“Unless you’ve come here looking for a fight with me, you have no business in this club,” the big man growled at Lenny again.
“You’re my business! I wan’t my envelope back!” Lenny didn’t back down.
“Not helping here, Leonard!” Adam said as he tried to free Lenny from the man’s grip.
The man growled again. Like a lion about to pounce on his prey.
“Keep going, Lenny, you’re doing great. We need him to acknowledge the package,” Gabriel said.
“Coffee, coffee!” Adam kept yelling out the safe word. “We’re going to die here today without coffee!”
The giant man’s face turned to Adam, his eyes pensive.
“Who are you talking to?”
“What? No one, the waitress. I’m really desperate for a coffee.” He emphasized the safe word.
“What did you do with my package, huh? Why did you steal it?” Lenny tried to distract him.
“You’ve got company,” Gabriel announced in their ears.
Seconds later a posse of five men entered the club. One of them, a short Asian man, approached them. He didn’t speak, just looked Jerome Palmer directly in the eyes then walked to the booth where the giant had waited for them earlier. Two of his men followed, the other two stood, arms folded, next to The Midget who then promptly lowered Lenny to his feet.
“Look, guys, we don’t want any trouble. We’re just here for a good time,” Adam tried to defuse the situation.
Over his shoulder, he saw the Asian man beckon his men to bring him and Lenny to their table.
“Oh no, thanks, we’re fine here at our table,” Adam said quickly. This time to impress upon Gabriel that the situation was getting out of control.
“We need eyes on them, Adam,” he instructed.
“I just want a cup of coffee, please?” he said almost whining. But still Gabriel ignored him.
He caught Lenny winking at him. Adam’s questioning eyes had no effect on Lenny whatsoever. Instead, he watched as Lenny went at it with the gigantic man again—like David and Goliath.
“Who’s he, huh? Your boss? Not such a big man now, are you? You’re his dog aren’t you, big boy? His puppet!”
Every muscle in Adam’s body twitched with annoyance at Lenny’s blatant mocking. He warned him off with his eyes, but Lenny ignored him. Again, the kingpin beckoned. Immediately The Midget’s enormous hands folded over the back of their necks and he shoved them toward the Asian man’s booth.
“Where I come from it’s an insult if you decline an invitation,” the man said as they were shoved into the purple booth.
Adam and Lenny didn’t answer. Instead, Adam straightened his jacket and discreetly pointed the hidden camera in his button directly onto the man’s face. In the large circular booth, he looked even smaller than when he was standing. He had a light gray wool coat draped over his shoulders. Underneath that his black dress shirt looked like it might have been crafted from pure silk. He was well groomed and didn’t look anything like the owner of a sleazy gentlemen’s club. Not that Adam had the faintest idea what that would look like, but at first glance, he would’ve never guessed him to be involved in anything illegal.
“What are you doing in my club?” the man asked in perfect North American English.
“Oh, you’re the owner! What a privilege to sit at your table, sir,” Lenny blurted out.
What are you doing, Lenny?
Behind the owner’s seemingly amused expression lay something far more dangerous.
“What are you doing in my club?” the club owner asked again. This time his eyes held no hint of amusement.
“We’ll go, sorry,” Adam announced, attempting to get out of the booth.
But he barely got up from behind the table when a strong hand pushed him back down.
“You don’t get to tell me when you’re leaving. So I’m going to ask you both one more time, what are you doing in my club?”
Adam fell silent, praying Gabriel would now have enough reason to come barging through the doors and rescue them. But he didn’t.
“I want my package back,” Lenny suddenly spoke.
“Have you lost your mind?” Adam whispered sideways through pursed lips.
“Your friend seems to think you’ve lost your mind. I happen to agree.”
“Agree, disagree, I don’t care. I want what your big buffoon here stole from me the other day on the train.”
The man let out a sadistic laugh.
“Is that so? I’m certain that little package of yours is worth far more to me than it is to you.”
“That was my ticket out of here, man. Don’t tell me it’s worth more to you. You have no idea what it meant to me to finish that job. All you did was get me into a mess I now have no idea how to get out of!”
Lenny got the back of The Midget’s hand across his face.
When he stopped seeing stars he spat a ball of bloodied saliva onto the table in front of him and turned to face the giant Black man.
“That’s supposed to do what now, huh? Nothing my old man didn’t do to me a thousand times as a kid.” Lenny’s eyes were fierce and unafraid.
His comment seemed to impress the kingpin. He sat there staring at them for what seemed like an eternity.
“I’ll tell you what. Since you say this package is worth so much to you, how about I hire the two of you to do something for me? Get it right, and you’re not only free to go, you can take your precious package back too.”
“I’m listening,” Lenny said.
What? Adam’s mind responded as his heart skipped several beats.
The man pushed his chin out to one of his henchmen who disappeared behind the same red velvet curtain Lenny had said was concealing the poker den. Moments later he returned with Lenny’s package in his hands.
“So you do have it?” Lenny immediately commented.
“I never said I didn’t.”
Adam and Lenny watched as the Asian man peeled back the seal and pulled a document from inside the envelope. He lay it in the center of the table.
“So, here’s the deal. If you can figure out what this document says, it’s all yours and the two of you can leave.”
Adam’s eyes skimmed over the upside-down piece of paper. He recognized it immediately. It was a message written in a form of transposition cipher.
“Right, you’re just gonna give it to me and let us walk out of here alive. Sure, man. I wasn’t born yesterday,” Lenny scoffed.
“I give you my word.”
“Your word means nothing to me, man. I don’t even know you. All I know is that you’ve already worked me over once. Who’s to say you won’t do it again?”
The man pushed his chin out again as he held out an open hand. A man behind his left shoulder handed him a wad of brand new hundred-dollar bills. He dropped it on the table in front of Lenny.
“Consider that my gesture of faith. I trust you to go find out what this document means and bring it back here. And you, in turn, trust me that I’ll make good on my word upon your return. You have twenty-four hours.”
Lenny shuffled uncomfortably. He had had his poker face on, playing the game with this thief, but now he had no idea how he’d give this man what he wanted.
“We’ll do it,” Adam suddenly interjected.
This time it was Lenny who cast a concerning eye his way.
“Good, we’ll meet you back here tomorrow. Don’t be late.”
Lenny reached for the cash and the document and was quick to get up and get out of there. But Adam had stayed seated.
“We’ll do you one better though. We don’t need to come back tomorrow.”
Lenny was certain he had a mini-stroke as he slumped back down into the booth.
“Oh, don’t mind my friend here. We’ll be back tomorrow evening. Let’s go, Adam. This man has important business to tend to, and quite frankly, so do we.” Lenny pushed against Adam’s leg to prompt him to slide out of the booth.
“It’s a type of cipher
. I can tell you what it says in a couple of hours, but not here.”
Lenny’s face drained a pale white.
Adam had caught the attention of the club owner who sported a wide grin.
“Well, well, who would have thought. Looks like your little friend here has a few hidden talents no one knew about.” He turned to Adam, his tone suddenly different, as if he was offended. “Why not here?”
Adam greatly wanted to avoid divulging that the real reason he wanted to get out of there was because, as a man of God, he felt extremely uncomfortable in the club—and that the time was fast approaching eight o’clock. So he offered him another excuse.
“I need silence and better lighting. Plus a writing pad and a pencil.”
“Done,” the Asian promptly agreed. He looked up at the giant.
“Jerome, put them in the penthouse and make sure they have what they need. And get them something to eat and drink too. Whatever they want.”
The Midget gave a deep guttural growl under his breath.
“Yeah, yeah, calm down, tiger. It won’t hurt you to be nice to our guests just this once. But I promise you this, if they don’t deliver, I’ll cut your chains and you can pull both of them apart one limb at a time. I’ll let you pick which one you want to start with first.”
Chapter Eighteen
The penthouse was a magnificent suite on the top floor of a forty-story residential building in the most affluent part of the city. Overlooking the entire city from three sides, it took both Adam and Lenny’s breath away the moment they stepped inside.
Lenny let out a long whistle of admiration as soon as the elevator doors opened and his eyes caught sight of the view.
“Now that’s a view I can get used to,” he poked fun at Jerome. “Who knows, you might soon be working for me.”
The Midget wasn’t amused. He had made that all too clear when he let out one of his now-iconic growls.
“Do you think you’re a lion or some kind of beast or something that you need to growl every time someone tries to talk to you?” Lenny spoke his mind. “You know, I don’t want anyone with a negative attitude working for me. We might need to work on that before I hire you.” Lenny knew he was pushing his luck, but he was also fully aware that Jerome wouldn’t dare lift a finger to hurt them now that his boss needed their services. After all, he’d been told to make sure they were happy. But more than that, Lenny was desperate to rid his body and mind of the tension that seemed to have suddenly overwhelmed him.
Surprisingly, Jerome had enough self control—or sense—to turn around and leave, but not before he smashed his muscular body into Lenny’s broken arm, seemingly accidental.
Lenny winced with pain.
“Oh, I’m definitely not hiring you now, man. You can forget about ever working for me!”
When the elevator doors closed behind Jerome and it was only Adam and Lenny left in the apartment, Lenny flopped down on one of the luxurious sofas and propped his feet up on top of the white marble coffee table.
“So our Asian host has money, and lots of it,” Adam commented while scanning his hidden camera three hundred and sixty degrees through the suite.
“Keep your cover, boys,” Gabriel announced in their ears. “I’m pretty sure he has a camera and mic on you.”
Adam continued to walk through the spacious suite as if he needed to take it all in while Lenny made himself at home with a glass of expensive brandy from the drinks trolley.
“So here’s what we know about our new friend,” Gabriel continued. “His name is Quan Wu. Born and raised in Fujian, China where he studied biophysics. He then came to the US on a study visa and got his master’s in biochemistry; graduated top of his class. He bounced back and forth between jobs in China and the US before finally buying out a large blue-chip pharmaceutical with a presence in Sweden, the UK, and here in the US. He’s also linked to several small businesses across the US, hiding behind shell companies—no doubt for tax evasion or most likely money laundering. But no one’s been able to tie him to any of these. My intel shows the man has power and he has connections and he’s watching and listening to your every move as we speak. He’s got hidden cameras all through the suite and audio listening in, but my team is working on obtaining the signal to block it.”
Taking note of the information being fed through their earpieces, Adam swiftly took up his position at the large oval table—also crafted from white marble—that proudly stood in front of the main window. He organized the desk pad and the coded piece of writing in front of him and started working at cracking the message.
“Good, now pick up the phone and order the anchovy pizza with extra anchovies. My pizza delivery guy will plant a signal scrambler.” Gabriel read out the phone number and Adam did as he was instructed.
Ten minutes later a young pizza guy delivered the food and promptly left. There was silence in their ears for another eight minutes or so while Lenny made himself comfortable with the pizza on the white leather sofa, and Adam continued with the code.
Then suddenly Gabriel spoke again.
“Got it! We’re in and all signals have successfully been blocked. It won’t take them too long to figure out what’s happening but you can speak freely now, boys.”
“Well, that took you long enough, Major. The clock is ticking, man. I have to get this package to Diaz before he kills my sister. How am I supposed to do that when Preacher here got us trapped in this palace?” Lenny expressed his pent-up frustration.
“There was no way I could have known Wu was going to lock us up in his glass tower, Lenny. I’m sorry. I was only trying to save us time. If we had agreed to his twenty-four-hour timeline we wouldn’t have had enough time to meet Diaz—Carrie would have stood no chance. At least now we have time to give Wu what he wants and, may I remind you, we walk out of here alive, in time to get the package to Diaz. Not to even mention the added bonus of all that ‘good faith’ money you stuck in your pocket.”
Lenny was anxiously pacing the room, his good hand behind his neck.
“I can’t believe I’ve actually got the package in hand and no way of getting it to Diaz to save my sister. It’s not as if the man will accept a fax, you know,” he huffed, visibly distraught about the situation. “And I don’t even know how we’re going to talk our way out of giving Wu what he wants. How are we supposed to know what a bunch of scrambled letters on that stupid piece of paper means? This has just gone from bad to worse.” Lenny was beside himself.
“I’m going to let you handle this, Adam,” Gabriel said, his voice laced with amusement.
Adam picked up the piece of paper and walked over to where Lenny was now about to pour himself another drink.
“You don’t need another drink, Lenny. We’ve got this.”
“Really? And you figure this how, exactly? We’re kind of in a pickle here, Preacher,” he said, lifting the glass to his mouth.
Adam took the drink from Lenny’s hand and placed it back on the bar trolley.
“Like I said, we’ve got this. I’ve already cracked the message.”
The look on Lenny’s face was one of pure incredulity.
“You didn’t. You’ve already unscrambled those letters? When? How?”
“Just now, while you threw your little hissy fit and got all up in my face. I knew what this was the second I saw it. My father used to give me these to do all the time. Of course, I didn’t even realize what he was teaching me back then. I thought it was just a fun activity, like crossword puzzles.”
Lenny grabbed the paper from Adam’s hand and scanned through it.
“This isn’t a crossword puzzle. There aren’t any clues.”
“No, it’s not. It’s a rail fence cipher. One of the most commonly used transposition ciphers during World War Two. And a really simple one too. See these lines? Now imagine they are rails running diagonally. The plain text is written downwards and then diagonally on these rails. The message is read like a zigzag—down and up moving across the three rails.”
Lenny stared at the writing.
“Nope, still don’t get it. Looks like Greek to me.”
“Well, that’s because they combined it with a route cipher, obviously to make the encryption a bit harder to read at first glance. See the route cipher is a block instead of the rails, and the text is read in a diagonal wave, not a zigzag. But you’re right, these were actually designed by the ancient Greeks.”
Lenny still had a blank look on his face.
“Okay, clearly you’re the genius, Preacher, and that’s fine. It doesn’t need to make sense to me. I just need to get this to Diaz so I can save my sister’s life.”
Adam smiled. “I want that too, Lenny. But something tells me this decryption is just the beginning of our relationship with Wu. Once he reads this message he’s not going to let us go.”
He had Lenny intrigued and Gabriel quickly prompted Adam to go ahead and share the information.
“Fellows, I believe we have found ourselves smack bang in the middle of a corporate espionage deal. In fact, I think I’ve figured out what all the tail clues are.”
“Great work, Adam, but we’re going to have to pause on that for now. They’re outside the building. Seems our scramblers have finally flagged them that something’s up.”
“What about Carrie? I need to get this to Diaz. We’re running out of time,” Lenny expressed his frustration.
“Adam, can you stall them with a red herring?” Gabriel asked.
“Copy that. But just so you’re aware, the decoded message is in fact instructions to collect another package. It won’t take him long to discover we duped him.”
“Time’s up,” Gabriel warned moments before the elevator doors opened and Wu and two of his sidekicks entered.
Lenny was back on the couch eating more pizza, and Adam pretended to still be at it with the coded message.
Wu wasn’t very big in stature but he had quite the presence when he walked into the room—as was often the case when arrogance and pride ruled in man’s heart.
But arrogance ruled in Lenny’s heart too and he seemed unperturbed by Wu’s arrival. He already knew they had what he needed.
Wu ignored Lenny where he lay on the sofa and approached Adam at the table. He leaned in over his left shoulder without uttering a single word.
Every Good Plan Page 10