by Dan Ames
Torcher had briefly introduced her as Goda Becher, CEO of Zeta Corporation. Pauling was surprised to finally meet her. It also caught her off guard how strikingly beautiful she was. It was Pauling’s goal to have a conversation with her. Unfortunately, she sat on the other side of Torcher and spent nearly all of the dinner in conversation with Tse’s date, Hazel.
With clockwork efficiency, servers delivered plates with petite filet mignon, roasted truffles and baby asparagus. The food was impeccably prepared and delicious.
Pauling spent most of the meal discussing with Furlong his future plans for the business, as well as a long conversation with the man to Pauling’s left, a real estate magnate and angel investor who was worth a very large fortune, thanks in no small part to his investment in FlyWire.
After dessert, a small dish of crème brulee which was yet another example of gourmet cuisine minceur which Pauling thought was mostly a way to drive up profit margins in a restaurant, Tse came around the table and sat in the empty chair next to Pauling. The real estate investor had momentarily left the table.
“I have a request,” Tse said to Pauling and Furlong. “I would like the both of you to return to San Francisco with me. I have a new project I’m very excited about and since it both involves and requires the ultimate in corporate security, I’d love to get your take on things. Perhaps there are opportunities we can explore together. Your travel and accommodations will be taken care of, naturally.”
Pauling thought about it. She knew Tallon was in Vegas and her sister wanted her to come closer to the holidays. There was no need for her to rush back to New York.
“Of course,” Furlong said immediately. Pauling inwardly smiled. She would have done the same thing if she were still running her company. This had the potential to be an enormous windfall for the firm.
“Yes, I am available and would love to hear about your new project,” Pauling said.
Tse smiled. Pauling knew he hadn’t for one second doubted their acceptance of his invitation. Few people turned down a business invitation from Charles Tse. “My assistant will follow up with the details,” he said.
Tse returned to his seat and Pauling noticed that both Torcher and Goda Becher had left the table as well. That disappointed her. Part of the reason for her trip was to learn more about Zeta and now the elusive CEO had once again disappeared.
“Don’t worry, they’ll be joining us in San Francisco,” Furlong said. He had noted Pauling’s glance toward the vacated seats of Torcher and Becher.
“Very good,” Pauling said evenly. She was determined to pin down Goda Becher and see what the woman could tell her about Zeta.
Pauling declined coffee and made her way out of the building. A car was waiting for her and she gave the driver her hotel’s address. Out of curiosity, Pauling pulled her phone from her purse and launched an app.
Upon finding out that her room was bugged, Pauling had installed a simple camera she always carried with her when she traveled. It was nothing more than a basic surveillance camera embedded in the end of a pen. She had placed the instrument next to a pad of paper on the bookshelf in the hotel room’s living area, pointed toward the door.
Now, she activated the app and waited for it to connect to the camera. Once it loaded, she re-started the camera’s feed and hit Play. The camera was motion-activated so there was only two and a half minutes of footage.
It began when two men entered her room.
They were dressed in dark suits and made no efforts to conceal their identity.
Pauling had never seen the first man.
But the second one was her dentist friend from the flight out to Los Angeles.
Pauling had to admire whoever had planned this. They had a fairly good budget to afford this kind of manpower. Plus, the obvious conclusion was that whoever had booked her first class ticket from New York to LA had probably booked the phony dentist’s as well.
Henry Torcher? she wondered.
She watched as they did a quick but thorough search of her room. One of them opened her laptop and tried a variety of passwords but she knew it was so thoroughly encrypted he would not succeed.
And he didn’t.
They then carefully went around the room and removed the bugs they had planted. Which told Pauling they most likely knew she was checking out tomorrow. Or that they had already learned what they needed.
Finally, the men left the room.
Pauling smiled.
For the first time since she’d sold her company, she felt like she was back in the game.
Chapter 27
Sonia.
Tallon remembered her well. Two years ago on a mission she’d been the bait to lure an African drug lord out of his jungle compound.
The pre-mission briefing on Sonia had been clear; she was a woman willing to do anything and everything if the price was right. Good with a gun or knife. Equally adept with her hands, body and mouth. Not a top-tier assassin by any means, but a key player who could fill an important role in a mission like the one Tallon remembered. Tallon had never worked with her before but as he recalled, the mission had been successful.
Sonia had met the target at a brothel and distracted him while other members of the team had killed the drug lord’s security detail. They’d ended up taking the drug lord alive, which had been the goal. If Tallon remembered correctly, he’d been debriefed and then turned over to his enemies.
They, certainly, didn’t let him continue to breathe air for long.
People like Sonia, and to a lesser degree, Tallon himself, usually employed a go-between. Someone who could handle the necessary communication without fear of compromise. Sometimes it was a former member of the military who’d used the G.I. Bill to go to school for law and now had a thriving private practice. Lawyers were great to deal with contracts, which is what all private soldiers called their missions.
Tallon mostly worked with a former Special Ops communications specialist. He was an Ivy League graduate – University of Pennsylvania – who’d gone on to attend Wharton School of Business. He’d formed his own company and regularly farmed out work to people like Tallon. He was smart, loyal and one hundred percent above board.
The same couldn’t be said of Sonia’s go-between.
His name was DeGroot and there had been no Ivy League school in his background. Not much schooling at all, in fact, other than the streets. He was a bare knuckle brawler turned mercenary who was usually hired for missions that required a fairly thorough bending of the rules.
The reason Sonia had no doubt been chosen for the operation involving Paco was partly because of DeGroot’s location; he’d set up shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas via an outfitting store creatively called DeGroot’s Outdoors.
Tallon had been there once before on a mission that had never panned out. If memory served him right, he’d gotten cold feet when it appeared DeGroot was making stuff up as he went along. That was the perfect approach to take if you wanted to get a lot of your people killed.
From the outside, DeGroot’s Outdoors appeared to be the kind of place hikers, campers, fishermen and hunters could gear up for trips into the nearby mountains.
But DeGroot had a whole back section of the store sealed off with high security. There, several rooms contained very hard-to-find weaponry, as well as offices and conference rooms designed to host planning sessions for missions at home and abroad.
Tallon pulled up into the parking lot and noticed there wasn’t a single vehicle in front of DeGroot’s.
He parked and walked to the front door.
There were no posted hours of operation. Tallon shook his head. He’d figured the “store” was mostly a front and tax dodge. But that was just lazy and sloppy to not even put in the effort to make it appear as a realistic retail enterprise.
Tallon tried the front doors and found them locked.
He walked around to the back of the store where a heavy-duty fire door was stationed beneath a security camera. The door was painted jet bla
ck. There was a button, large and red circled by polished steel next to the door.
Tallon pushed the button and waited.
Nothing happened.
He grasped the steel handles of the door and twisted them.
The door opened.
Tallon glanced to his left and then his right. No one appeared. He heard no alarm ringing so he stepped inside.
The place was pitch-black.
Tallon shut the door behind him. He pulled out a pocket flashlight, held it in one hand, and withdrew the gun from his waistband. There was no sound in the space other than the quiet whir from an overhead air-conditioning vent.
The space was a wide, empty opening most likely designed to receive shipments. To the left and right were matching wire shelving units containing boxes and plastic crates. The word ammunition was stenciled on several of the containers.
Ahead, a short hallway led to an office.
Tallon walked forward, aware that surprising a mercenary in his place of business was a very bad idea. The unlocked door, however, made him suspicious that he wasn’t in any great danger.
DeGroot was either gone, or something worse.
It turned out, worse.
Tallon opened the door to the lone office and saw the body hanging from an exposed beam. The corpse was naked and clearly had been subjected to torture. Tallon spotted stab marks, slashing wounds and burns.
Paco.
Sonia.
DeGroot.
As well as Mikael Gladhus.
Tallon wondered if the watchers back at his hotel had been responsible. If so, he really didn’t feel bad about executing the man in the apartment.
Maybe the woman in the cream-colored suit was looking for him.
Tallon hoped she would find him.
He was by no means finished with them.
Chapter 28
The man known as Viper knew that his tattoo had not gone unnoticed by Lauren Pauling.
Now, he thought about the woman he’d sat next to during the monumental display of bullshit presented by Charles Tse.
Viper hadn’t believed a word of what the con man said. He, with this flashy blue suit and stupid white eyeglasses, was all about himself. And money. But he was also an expert in marketing and public relations. Tse instinctively understood the power of a brand and how important it was to frame everything in that context. Steve Jobs had done it with Apple, and now, Charles Tse was doing it with FlyWire. But Viper knew that Tse had much bigger plans than just his current company. It was nothing more than a stepping stone – never mind the fact that it was a multibillion dollar stepping stone. No, Tse’s greed went well beyond that.
Never mind that he, Viper, worked for Charles Tse. That was beside the point.
No, what mattered was reading between the lines and as a guy who had proven to be a virtuoso writing code when most of his classmates were worried about their complexion, Viper knew all about seeing beyond the obvious.
Like now.
Things hadn’t worked out the way he’d wanted. He really thought things would have gone better and he thought he’d hired the right people to do the work for him.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get involved, it was just that he was meant to be a guy working a keyboard, not a gun. He wouldn’t know the difference between a Glock and a water pistol.
Which is why he’d reached out for help.
Now, he needed even more help, unfortunately.
Viper pivoted in his chair and pulled the keyboard closer to him. He was in the “Viper Cave” as he liked to call it: a highly secure location designed to cloak all of his activities in secrecy. It was how he had discovered the information that had started this whole mess.
Viper was the only one outside the people involved who knew what the big picture was. He didn’t know all of it, but he thought he knew enough.
With a few keystrokes he effortlessly gained access to the cell phones of both Michael Tallon and Lauren Pauling.
They didn’t know it yet, but they were both after the same thing.
It was his job to bring them together and do what others had failed to accomplish.
His pale, slender fingers blurred effortlessly as he tapped out a message.
He read it over, made a slight change in the wording, and then leaned back in his chair.
The screen lit up his face and he closed his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to be wrong. Totally and completely wrong.
But he knew he wasn’t.
He reached out and with a single tap, sent the messages.
Chapter 29
Tallon was in his SUV, heading directly away from DeGroot’s Outdoors as fast as he could go without arousing suspicion.
His cell phone buzzed and he glanced at the screen.
An unknown number.
He also saw Pauling’s name mentioned in the body of the message.
Tallon exited from the freeway and pulled into the parking lot of a home improvement store. He put the vehicle in park and picked up his phone. He read the message.
Pauling and Tallon,
You don’t know me, but I know who you are. Tallon, I know what happened in Las Vegas to you, Sonia and DeGroot. I know you just found DeGroot’s body – don’t ask me how I know. Pauling, I know you are on your way to San Francisco to meet with Tse and others.
This is a warning to you.
They are going to try to kill you.
Tallon, you are not in immediate danger, but I highly suggest you come to San Francisco. It’s where I am and it’s where Pauling is. You can drive here in 8 hours from your current location. Yes, I’m tracking you via GPS.
I know the both of you are tempted to ignore me and be skeptical, but we can help each other. There is something of great importance I must discuss with you. It has to do with the murders of Paco Williams and Mikael Gladhus, as well as Zeta Corporation and Charles Tse. It’s much too complicated to state in a message like this, so please trust me.
Tallon, once you are closer to San Francisco I will send both of you a message with an address where the three of us can meet.
Please hurry.
Viper
Tallon read the message and immediately called Pauling.
She picked up right away.
“Viper? Is this for real?” he said.
“I think I just sat next to him in a meeting. I saw his tattoo.”
Tallon listened as she filled him in on her trip to Los Angeles, what she found in her room, and the speech given by Charles Tse.
“What’d this guy with the tattoo look like?” Tallon asked.
“Blond hair, scraggly goatee. He had on jeans and a black T-shirt, Chuck Taylors. I assumed he was a computer guy, maybe a programmer.”
“Young? Old?”
“Probably in his mid-to-late thirties. Hard to tell. What’s going on with you?”
He filled her in on some but not all of what he’d done in Las Vegas, especially leaving out how he’d shot a guy in an apartment building.
But he did mention that the friend he’d come out to help was in fact now in a morgue somewhere. And that his death wasn’t the only one to which he’d been exposed. No sense in committing anything in writing, albeit via text, regarding crimes. He would share the details in person with her later.
“So what do you want to do?” she asked him.
“Well, I’m merging onto the freeway, headed to San Francisco. I think putting a little distance between myself and what’s going on here is a good idea. Plus, I’m curious to hear what you think.”
“I don’t know what to think, to be honest,” she answered. “Something is extremely shady with Zeta Corporation, I can tell you that. Torcher brought a woman to dinner who claimed to be the CEO, but I have my doubts. He’s been reluctant to share any details about the firm from day one. And now this mysterious message. I think that perhaps two heads are better than one. I’m looking forward to seeing you.”
“Yeah, me too. I’m glad I’m driving so we’ll have
everything we need. I assume you’re traveling light?”
Meaning – no weapon.
“That’s right.”
“Okay, I should be able to make it there in seven hours. Six if I really push it.”
“Be careful, Tallon.”
“Stay safe,” he said.
He hung up, found his way to the fast lane on the freeway and stomped on the accelerator.
Chapter 30
The flight from LA to San Francisco was shorter than the time it took Pauling to get her boarding pass, go through security and board the plane. When she landed, another car was waiting for her. She climbed into the back seat, and tried to relax as the driver headed toward the city.
She’d been to San Francisco a few times and remembered the area well. It was one of her favorite cities, especially for walking. She loved the steep streets and sweeping vistas. Not to mention great food.
Pauling was looking forward to having Tallon here. Someone to bounce ideas off. To reconnect and find out exactly what was going on with him. Who was Paco and how was he involved in the murder of Mikael Gladhus?
On a more selfish level, she was just looking forward to seeing Tallon, period. She’d missed him since they’d last been together.
The driver accelerated past a U-Haul – the most dangerous vehicles on the road – and moved into the right lane. Pauling saw rows of red taillights ahead. There was always traffic out here.
“Rerouting,” the driver said.
He exited the freeway and soon they were on a service road, parallel to the freeway. They passed rows of strip malls and tract housing. Another turn brought them onto a rural highway that she figured would circle them back to the freeway, well ahead of the traffic jam.
Ahead, there was an ancient overpass. It looked like it had been built maybe fifty years ago with weeds and a rusty guardrail–