SOULLESS
A Tanner Novel - Book 43
Remington Kane
Contents
Introduction
Join My Inner Circle
Acknowledgments
I. The Two Best Killers In The World
1. The Contracts
2. South Of The Border
3. Throwing It All Away
4. Breaking The Rules
5. Ghosts
6. The Calm Before The Storms
7. Last Minute Details
8. Death In A Box
9. The Slaughter Of Innocents
II. The Woman Behind The Curtain
10. A Queen And Her Pawns
11. On The Job Training
12. Trust But Verify
13. One Target, Two Killers
14. Flies With Honey
15. To Whom It May Concern
16. Contract Offered; Contract Accepted
17. The Gang’s All Here
18. A Falling Out Among Lovers
19. Surprise Visitors
20. Arrivederci
III. The Butcher Versus The Surgeon
21. Going Out With A Bang
22. Italy Bound
23. Faster Than The Eye Can Blink
24. Club Thug
25. Closing In
26. The Truth Comes Out
27. Judgement Day
28. From The Ashes
29. Lost Love. Found Love?
30. A Home For A Princess
TANNER RETURNS!
Afterword
Bibliography
Make Contact
Coming Soon
Introduction
SOULLESS – TANNER 43
* * *
Tanner and Soulless face off as they’re each offered a contract to kill the other. However, the real threat comes from the person who is manipulating events from behind the scenes.
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Acknowledgments
I write for you.
* * *
—Remington Kane
Part I
The Two Best Killers In The World
1
The Contracts
Cody Parker drove up to the rear of a building that bore his family name. The Parker Training Center was finally up and running after several delays. The building and the grounds had been ready for months. A personnel issue had delayed the grand opening.
The man Cody had initially hired to run the training facility had a family emergency occur. As a result, he had to move out of Texas. The search for a suitable replacement took time, but it also resulted in Cody believing he had found someone who was a better fit than the first man.
Casey Rocco was thirty-nine and had put twenty years into a military career. Casey had successfully completed both Ranger School and the Special Forces Qualification Course. He was an ideal pick to oversee a staff that would teach the skills the Parker Training Center would offer.
The center had two courses available. There was elite armed guard training, and a program designed to ready military recruits for the rigors of basic training. The center had an obstacle course modeled after the Special Forces course nicknamed Nasty Nick. There was a large shooting range, and a gym that took up over four thousand square feet.
Cody had given Casey Rocco an equal say in who they hired for the staff, with Cody allowing Casey to recommend several of his former military buddies. When the hiring was complete, both Cody and Casey were happy with the staff, which consisted of sixteen people. The staff would grow along with the business.
The Parker Training Center was a full-time facility. It provided sleeping quarters and meals to those who attended. Those who would be trained as elite armed security officers signed up for an eight-week course, while the basic training course was nine weeks. Individuals could sign up and pay their own way, but the facility was targeting organizations to be their main customers. This was especially true for the security sector.
One company, a start-up itself, had signed a contract for the Parker Training Center to train forty of its personnel. The president of that company was a friend of Casey Rocco’s. Casey’s connections alone would have made him an excellent choice to lead the center.
Casey was six-foot-three, had dark hair and brown eyes. He had married a year earlier and with a child on the way, he and his wife had been looking to settle down. Settling down was difficult in the military, where you could be transferred to a different location with little notice given, which was why Casey retired.
Cody liked the man and Sara got along well with his wife, Deidre.
Cody climbed out of his pickup truck as his apprentice, Henry Knight, exited on the passenger side. Henry was sporting a full beard. It made him look a few years older than he actually was. And Henry was doing some training of his own lately. He was running upwards of twenty miles a day in preparation for taking the endurance test that would determine if his apprenticeship as a Tanner continued. The test would be given soon in Baja California, Mexico, at the same site where Cody had taken his own test.
It was summer in Texas, and while the daily temperatures hadn’t been as high as they would be in the Mexican desert, it was plenty hot. Henry had lost eight pounds from a frame that hadn’t had an ounce of fat to spare. He was in the best shape of his young life, but the endurance test each Tanner undertook wasn’t about the toughness of the body, but rather, it tested the mettle of the mind, and of the character.
Henry was in the dark about how difficult the test would be but knew it would be grueling. Once he and Cody arrived in Mexico, his training would reach a new level.
When he ran, Henry had a training partner of sorts. It was Chrissy Kyle, the thirteen-year-old niece of the town’s mayor, Jimmy Kyle. Henry’s route took him off the ranch and around town. Chrissy had spotted him running one day and decided to tag along on her bike. The cute, freckled-faced redheaded girl had a crush on Henry.
Henry found he increased his speed to keep up with Chrissy’s pace as she rode her bike beside him. Chrissy would stay with him for several miles before turning around and heading back towards her home. On the days he ran, and Chrissy didn’t appear, Henry noticed he didn’t make quite as good a time on the run as he did when she was there. He also missed Chrissy’s chattering about the town and the people who lived in it, which was always upbeat and sometimes funny. As the daughter of the town’s morning DJ and the niece of the mayor, Chrissy was exposed to many of the things going on behind the scenes in the town. Thanks to Chrissy, Henry had heard most of the town gossip.
Cody and Henry entered the gym and saw that the men who had come there to be trained were hard at work. Casey was there overseeing things. When he spotted Cody, he smiled and headed over. Cody and Henry shook Casey’s hand in greeting as he reached them.
“How are things going?” Cody asked.
“Fantastic. We have a good bunch here. They’re all motivated and train hard. That’s a rare thing.”
“One reason I made our rates high was to weed out anyone who wasn’t serious. That might limit the number of people we train in the beginning, but it also eliminates anyone who would waste our time.”
Casey was nodding. “Once our graduates start working in the marketplace and employers see the quality of their training, our numbers will rise. I want to make this facility the premier training center in the country. That’s my mission.”
“I agree. I never wanted this to be anything less than the best. Hiring you to run it was a way to make sure that happens.”
Casey looked around. “I can only guess how much you spent putting this place together, but I know you must be far in the red. You’ll make a profit someday. I’ll see to that.”
Henry gestured toward the area of the gym where there were blue mats covering the floor. It was where self-defense instruction took place. “I’m looking forward to training with you soon, Casey.”
“We’ll start when you’re ready,” Casey said.
Cody had asked Casey if he would train Henry when the new session started. Casey Rocco was a black belt in Krav Maga, a military fighting system developed for the Israeli military defense forces. He would give Henry self-defense training that exceeded what Cody had already taught him.
It was important for Henry to learn from more than one person, as it would expand his knowledge and expose him to different styles of fighting.
Of course, the training would be cancelled if Henry failed to pass his upcoming endurance test. If that happened, Cody would have to look for a new apprentice.
Despite his confidence and yearning to become the next Tanner, Henry had concerns, and wondered if he would be able to pass the tests he was to face. The endurance test was but one of two trials he would undergo. He understood the endurance test judged his level of stamina and grit, but the second test was a mystery to him.
It was a newer test, one Spenser, Tanner Six, and Cody, Tanner Seven, had passed. Henry could ace the endurance test and still be found wanting if he failed the second test. Not knowing what to expect meant Henry would have no way to train or plan for it.
He either passed it or he didn’t. And failure meant he wouldn’t be a Tanner. If that happened, Henry had no idea what he would do with his life. Since the day he’d first met Cody when he was ten-years-old, Henry had wanted to be like the man. Having grown closer to Cody and being his friend only made him more certain of that. If he failed to become Tanner Eight, life would seem empty.
After speaking with Casey for a few more minutes, Cody and Henry took a look around the facility. There were more than a dozen people running the outdoor obstacle course, with one of them being a young woman. She was in the center of the pack and making good progress. Her name was Tracy Shea. She was a recent high school graduate and had come to the center to toughen up before joining the Marines. Casey had told Cody that Tracy was in the top twenty percent of her class. At five-foot-nine and a hundred and forty-one pounds, Tracy was a strong, good-looking young woman. She was also determined to join the Marines. Her father had paid for her training. Cody had spoken to the man when Tracy first arrived, and Tracy’s father said he was shocked when she asked him to pay for the training.
“My son wanted a sports car when he graduated high school, and my other daughter asked for a trip to Hawaii. Tracy was always more serious, and I think she’ll make a hell of a Marine.”
Watching Tracy run the obstacle course, Cody agreed with her father’s statement.
Henry and Tracy had become friendly after meeting and spent her off-time together. The relationship wasn’t serious, because they both knew Tracy would only be around for a short time. As things stood, Henry would be leaving for Mexico before Tracy left the ranch.
“Are you going to keep in touch with Tracy?” Cody asked.
“That’s up to her, but I think so.”
Cody was glad to hear that. Henry still had a thing for his first love, a girl named Makayla. Makayla lived in Italy, and Henry hadn’t heard from her in years. Henry loved Makayla, and Cody thought that he still harbored hope they might someday be together again. Makayla was Henry’s first love. It was unlikely she would be his last.
When they were back in the pickup truck, Cody asked Henry if he had any plans for the evening.
“No. Tracy has to study for the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Test.”
“Come by the house for dinner. There are people I want you to meet.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Lawson and his apprentice, Rhona O’Donnell.”
“I’ve heard you mention Lawson before. He’s a big shot in the government, right?”
“Something like that. He’s also a friend. He’s coming here to have dinner and to offer me a contract. I’d like you to sit in on the meeting.”
“Okay. Should I wear a suit?”
Cody smiled. “Jeans will be fine.”
Lawson and Rhona arrived in a limousine and with armed security. Thomas Lawson had been abducted several years earlier and was tortured. The experience left him weakened and needing a cane, but his vitality had returned.
Lawson did wear a suit. He was in his fifties and had a head of mostly white hair. Rhona O’Donnell wore a blue dress with a hemline that fell just above her knees. Rhona was in her twenties, but her long hair was whiter than Lawson’s. Brilliant white hair was a trait that ran in Rhona’s family. It gave the beautiful young woman a unique look.
Henry was captivated by her and had to stop himself from staring at Rhona as they were introduced. When Cody told Lawson and Rhona that Henry was his apprentice, it was they who stared at him.
“It’s hard to imagine there will be another one like you,” Lawson told Cody.
“Henry will surpass me someday, which is the whole point of my handing the Tanner name over to him.”
Rhona studied Henry. “I thought I had big shoes to fill but following Tanner’s act might be tougher.”
Cody’s housekeeper, Franny, entered the room with Sara and the children and the conversation ceased. Lawson and Rhona were aware that Franny didn’t know that Cody was Tanner. When Franny was introduced to Lawson, she raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve heard of you, sir.”
“Good things, I hope.”
“They were good… and interesting.” Before leaving the room, Franny gave Cody a quizzical look. She was probably wondering why a cattle rancher in Texas would have business with a power player from Washington D.C. like Lawson.
Franny excused herself after serving dinner and returned to the kitchen. Conversation during the meal concerned casual subjects. At one point, Cody noticed Henry had Rhona laughing over something he’d said. The boy was turning into a charmer when it came to women.
When the meal was over, Sara took the children away while Cody and Henry escorted Lawson and Rhona into the office, where they closed the door so they could talk in private. In preparation to discuss the contract Cody would be offered, Rhona connected her laptop to the large flatscreen TV in the office.
When they were ready, Lawson began, and a face appeared on screen. It was the face of a man in his late-thirties. He was white, with short blond hair, and gray eyes. Cody had seen the face before, on the news, but couldn’t recall the details of the story.
“That’s Joseph Krakoff,” Lawson said. “He’s the leader of a cult named the Peoples Movement. They are behind numerous robberies and have recently broken into a National Guard armory.”
“You have no proof of that, or Krakoff would be behind bars,” Cody said.
“We can prove that some of his people were involved,” Rhona said, “But Krakoff is smart. Everyone connected with the robbery is listed as being a former member of the cult. They’ve been questioned and have refused to talk, but we know from an insider that they were involved. Our source was there when the group was planning the robbery.”
“And where is your source now?” Cody asked.
“He’s missing and presumed to be dead. He was an undercover agent with the ATF. We think Krakoff learned who he was and had him killed.”
“Krakoff would be my target?”
“That’s correct,” Lawson said. “And he won’t be easy to kill.”
Cody nodded. “You wouldn’t be here if he was.”
“We know Krakoff is behind the robbery of the armory, numerous bank robberies, and that he’s also killed members of his own cult and may be involved in using them to harvest organs to sell overseas. We could spend millions of dollars, vast resources, more lives, and years building a case against the man or—”
“—you could hire me to get rid of the problem now,” Cody said.
“Exactly,” Lawson agreed.
“What makes Krakoff a difficult target?” Cody asked.
Rhona put a new image onto the screen. It was an arial view of a rocky landscape that had wide patches of green mixed in. At its center was a cluster of buildings.
“Krakoff’s cult operates out of Colorado. They own nearly a thousand acres. There are several thousand members and an elite core of just over two hundred devout followers. Those elite members are his security force, and they protect him. They know every cult member by sight. New members aren’t allowed into the main compound until they’ve been with the cult for a year and have proven themselves.”
“How do they prove themselves?” Cody asked.
“They commit robberies as a flash mob. Twenty or more of them will converge on a store and grab everything they can before running out. Krakoff’s cult started based on the proposition that everything should be free.”
Soulless (A Tanner Novel Book 43) Page 1
