“Armageddon,” Alex said calmly.
“That’s the organization?” Crow asked.
“They are doing a lot of dealings,” Alex said. “Involved in a lot of illegal activities, probably responsible for the smuggling of weapons and drugs and other goods recently. Of course, they aren’t just smuggling, are they? What’s got you all riled up, Crow? Tell me, why are you so scared of them?”
Crow looked at him for a minute and then said, “We caught the man who assassinated the informant. Go to him, interrogate him, find out about this organization. Get me some damn answers!”
“Righto,” Alex said, turning around and making his way to Evans, who was waiting for him.
“Are you finally going to tell me?” he asked as Alex reached him.
“The people you went to are spies from other countries,” Alex said. “Spies we know about, and spies we keep tabs on. We have a simple deal with them; we will give them insignificant pieces of information – like some prison break or whatever – that they can report back to their bosses, and we will let them live, and in return, they find out information for us.”
“This is illegal,” Evans said.
“The FBI does a lot of illegal crap, Evans,” Alex said. “Think about it. What option do we have? Kill the spies? They will just send more. We know about these ones, and we can use them for our benefit. They get enough information to keep their job and their lives, and we are all happy.”
“So, you sent me to those spies,” Evans said. “The little bird must have been a code to tell them that you want information. I give them the picture of the tattoo, and they find out about it.”
“Yes,” Alex said. “And it was one of them I was meeting tonight. I had an idea they might try and kill him. That is why I had you plant all these men around that area."
“And yet, he still died,” Evans said.
“I know,” Alex said slowly. “I tried to be careful, but I didn’t think they would actually do it, you know? I didn’t realize that they were this good. I don’t know how they even found out about him. This was my mistake. I should have planned better, but –.”
“Well, we caught him,” Evans said. “He is in the holding cell with Agent Krill.”
“Damn it,” Alex said. “Who in the hell let him in there?”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, but Alex was running for the holding cell.
He burst in through the door and saw the floor and walls splattered with blood. Krill stood there, panting as the man in front of him lay unconscious in the corner.
“Check if he is alive,” Alex shouted. “Tell me if he is alive!”
“Yea,” Evans said, kneeling down to check his pulse.
“What in the hell are you doing here, Krill?” he shouted at him.
Krill was a tall, muscular, burly man, over six feet tall, and had a hard look about him. He was known throughout the agency as heartless and cruel, highly aggressive and violent. He and Alex had never gotten along, mainly because of how different their personalities were. He had no doubt that Krill must have beaten the captive senseless.
“Crow felt like you weren’t getting answers fast enough,” Krill said. “So, he asked me if I could beat him out of it.”
“He can’t give us answers if he is dead, now can he?” Alex asked.
“But he isn’t,” Krill said. “Now is he?
The two men glared at each other, and Alex said, “Did he say anything?”
“No,” Krill said reluctantly. “He is a tough nut to crack. He wouldn’t say a single word, no matter what I did to him. But not to worry. Leave him to me, and I will have him singing like a bird.”
“You think I am stupid?” Alex said. “If I leave him with you, I won’t have a man left to interrogate. You will kill him.”
Krill had a reputation for killing the men he interrogated. He didn’t know when to stop, and a few months ago, he had ended up killing a young boy whose only mistake was stealing some jewels. The boy was just an amateur with barely any experience or criminal record. Krill thought he was part of the professional jewel thieves he was hunting at that time. And, in an effort to get the information out of him, he beat him senseless. He died of bleeding in his brain because of the trauma, asking for his mother in his last moments. Later, Krill had found out that the boy was just a petty thief. Of course, the FBI had hushed it all up.
The incident with the boy was buried away quietly. Krill got away with a warning because there was no way the FBI would publicly admit to something like this.
“He is regaining conscious,” Evans said, and Alex pushed his way toward the man.
“Tell me about Armageddon,” he said, grabbing the man by the collar. “How did you know about the informant? Who ordered you to kill him?”
The man just sneered at him, and Alex said, “Look, tell me. Otherwise, Krill has the authority to torture it out of you. Just tell me, okay?”
“Eat it!” the man said.
Too late, Alex spotted the capsule in his mouth. The man bit down on it and laughed.
“Get the medics!” Alex shouted. “Get emergency care! Get whoever you can and get them now!”
All the men darted out from the interrogation room, and Alex watched as the man before him started to convulse and shake. Froth started to pool out of his mouth, and his eyes widened for a second. And then he stopped moving.
“Damn!” Alex shouted. “Damn! Damn!”
“What happened?” Evans asked, running back into the room with a medical team behind him.
“We were too late,” Alex said, shaking with anger. “He killed himself.”
Seventeen
Collateral Damage
“The capsule had a fast-acting poison inside it,” Evans said. “He was probably instructed to bite on it and kill himself if he was ever caught. He must have slipped it into his mouth while we thought he was unconscious. He died before the medics could even examine him.”
“We were so close,” Alex said. “So close to finding what we needed to know, and now we are back to nothing. Our informant is dead. The man who could have answered our questions is dead. We have no information and no leads whatsoever. No one knows about this group. And apparently, they are so dangerous that Crow is desperate enough to use Krill.”
“We are trying to find the identity of this man –,” Evans said.
“It won’t help,” Alex said. “We won’t find anything. His prints won’t be in the system. If the group is this careful about keeping their identity secret, they would have made sure that the informant couldn’t be tracked if he was caught.”
“Why would anyone do it?” Evans asked. “Kill himself on someone’s order?”
“A soldier,” Alex said. “When you are a soldier, you are trained to be loyal to your boss. You do it because you are told, even if you don’t want to. Even if it makes no sense, you do it because those are your orders. Of course, it helps if they promise to put a thick wad of money in your family’s account. Money is a strong motivator.”
He picked up his drink and took a sip, going over the information in his mind.
“Well?” he asked. “Any ideas?”
Evans shook his head, and Alex chuckled.
“Welcome to the deepest pits of despair,” he said. “As an agent, you will find yourself here often. When you have no leads, no information, and you are surrounded by one big mess.”
“So, what do we do now?” Evans asked.
“No, you go back home to your wife,” Alex said. “And your family. You close your eyes and get some sleep. You wake up tomorrow, and you have a big breakfast, and then you come back here and start to think with a different perspective. You would be surprised how much a night of sleep helps. When it’s a new day – you think anew.”
“And what about you?” Evans asked.
“What about me?” Alex asked.
“We have all heard of her, you know,” Evans said. “Gina. Everyone knows her. She was your partner, wasn’t she?”
“Yea,” Alex s
aid. “And it got her killed. Are you sure you want to continue working with me?”
Evans didn’t answer, and Alex chuckled.
“Yea, she was my partner,” he said. “Yes, I loved her, even though she didn’t love me back – well, not as anything more than a friend, her mentor, her supervisor, and I was supposed to keep her safe and protect her. That’s what mentors do. But I failed, and she died. And now she is gone. She is the past. So never ask me about her again, or I am going to make your life so miserable –.”
“Yea, yea,” he said. “I got it. You don’t need the threats. I won’t mention her.”
Eighteen
Never-ending Trouble
“What?” he snapped, pressing the phone against his ear.
It was three in the morning, and Alex had just fallen asleep. He had spent the night awake, smoking and drinking as he thought over everything that had happened. He was a mix of anger and confusion – anger at the lives that had been lost and confused about what he should do next. It seemed to him that the organization was one step ahead of him at all times. No matter what he did or what he planned, they seemed to know what was going on and stop him before he could even scratch the surface. It made him furious, and at the same time, it shook his confidence. It had been a long time since he had questioned himself. Years of working as an agent and his brilliance meant that he became secure and confident in his skills soon after joining the FBI. But now, after so long, Armageddon was making him question if he was competent enough to do this.
“It’s me,” A familiar voice said from the other side. “It’s Danny.”
“What the hell, Danny?” Alex said. “It’s three in the morning. What happened?”
“So, I put out some feelers for the information you wanted,” Danny said. “The tattoo, and if any organization was involved in it? I might have quit the FBI, but I still have some contacts that I use now and then. Well, I have a name for you. At first, I thought I might talk to you in person, but the man they have told me to contact – well, he is dangerous. Really dangerous. And I keep thinking how huge of a mess this would be if he is involved in it. So, I thought I should pass this information to you as soon as possible –.”
Suddenly there was a scream behind him, and Alex froze.
“Danny, what was that?” he asked.
He could hear muffled talking on the other side, and Alex sat up, his heart pounding.
“Some men,” Danny said, breathless. “Broke into our house. They are downstairs – I just peeked into the kitchen. They are masked and carrying guns, and they look like trained assassins.”
“Alright,” Alex said, jumping to his feet. “Listen to me, grab the kids and your wife, and get out of there. I am going to contact the local police and the agency and raise the alarm. I will be there as soon as possible. Just hold on, yea?”
“Alright, Alex,” Danny said. “Just hurry, yea? I don’t mind if they kill me, but the kids and –.”
“No one is going to die,” Alex said, scrambling to put his pants on. “I am sending you help. Just hide!”
He ended the call and quickly dialed the number for an emergency, and after giving his badge number, ordered them to reach Danny’s address with as much backup as possible. He put on his shoes, grabbed his gun and ID, and ran to his car at full speed. He dashed inside, turning on the ignition and revving it up. His heart was racing so fast that he was sure it was about to jump out of his chest.
If something happened to Danny or his family because of Alex, he would never be able to forgive himself. He got Danny into this mess and was responsible for whatever happened. Alex accelerated, shooting into the streets, driving recklessly, breaking signals, turning sharply in front of others, and paying little attention to the traffic laws. Alex had only one goal in his mind, saving Danny.
His heart in his throat, he turned the corner to Danny’s street and then froze. The police had reached and flooded the area, and a few ambulances stood there as well. He had dropped a call to Evans in the car, and he could see members of the bureau standing there. He parked his car and ran out, wondering if he was too late. They were pulling out a stretcher from inside the house, the body covered with a white cloth.
Alex froze, unable to move or even comprehend what he was seeing. Hillary and the children were sitting with the paramedics, tears in their eyes. Alex couldn’t believe it – Danny was gone? This was all his fault. All of it, he showed Danny the tattoo, he asked Danny to look into it. Armageddon had killed the informant, and now they had killed Danny because of the information he possessed.
“What kind of crap did you got me involved in, you bastard?” He heard a voice say behind him and turned around to find Danny standing there, a grin on his face. He had a few bruises and injuries, but none of them looked serious.
“Danny!” Alex gasped. “You are alive!”
“Yea, well, I won’t be for long if I keep being friends with you,” Danny said with a grin. “I got him. I had a gun with me in the house, and I told Hillary to take the kids and hide. I shot one of them, but the other two tackled me. I was sure I was a goner, but then your police burst in from the back. There was a shoot-out between the cops and men, and I swear, I thought I was going to die in the middle of it. How all those bullets missed me – I will never know. All I know is that luck was on my side today.”
“Damn, Danny,” Alex said, pulling his friend into a hug. “I was sure that you were going to be dead, man. I am so glad that you got out of there alive. And I am so sorry I got you in this mess. I am going to get you and your family in a protection program. The FBI has one of the best. We will relocate you for a few days, get you a new identity, give you men to look after you, and once all this is solved, you can come back here. Don’t you worry, I will personally handle everything –.”
“Agent Payne,” Evans shouted, jogging toward him. “The family is safe, but all three of the assailants are dead. One of them was killed by the cops in the shootout, and the other one killed himself when he saw there was no way out.”
“Of course,” Alex said. “That’s how they work. They make sure that we don’t catch anyone who we can interrogate. I bet all of them are trained to do this – every single one of them. See what you can find out about the assailants. I doubt we will find much, but we can’t leave any stone unturned. And get Danny and his family under protection, instantly!”
“I will need to talk to Agent Crow,” Evans said, but Alex shook his head.
“I will handle Crow,” Alex said. “He is my headache. You get them under protection and do it now!”
As Evans nodded and turned to leave, Danny said, “Could you think of what would have happened if I had waited until morning to call you? They would have crept up while I was asleep and killed me. It was such a coincidence that I couldn’t sleep and that I called right at that minute –.”
Danny was starting to shake as he said this, and Alex reached to squeeze his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” Alex said. “You are safe now.”
“It made me think, you know,” he said. “What would happen to Hillary and the kids? What would they do if something happened to me?”
“Hey, do you really think I would let anything happen to them?” Alex said with a smile. “You know I would protect them with my life, don’t you?”
“You,” a voice said behind him. “This has something to do with you, doesn’t it?”
“Hey, Hillary,” Alex said, turning around to face her.
“I keep telling Danny you are nothing but trouble,” she said. “But the idiot has a soft spot for you. This has your name written all over it.”
“Yea,” Alex said. “This was because of me.”
“I knew it,” Hillary said. “So, are you going to handle it? You are going to keep Danny safe, right?”
“I am going to keep all of you safe,” Alex said with a smile.
“Good,” Hillary said, grinning at him. “I was scared to death, Alex.”
“I know,” he sai
d. “And I am sorry.”
“I am still shaking,” she said, holding up her trembling hands. “Look!”
“And the kids,” she said, pointing toward where a paramedic was checking them. “They are traumatized.”
“I am sorry,” Alex said.
“Right,” she said. “You make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Okay?”
“Okay,” Alex said with a smile.
“Good,” she said. “Come over for dinner sometime.”
With that, she walked away toward her kids, and Alex smiled. Long ago, he had helped Hillary out of a very slippery situation, and he had managed to keep it a secret from Danny – something which Hillary had requested, and she was very grateful for. It had created a bond between the two of them, a bond of trust and friendship. Hillary was a strong woman, and Alex knew she was just pretending to be brave right now. On the inside, she must be in shambles.
“Alex, listen,” Danny said, pulling him close. “The organization obviously didn’t want you to know this information; that’s why they tried to kill me. Now I gotta go and look after Hillary and the kids. She is trying to seem okay, but I know she is a mess right now. The man you are supposed to contact is someone you know, but be careful; this organization is dangerous.”
With that, he pulled Alex close to him and whispered the name in his ear. Alex’s eyes widened. He knew exactly who this man was.
“Take care,” Danny said. “And thanks for saving my life. I owe you.”
He walked off to his family, and Alex stood there his mind racing.
The name was still ringing in his ear.
“Fredrick Mayson.”
Nineteen
Fredrick Mayson
Alex stood outside the huge skyscraper looking at the tall, handsome building before him. Alex had never thought he would appreciate something like architecture one day, but the modern building was built entirely with glass and twisted and contorted into a unique design. It was futuristic and a sight to behold.
Payne: a suspenseful FBI crime thriller (Alex Payne Series Book 1) Page 6
