"We still don't know for sure who killed Terry do we?"
"It might not come down to just one person Bill. Sergei Mogilevich and Mayor John Corbett are involved in major land development schemes. We're talking in the neighborhood of one billion dollars per building and there are eighteen of them in the St. James Town project alone.
Mayor Corbett was the first person Sergei called after I pushed his buttons asking about bribes to city officials. I know they call on Galecki to control problems. That's probably how he pays his gambling debts - he's not the best card player."
Bill was pacing, trying to stay calm. "Bastards! Do you think they'll let Julia go if we give them what they want?"
"I don't know Bill but we have to try. I'll see if I can get them to let her go in exchange for me and the ledger."
"Should we call the cops. We could probably use backup."
"The kidnapper made a point of saying she would be dead if we went to the cops. I don't think it's worth the gamble."
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this Nick. And now they've got Julia!"
"I promise you I'll get her out of there Bill. We're dealing with a bunch of psychopaths. It's time to take the gloves off."
Chapter 64
Something snapped in my head when I watched the video again with Bill. I had told Bill it was time to take the gloves off and that's exactly what I intended to do.
I had time to get ready for this meeting. The kidnapper said he would get back to me at 9am tomorrow. I called Alex and filled her in. She said she'd be here in just over an hour.
Next, I called Frank Miser, not his real name, but I'm OK with that. Frank is a retired military security contractor. He wasn't a complete mercenary like some. He did pick and choose who he worked for.
Frank was my go-to guy for military supplies when I was in Canada. It's touchy in this country. Even though I'm licensed to carry a concealed weapon in the U.S. I can't legally carry a gun here.
But sometimes you have to take a stand and this was one of those times.
Frank's man cave was different from most. A false wall opened up to his private stores. I picked a half dozen CTS6230 tactical grenades and 3 SGE 400/3 Gas Masks fitted with filters and hoods. Not that I cared about the kidnappers, but Julia was in there.
I was hoping the tactical grenades would not only give us an advantage but also keep the injuries down to a minimum. There was no way to tell how people would react; all you could do was prepare for the worst.
CS gas irritates the eyes and nose. It causes severe coughing, gagging and vomiting. It also disorients and sticks to clothing making any exposed fabric highly irritating to wear and to others in the vicinity of the affected clothing.
Next I picked up two Glock 19s and a half dozen magazines. I didn't think we'd need that much ammo, but better safe than sorry. I picked up one Tavor TAR-21 semi-automatic assault rifle customized with a Geissele Super Sabra Trigger Pack and Lightning Trigger Bow. It was fitted with an EOTech Holographic Hybrid Sight w/ 3x Magnifier.
Two proMOX ultra-thin bulletproof vests rounded out my order.
Chapter 65
The call came in exactly as promised at 9am. I was told to be at 29 Rangemore road in one hour. Alone, and bring the ledger.
29 Rangemore road was in the west end of the city. We didn't have any time to find out much about the building. The kidnapper barely gave us enough time to get there.
Alex did an online search for the building and made a few calls as I drove. A one year old sales listing told us it was a 56,000 square foot industrial building with an office component. There was a bank of windows across the front of the building which meant that's probably where the offices were.
The listing also told us the building had polished concrete floors, 16 ft. ceilings, skylights and extensive parking. No doubt, the skylights were in the office component as well. That's it, not a lot to go on.
Alex managed to get a hold of the real estate agent that had listed the building. He confirmed that the offices were spread out along the front of the building. Two rows separated by a narrow hallway.
He said the boardroom and lunchroom were on the left once you passed through the main entrance and reception area.
Chapter 66
Sitting at the end of a dead end street, 29 Rangemore road had not been in use for over a year. A few people had come and gone, mostly real estate agents and their prospects. Sergei recently bought the building through an investment company and they were about to renovate and convert it to office space.
Office space tenants pay nearly three times more rent than industrial or warehouse tenants. That meant the building's value could triple in a very short period of time.
Bear was in the front office. He had a two-way radio to stay in contact with the others. His instructions were simple. Don't let anyone in except for Nick Borman, and only if he's alone.
Sasha was in the boardroom with one of the Petrykin brothers. The Petrykin boys were as ruthless as they come. Bear was supposed to let Borman in and make sure he wasn't armed. He would then radio Sasha before bringing Borman to the boardroom.
Bear was watching the front as a car pulled into the parking lot. A young woman got out of the car. She was holding a clipboard of sorts and he could see a bunch of paperwork attached to it.
She was looking around, seemingly taking in the location and neighboring buildings. Probably an agent who didn't know the building was sold Bear thought. She snapped a couple of photos with a small camera and finally walked toward the front door. The door was locked and Bear could see the woman cup her hands to look inside.
Bear decided he'd better get rid of the woman before Borman showed up. A witness could complicate things. He opened the door, "Which building you look for?"
"I'm looking for this building that's advertised here she said." She held out the newspaper. Bear took the paper and looked at the listing that was circled in heavy black pen.
He didn't notice the tip of the X2 Taser stick out of her purse just before the woman pulled the trigger sending 50,0000 volts of current through his body. He was still flopping around like a fish out of water when I walked in behind Alex.
We locked the door and pulled Bear behind the reception desk. We hogtied him with nylon rope and put a piece of duct tape across his mouth.
According to the real estate agent the boardroom and the lunchroom were all to the left of the main lobby. The rooms to the right were just regular offices. We had no way of knowing which rooms they would be in but I was willing to bet a big ego would want to be in the boardroom.
After making sure Bear wasn't going to be a problem, I opened my duffel bag and laid out the supplies I bought from Frank Miser yesterday. Alex and I both loaded up and put our masks on. It was about to get interesting.
We opened the hallway door and walked through, closing the door behind us. The third door down the hall on the right hand side was opened and we could hear voices. Alex pulled the pin on two of the CTS6230 tactical grenades and started walking down the hall.
She put the first one down behind her, just this side of the boardroom and tossed the second one right into the boardroom as she ran past the door to the end of the hall. She quickly stepped into the last office on the left so she wouldn't be in the line of fire.
I stayed back, crouched by the door to the lobby. I kept low to the ground, down on one knee to present a small target. Within seconds, all hell broke loose. Two men came out of the boardroom coughing and cursing.
As thick as the smoke was, I had a clear view through the FLIR BTS Bi-Ocular thermal night vision camera. I could see both men had their handguns out. I called out "Drop your guns and walk this way."
Both of them started firing wildly in my direction, their bullets whizzing just over my head. I put the first three rounds in the one nearest me. The next two found the second man. They both went down.
I walked to where they lay and kicked their guns away. I recognized one of them as Sasha. I had no idea who t
he other guy was and had no way of knowing if he was the guy I was supposed to meet. Neither one of them looked like they were going to cause any more trouble.
I walked down the hall and got Alex out of the far room and led her back to the front waiting room, away from the smoke. We took off our tear gas masks and went to check on Bear.
Bear was coming around. I ripped the tape off his mouth, "Where's Julia Piermont?"
Bear wasn't talking. I looked at Alex, "hold that door open for me while I drag him into the hallway would you?"
I put my mask back on and started dragging Bear toward the door. Alex opened the door and I dragged Bear down the hall and lay him by his two friends. He was coughing and gagging long before he got there.
The smoke and irritant is hard to take under any circumstance but Bear was going through hell with his hands and feet tied behind his back. "Room in warehouse" he said. "Back down hall."
"I'm going to untie you so you can take us there, but you make one wrong move and you're going to join your friends."
I untied him and kept my Glock pointed at him. Alex had put her mask back on and joined us. Bear led us down the hall, coughing and hacking. He took one of the doors on the left hand side. It opened onto a short corridor that led to the large warehouse area in the back of the building.
I told Alex to keep him covered for a minute while I ran back to the front entrance to get the TAR-21.
I came back with the semi-automatic and we followed Bear to the end of the hall and through a door that led to the main warehouse area. It was a large area, about 100 feet wide by 500 feet long, mostly warehouse space with empty shelving.
Bear said Julia was in the nursing station about 200 feet to the left. Alex walked behind him keeping him covered. I followed behind sweeping the space through the EOTech Sight and Magnifier.
Bear opened the door to the room where Julia was handcuffed to a small bed. "Keep him covered," I told Alex.
Bear said he didn't have the keys to the handcuffs so I went to the desk and found a paper clip. I bit the small end of the clip enough to form a slight indentation and pulled the outside part out to make a handle. A quick turn in the keyhole with my makeshift key and Julia was free.
I heard three quick shots and turned just in time to see the big guy hit the floor. Bear had made a big mistake thinking Alex wouldn't shoot when he charged at her.
Chapter 67
The kidnapper took a spot on top of the shipping office at the far end of the warehouse. He was stationed behind a couple of boxes with just enough space between them to view the nursing station down the barrel of the FBI approved SPR A3G sniper rifle.
The A3G was the most expensive model in the line due to a few extra features like the titanium scope base, barrel fluting and a few other details meant to increase accuracy. The police model came with a detachable magazine that held four rounds.
He was a pretty good marksman and didn't expect he would need more than two or three rounds. Still, he had 3 extra magazines loaded with 168-grain Match King bullets right next to him, just in case.
There was a good chance that Sasha and his crew could deal with Borman. Vasily liked to work alone and he wasn't going to take chances by getting involved in a plan that included a direct exchange with a skilled opponent. Besides, an ambush could be fun.
When the gunfire started, Vasily suspected Sasha and his crew might be in trouble. His suspicions were confirmed a few minutes later when Bear came through the door to the warehouse followed by a rather sexy looking woman that had a gun pointed at his head.
Bear and the woman immediately started walking toward the nursing station. The man following her was not so careless; he was checking out the area through the scope on his rife. That had to be Borman. Vasily ducked every time Borman turned to look his way. It was too soon to let his presence be known.
He had to admit he felt a bit of admiration for the man. Borman moved with an animal-like grace that you don't see very often. It was a shame he was going to have to kill him. What was that saying Americans were so fond of, oh yeah, shit happens.
He watched as the three entered the nursing station. It seems Bear didn't have a key to the handcuffs. Vasily watched with interest as Borman fashioned a key out of a paper clip; it actually worked.
Vasily felt like a cat watching mice, letting them think they were safe and suddenly BAM he would pounce on them at the last minute.
The woman watching Bear took her eyes off him for one second as Borman was trying to unlock the handcuffs. Bear charged her hoping he could take her handgun. He wasn't nearly fast enough. She fired three rounds straight into his chest at point blank range.
That was the last of Sasha's people. Vasily decided it was time to take Borman out. The Piermont woman was free of her handcuffs and was just getting up off the cot. Vasily had Borman in his sight through the Leupold 8.5-25x50mm long range scope.
He had learned to time his shot so that it came at the bottom of his exhale, so his breathing didn't affect his aim. He calmed his breath.
The mil dot reticle of his scope was pointed right between Borman's eyes. Vasily let his breath out normally and right at the spot between breaths he slowly and evenly pulled the trigger.
Chapter 68
Julia said she was OK to walk. I was thinking it had all gone a bit too easy when I saw a tiny flash of light from the top of the shipping office at the far end of the warehouse.
I dropped to one knee and shouldered the TAR-21 in one motion to scope the area where the reflection came from. The sniper fired just as I dropped to one knee. His shot whizzed over my head. I returned fire in bursts and kept spraying bullets in his direction as I ran away from the women toward cover behind a fork lift truck about 15 feet away.
I motioned to Alex to close the door and take cover in the nursing quarters. I kept firing short bursts in the direction of the sniper.
The Tavor can spit out a 30 round clip in seconds. You go through a lot of ammo but it's hard for someone to return fire when that many bullets are being sprayed in their direction.
I fired another burst and ran another 10 feet or so to a better position behind a large wooden crate that was right next to some taller shelving.
I knew exactly where the sniper was by now. Alex opened the door to the office just a crack and she fired a few rounds at the sniper to get his attention. It was all I needed.
Target acquisition is quick with the EOTech and at just over 200 feet, the sniper was an easy shot. He had no sooner fired off a round in Alex's direction when my round caught him just above the right eye. Sniper down.
Chapter 69
I didn't bother calling Sergei. I knew he'd find out he had a mess to clean up soon enough. We took Julia to her father's house and went back to my hotel room to prepare for the finale.
We still had Mogilevich and Corbett to deal with. I hadn't decided what to do about Galecki yet. He was involved, but he was a pawn, being used through his addiction to gambling.
We pored over sections of the ledger. I'd made photocopies of any page that had something that might be useful. We each took a pile and went through them one more time, pulling out any that might get a response.
I needed to call him out. He'd be pretty pissed already. Sasha, his only son, was dead. His little kingdom was being threatened. A guy like that doesn't take well to anyone who gets in his way.
Sergei had upped the ante when he kidnapped Julia. It was my turn and I was about to call him out.
Chapter 70
Deputy Chief James Galecki and Stan Novak arrived at my hotel room at 11am the next day. We needed Galecki on board to put an end to the killing. He was also the person who had prevented an investigation into Terry's murder and the reason his death had been ruled incidental to a robbery.
We were pretty sure we had the murderer at this point. But his accomplices were still out there and Terry and his family were due respect for the fact that he died in the course of performing his job.
I had t
o hand it to Galecki, he was a pretty cool character. The Chief of Special Operations was about 50 years old. He stood 6 feet tall and weighed about 200lbs. The gray colored slacks, light blue shirt and camel corduroy jacket made him look like a businessman on holidays.
Alex and I had prepared for this yesterday. We rearranged the pictures on my boards for better effect. We also removed all of Galecki's pictures.
Galecki listened as I walked him through what we had found so far. When it came to his part, we simply said that we still didn't know who it was on the Force that was helping the perps out. We just knew someone was.
The Borman Factor Page 14