On the Prowl

by Matt Lincoln

  “Yeah, no. It’s a little too late for that, Galanis,” I said. “You already confessed back at the ferry, remember? Not to mention, we have all this.” I took the printed pages and scattered them across the table.

  “What the hell-” Illias started as the sheets of paper rustled around him but stopped short as he realized what it was he was looking at.

  “As you can see,” I replied casually, “we know all about what you and your family have been up to. I’ll admit I felt a bit surprised when I realized so many of those truck drivers were named ‘Galanis.’ Then, there was Alexander Michaels. These are pages from his notebook, by the way. His mother’s maiden name is, of course, Galanis as well. You guys have a nice little family business going here, don’t you?” I smiled at him sarcastically.

  “Screw you,” Illias said with a snarl. “I’m not a snitch.”

  “Well, here’s the thing about the American justice system,” I said, leaning forward to fold my arms on the table between us. “You’re going to get extradited, along with everyone else who got involved in this little scheme. Eventually, someone is going to talk, and whoever that someone is will get a better deal than the rest. That’s generally the way deals work. You tell us what we want to know, and in exchange, you get to spend a little less time behind bars.”

  I sat back and continued. “Now, before you say that none of you would ever snitch, rest assured that someone will. Eventually, one of you is going to cave. I’m just giving you the opportunity to decide right now whether that someone will be you.”

  I could see the gears turning in his head as he began to sweat. He looked down at the pictures again and then back up at me as if trying to decide what he should do.

  “Or, I could just leave right now,” I bluffed, getting up from my chair and gathering the printouts back into my bag. “After all, it’s only a matter of time before the police get their hands on Ezio. Maybe he’ll be more willing to talk.”

  “No, wait!” I heard Illias shout just as I was turning my back and getting ready to leave the room. I took a deep breath to keep the smirk off my face as I turned back around, smoothing my expression into one of bored stoicism.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’ll talk to you,” he spat angrily. “That little brat Ezio will probably try to pin it all on me, anyway.”

  Not if you pin it all on him first, I thought to myself as I slowly took my seat again.

  “Who’s in charge of your little organization?” I asked.

  “His name is Lucas,” he replied. “He’s my uncle. He’s the one who recruited us all into his plan.” I was a little surprised by how much information he was suddenly willing to divulge. Anything to save his own neck, I guess.

  “How did he recruit you?” I asked.

  “Lucas has always been like that,” Illias said, his mouth contorting in disgust. “Ever since we were all children, he would come up with schemes to get money. Having us deliver drugs, putting us on the street to beg, things like that.”

  “So, how did he go from dealing drugs to importing exotic animals?” I asked. “That’s kind of a big leap.”

  He slumped back into his seat. “Hell if I know. Look, one day, he just said he had this new opportunity and that he would need our help. A few of us were already working on the ferry and cruise lines. That’s popular here in Athens with tourists. It’s good money, you know? But then he said he wanted some younger cousins to move to the United States and start driving trucks so they could drive the animals around. They even had to go to special schools to get trucking licenses or something.”

  “That seems like a lot of work for a single money-making scheme,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, no kidding,” he huffed, gesturing angrily with his hands as much as he could with the handcuffs on. “I told Alex not to go, but you know how young people are. They get stars in their eyes and believe anything. Lucas told us all we’d be making a lot of cash since the animals sell for so much, but then he turns around and says he has to give half the profits to some other guy.”

  “What other guy?” I asked quickly.

  “I don’t know,” Illias shrugged. “Whoever he gets the animals from. The guy tells him where to collect the animals, then we do all the hard work of selling them and transporting them around, and this other moron gets to keep half the profits? I told Lucas he was being hustled, but he said it was fine because it was still a lot of money. And he was pocketing some extra by buying cheaper tranquilizers or something like that.”

  “Isn’t he worried the guy would find out?” I asked.

  “Lucas doesn’t worry about anything,” Illias scoffed. “He just does whatever occurs to him at that moment and moves onto the next thing as soon as that stops working. He’s an idiot, and I should have known his stupid plans would get us caught, eventually.”

  “Why do all the animals come through Greece first?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Illias replied, his brows puckering in confusion.

  “We found a South American Puma in Nevada that they shipped here from Greece,” I clarified. “We just thought it was strange that you would take it all the way to Greece before sending it back when it would be faster to just bring it up by land. Why did you do that?”

  “We didn’t bring it to Greece,” Illias said, still looking slightly confused. “I told you, the guy tells Lucas where to pick up the animals, usually down by the docks, and from there, we handle the rest.”

  “Do you know why everything starts off in Greece?” I asked, hoping to glean some hint as to the source of these shipments.

  “I couldn’t say for sure, but I would think it had to do with the ferries,” Illias said thoughtfully. “That’s how we transport most of the animals, since it’s easier to do that than to have to worry about being stopped and searched at the border. There are ferries to tons of different countries in Europe, so whenever we make a sale that we need to transport to a different country, we use that ferry route. As far as sending animals down to the United States, we use that cruise line that Ezio works on.”

  It certainly made sense. Because Greece had access to so many countries by sea, using it as a starting point before branching out to different places would probably be more efficient than putting your base of operations somewhere else.

  “How many other ferries are part of your scheme?” I asked.

  “Oh, we use pretty much all the ferries,” Illias said with a malicious grin. “We have family on almost every one, and for the ones we don’t, it’s not that hard to pull a few strings and get our shipment through, anyway. However, I might know of a couple of ferries that are set to depart with cargo within the next few days.”

  “And which would those be?” I asked cautiously, sensing some kind of trap in the tone of his voice.

  “First, you guarantee that I’ll get a deal,” Illias said with a sneer. “You said if I talked with you, I would get less jail time. I want some kind of guarantee that this will happen.”

  “Or, I could just tell the judge that you were belligerent and refused to cooperate with us at all, after causing the death of an animal and aiding the hospitalization of a federal agent,” I said, standing up again and picking up my laptop bag. “Which would pretty much ensure you get the maximum penalty possible.”

  “But that’s not true!” Illias sputtered with rage, his face twisting in fury as he yelled.

  “And who do you think he’ll believe?” I asked, knowing I was treading dangerous water and coming frighteningly close to being accused of coercion. I wasn’t trying to get him to confess to anything that wasn’t true, though. On the contrary, all I wanted was the truth.

  Illias clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, but after a tense moment seemed to think better of his actions and relaxed.

  “Symi and Lavrio,” he said as he bowed his head in defeat like a sulking child. “Those are the ports where the ferries will be departing from. We have family working as crew members on both. Two days from
now, they’ll both have shipments. Oh, and Port of Piraeus, here in Athens. That’s where Lucas is based. There’s a garage near the harbor where he keeps stock before shipping it.” Illias looked up at me with venom in his eyes, and this time I didn’t stop myself from smirking.

  “Thank you for everything, Mr. Galanis,” I said as I opened the door and stepped through. “You’ve been a huge help.”

  I rejoiced internally as I called Nelson for the second time in less than two hours in order to relay the new information, although I left out the part where I threatened the suspect with a heavier jail sentence if he didn’t comply. Technically, I hadn’t done anything overtly illegal, as it wasn’t against the law for federal agents to lie during an interrogation, but a lot of people still frowned upon the use of deception to obtain a confession. The way I saw it, as long as I got the confession and got another criminal off the street, it didn’t matter how I got it.

  Junior would disagree, though, I thought as I made my way out of the station and into the taxi I’d called to take me back to the hospital. MBLIS had arranged for me to receive an international driver’s license when they’d hired me, and I’d need to figure out how to acquire a rental car tomorrow with the stipend MBLIS had given us for our mission. For now, though, I wanted to check on Junior and see if he’d have to stay in the hospital overnight. I hoped he’d be awake and alert enough for me to tell him about everything Illias had said.

  When I got to the hospital, though, the doctor confirmed that Junior was still asleep and would, in fact, need to remain in the hospital overnight for observation. He did say that as long as there were no abnormalities, he’d most likely be ready to leave by tomorrow. With that in mind, I called another taxi and headed back to the hotel for some much-needed rest of my own.

  26

  Miranda

  I’d been bouncing off the walls with excitement the first time they had assigned me an international field mission. It had been fairly cut and dry. A new designer party drug was being distributed throughout upper New England high schools, and the spread was gradually migrating south along the eastern coast. It became really serious when kids began to overdose on really small quantities. It turned out the batches were tainted, and we managed to trace the drug back to Canada. We found the distributor and locked him up. End of story. The case itself hadn’t been all that complicated or dangerous, but just the thought of being in a foreign land on an adventure was enough to fill me with energy. Naomi had made fun of me for being excited about going somewhere as mundane as Canada.

  I didn’t let it bother me. I loved traveling, and I loved solving crimes. So when Nelson approached me the morning after Junior and Charlie left and told me they’d made a huge discovery and that I would need to fly out to Greece to join them on a large-scale operation, I was beyond stoked.

  When I’d gone into Wallace’s office to get the details, he’d actually seemed chagrined about giving me such short notice.

  “Normally, I prefer to give my agents some time to prepare, both mentally and physically, for these kinds of big missions,” he’d said, folding his hands in front of him. “Unfortunately, time is of the essence here. If we want to catch the smugglers in the act, you’ll need to be in Greece by tomorrow morning. You’ll have most of today to pack and prepare, but your plane will be leaving this evening at around six.”

  “Don’t sweat it, boss,” I replied with a smile. “It’s not like I have much to pack or anyone to say goodbye to. I’ll be ready to go in no time.”

  Nelson had then given me the details of the operation. There were two ferries that would be transporting animals, leaving port at around the same time. Since Junior was apparently in the hospital and out of commission, Charlie and I would each infiltrate one of the ferries with a specialized team of Greek police officers. After we did that, Charlie and I would both access the main headquarters where the smugglers were keeping the animals before transporting them, which was apparently located in some dingy garage near the docks. Not exactly where I’d choose to have my secret lair if I was the leader of a crime family, but I guessed that’s why I was a federal agent and not a career criminal.

  “I get to go to Greece,” I sang to Naomi as I leaned over my desk and onto hers.

  “You mean I’ll get the office all to myself?” she asked in mock concern. “I won’t have to listen to your big mouth all day? Just me and Fiona eating chocolates and getting our work done in peace and quiet while you get to go gallivanting off to Greece? Say it isn’t so!”

  I stuck my tongue out at her, knowing the childish gesture would annoy her.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be packing or something?” Naomi asked. “Instead of sitting here, distracting me?”

  “Eh, I prefer to travel light,” I answered honestly. “I’ve got my gun and my ID. What else do I really need?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. A toothbrush? Change of clothes? A phone charger, maybe?” There was a hint of sarcasm barely discernible in Naomi’s voice.

  “All things I can worry about when I get there,” I said dismissively with a lazy wave of my hand. “I’m pretty sure Greece has toothbrushes.”

  The look Naomi shot me was absolutely dripping with disapproval. “It is truly impressive how lackadaisical you are. Truly.” Her voice was deadpan as she looked up at me from her laptop.

  “Thank you,” I answered just as seriously, although I was unable to keep my composure and ended up bursting into laughter a moment later.

  “When was your flight, again?” Naomi asked, taking a sip from the cup of tea on her desk.

  “Six,” I said, mentally calculating how many hours I had left until my flight and how many more I’d have to be awake for after that. “Apparently, it’s like a fifteen-hour flight, so I might just nap the rest of the day. I probably won’t have a chance to sleep until after the mission.”

  “That’s actually a very sensible idea,” Naomi said, looking pensive. “If you’re on the flight for fifteen hours and arrive in Athens in the morning, and then the mission itself doesn’t get completed until after nightfall, then that’s well over twenty-four hours you’ll end up being awake for.”

  “Yep. That’s about what I was thinking too,” I said, resting my chin in my hands over the desk. “So, I better catch some sleep now that I have the chance.”

  I stood up from my desk and bade Naomi goodbye before leaving the office and heading down to the underground parking garage. My car, a beat-up gray Jeep, was parked near the elevator. I plugged my phone into the car’s speaker system and turned the music up loud as I pulled out of the parking garage and onto the main street. Already, I missed the powerful sound system of the company car. The speakers in my Jeep weren’t terrible, but like everything else in this old car, they had seen better days.

  My apartment was about a forty-minute drive from the office. It was a bit of a commute, but I preferred the relative peace and quiet compared to what I would have gotten from an apartment in the city. It was in a quiet area surrounded by trees, and I personally thought the long drive was worth being able to fall asleep to the sounds of crickets and rustling leaves as opposed to car horns and screeching tires.

  The apartment itself was spacious, with minimal decorations or furniture. I didn’t like clutter and preferred the freedom that came with not owning a lot of material possessions. Before I’d joined MBLIS, I’d been something of a nomad, drifting from place to place whenever the urge to move struck me. The only reason I’d joined the agency was because of the international aspect. Being able to travel frequently satisfied that itch while still providing me with a steady paycheck. Overall, it was a win-win situation.

  I kicked the door closed behind me as I walked into the apartment, taking a quick look around for anything I might need for my trip to Greece. I had been mostly just trying to annoy Naomi earlier and really did intend to bring a toothbrush and other basic toiletries, but aside from that and a few changes of clothing, I couldn’t think of what else there was to pack or do b
efore I left.

  It was an open secret that the real reason Wallace preferred to give agents a day to prepare for a mission was so that we could spend time with our friends and family. It wasn’t something that we talked about openly, but the harsh reality was that any time we were in the field, there was a chance we wouldn’t come back. Our job was a dangerous one. We dealt with the vilest and most heinous of criminals and often had to be very far from home. This gave agents a chance to say goodbye, as morbid as that seemed.

  I didn’t have anyone to say goodbye to, though. The thing about constantly moving from place to place is that it made it impossible to set down any real roots or build connections. Las Vegas had been the first place I stayed for more than a couple of months since leaving the Marines, so my only real friends were Naomi, Fiona, and everyone else I’d met at the office since joining the agency.

  When I thought about it like that, it was kind of sad. On the plus side, though, it sure made preparing for the mission a lot easier. And that was the thought I stuck with as I tossed some clothes carelessly into a duffel bag.

  “Now it’s time to nap,” I said out loud to myself as I turned on the television and settled onto the couch. I scrolled through my recordings until I came to the most recent episode of my favorite crime drama. I shoved one of the decorative couch pillows under my head and pulled the throw blanket off the back of my couch. I draped it over myself as I prepared to watch the latest episode, hoping that this one would feature my favorite character a lot.

  I woke up some indeterminate amount of time later, a little confused as to why I was on my couch at home and not at work. I sat up on the couch as the events of the morning came back to me, glancing down at my phone to check the time. It was still only three, which meant I had a few hours left until I needed to head to the airport. One of the perks of being a federal agent and having our own private hangar meant that we didn’t have to go through tedious security checkpoints like we normally would when taking a commercial flight. That meant I only had to get to the airport about an hour before the flight took off.