Dead Reckoning

by C. J. Snyder

  Mykael was about to call Ghost when a cab pulled up in front. Her instructions were explicit, he would find her, so she kept her gaze down, looked bored. She watched a pair of Faragamo shoes come to a sudden halt just inside the door, then spin around, walking quickly away. Not Magnum. She reached for her cell again as she lifted her gaze to the newcomer’s broad shoulders. Clad in an Armani suit that clung nicely to sculpted muscles was her little brother.

  “Sean?” She couldn’t help her startled gasp.

  The newcomer stopped, but hesitated before he turned. Reluctance? Why was Sean reluctant?

  She must have imagined it, for Sean gave a whoop, crossed to her side in three huge steps and swept her off her feet into a bear hug.

  “Maria! What the hell are you doing here?” He set her down, but held her close in a hug for a moment before he released her. “I–I have an appointment. What are you doing here? In California, I mean. I thought you had your dissertation this week. Today, as a matter of fact.”

  “I do, I mean, I did. Got cancelled. I’m checking up on a job possibility.”

  “Here?” She gestured to the lobby.

  “I’m supposed to meet her here, yeah. And actually, I’m late, so I may have missed her.” “What kind of job?”

  He smiled. “How about I meet you after, and tell you all about it?”

  She nodded, still suspicious, but happy for him. He did look a little nervous, although he’d shaken off his surprise at seeing her rather quickly. Now his face held nothing but boyish charm and excitement. “Why are you here?”

  “Same reason.” His suggestion of a later meeting was a good one, she’d need the time between to figure out her story. “What time will you be through? Can you meet me at seven?” He gave a short nod and a wider grin. “Four hours should be good. I’ll call you if things change. Gosh, but it’s good to see you, Sis. It’s been too long.” She nodded, stared up at his dear features, tried to imprint them in her mind, sparing the few seconds to check his eyes, run her fingers down his cheek and somehow hope to convey how very much she loved him. You might never see him again.

  She went up on tiptoe and pressed her cheek against his. “I love you, Sean.” “Love you, too, Sis. I’ll see you at seven. I’d better call her. She may be on her way back to the airport. Can’t believe the traffic here in San Diego. L.A., sure, but San Diego?” She nodded and backed up two steps to allow him access to his phone. Her gaze never left his face though, too busy drinking in all the little parts and pieces that made up her adorable baby brother. Like that Cary Grant cleft in his chin and those eyelashes so long they were simply wasted on a man.

  The phone Greg gave her vibrated in her pocket and she turned her back. Sure enough it was Magnum, no doubt stuck in the same traffic vortex that had made Sean late. “Decoy?”

  She stepped further away from Sean and kept her voice very low. “Where the hell are you?” she hissed.

  “Turn around.”

  Mykael spun, eyes scanning the room, seeing nothing–no one–who hadn’t been there before, until Sean stepped closer, obliterating her view of anyone else. Her baby brother wore a delighted smile as he held his cell phone to his ear. He kept his eyes firmly trained on hers, amusement sparkled in their depths as he spoke the code given them both by Ghost, “Sunny today in Rio, I heard.”

  Mykael nearly dropped her throwaway phone. “What the hell are you doing? You could get us killed. This isn’t a game. How did you find out?”

  Sean took her arm and led her outside, probably so she wouldn’t get hysterical. Sadly, it was most likely a wise precaution. “I could ask you the same questions, Decoy.”

  Her frozen brain began to thaw, if not to accept. “You’re Magnum.”

  “In the flesh.”

  “You’re the kid who wants to be an agent?”

  Sean smiled. “Kid, huh? Hope you’re not too disappointed.”

  “Disappointed? Disappointed? I will kill him.”

  “Kill who?”

  Mykael ignored him. “You cannot do this.”

  “What’s the matter with you? Why are you so upset?”

  “I’m not upset.” Her shaking hands proved the lie of that. She rubbed her forehead, too jittery to even think straight.

  Sean beamed down at her. “I think it’s great.” His elbow nudged her ribs. “Computer security sales, hmm? Not a bad cover.” “Shut up, Sean. Just shut up and let me think.”

  “Think about what? Two agents in the same family. Think Ghost knows?”

  “Not a chance.” And she couldn’t tell him, couldn’t vent, couldn’t let him know she’d lied about her baby brother being killed in a plane crash. “He thinks you’re dead.” Sean’s grin faded a bit. “Ghost thinks I’m dead? Why would he think that?” “Not you, the unit member. You, my little brother.”

  “You told him I was dead?”

  “Sean, you don’t understand.”

  “You’re right.”

  “These people–they’re not what you think.”

  “How do you know what I think?” She caught her first glimpse of a man she didn’t know existed under her brother’s smiling veneer.

  She wanted to grind her teeth in frustration. Instead, she grabbed his arm. “We can’t do this here.” He pulled away from her. “Where do you want to go?”

  “We’ll go back to my room. I have to think.”

  “Maria, listen, there’s - “

  “It’s Decoy,” she said. “Decoy. Not your sister. It’s not a video game, Sean. These people– it’s life or death.” There wasn’t a trace of his smile left. His gaze burned hers. “Nobody knows that better than I, Decoy.” He straightened his shoulders, leaving not a trace of her fun-loving, sweettempered baby brother. The man who stood before her was impressive, but still too young to play in her world. “Are you going to debrief me or shall I call Ghost?”

  *** They’d sent him undercover. Worse, he was scheduled to go back under immediately. Caldera’s cartel was funneling dirty money through his strategically located restaurants. Her baby brother wasn’t in college. He owned four restaurants and probably had more money than she did.

  Mind completely blown, Mykael rested her forehead in her palms and struggled to catch up. Sean was not only on the fast-track to being a Black Fire agent, he’d managed to get closer to Caldera than nearly anyone. And he’d done it all before he’d approached Cap, wondering if his unique positioning would be of help to America’s war on drugs. Wondering too, how to get out of the horrible mess his partner had left him with.

  “At first I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. Don was more than my partner–he taught me everything I know about restaurants.”

  “I can’t believe you know anything about restaurants.” Mykael was still dazed, still having trouble wrapping her mind around the facts he presented. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Sean looked down at his hands, clasped in his lap and then spread them on the table between them. The gesture was so familiar she wanted to cry. It brought back years of kitchen table midnight confessions, from his one–and only to her knowledge–stolen pack of gum, to his first kiss. Sean was about to come clean. She held her breath. For the first time in her life she didn’t want to hear.

  When he spoke, his voice was low, but clear, and his eyes implored her forgiveness. “You always took care of me, Maria. Always. You took care of everything. I–I wanted to show you I could do something on my own. Something big.” He took a deep breath and let it out fast. “I took my dissertation two years ago. I worked all the way through school, for Don. He liked me, told me I had potential. Once I’d graduated, I moved out here and helped him start the first Sean Juan’s.”

  Mykael blinked away the tears that clouded her vision and smiled at the name. He shot her back a brief grin. “I know–too cute, right? But we turned a profit the first month. The second store was my idea. Don thought it was great. It opened across town six months after the first one. Then last year, we opened two in L.A.. San Francisco’s open
ing next month.” All the pride in his voice disappeared, leaving only a steely edge that reminded her of Greg somehow.

  “Don was executed. It was meant to look like an accident, but the message was real clear to me. I’ve rechecked the books, a hundred times. Yes, there’s dirty money flowing. But the restaurants are doing fine. Without the excess.” He sounded like the words choked him and Mykael reached for his hand, touched his outstretched fingers. “Only I couldn’t get out. There were–are–contracts. No outs. I had to close down or give up the restaurants and start over. By the time I knew enough to know I had no options, I’d met Cap. He was in town to do surveillance on one of my employees–can you believe it? I’ve got cartel members working for me.” He yanked shaking hands out from under hers and raked all ten fingers through his hair. “Cap told me who to contact in D.C.. Two days later, I got a call from Tron.”

  His eyes were cold and hard. Mykael understood, knew what it was to have all you’d ever wanted ripped away from you. Her innocent baby brother had ceased to exist. She knew to her core she could never have him back, any more than she could go back to the day before Melina’s death. Or before Peter’s. Or Edward’s. She didn’t realize she cried until he reached to brush a tear from her cheek.

  “I’m sorry, Maria.”

  She cupped his hand, held it against her cheek and shook her head. “No,” she whispered, fierce, for all the emotion choking her. “Don’t you be sorry, Sean. I’m proud of you.” He cleared his throat, embarrassed and she released him. “What are you going to tell Ghost?”

  What indeed. “I don’t know.”

  “How did you meet up with Black Fire? Are you helping them with a case? Working with them on a security project?”

  “It’s complicated. Way too complicated to have you involved in it.” Now it was Sean who took her hand. “I like it, Maria. I like knowing I’m making a difference. Like doing my part.” He gripped her chin. “You’ve got a job where you know you make a difference.”

  She didn’t have a single response to that one and he knew it, showed it in the grin that split his beautiful face. “So, do you really sell computers on the side?”

  “Yeah, although it’s more security systems than just computers. Ghost and I have a mutual project.” No reason for him to know the project was his business partner. His grin widened. “Are you working with the whole team, or just Ghost? What’s he like?” His eyes sparkled, enthusiastically awaiting details she’d sooner pull out her own teeth than give him.

  She felt old. Rusty. Too used up to discuss such terrible things with the boy she’d give her life for. Except he wasn’t a boy. And he wasn’t hers. Not anymore. Mykael yanked down the shield inside and faced him with all the cold emptiness inside. “I killed the man who blew up Melina’s plane, Sean. And his partner. That was ten years ago. There is nothing, nothing, good or fun or exciting or glamorous about killing people.” She stood up, the decision made. “I’m going to tell Ghost you’re out.”

  She expected he’d argue, or try to cajole her. He did neither. He grabbed her wrist with a steely vise that hurt. “No.” She didn’t struggle. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Sean.”

  “I know exactly what I’m doing, Decoy. How about you tell me why Ghost thinks I’m dead?” “It’s not important.”

  “It will be if I’m the one to tell him the truth.”

  She met his steely blue eyes with brown ones that didn’t blink. “You’re blackmailing me?”

  “I’m working for the good of the country. As are you, since you’re working with Ghost.” The not-so-subtle reminder had her feeling seven times a fraud. He released her hand, motioned for her to sit down. She didn’t, wanted to run, but she wasn’t sure her legs would carry her far. “I’m in a unique position, Maria. I didn’t ask for it, but there it is. I will see it through. I owe it to Don.”

  As she owed it to Melina. Edward. Peter. Mykael sat and reached for a notepad. “When’s your next meeting?”

  “Tomorrow.” His glance was slightly suspicious, and his voice was wary when he continued. “Caldera’s hinted there’ll be more for me in the future, since I’ve been so cooperative thus far.” “No idea what?”

  “None at all. But you’ll know when I do.”

  “How often do you meet with him?” She didn’t want to know the answer. “Three times a week.”

  “How many of his people work for you?”

  “They’re on my payroll, but they don’t actually work on-site.”

  “Do you take the money directly from him?” Curiosity rode tandem with her distaste for the line of questioning. “No, he sends someone else, in the afternoons.”

  “How much?”

  Sean—Magnum-she reminded herself as it was the only way she could get through this, shrugged. “It varies. Between three and five thousand.” “A day?”

  “Every day.”

  “You can hide that much?” She couldn’t help the question. What kind of restaurant could conceal several thousand a day?

  “Yeah.”

  “Good for you.” Her smile wasn’t a concession exactly, but he accepted the truce by flashing a quick grin. “Good for us. You can retire.”

  “So what, you’re gonna support me?”

  “If you let me. ‘Bout time I paid you back.”

  “You don’t owe me a thing, Sean.”

  “I owe you everything, Sis, and you know it.”

  “Then don’t do this.”

  He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. He was right. She couldn’t win this fight. He was too close, the information he could glean too valuable.

  “I wonder if I even know you.” She tucked her notebook into her purse, right next to the gun.

  Sean pulled her into an all-too-familiar hug. “Sure you do, Maria. I’m still Sean, still your baby brother. You’re just finding out about other facets of my personality.”

  “Other facets of your personality would be finding out you like hot and sour soup instead of egg drop,” she protested.

  He kissed her forehead. “Not that you’re into double-standards or anything, Maria.” Like before, he’d effectively silenced her. How could she expect him to understand that while risking life and limb was fine for her, it wasn’t for her little brother? Especially when nearly all the world would protest the business was far more suited to him than her?

  No, she didn’t have an answer. Even though they’d agreed to meet later, she held him a little too tightly when he turned to go. When he reached for the doorknob, she couldn’t help stopping him. “Sean.” She met his eyes across the room. “You can’t tell Ghost. I will, when it’s time.”

  He nodded. “Don’t leave it too long, Maria.”

  “You be careful.”

  He tapped his forehead. “And smart.” He chuckled. “I’ll see you before you leave town, Sis. You got the address of the store?” She touched her notepad, he sketched a quick salute and then he was gone, leaving her with shaking legs and emotions swirling. What would she tell Ghost? How could she stop Sean from risking his life? For the first time in her life, she understood the need for her mother’s favorite saying. Unfortunately, “because I said so,” wouldn’t cut it here.

  She was already overdue for her check in. She could tell Ghost the new kid wasn’t at all suited. Only the lie would do more harm than good. Mykael sighed. She’d take a shower and order a pot of coffee from room service. Neither of which would help her with the tasks ahead, except she thought better in the shower and the caffeine might jolt away her headache.

  She didn’t know how far away he was, but Ghost picked up on the giant fist squeezing her heart immediately, even over the phone line. “What went wrong?”

  “N-nothing. He was a little late.” Could she emphasize the negative without actually lying? Get him to mistrust Sean?

  “How about his Intel? Names, places, dates?” All the negativity in the world wouldn’t measure up against what she had to tell him. “He’s in a position to provide an extraordinary a
mount of information.” She tried not to sound miserable, but knew she failed when she heard Ghost’s response.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  She cleared her throat, tried to lie and couldn’t. “No problem.” Except you’re trying to take my sweet innocent baby brother and turn him into a monster like you. Like me. There was silence over the crystal clear connection for long enough she wondered if he was still on. She couldn’t bring herself to speak again. Obviously, she’d said more than enough. “I have a meeting this afternoon, but I’ll be back at the hotel by seven. Write down the info Magnum gave you so you don’t forget.” “I won’t forget,” she whispered.

  “See you at seven.”

  She glanced at her watch. Just under three hours to conduct her own business and get back to her room. Sean had even provided the address. The restaurant where Jaime Caldera had a clandestine meeting with Los Cochillos belonged to her brother. Her life couldn’t get more complicated, but she couldn’t see any way out except straight ahead. Which meant follow through on her plans for the evening, steal Ghost’s communicator sometime during the night, and be off to find Ice tomorrow.

  One hundred and seventeen minutes later, a slim, short man left the owner’s office at Sean Juan’s Restaurant in South San Diego and locked the door behind him. No one had seen him arrive, but a waitress and the bartender saw him leave.

  Forty eight minutes after that, as Ghost sat in a booth at the hotel restaurant next to Mykael, having a late dinner, he got a call from Tron. He made no effort to shield the earpiece from her, so she heard every word. “Son of a bitch took out Crater, Ghost.”