“We’ve repressed our ability to connect with one another and our surroundings as a species. That’s what causes many to feel so lost and in pain. It’s also what allows those who are most fearful in this world to manipulate those who are most lost.”
Luthecker looked at Kirby. “And that manipulation is what I aim to end,” he continued. “And if you’re sincere in your goal to stop the next great extinction, it starts with recognizing this. It starts with recognizing that we have to reconnect with one another again. Convincing one person at a time, if necessary.”
Luthecker moved toward the exit. Kirby thought about Luthecker’s words for several seconds before following. Kirby, ever the clinical analyst and never a believer in this kind of nonsense, couldn’t help but find Luthecker’s words inspiring.
“Every person matters, I remember,” Kirby finally replied. “But we’re still going to need to change our behavior as a whole to save the species.”
The men reached the exit.
“Of course we are. As you’ve stated in the past, your goals and mine are not in conflict. But do you understand what puts at odds the way you think and the way I do?”
“No, but I have a feeling that you’re about to tell me.”
“One thing and one thing alone: fear.”
“I want you to read my fate like you did to Miriam, like you did to all of those soldiers on the Siachen,” Kirby blurted out. “Just like you’ve done for all of your loyal followers. Just like you’ve done to everyone you’ve encountered. I don’t understand why you’re singling me out on this.”
“For some, the weight of their choices destroys them.”
“You think I’m afraid I’ll collapse under the weight of my own stupidity? I’m not afraid. I don’t believe in static definitions of anything. I’m willing to learn, and I want to know.”
“Your path doesn’t lie in the same direction as mine.”
“It doesn’t have to. And I keep telling you, I’m not afraid. Just think of what someone like me could do if I knew what was around the corner.”
“I am thinking that. It’s what gives me pause.”
“Very funny. Can a guy who sees around the corners of the universe even have a sense of humor?”
Luthecker stifled a laugh. Then he examined Kirby for several seconds.
“Shit—you know about me already, don’t you?” Kirby reacted. “Why won’t you tell me? What are you afraid of?” Kirby challenged.
“In due time, I will tell you what it is you want to know. If, when this is over, you still want to know it.”
Luthecker pushed through the exit and into the alley behind the apartment building. He barely had time to clear the door when an Asian man in his twenties bumped into him.
“Excuse me,” the young man said, without breaking stride. In seconds, the young man disappeared around the corner, as if nothing happened.
Luthecker knew exactly who he was and exactly what had happened. He had been given a message. The young man was Vietnamese, Joey Nugyen’s younger cousin, and right now Luthecker had a piece of paper with a message in his coat pocket.
The kid is good, Luthecker thought to himself.
“What was that about?” Kirby asked.
“Nothing. We have to go.”
Luthecker and Kirby cleared the alley and moved onto the street. Two large men with crew cuts and Slavic features immediately approached.
“Alex Luthecker, my friend,” Kosylo said, in the most nonthreatening tone a man with a thick Russian accent could muster. “My name is Kosylo, and this is my friend Mika,” Kosylo managed an awkward smile.
“My boss, Ivan Barbolin, who I am sure you know, offers his courtesy and protection and only asks politely if you would perhaps meet with him to speak. It would only be a moment of your time.”
The second Russian, Mika, watched the street and stood close to Kirby.
“Do you know who I am? Who I work for?” Kirby mouthed off.
“Yes. We do,” Mika said, his accent thick.
“You are not invited,” Kosylo said to Kirby. “You can wait here.” He then turned to Luthecker. “He is over there, waiting.” Kosylo said to Alex, before nodding to a bench across the street.
Luthecker looked over at Ivan Barbolin who sat on the bench looking back at him.
The Russian oligarch nodded recognition like a Mafia Don.
Luthecker did a quick scan of the street. He counted at least a half dozen Russian men guarding the oligarch from strategic points. If anyone made a move on the man known as the Barbarian, they would be dead in seconds.
“A simple conversation is all he requests. Before things get…complicated for us all. What do you say?”
Luthecker looked at Kosylo, at Mika, and then back at Kosylo. He knew that the Russian men’s fate dictated they had only moments to live. “I’d say that you’re one fatal step behind.”
Kosylo tilted his head, puzzled, and that’s when he heard helicopter blades, quickly followed by roaring engines and screeching tires.
“Stay close to me. And when the time comes, remember our conversation,” Luthecker said to Kirby, before all hell broke loose.
In seconds, the street was filled with four BearCat armored personnel carriers. A Black Hawk helicopter abruptly dropped low and hovered with its gun turrets locking on target. Soldiers simultaneously poured out the back of the BearCats, rifles ready.
Kosylo and Mika drew their weapons, and ran in the direction of their boss, the Barbarian.
The M-16s of the Coalition Assurance officers barked to life, and the bullets cut down Mika and Kosylo before they covered half the distance to their boss.
The Coalition Assurance officers cut down two more Russian enforcers with their M-16s before the rest, including the Barbarian, held up their hands in surrender.
Both Luthecker and Kirby found themselves facing the smoking barrels of the weapons that, only seconds early, had cut down Kosylo and Mika.
“On the ground, now!” a Coalition soldier screamed at Luthecker and Kirby, the barrel of his AR-16 pointed squarely at Luthecker.
The soldier looked more robot than human, with helmet, goggles, mask, Kevlar vest, padded combat pants and boots, all in black, all designed to be intimidating.
Luthecker glanced at Kirby. The scientist was white as a sheet and shell shocked into silence.
Luthecker held up his hands and slowly dropped to one knee, eyes locked on the soldier. He glanced at the scene and noted every soldier: their looks, their habits, their sizes, their strides, their gates, and their breathing patterns. He noted their every move. He took in the weapons, where they were pointing, and for how long. He took in the vehicles, down to every rivet, every parking angle.
All of it meant something to Luthecker. All of it told a story, an inescapable tale that only he could read. He took note that they were not LAPD. There were no National Guard markings. These misdirects were no longer necessary. Everything was proudly—unmistakably—marked with the Coalition Properties, Inc. logo.
23
Change of Plans
“I got him the message,” Jimmy Nugyen told Yaw, Chris, and his cousin Joey. Masha paced in the background behind them.
“Are you sure?” Yaw asked.
“Positive.”
“And no one saw you?” Yaw asked.
“C’mon, man. That’s an insult.”
“Okay. You’re right. What happened after that?” Chris questioned.
“All hell broke loose.”
Jimmy Nugyen, his cousin Joey, along with Yaw, Chris, and Masha stood huddled in the empty basement of an abandoned office building in downtown Los Angeles.
They had taken separate routes, wary of CCTV cameras, cell phones, and any other electronic surveillance that could monitor their movements.
It was getting harder and harder to stay disappeared, as Yaw had labeled it. But like Master Winn before him, Alex required that each member of the group, before being considered for courier, must train in steal
th. This meant mastering the ability to move through cities without being traced, staying out of sight and off the grid.
It was a skill that Alex had learned well as a teenager, refined under his late teacher Master Winn, and one that he had passed down to the others in his group. Alex had put Yaw in charge of stealth training, and the younger Nugyen’s learning curve would be no different from anyone previous.
“Specifics, Jimmy,” Joey Nugyen prodded his cousin. “From the beginning.”
Despite his training in stealth, the younger Nugyen was still a brand new courier, and this had been only the second message he had been tasked to deliver.
Using a new courier to traffic in off-grid messaging had advantages and disadvantages. The advantage being that the courier was unlikely to be on a watch list, always a possibility the longer one trafficked in unmonitored communication. The disadvantage was an increased likelihood of potential mistakes made.
Joey hoped that the latter was not the case here. He knew that his cousin Jimmy wanted to level up soon and begin martial arts training so he could be part of the crew that actually freed human trafficking slaves. He hoped that Jimmy wasn’t out of consideration before he was ever in.
“There were three hand-offs between you and me, couriers that were vetted and trained at my level. I was the last leg. I was supposed to be the one to finish the job, and I did.
“Luthecker came out of the building into the alley just like you said he would. I didn’t have to wait long. I saw that there were Russians everywhere right away, but I kept my distance, and they weren’t there looking for me, so it was easy for me to slide.
“It wasn’t hard to figure out who they were after, so I had to call it. Do I make the drop or not? And I decided it was a go. I had to get him the message, and I didn’t think I’d get a second chance, not with those guys lurking. And hey—it’s Alex Luthecker we’re talking about here, so I figured he knew the situation and how to handle himself.”
“Then what happened?” Chris pressed.
“Well, I slid right by the Russians. Like I thought they had no clue, but they weren’t the real problem. I did a bump drop and Alex got it so I thought we were good, and I figured he’d just ghost the Russians, but outta nowhere Coalition storm troopers swooped in. They shot two of the Russians ASAP to shut down any resistance and took everyone else in. It was all over before it started.”
“And Alex?” Yaw asked.
“He seemed calm throughout. They put him in the back of a BearCat by himself. They were very careful with him.”
“And they never came after you?”
“They didn’t see me. I stayed in their blind spot. It was just like you said to do in training—if your enemy focuses too hard on one thing, he misses the other things, and it’s among those other things where you hide. So that’s what I did.”
“And how many others were taken?”
“The big Russian on the bench, who must’ve been the boss, and a bald-headed guy with the beard that was traveling with Alex. Bald guy looked like he was shitting his pants. Big Russian boss and the pant shitter each got their own BearCat too, just like Alex. The Russian enforcers clearly didn’t mean shit so they were all crammed into the last one, at least the ones that were still alive. And the one’s that weren’t? They just left the bodies out on the street for the buzzards. That was some third world shit right there, man.”
“Where do you think they’re headed?” Chris asked Yaw.
“They won’t be hard to find,” Masha cut in. Her tone was confrontational. She already knew who the big Russian was and had an axe to grind. “The Russian boss as you say—what did he look like?”
“Big and Russian.”
“Details, Jimmy. We talked about this. And attitude. Dial it down,” Joey scolded.
“Sorry,” Jimmy replied and took a moment to search his memory.
One of the first training exercises that Joey had personally given Jimmy was memory training, and it included “no screens of any kind for thirty days.” It was supposed to clear the mind of clutter and make space for the details of the moment.
Overcoming the addictive and hypnotic effect of digital bombardment proved difficult for everyone, as screens were everywhere, but being screen-free was a requirement for the higher levels of training with the group.
Unfortunately, for Jimmy he loved sneaking off to play Grand Theft Auto, even if it was an older version on an isolated Nintendo console. His lack of focus was showing now, and he had to concentrate hard.
“I’d say he was in his sixties. Big hands. Piercing eyes. Scar on his left cheek.”
“The Barbarian,” Masha announced, a mixture of dread and fury in her voice. She didn’t need to hear more details to know it was her former boss.
“What’s he doing in town, sitting out in the open, on a park bench, waiting for Alex? He had to know he was being watched. He had to know that he was going to lead the Coalition right to him. Why would he risk exposure like that?” Yaw asked.
“I do not know,” Masha replied. Her Russian accent was thick, and she still habitually avoided vocabulary contractions. “But I do know that the Barbarian is not stupid. This must be a calculated move for him. As in chess.”
“And Alex? Why now? Why like this?” Joey asked.
“He’s the winner-take-all prize. He always has been. It’s an obsession with the Coalition, and he took out Ivan’s partner, Lucas Parks. He’s right in the middle of it all.”
“You’re sure he got the message?” Yaw asked Jimmy one last time to be sure.
“Absolutely,” Jimmy answered.
“Then you did your job.” Yaw put his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “And we’ll be fine.”
Both Jimmy and Joey Nugyen let out a sigh of relief. Both men knew it would be Yaw who decided if Jimmy could level up.
“So what’s the move now?” Chris asked Yaw.
“We gotta meet with Nikki.”
“It’s not safe. PHOEBE’s down, and we’re being watched.”
“We’re always being watched. We just gotta move old school now.” Yaw turned to the younger Nugyen. “I got another message for you to deliver.”
“Is this place secure?” Muranaka asked Nikki.
Muranaka knew she was risking her job by being here with Nikki Ellis. The Coalition was going after Ellis hard and Muranaka had made promises to its CEO, and it would be very difficult to defend being caught with PHOEBE’s creator.
But I can spin easily enough, Muranaka thought. Make it look like she agreed to meet with Ellis in order to access PHOEBE. And that was all true.
However, there was one other thing Nikki offered that was even more interesting to the Coalition programmer. Muranaka was, of course, curious about Alex Luthecker. As a sworn enemy of Coalition Properties, you could not be employed by the firm and not know who Alex Luthecker was and what he had allegedly done.
Muranaka was taking a big risk by being here, not only from her employer, but also from Ellis. The opportunity was worth the risk, however, and she was confident in her abilities to handle Ellis.
Muranaka didn’t buy that Ellis couldn’t access her own software. Sooner or later, Ellis would have to log in, and Muranaka would be ready. If she could dismantle PHOEBE and help capture Alex Luthecker, she’d be a Coalition hero. For the first time in her life, she’d be able to step out from anyone’s shadow.
But even more important to Muranaka than stepping out from shadows was that the young programmer actually wanted at Alex Luthecker. She wanted to see if everything she’d heard about him was true. She wanted to test her own wits. She wanted to see if she herself was smarter.
“This ain’t my first rodeo when it comes to stealth,” Nikki answered as she double-checked the windows. “This small apartment in Watts gets screened for bugs along with the entire neighborhood for electronic surveillance. All the CCTV cameras around here are broken, but it’s a poor neighborhood so nobody cares. We use that to our advantage. And every person you saw out on
the street, walking their dog, whatever—eyes and ears. If someone or something comes this way, we’ll know long before it gets here.”
“And PHOEBE? When do we try and access her?”
“There’s no electronic access of any kind here.”
“Why not?”
Nikki paused. “Because the Coalition is more sophisticated than they let on, even to their top civilian programmer. PHOEBE could be piggy backed by your people, leading Coalition Assurance right to me,” she finally answered.
“I assured you in our emails, or in PHOEBE’s email matrix that put us together, that I would come alone. This isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to stealth, either. But I will say this, if I’m gone too long, Coalition Assurance will come looking. But none of that is the real reason you’re keeping PHOEBE away from me. If it’s like you say, and she won’t talk to you, then you’re not sure we’re safe from her, are you? And you literally don’t know what she’s going to do next. Am I right?”
Nikki paused a moment before answering. She was unsure exactly how much information she should share with her rival.
“I’m not sure why she’s not talking to me,” Nikki finally answered. “And I’m not sure why she put the Coalition’s top programmer and my biggest rival in a room with me. All of that is true. But if she did it, it’s because there’s a purpose behind it. And I trust that purpose.”
“And you think Alex Luthecker can tell you what that purpose is.”
“Maybe.”
“You put a lot of faith in this guy.”
“I do.”
“So where is he then?”
Nikki wished she knew the answer to that question. By her estimations, he should have been back by now.
“He should be here soon,” Nikki deflected.
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.
Nikki checked the peephole and recognized the man standing at the door: Jimmy Nugyen.
Nikki carefully opened the door. “Were you followed?”
“C’mon, what’s with you guys? Where’s the trust? I know how to ghost, for chrissake.”
Revolution: Luthecker, #3 Page 17
