Avengers and Rogues

by Charles Dougherty

  "Not unless you need one. Let's call it a night. We may have a busy day tomorrow. I've got a feeling we're going to Florida."

  "I know you haven't heard from your friend since you called him. What makes you think Florida?" I let us in our room.

  "A gut feeling. Your daughter was snatched in Florida. There are all kinds of Florida connections in this mess. There's no reason I can see for her kidnappers to move her out of the state."

  "You really think your friend will find her that fast? Tomorrow?"

  "I'd be surprised if he didn't, so we should be ready to move in a hurry."

  I grimaced and shook my head. "As much as I want to, I can't rush to her side to comfort her as soon as she's safe, Mary. She's already going to be traumatized. I'd just add to her confusion."

  "I understand. That's not what I meant."

  "You think whoever ordered this is in Florida?"

  "Good chance. All the bad guys I've tangled with so far were in Florida."

  "I thought O'Hanlon was from Boston."

  "From is the right word. He spent all his time at his villa in one of the upscale golf communities the Daileys built."

  "What about the people they were bribing?"

  "That's a different story; they're everywhere."

  "Everywhere? You're exaggerating, right?"

  Mary shrugged and smiled at me. "No. When I was trying to decipher who was on the take, I got overwhelmed in a hurry. There are too many for them all to be in Florida. But the out-and-out criminals are concentrated there."

  "How much were you able to get out of the files? I couldn't make any sense of them. You said something about context, and Nora thought she could get people to help, but that's off the table, now."

  "I couldn't get names. Those are all encrypted. But the files were a standard format, so I combined them into one big spreadsheet. That way, I could sort them different ways. I was hoping to spot patterns."

  "I'm surprised the whole files weren't encrypted. Why only the names of the people getting paid?"

  "I can't answer that. Maybe it made the data too hard to work with. Or the Daileys were just overconfident about their physical security. They had the only copies of the files; they were all in that safe. O'Hanlon told me that going in, and the Daileys confirmed it when I questioned them."

  "Could you tell anything about the names? Like an indication of the encryption scheme?"

  "Not yet. Maybe if I could get one name and match it against something else in the files, then I could at least see the encrypted version of the name. That might give us a clue. You see another way?"

  "Maybe. It depends on how good their code is. There are standard ways to crack simple codes. If they didn't bother to encrypt the whole set of files, I'll bet they didn't use anything too complicated for the names."

  "Do you want to give it a try?" Mary asked.

  "Not just yet. You said you combined the files into one database so you could sort the entries. What did you discover?"

  "Nothing I could use, but there were a couple of interesting things that popped out at me."

  "What popped out?"

  "The first thing I did was sort on the 'payee name' column. That collected all the payments to the same person in a sequence, by date. That's useless so far, but it also showed thousands of payees."

  "Thousands? Like two thousand, or ten thousand?"

  "I didn't count; I got overwhelmed, like I said. Some names had close to a hundred payments. So even counting them was daunting. I know there's a way to do that using the software, but I didn't get there yet."

  "That's a hell of a list," I said. "No wonder so many people want it. It may not be every corrupt politician in the country, but it must be most of the ones that matter. Do you know who any of them are? Got any educated guesses?"

  "Not really. Why?"

  "I'm thinking about how to crack the code. The more names we have, the quicker it will go. Known participants would be better than guesses, but guesses might get us started. Think about it like trying to solve a crossword puzzle."

  "Do you know how to crack codes, Finn?"

  "I know a little about it, on a conceptual level. Less about the mechanics of doing it. But I have a contact. Maybe."

  "Like the person who got that passport for me?"

  "Like that, yes."

  "Do you trust this person? The code cracker? Because the passport person told Nora, right?"

  "Yes, but I didn't ask him not to tell her. That was an underhanded way for me to get them to check you out. I told you that. I figured if you were bad news, they'd warn me. But to answer your question, I wouldn't give the person the files."

  "I don't understand how it would work, then."

  "I'd give them a big enough sample of the encrypted names to work with. We know that we're looking for people's names, not numeric data.

  "They'll analyze the encrypted data from the name field. The tools use statistics on the frequency of occurrence for different letters as they appear in people's names. That will give us some encoding schemes ranked in order of the most likely fit."

  "You're giving me a headache, Finn. How's that going to help us?"

  "We'll try the different possible encoding schemes on our list of known payees. Once we get it right, then we can use a macro on the spreadsheet file to convert the encrypted names to plain English."

  "Then what?" Mary asked.

  "Then you and I can decide what we want to do with the list. If it's dangerous now, imagine how dangerous it'll be when it's not encrypted."

  "You thinking blackmail?"

  "Not interested. I've got plenty of money, and you said the same thing earlier. But we'll have the leverage to protect ourselves, if nothing else."

  Mary was frowning.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Just sorry we left that microSD card with Kelley's body."

  "I wouldn't worry too much about it. By the time it's in the hands of somebody who knows what to do with it, this will probably be over."

  "You sound optimistic, Finn."

  "Yeah. I'm trying not to think about Abby."

  "She's in good hands. Trust me on that."

  "I'm working on it."

  "Think you can sleep with all this on your mind?" Mary asked, as she turned out the light.

  "Yes. That's a learned skill in my trade. Sleep's a weapon. Good night."

  29

  I grabbed my cellphone from the nightstand, startled from sleep. Fumbling with it, I saw that it was a little after 4 a.m. At first, I thought I missed the call that woke me.

  Then I heard Mary say, "Medusa." It was her burner phone that rang. She put a finger over my lips and switched her phone to speaker mode. I nodded.

  "Phorcys. Can you talk?"

  "Yes."

  "The young woman you called about yesterday is at home, safe in her own bed."

  "Thank you. That was fast. Is she all right?"

  "Yes. She's unharmed, and she's not likely to remember any of what happened. They picked the lock on her front door and waited for her to come home. Then they injected her with flunitrazepam in her own living room before she even knew they were there. They never moved her from her apartment."

  "Flunitra… what?" Mary asked.

  "Commonly called 'Roofies.'"

  "I thought Roofies were pills."

  "Yes. Or the powder can be dissolved in distilled water and injected. Less common, but it has the same result."

  "So she won't know what happened to her?"

  "That's correct."

  "And what about the men who took her?"

  "They've been dealt with. They were quite forthcoming, actually. Two contract intelligence operatives — not your garden variety thugs at all, fortunately for the girl. They took good care of her on instructions from their superiors. Professionals to the end."

  "Who were their superiors?"

  "They're being taken care of as we speak. Don't concern yourself with them. The person you're interested in is none other
than our favorite elected official."

  "Really? The one we were hoping to vote out?"

  The man on the phone chuckled. "The same. I can handle that now, if you wish."

  "No, I don't think so. This is personal, but thank you."

  "As you wish. Let me know if you change your mind, or if you need anything. All the damning material is in place, ready for release once the news of his suicide breaks. I look forward to reading about him in the news soon."

  "I really do owe you for this."

  "No. The balance is still in your favor. Perhaps someday I'll need to call on you, but for now you owe me nothing. Stay well, Medusa."

  There was a click as he disconnected, and Mary turned to me. "You heard everything?"

  "Yes. Who's the elected official?"

  "A high-level Florida politician I suspected of taking payoffs from Dailey and O'Hanlon. He's the next step up the chain from the out-and-out crooks I eliminated."

  "He got a name?"

  "Jefferson Davis Lee. Ring a bell?"

  "The Senator? Hell yes, it rings a bell. Mr. Law and Order himself."

  "That's the one. You know about his committee affiliation?"

  "I know he's on the Senate Armed Services Committee."

  "Yes. Would that put him in a position to know about Nora's little business?"

  "I don't think so, but like I said earlier, I'm not sure of anything at this stage. You think he's dirty?"

  "I do now. I wasn't sure before. He looked dirty, but I couldn't prove it. If the Daileys and O'Hanlon weren't paying him, they were paying somebody with the same connections."

  "Why did you suspect him before this? You said all the names in the files were encrypted."

  "My friend Phorcys thought Lee was taking money from somebody. But he wasn't certain."

  "Why did he think that?"

  "Because Lee has all the earmarks of a crooked politician, but he ignored several chances to pick up some serious cash."

  "Are you saying your friend offered to buy him and struck out?"

  "I don't know that. Don't jump to conclusions about my friend. Somebody — my friend didn't say who — made Lee offers that he turned down. So we figured Lee was already bought and paid for."

  "You mentioned there was nobody left on your shit list except crooked politicians. Is Lee one of them?"

  "Yes. He was the next in line. I declared a unilateral cease-fire when I came to him."

  "Because you weren't sure about him?"

  "That, plus there's the matter of appearances."

  "Appearances?"

  "Gangsters get killed all the time, and nobody pays much attention. If you're into hunting metaphors, killing gangsters is like varmint hunting. Crooked politicians are a different kind of game; they're like hunting an endangered species."

  "Bullshit. They're not endangered. They're more numerous than English sparrows."

  Mary laughed. "You're right; I should have said 'protected,' not 'endangered.' But you get my point."

  "Yes. You're worried about the heat that might come from killing a senator. And you said the politicians weren't an immediate threat anyway, since they didn't have any foot soldiers left. So you decided not to go after Lee?"

  "It's not that simple, but you're on the right track. I just needed to wait. There are ways to hunt protected species without unleashing a furor, but they have to be taken on an individual basis, like rogue tigers. If politicians are known crooks, nobody is surprised when they're taken down."

  "How about Lee?"

  "He isn't a known crook. Not yet, anyway. But we plan to change that."

  "Is that what your friend meant by the 'damning material?'"

  "Yes. When Lee commits suicide, there won't be any doubt about why he did it."

  "Suicide, as opposed to an accident or a robbery gone wrong. That was already decided?"

  "Yes. We were already building the history to support it, even before Lee ordered your daughter's kidnapping."

  "I see. And your friend will release evidence of Lee's taking bribes? That's supposed to explain his suicide?"

  "It won't be that straight-forward, but you've got the idea. Ordinary corruption has become the norm for mainstream politicians in recent years. Nobody would bat an eye at Lee's taking bribes. They all do that. Some kind of extreme sexual perversion is a more credible reason for a guy like Lee to kill himself. Maybe it's about to come out that he's a serial rapist, or a child molester. But I'm just guessing."

  Who is this Phorcys character? And what's your connection with him? How did Lee know about your relationship with me? And how did any of them know about Abby? Or Nora? There's a lot of coincidence, here, especially since you and Phorcys already planned to kill Lee.

  "If Lee's going to commit suicide, I guess we can't interrogate him first."

  "We might be able to, within limits."

  "How?"

  "Think drugs, Finn. A guy like that will choose pills or dope for his exit; he wouldn't have the guts to shoot himself or slash his wrists. If he's found with a lethal dose of several different drugs in his system, who's to say which ones he took first? Not being a druggie, he probably scarfed down whatever he could get his hands on."

  I nodded. "Guess we should pack; we should be able to get seats on a flight from St. Thomas to Miami this morning."

  "We've got a little time. The first ferry won't leave for a couple of hours, yet."

  "What do you have in mind?" I asked.

  She put her arms around my neck. "Might as well make the most of our time alone," she said.

  "Mmf," I said, her lips muffling my response.

  30

  The Miami flight was crowded enough so that Mary and I couldn't talk about our plans. That was okay with me; it gave me time to think. I was troubled by the loose ends surrounding our situation.

  The biggest question in my mind was how these people found out about me. I don't mean my relationship with Mary; when I first took up with her several weeks ago, I thought I was using her for camouflage. That was humorous, given what I learned in the last few hours. I chuckled.

  "What's funny, Finn?"

  "Life."

  "Life's funny?"

  "Yeah. It's full of ironic twists."

  "Like what?"

  "If I told you, I'd have to — "

  "Yeah, yeah," she said, smiling. "But tell me later, okay?"

  "I will. I promise."

  She went back to the novel she was reading on her iPhone, leaving me to my thoughts. I picked up where I left off. Mary was camouflage, all right, but I got sucked right into her life in the bargain. That was okay. Her life wasn't all that much different from mine. Only the other players were different. Or were they?

  During the last few days, the casts of characters in our separate dramas merged. I couldn't account for the extent of Nora's knowledge about Mary. And I couldn't ask Nora about it at this point.

  Thinking of Nora reminded me that I was in limbo. She was my only contact within my client organization. There were a few other people I could call, but they were in supporting roles. They were the people who could arrange new identities for me, or break codes… That was another loose end.

  I still needed to get a sample of the encrypted names from Mary's files. My laptop was in my carry-on bag; maybe I could do that if we had idle time this evening. I didn't want to get wrapped up in that until we settled on how to deal with our current target. He was the one who ordered Abby's kidnapping, and presumably Nora's murder.

  Which brought me back around to my daughter and Nora. I couldn't talk to Nora, but I planned to call Abby. Once we were on the ground in Miami, I would pick up a burner cellphone and call her, just to hear her voice. Mary's friend Phorcys said she was sleeping off her drugs, so there was no big hurry. But I wanted to know she was well before our encounter with the senator.

  And who the hell was Phorcys? When I asked Mary, she was evasive, at least about her relationship with him.

  In mythology, Phorc
ys was Medusa's father. But in mythology, Medusa had snakes instead of hair, so it didn't pay to put too much stock in mythology. But there was that tattoo of Medusa on Mary's hip…

  Whoever Phorcys was, he seemed to owe Mary favors, and he could deliver when she called them in. That was important, but it also made me wonder why he was so helpful to her. That was another loose end.

  And yet another loose end — with Nora dead, who would relay instructions to me?

  No doubt someone would take Nora's place, and that someone would have enough information to establish her (or maybe his) bona fides with me. Until then, though, I was a free agent. I suspected that I would remain so until this whole mess was cleared up.

  Since I didn't know about Nora's official status, I couldn't even guess about when she would be missed. And speaking of Nora, I wondered if she was part of the corruption, as Mary suggested a while back. Somebody told the bad guys about my daughter. They almost certainly found out from somebody in my chain of command.

  I already narrowed the suspects down to Nora or her immediate boss. The implications of that were disturbing. I worked for those two for almost twenty years, and one of them was probably compromised. But which one, and for how long?

  On the strength of their orders, a lot of people died at my hands. My targets deserved what they got. I knew enough about each of them to feel comfortable with what I did at the time. But after seeing Mary and Phorcys set up the senator, there was a scintilla of doubt in my mind. Had I been manipulated by Nora and company?

  For that matter, was I being manipulated by Mary?

  31

  "Did you reach Abby?" Mary asked, as I backed our rental car out of its parking place.

  "Yes. She sounded okay. Maybe a little confused, but okay." I called Abby on my new burner phone while Mary was arranging for the car and checking in with her friend.

  "Who did you tell her you were?"

  "I gave her a yarn about being part of a non-denominational campus outreach ministry, trying to make sure every student had a spiritual home."

  "Are you kidding?"

  "No. I was shooting for something innocuous that might let me engage her in a little conversation, just to make sure about her. Told her we provided counseling services, and that she could call us any time she felt the need."