asked to,” Jackson said. “We do a lot of nice things, for a lot of people. Even things to better the world, if you let me sound cheesy about it. But our work is usually at the behest of somebody. This thing here was all started because of some trouble our friends Tucker and Macy ran into back on the police force in St. Louis.”
“A crooked police chief, to be exact,” Tucker said.
“Okay,” Cole said. “So all of this is over some asshole in St. Louis?”
“He’s not there anymore,” Tucker said. “Not a police chief, either. He’s been disgraced, but not enough to see jail time. He works for your security company. Blackwoods.”
Cole laughed. “That sounds about right. Good place for an asshole.”
“He’s in a managerial position.”
“Even better,” Cole said. “What’s his name?”
“Greg Gormley,” Tucker said. “Ever heard of him?”
“No. Does he work on the island?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s why I’ve never heard of him. We’re a pretty big company.”
“He’s got an office in California, in the Bay Area,” Jackson added. “He takes care of things along the Pacific route.”
“By things,” Cole said, “I’m guessing you mean heroin?”
Jackson nodded. “So we’re out here to catch him in the act.”
“Why didn’t Annica mention any of this?”
“She doesn’t know,” Jackson said. “It’s a two-tier operation. Compartmentalized.”
Cole frowned. Already, the idea of keeping secrets from her rankled him. “So I shouldn’t tell her?”
Jackson shrugged. “It makes no difference now. We just needed her to stay away from him until we could verify things from our end. I have agents working in Northern California right now. We were just worried about her investigating a little too hard and blowing the cover on that.”
Cole grinned. “She’s definitely capable of that. Well, I mean, investigating too hard. Too much for her own good, probably. I mean, look at me.”
“Look at you,” Jackson returned his grin. “It’s not that I don’t trust Annica.” His face turned serious. “I would trust her with my life, or Mira’s, if it came to it. She’s a damned good reporter, with a bloodhound’s instinct. It can get her in trouble sometimes, no matter how much I try to warn her.”
Cole nodded.
“Again,” Jackson said, “look at you.”
“Well, I’m hoping to stop being trouble for her,” Cole said. “Maybe I can actually help at some point.”
Jackson said, “I think you will. And soon.”
“How?”
“Tomorrow. We’ll have a decoy phone for you, all cooked up for surveillance.”
“Like with a bug?” Cole said.
“A what?”
“Like a phone tap?”
Jackson looked like he’d just heard a foreign word. And then his face turned to laughter. “A what? Man, we are so beyond phone taps these days.”
“Okay,” Cole said. “Why don’t you just tell me what you’ve put in that phone?”
“We’ve been trying to access their servers for a week, with no luck. It’s air-gapped. We can’t reach it from outside.”
“Yeah?” Cole said, trying to keep his face from taking on the distinct look of glazed-over stupidity. He suddenly felt like he was in school again.
“I guess we’ll skip over all the jargon and everything,” Jackson said, “and just say that this is our only chance to get any concrete evidence of what’s going on there. That, and your testimony.”
“What about the actual evidence?” Cole said.
“Actual evidence?”
Cole chuckled. “You’re so caught up with this computer stuff.”
“Computer stuff?”
“Don’t you need actual evidence for a conviction? I’m talking about the heroin itself.”
“Stop thinking so hard, Cole.”
“Gladly.”
“The computer stuff, the surveillance from the phone, that will uncover the evidence we need for the Feds to raid the complex—and to raid it at the right time—to gather the actual evidence. The heroin, and whatever else they have going in and out of there and the United States. We go in early to make sure the official raid comes off right.”
“Got it,” Cole said. “But what if I just skipped to the chase and grabbed that for you guys?”
“The product?”
“The heroin,” Cole said.
Jackson grinned.
“What if I could sneak some out?”
“Stop thinking so hard, Cole. You’re gonna get us all in trouble. You and Annica both.”
“We’ll both be in trouble, or both get you into it?”
“Both,” Jackson said as the rest of the guys laughed.
A voice came from around the corner where they’d just walked from: “Aww, I feel like I just missed that one.” It was Ethan, walking down to their patio—fortunately with no notebook in hand. It was a rarity to find him detached from it.
Tucker said, “You just missed what?”
“I’m surprised you missed anything,” Jackson said, laughing again. “You didn’t plant a bug over in these bushes, did you?” He looked over at Cole, smirking at the mention of the word “bug.”
“No, don’t worry,” Ethan said. “I’m off duty for the night.”
“I can see that,” Tucker said. “You finally put that damned notebook away.”
“He’s got the bug on him,” Jackson said.
Tucker said, “Jack, enough about the bug.”
But Ethan was still all smiles as he joined their backyard huddle. “No, really, guys, I’m all set. I just typed up a bunch of notes and now I’m done for the night.”
“Alright, then,” Jackson said. “So I guess we can finally start talking about what’s really going on here.”
The group laughed.
“I’ve been dying to spill the beans,” Jackson said. “Finally get down to some real talk. Is that okay with you, Ethan?”
“Very funny.”
“Actually,” Tucker said. “We probably should bring up the real story here.”
Cole said, “And what real story is that?”
“The obvious story running in the background. What everyone’s being too kind to bring up.”
Cole said, “And what would that be?” He made a quick scan of their faces. Which one of them knew about him and Annica?
“The story about the only single female here tonight.”
“Annica?” Cole said.
“Come on, Cole,” Jackson said. “It’s obvious.”
“What’s obvious?”
Cole was quite sure now that they had all, somehow, witnessed his surfside indiscretions with Annica. Maybe from some surveillance equipment. Maybe there really were bugs and cameras stationed around the DARC Ops beach compound. Maybe it was nosy Ethan sneaking off . . .
He looked at Ethan, who seemed to be just as confused as Cole felt. Ethan was staring at the guys, looking back and forth between each of them. “What,” he kept saying. “What’s so obvious?”
“It’s obvious,” Jackson said to Ethan, “that after a few more drinks you’ll work up the courage to finally go and talk to her.”
Cole tried to mask his sigh of relief. It was nice not to have been named, but he still didn’t like the topic of discussion. The way it sounded . . .
“What do you mean talk to her?” Ethan said.
“Come on,” Jackson said. “Actually talk to her, l
ike you’ve been trying to do all night.”
“Talk to her?
“Really talk to her. You’ve been practically doing it every other way tonight.”
“Doing what?”
“So you might as well come out and say it.”
“Say what?”
They laughed again, Tucker saying, “You’ve got some kind of puppy-dog crush on her, right? It’s okay if you do. Maybe I would, too, if I were her intern.”
“I’m not her intern.”
“Coffee boy,” Tucker said, “Or assistant, or whatever it is.”
“I’m a journalist,” Ethan said, a sudden flash of defiance across his face.
Tucker chuckled. “I know, I know.”
“We’re not trying to disparage that,” Jackson said. “We’re just wondering what’s going on between you two. It has nothing to do with the case, obviously. And we’re all off duty, even more obviously. And even more obvious than that, you don’t have to tell us shit if you don’t want to.”
“We’re just bantering with you, Dave,” Tucker said.
The intensity in Ethan’s face had subsided. He was smiling now, loose and easy. Just like one of the guys. He said, “You think I should go for it, huh?”
It surprised Cole that he’d even asked the question.
The DARC guys laughed again, a swell of relief flowing through like ocean breeze through palm fronds. Through Annica’s hair . . . It didn’t make Cole feel any relief. He’d rather everyone got back on company time and got serious and back to work. Do anything but talk about Annica.
Jackson had his arm over Ethan’s shoulders now. “Yeah, you guys have both been loosening up, having a few drinks. We’re at a lovely location. Isn’t it lovely?”
“It’s great,” Ethan said.
“And I saw the way she’s looked at you.”
“Bullshit,” Ethan said, stepping away from Jackson and his arm. “She’s isn’t into me.”
That was what Cole was thinking, too. Double bullshit.
“But you’re into her, though,” Jackson said.
“No,” Ethan said. “Bullshit.”
Cole assumed that was the lie.
“What are you guys trying to do? Get me fired?”
“Nah.”
“Trying to mess up the whole investigation?”
Dark Salvation (DARC Ops Book 7) Page 13
