by Mike Ryan
“Know of him, man. Like, I don’t know him like friends or anything. But I get around, you know?”
“So what do you know?”
“Listen, I’ll be straight up upfront with you, man… I ain’t exactly living the high life right now. I don’t always know where I’ll be sleeping, where my next meal’s coming from, things like that. Money isn’t exactly a friend to me, you know what I mean?”
“Sure.”
“But one thing I do know… I hear things. I’m all over this city. And I hear things.”
“What kind of things?”
“I hear that this Sadko dude is after you.”
Recker was always appreciative of any information that he could get. But this wasn’t exactly breaking news to him. He hoped this wasn’t all that he was being brought down there for. Tyrell wouldn’t have brought him if it was, though. He knew Tyrell wouldn’t have asked him to come if it wasn’t something important. Something that he could use.
“I hope you’ve heard more than that,” Recker said. “I’ve already had a few bullets fly over my head. I already know he’s after me.”
“Yeah, but, he’s one of Vincent’s crew. At least used to be.”
“I know.”
“And he’s been recruiting people hard all over this city these last couple months.”
“Already figured that.”
“Word on the street is that he’s a few dollars short of a Lincoln, if you know what I mean?”
“Already figured that part out.”
“Seems like I’m telling you a lot you already know.”
“So far. Have anything else?”
“Well check this out, yo. What you may not know is, did you know that he’s got something major planned for you later tonight?” Recker’s eyes squinted. It was obviously not something he had heard. J.J. smiled and pointed at him, knowing he actually told him something useful. “Ahh, see, I knew I could say something you needed.”
“Later tonight. What time?”
J.J. shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“How do you know this?”
“Heard two dudes talking.”
“Where?”
“Uh, it was a little place off of Market Street. Little restaurant that’s there. Not a big place, but sometimes if they got leftovers or whatever, they sometimes just put it back for whoever to take. You know, people down on their luck.”
“And there just happened to be a couple of Sadko’s men there talking about me?”
“Well no, not exactly.”
“Then how exactly is it?”
“You see, what I do is, I take the food and put it in a bag, then I go over a couple streets and find a nice quiet place to sit down and relax and eat. And there was these two dudes talking there. They didn’t know I was there, I guess. Or they didn’t care. I don’t know. But anyway, they were already talking by the time I got there.”
“What were they saying?”
“Just about how Recker’s girl works at such-and-such hospital. I never did get the name. Though I guess you know it, huh?” Recker nodded. “Yeah, then they said that they were gonna give her a surprise tonight, and it was something that would send you back reeling so hard you’d never recover.”
Recker took his eyes off J.J. and looked at Tyrell, who simply gave him a look back. Recker hated hearing that Mia was a target because of him. It was something that had already happened too many times before. Now he had to figure out whether this guy was saying something he needed to hear or whether he was saying something Sadko wanted him to hear. A down on his luck guy like J.J. would say just about anything if someone slipped them a few bucks. Recker didn’t get the vibe this was that kind of situation, though. But it was still something he had to consider.
“And you don’t know a time? Early tonight? Late tonight?”
“Never said,” J.J. answered. “At least not when I was listening.”
“You hear anything else?”
“No, not really. They started looking around and as soon as they saw me, they split.”
Recker reached into his pocket and pulled out two hundred dollars and slid it across the table. “Get yourself a place to stay for a few days and some clothes.”
“Hey, thanks, man,” J.J. happily said, picking up the money. “You’re a good dude, man. Not like them other guys.”
“Why?”
“As they were leaving, one of them called me a bum. That ain’t right, man. You shouldn’t talk to someone like that. I ain’t no bum. I might be down on my luck a little. But that don’t give no one the right to say things like that.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Recker stood up. “You take care of yourself, OK?”
“I will, man. You take care of your lady friend too, huh? Don’t let anything happen to her.”
“I won’t.”
Recker walked away from the table and found Haley against the wall. He explained everything that J.J. told him. Tyrell walked over only a few seconds later.
“Well what do you think?” Recker asked.
“The information is good, I think,” Tyrell answered.
“How well you know this guy?”
“I’ve gotten some things from him before. They always turned out good. He’s one of them guys who’s always down on his luck. Been going on that way for him as long as I’ve known him.”
“Which is how long?”
“Going on five years now, probably.”
“And you think he’s reliable?”
“If you’re thinking he’s a plant… I just don’t see it. If that’s the direction Sadko was going, there’s plenty of others guys I’d think about before J.J. I just don’t see using him as the guy to spread false info like that.”
“Well if Sadko knows you’re with me, and he knows you know this guy, it’s not a stretch for him to connect the dots.”
Tyrell shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. The connection to you and me, maybe. But there ain’t no way he knows I know J.J.”
“Sure about that?”
“Positive. I’ve never mentioned him to Vincent. He’s not one of my main guys for info or anything. Just someone I check in on from time to time. I guarantee that there ain’t no way that Sadko knows about him.”
Recker looked at his partner. “What do you think?”
“I don’t really see how we got much choice either way,” Haley replied. “If he’s telling the truth, we gotta go. We can’t afford to choose the alternative and pass it off. And even if it’s a setup, I don’t see how we could sit it out, anyway. It’d still be a chance to knock off him or some of his men or find out what’s going on. Seems like a pretty slam dunk choice no matter what. And if Tyrell’s right that Sadko don’t know the guy, seems our minds are already made up.”
“Yeah, even if there was only a one percent chance that this was happening,” Tyrell said. “You can’t let your girl twist in the wind like that.”
Recker nodded. “I agree. We’re just gonna have to keep our heads up.”
8
Recker and Haley were walking around the hospital, looking for anyone who looked like they might not belong. It was a tough chore to pick out a single person who may not have belonged in a building that literally had thousands of people in it. For all they knew, someone from Sadko’s group could have been posing as a doctor or a hospital worker. It wouldn’t take much effort to find a white coat somewhere to try to blend in.
After walking around the hospital for a few minutes, they met Malloy just in front of the cafeteria. Once Recker heard about the possible plan, he immediately called Vincent to have his men keep a close watch on things. Vincent did one better. He sent over ten more to parade inside the building.
“How you guys making out?” Malloy asked.
Recker shook his head. “Nothing on our end. You?”
“Same here.”
“One thing’s for sure,” Haley said. “We’re not gonna be able to keep on walking around this building indefinitely. Security’s gonna pic
k up that we’re not doing anything and just walking around aimlessly.”
“We’re not aimless,” Malloy replied. “And don’t even worry about it. Security’s been taken care of.”
“What? How?”
Malloy grinned. “It’s like Vincent always says. It pays to have friends. Everywhere.”
Recker rubbed his face and snickered. “He’s even got someone on the security staff here, doesn’t he?”
“There isn’t anything anywhere that that man doesn’t know about.”
Recker shook his head. “I should’ve known. All this time Mia’s been working here, and he’s always had a guy on the inside.”
“Don’t worry about it, though. He’s never used it to track your movements or hers. It’s just something he’s had in his back pocket should the need arise.”
“That’s why he was so confident about this.”
“So you got someone watching the cameras right now?”
“We do.”
“That must mean Sadko doesn’t have anyone in the building yet,” Haley said. “We would’ve found out by now.”
“Maybe,” Recker said. “Still gotta figure out what their angle is.”
“If they have one,” Malloy said. “This could all still be a wild goose chase.”
“The guy was sure of what he heard.”
“Maybe they just changed their minds.”
“Could be.”
“Let’s look at it realistically, though,” Haley said. “If they were gonna make a play on Mia, where would they do it? They wouldn’t do it on the pediatric wing, too high profile. Locked doors, cameras, too tough to get in.”
“That makes sense,” Malloy said. “They’d have to wait till she was outside to grab her.”
“If grabbing her is their intention,” Recker replied. “Who knows what else they’re thinking about.”
“Even still, if her floor is off limits, then it’s somewhere between the elevator and the front door.”
Recker then looked in the window of the door to the cafeteria. “Or in there.”
“So let’s stop wasting our time then by walking around the building looking for this clown. Let’s just concentrate on where someone would come and get her, and we let them come to us. We’ll have her path covered from up there to down here completely. Somebody at each step of the way. Then when they make their play, we take them instead.”
Just to make sure they hadn’t overlooked anything, the three of them entered the cafeteria and made a sweep of the room. No one looked out of place, though. They were specifically looking for one, maybe two people, who were sitting by themselves, who didn’t look like they might have been visiting someone or who might have worked there. There were only two people who were sitting by themselves, and judging by the fact that both of them looked to be in their seventies, they felt sure they could rule them out.
“Never know,” Haley said. “Maybe Sadko’s recruiting from everywhere.”
“Not likely,” Malloy replied. “I know that guy. And he’s not recruiting anyone over the age of fifty.”
“Why? He got some type of age discrimination thing going on?”
Malloy made a confusing type of face. “I dunno, he’s got some weird thing going on in his head.”
“I think we already figured that part out,” Recker said.
“No, but I mean, really. He’s got some type of issue thinking that once you reach a certain age, you can’t do this type of job anymore.”
“Really?”
“What, once you hit fifty you can’t hold a gun and shoot straight?”
Malloy shrugged. “I’m telling you, man, the guy’s got a screw loose. He’s not all the way there.”
“That why Vincent never promoted him?”
“Partially. It wasn’t just the reliability thing like Vincent said. It was also because he had some really strange ideas, like the one I just said, and Vincent wasn’t sure he could trust him in a leadership position. Didn’t trust he could make the right or tough call in a tough situation. He thought he might crumble.”
“Great. It’s bad enough we have to deal with people like this to begin with, then you throw in that they’re crazy to boot?”
“Which also means the people he’s recruiting aren’t probably playing with a full deck either. Normal people aren’t going to flock to him. They’re gonna see that he’s crazy and pass.”
“Unless he’s offering them something big,” Recker said. “Like the opportunity to take me out. Or Vincent.”
Malloy nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, let’s start splitting up.”
“Where do you wanna be in this?”
“I figure me and you take opposite sides of the cafeteria. Chris can take by the elevator she’d use to get off. Then you can spread your guys around. Put one on her floor near the elevator, then the rest spread out between Chris’ spot and us.”
Malloy walked a few feet away as he got on his phone to relay the orders to the rest of his men.
“What do you really think is gonna happen here?” Haley asked.
“I don’t know,” Recker replied.
“Seems like not the greatest plan here if this is Sadko’s intention. A lot of risks. A lot of variables.”
“Not if he thinks no one is here to prevent it. If we weren’t here, what’s the risk? And the one thing about dealing with someone like him is, it’s tough to predict what he’s going to do. What’s normal doesn’t apply to him. Everything’s on the table.”
Haley left, tapping Malloy on the shoulder as he walked by. After Malloy was done on the phone, he went back to Recker.
“All right, everything’s set up. I got a guy on her floor now, watching the elevator. I doubt they’d do anything there though.”
“I agree.”
“Then Chris is on this floor and I got guys lined up along the way here. A couple look like nurses, hospital workers mopping floors and stuff. We got her protected.”
“Put a guy on each floor down here too. Just in case they have designs of someone getting on at another floor, then also getting off on that floor.”
“Yeah, good idea. I’ll get them on it.”
After Malloy successfully moved his people around, he and Recker went inside the cafeteria and waited. They each took up opposite sides of the room. They also each grabbed a newspaper, something to drink, and a small plate of food to try to blend in.
Malloy pretended to rub his ear while actually touching his earpiece. “Everybody on channel?”
Everyone checked in that they were. An hour passed by with no activity noticed by anyone.
“She just got on the elevator,” one of Malloy’s men said.
“This is it, boys,” Malloy said. “If it’s gonna happen, it’s probably happening now. Stay sharp.”
A minute later, Haley’s voice was heard. “Mia just stepped off. Heading to the cafeteria now.”
When she finally appeared in the cafeteria, Malloy picked her up. “All right, I got her.”
As Mia was getting her food, she suddenly turned and looked around, getting a feeling that something wasn’t right. She looked right at Malloy’s position, who put a newspaper in front of his face to disguise himself since she knew what he looked like.
“She’s on to something,” Malloy said.
“I’ve taught her well,” Recker replied. “She’s probably caught a few things out of the corner of her eye that she knows isn’t like normal. Just stay cool. If there’s nothing obvious she’ll go right to her table.”
After Mia paid for her food, she went to the back of the cafeteria and sat down at a table. Recker and Malloy continued looking all around, waiting for that one thing to catch their eye. That one thing that was off.
“How’s everything looking in the hallway?” Recker asked.
“Everything looks clear out here,” Haley answered.
It only took about five minutes before the plan became clear. A taller man, probably in his early thirties, and wearing a
white doctor’s coat, approached Mia’s table.
“May I sit?”
“Sure,” Mia replied.
“Crap, who’s that?” Malloy asked. “That guy work here?”
“Doesn’t look familiar,” Recker answered.
“If we go in and that guy’s really a doctor, we’ll blow everything.”
“Just let it play out for a minute. If he starts taking her somewhere, we can still grab him before he walks out of here.”
“So what unit are you in?” the doctor asked.
“Umm, pediatrics,” Mia replied. “You.”
“Well, I’m kind of in a new unit.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“The kind that’s gonna take you where I say. And you’re gonna go with me or I’m gonna put a bullet in your stomach with the gun I’ve got hiding underneath the table.”
“What?”
“Don’t do anything strange. Don’t make any sudden movements. And don’t scream out. If you do any of those things, I’m gonna kill you right here. You understand?”
Luckily for Mia, or unluckily, she’d been through situations like this before. Unfortunately, as Recker always said, you get used to it. Someone who hadn’t been through it might have panicked. But not her. There was not an ounce of panic going through her mind. Her immediate thoughts were about how she was going to get out of it. Just like Recker always taught her if something went wrong. The people that panicked wound up dead. The people that thought clearly and calmly, they figured a way out. They were the ones that survived.
“Yes. What did I do?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Recker was looking at Mia’s face and noticed the change in her expression. “Something’s not right. She looks different.”
“How?” Malloy asked.
“Tough to explain. She suddenly stopped eating and stiffened up. As if she’d just heard something troubling.”
“Let’s go in.”
“Wait. I got another idea. I’ll call her and see.”
“Sure that’s wise? What if she doesn’t play it right?”
“She will,” Recker said, confident in her abilities.