by Mike Ryan
“Hey, can you hack into the hotel database and see who’s staying in that room?” Recker asked.
Jones immediately started typing. “Shouldn’t be too hard.” After a few more minutes, he had an answer, though his face indicated it wouldn’t be pleasing to anyone.
“What?”
“The room is registered to a Randall Moore.”
“Generic name. Could be anybody. Oh well. Guess we’ll find out when I get there.”
Before they started to get themselves ready, Recker picked up his phone again so he could tell Mia he wouldn’t be home for a while.
“Who are you calling?” Jones asked.
“Mia. Want to let her know what’s going on so she doesn’t worry.”
“What are you going to tell her?”
“What’s happening.”
“And you think that’s going to make her not worry.”
“There was a time when I tried to hide what I was really doing from her,” Recker said. “It was you, I believe, and her, who said that wasn’t a good idea.”
“Yes, well, within reason. Telling her you’re marching into a hotel with unknown bad guys not knowing if you’re going to make it out wasn’t exactly the kind of truth serum I had in mind when I said that.”
“I’m not keeping secrets from her anymore. She’s too smart for that, anyway.”
“It’s your funeral. Hopefully not literally. Before you do that, though, should we call Malloy back to see if he can provide assistance?”
Recker raised his eyebrows at him. “You actually want to call him for assistance? That’s an unusual departure for you. Usually you do everything possible to avoid dealing with them.”
“As I have done a few times in the past, I will contact them when it is necessary. I don’t believe in asking them for help when it is not crucial. But in this case…”
Recker shrugged. “What’s he gonna do that we’re not? Have a second guy in the window next to Chris?”
“Maybe he can set up in the hotel somewhere?”
“What for? If they’re gonna try and kill me they’ll do it inside that room. He wouldn’t get to me in time. And there might be people outside the door, anyway.”
Jones shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
“Who does? It’s the situation we’re dealing with. Gotta play the cards you’re dealt.”
“It would be nicer if we had an ace up our sleeve though.”
Recker called Mia, who picked up on the second ring. Him calling so late at night usually only meant one thing. Something came up, and he wasn’t making it home before she went to bed. Upon answering, she didn’t even give him time to explain.
“Uhh, let me guess. Something came up and you might be a while and you don’t know when you’ll be home? Am I in the ballpark?”
“You’re at home plate.”
Mia sighed, but understood. “What’s going on?”
Recker hesitated before answering, but wasn’t going to lie about it. “Someone took Tyrell.”
“What do you mean someone took him? Took him where?”
“They’re holding him and wanna talk to me. That’s apparently the only way they’ll let him go.”
“Does this have to do with our situation?”
“I think so.”
“You have to get him,” Mia said. “You can’t just leave him there.”
“I’m not. We’re working out a plan now.”
“Is it a trap?”
Recker sighed. “I’m not sure. It might be. And maybe they really do just want to talk.”
“Is Chris going?”
“Yeah.”
“I know you’ll be as safe as you can.”
“You keep the bed warm for me, OK? I promise you I’ll be there with you in a few hours.”
“Just be careful, OK?”
“You know there’s nothing that will stop me from coming home to you.”
“I know. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
Recker put his phone down and looked at Haley, giving him a nod that he was ready to go.
“Let’s lock and load.”
The two of them got all of their weapons ready and headed out of the office. They took separate cars, just in case there was going to be any fireworks after, that way they had more opportunities to split if things spilled over into the street. By the time they got near the hotel, there was a little under an hour left until the meeting time. They split up, with Haley going over to the office building to break his way in, while Recker stayed on the outside of the hotel, closely watching the entrance. A few minutes later, he heard from Haley.
“I’m in. Making my way up to the fifth floor.”
“Let me know when you’re in position,” Recker said.
Recker kept his eyes peeled out front, hoping that eventually he would see Tyrell, or some of the people who had taken him, go through the front doors. At least that way he would see that his friend was still alive, as well as how many people he was dealing with. He wasn’t even as concerned about who it was at the moment. He was more worried about getting Tyrell back, and the both of them making it out alive. The identity of who had taken him was secondary at this point.
Once the hour was up, Recker was a little concerned that he hadn’t seen anyone up until then. A few people came in and out of the hotel, but it didn’t look like anyone that he was looking for.
“Looks like I’m heading in.”
“See anything yet?” Haley asked.
“Negative. It’s time to go in, though. How’s your position?”
“It’s good. As of right now, though, I’m not sure how much help I can be. I can’t tell the specific room you’ll be in and a bunch of them have the curtains closed so I can’t see inside, anyway.”
“Once I get in there, I’ll have to find a way to look out the window so you can see me.”
Now raining, Recker walked across the street and made his way inside the lobby of the hotel. Almost immediately, he was met by someone. It wasn’t quite what Recker had expected. He thought he was going to be able to just go up to the room by himself. Now it looked like he was going to have an escort.
“I take it you’re the man?” a larger man asked.
“Depends who’s asking,” Recker replied.
The man smiled. “Yeah, you’re the man. We’re here to take you up there.”
“OK. So take me.”
“First, we gotta frisk you and make sure you’re not packing.”
Recker took a step back. “Well that’s gonna be a problem right there. Ain’t nobody frisking me, especially not you, and I’ll tell you right now I’m packing.”
The man shook his head. “Boss said no guns.”
“Boss can kiss my ass. I’m not heading into anything I don’t know unprotected.”
“He said no guns or you don’t get your friend.”
Recker shrugged, thinking they were bluffing. “Then I guess it’s no deal. I’m not going anywhere unarmed.”
The man looked at Recker for a few seconds, then another of the guards. “Wait here.” The man took out his phone and walked away while the other guard stayed with Recker. The conversation on the phone only took about thirty seconds. He walked back over. “Boss said you can keep your guns.”
Recker grinned. “Kind of him.”
The man nodded for him to follow him as he started walking. “This way.”
They walked to the elevator and got in. Another guest tried to get into it as well, but was shooed away by one of the guards. Not a word was said by any of them as the elevator lifted off the ground and made its way up. Upon reaching the fifth floor, the three men got out and walked over to the room. It was obvious which one it was as there was a man standing on the outside of it keeping guard. They walked over to the room, the guard at the door opening it and letting the three men inside. As soon as he stepped inside the room, Recker looked around, surprised that no one else was in there.
“What’s going on?”
Recker asked.
“Boss will be with you in a minute. He likes to make a grand entrance.”
“Nice.”
Recker started walking over to the window, taking note of where the window was in position to the couch and chair that was set up. His movements made the guards antsy.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve got some bad feelings about this.” Recker made his way to the window and opened the curtain a little. “Looking out windows helps to calm me down.”
“Kinda weird a little.”
“The alternative is that I kill the both of you before your boss gets here. That always makes me calm.”
“Sure of yourself, aren’t ya?”
“Yep.”
“I’m kind of hoping you’ll get your chance to prove it.”
Recker looked at him and smiled. “Me too.”
13
Recker was sitting in the chair, wondering what it was all about, when he saw several people walking through the door. It was apparent they were the bodyguards for someone. They just had that look and feel to them. Recker was calm, though curious, as he waited for whoever the main guy was. A few of the guards came into the room, with Tyrell in the middle of them. At least Recker now knew that he was alive. Tyrell was taken to the side of the room. Recker looked at the way his friend walked, his face, studying him to make sure he wasn’t limping or had any marks on him to suggest he’d been beaten. There was nothing obvious to suggest that he was. After the guards stepped to the side of the door, another man came through it. The way everyone looked to him, it was obvious he was the guy Recker was waiting for. He was the guy in charge.
As the man walked to the table, Recker studied his face. He tried to remember when or where he might have bumped into him before. He couldn’t place him, though. There was something familiar about him, but Recker was fairly sure he’d never seen the guy before. Recker had an outstanding memory, and could remember faces he only saw in passing from ten years ago in his CIA days from a mission in China. But even though there was something familiar about this man, Recker was sure he’d never come across him before.
The man finally came to the main part of the room and sat down across from Recker. The two stared at each other, the way two boxers do just before a match, each trying to intimidate the other before the battle begins. The man looked over at one of his men and motioned to him.
“Set us up with something,” the leader said.
Recker and his host continued staring at each other as they waited for their drinks to arrive. A minute later, a man came over, a rum and coke for each of them, and set them down on a small table in front of them. The leader of the group took a sip of his, though Recker didn’t touch his at all.
“You gonna drink that?”
“I don’t usually drink until I know what I’m drinking for,” Recker replied.
“To our relationship.”
In his mind, Recker was instantly trying to place the voice somewhere. Again, it was something familiar, though the exact tone didn’t strike him as something he knew. “Didn’t think we had one.”
“Well we do.”
Recker grinned. “News to me.”
The man looked around the room. “Nice place here, don’t you think? One of the better hotels I’ve been in.”
“I guess it’s fair.”
“I guess you’re curious about who I am, what you’re doing here, all that, right?”
“It crossed my mind.”
“You don’t know me, do you?”
Recker shook his head. “No. Should I?”
“You’ve seen me before.”
“I have?”
The man nodded. “It was a few years back. And you weren’t dealing with me directly. But I was there.”
“Don’t remember you.”
“My name’s Jerrick.”
“Jerrick. That a first name or last name?”
“Either.”
“Oh, so it’s Jerrick Jerrick. Nice.”
“You always so cute?”
“I try. Sometimes I even use a teddy bear as a prop.”
Jerrick laughed. “Funny man.”
Recker shrugged, amused with himself.
“I used to have a cousin named Jeremiah.” Recker’s eyes immediately lit up upon hearing the name. Now he knew exactly what this was all about. “I say used to… because he’s dead now. But you obviously know that, don’t you? Because you’re the one that killed him.”
“As far as I know he was killed in a police raid.”
Jerrick snickered. “Yeah, that’s what everyone’s supposed to believe, isn’t it?” Jerrick picked up his drink and almost pointed it at his guest. “But you and I know different, don’t we?”
Recker shrugged. “Does it matter? I’m not really interested in living in the past. You shouldn’t either.”
“Oh, but it does matter. It does matter. You know why? Because Jeremiah was family. He was like a brother to me.”
“Then you would know that Jeremiah did some things that he shouldn’t have and paid the price for it. End of story. Time to move on.”
“That’s not how it works, man. Not in this game.”
“It’s exactly how it works. For anybody who plays it. You screw up, you get banged. It’s as simple as that. If Jeremiah had played his cards on the straight and narrow, he might still be alive and breathing today. But he didn’t. He went for a big score and got burned. That was his mistake. And he paid the price for it.”
“Maybe so. Doesn’t change what I’m doing here though.”
“Which is what exactly? Getting payback on me?”
Jerrick shrugged. “Maybe. See, I was in Jeremiah’s crew right before all that nonsense with you went down.” He could see in the look of Recker’s eyes that he didn’t quite believe him. “Yeah, that’s right. I was there. You see, I was in the room a couple of those times that you met with Jeremiah. Maybe you didn’t notice me much because I wasn’t a big man then. I was just standing guard, things like that. Probably not big enough to catch your attention.”
“So?”
“So a few weeks before Jeremiah got killed, he sent me and three other guys away. Wanted us to learn the business, so to speak. We would eventually be his succession plan. We’d take over after he was done.”
“So he sent you away to do it?”
“He wanted us to start carving out our own territory somewhere else. Start making our own path with the skills and the knowledge that he taught us. Then when we were ready to take over for him, it’d be a smooth transition. We could move right in without missing a beat.”
Though it was a nice story, Recker didn’t seem all that motivated by it. He honestly really didn’t care about his backstory. All that mattered to him was the present and how it affected him.
“So for the last two years, that’s what we’ve been doing. Making our own path.”
Recker faked a smile. “I’m proud of you.”
Jerrick leaned forward. “You know, as a man of your stature and reputation, you should probably show more respect to someone who literally holds your life in their hands right now. Look around, there’s ten of us here. If I say the word, you’re a dead man right now.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do. What, you gonna tell me you got a bomb under the table or something?”
“Nope. But if you think I’m here by myself than you’re more stupid than you look.”
Jerrick sat up straight again, and his eyes flickered around the room for a few seconds. “Oh, I forgot. There’s that other Silencer running around these days, isn’t there? That’s new from when I was here last. How many more you got? Two, three?”
“It’ll feel like a hundred to you by the time I’m done with you.”
“Yeah, Jeremiah only had to deal with you, didn’t he?”
“What exactly is your play here?” Recker asked. “Revenge on me for killing Jeremiah?”
“I got a lot of goals, man. A lot of goals.
And I aim to accomplish all of them. Number one, I’m gonna kill you. Not here. Now now. But I’m gonna kill you. You took my cousin away. That don’t fly with me. It don’t fly at all. Number two, before I kill you, I wanna take away all that you have. That means that girlfriend of yours. I want you to experience loss and heartbreak.”
“Listen, stupid, I’ve experienced more loss, hardship, and heartbreak in the last ten years than you’ll ever experience in a hundred. If you think killing my girlfriend is somehow going to crush me and make me feel something I’ve never felt before than you’re an even bigger moron than you seem to be.”
“Maybe so. But even more than that, I want you to pay in every way for what you did.”
Recker shook his head and sighed. “You’re as stupid as he was. And you’ll likely suffer the same fate as him, too. Him and I were fine until he stepped over the line. You should learn from his mistakes. Because they’ll be your mistakes, too.”
“And even beyond you, I want to pick up what he started. He wanted complete control over this city. He already had part of it. Then when you did what you did, Vincent was easily able to take control of the rest of it. Now he’s got it all. Well guess what? I’m taking it back.”
“So why has it taken you two years to come back for this grand plan of yours?”
“Because if I did it right then and there… I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready then to take on a man like you. Or Vincent. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to lead my own crew yet. I didn’t know how to make the tough decisions. I didn’t know how to lay low, pick apart my enemy from a distance.”
“But now you do?”
“But now I do. You see, I’ve been here for the last five months. And neither you or Vincent knew about it. I’ve just been building my organization one brick at a time. One brick at a time.”
“Well if you’ve been here five months and didn’t take out Vincent by surprise when you had the chance, I really doubt you’re gonna accomplish that now.”
Jerrick smiled. “Listen, do I look worried?”
“No, you don’t. Maybe because you’re too stupid to know better.”
“You call me stupid one more time and we’re gonna have a problem right here and now.”
Recker stared at him for a few seconds. “Stupid.”