He pulled out a folding knife. “Don’t worry, June, I’m just using the knife to get a better look at what you have here.”
The girl nodded and put on a brave face, even though her chin quivered.
Using as little pressure as he could, Levi cut a slit in the outer fabric, shined the flashlight in the hole, and saw a plastic box with wires coming out in several directions. Solid epoxy sealed the unit so that it would be almost impossible to tamper with. It also probably held more than enough C-4 to blow up June and anyone within a ten-foot radius.
There was really only one choice.
Levi cupped the little girl’s face in his hands and looked her in the eyes. “I promise you we’ll get you to see your mommy. But right now, I need you to be brave. Yoyo and I are going upstairs just for a minute, and he’s going to go back to our car and call your mommy while I come back downstairs to help get this off you. Okay?”
June looked up at Yoshi.
He placed his hand on her head and nodded reassuringly.
She turned back to Levi. “Okay. I can be brave. I’ve been brave before.”
Levi smiled. “Just stay right here. Don’t move a muscle.”
Yoshi kissed the girl on the cheek and whispered, “It’ll be okay.”
When they returned to the workshop above, the device on the workbench was beeping even faster than before. Levi scanned the benches for a remote, or maybe some kind of tool to disable the damned vest. He saw nothing.
“What’s the plan?” Yoshi asked.
Levi motioned toward the door. “Remember the booby trap. Get back to somewhere where we have signal and call O’Connor. Call the cops. Call everyone.” He held out his hand. “Give me my phone.”
Yoshi handed it back to him, and Levi sent a series of quick texts. He then handed it back.
“Just keep my phone with you, so as soon as it gets signal, my texts should go through automatically. By the time you get back here, we’ll be done here one way or another.”
“Um, Levi?” Yoshi’s worry was obvious. “Don’t you think we should wait for the bomb guys?”
Levi frowned. “I’ll be honest. I’m not sure. That beeping could be anything—but if I were trying to make sure my kidnap victim didn’t escape, I’d put a proximity sensor on the vest so that when she got either too close or too far…” He left the rest of the sentence unsaid.
Yoshi nodded grimly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
###
Levi set up a workspace on the floor of the hidden basement, using the items from the workbenches upstairs and an extension cord he’d found coming off the solar panel array.
He sat cross-legged in front of June and gave her a reassuring smile. “Okay, I’m going to explain what I’m doing, that way you can maybe learn some cool stuff, okay?”
June nodded and looked curiously at everything he’d brought from upstairs.
Levi found himself sweating as the beeps on the vest were practically on top of each other. He had no idea if that meant he had a few seconds, or a few minutes—or if the beeping was something completely innocuous.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and grabbed his knife. “Okay, the goal is to get you safely out of this thing the bad man put on you. First, I’m going to take a look inside the strap on your left shoulder.”
June looked to her right.
“Your other left, sweetheart.” Levi carefully slit open the canvas strap on both sides, revealing a red and black wire. “Okay, I’m seeing two wires. But do you know what a ring is?”
“A ring?” June asked. “I think so. Isn’t that like a circle?”
“Exactly. The wires in that strap are making a big circle. Let’s go ahead and call that circle a circuit. Right now, that circuit has electricity going through it—”
“Like in a TV?”
“Exactly like in a TV. But if I cut the wire, the circuit will collapse. It won’t be a circle anymore.”
“Like unplugging the TV,” June said, the fear in her voice replaced with curiosity.
“Yes, the circuit collapsing would be like unplugging the TV. What we don’t want is to turn the TV off. All the electricity is coming from that little box on your chest. And since I can’t look in that box, I’m going to have to use some special tools to see how much electricity is coming through those wires. I’ll need your help, if you don’t mind.”
She nodded.
Levi switched the multimeter to measure the current, plugged in one end of the probe into the multimeter, and clamped the alligator clip to the black wire.
“Okay, it looks like this wire has seven hundred microamps running through it. Can you remember that number for me?”
“Seven hundred.”
“Great.”
The little girl was watching closely, and Levi figured that was infinitely better than her squirming while he worked.
He switched the setting on the meter and saw that it was pulling 1.4 volts. He switched the alligator clip to the other wire and tested the current. It had the same readings.
“Okay, so now what I’m going to do is take this wire and plug it into this thing called a power supply. Can you tell me what the number was I asked you to remember?”
“Seven-hundred,” June said confidently.
Levi adjusted the power supply to match the current flowing through the wires, then attached four probes to the power supply. “I’m going to take these wires and attach them to the wires on your vest. This box will help the circuit stay active so it won’t collapse.”
“I don’t understand.”
The beeping now sounded almost like a monotone.
Levi clamped two live patch cords to each of the vest’s wires. “Imagine the wires are a big loop. Now this box is holding hands with the wires in your vest. I’m going snip the wires between where the box is holding hands, so even though the wires in the vest won’t be connected together, the circle won’t be broken because this power supply is still holding hands with each end of the wires from your vest. Do you understand?”
“I think so. But it won’t be a circle anymore. It’s more weird shaped, right?”
Levi grabbed a set of wire cutters. “You’re right. It is weird shaped. Okay, here it goes.”
He placed the wire cutters between the patch cords, clamped down on the wires, and…
Nothing.
No boom.
Levi grabbed his knife and cut through the rest of the canvas strap. “Okay, let’s be very careful. We don’t want to stop the box from holding hands.” He pulled June close and carefully slipped one shoulder out of the vest, then the other. Within seconds he was holding her around the waist and lifting her out of the vest.
Gripping her tightly, he scurried one-handed up the ladder, dodged past the board at the entrance, and jumped from the porch.
A heavy thump shook the ground behind them. The girl’s eyes went wide, and Levi’s heart nearly beat out of his chest.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly walked away from the cabin, the girl cradled in his arms. The smell of smoke reached his nostrils.
Yoshi jogged into the clearing and smiled when he saw June. She scrambled out of Levi’s arms and jumped into Yoshi’s. Levi heard the wail of sirens somewhere off in the distance.
“They’re on their way,” Yoshi said. “Locals followed by the feds out of DC.”
Flames began licking at the doorway to the cabin.
Levi took his phone back from Yoshi. “Can I borrow your car? I need to do something.”
Yoshi tossed Levi the keys. “Sure. I’ll catch a ride with one of the FBI guys.”
Levi rubbed June’s head, which was buried in the crook of Yoshi’s neck, “June was a very brave girl.” The he turned and raced toward the car.
He had an appointment to keep with June’s kidnapper.
Chapter Seventeen
Levi shook hands with Dino as one of his men backed a dingy car onto an abandoned
dirt and gravel path that intersected with New Hampshire Road. The car was an old Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, one of the land yachts of the seventies.
“Is the engine solid?” Levi asked. “The last thing I need is for this stalling out when I floor it.”
Dino gave him a lopsided smile. “Oh, that engine will go. One of my guys had a mechanic who owed him something, and this was his baby. It’s got a 425 V8 big block in there, and it purrs like a kitten.” He chuckled. “Kind of a shame, actually.”
Levi strapped a brace around his neck, and one of Dino’s men handed him a motorcycle helmet. He glanced at the app, it was almost time. “We’ve got less than five minutes guys. Who’s the lookout?”
“Me,” a mean-looking dark-haired man waved. “I got it. It’s a black late-model Buick LaCrosse, right?”
“That’s right. Call me as soon as you’re in position.”
“You got it.” Lenny turned and jogged out of sight. His lookout position was about a quarter mile up the road.
Dino called out to the rest of the men and pointed to the large Cadillac Escalade he’d driven. “Okay, guys, pile in. We’ve got business coming in a couple minutes.”
Levi clasped Dino’s hand. “I owe you and Don Marino, big time.”
“Naw, man. The boss wanted this done. And for me, I’m just thinking of what I’d do if someone did that to my Donna. No way. We did this ‘cause it’s the right thing.”
Soon, Levi was alone in the empty dirt road with the land yacht’s engine purring next to him. He climbed in, put on the helmet, and fastened the chin strap. He was ready.
His phone buzzed, and he put it on speaker.
“Hey, it’s Lenny. I’m in position.”
“Good. It looks like he’s about a minute out. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know when you first see him, but tell me exactly when he passes your position.”
“Got it.”
Levi looked again at the app. Anspach had to be doing nearly sixty down the two-lane road. He smiled. Helen must really have gotten Anspach’s attention when she read aloud the text Levi had sent to her.
Helen, I’ve gotten information that I think will lead us to June. She’s being kept in a cabin twenty miles north of Arlington. I’m flying in and will be there this evening. It should be over tonight.
Anspach was probably thinking he needed to do something with the kid. And who knows what that might have been?
Whatever it was, the bastard wouldn’t get his chance.
Levi gunned the engine, put on the seatbelt and got ready. He glanced at the phone sitting in its cradle. “Anything yet, Lenny?”
“No, the road’s totally—hold up, I see a car. It’s black. And it’s flying this way.”
Levi began to coast forward slowly, hoping to avoid fishtailing in this giant rear-wheel-drive monster he was in.
“Okay, he just passed me, and it’s our guy.”
Levi slammed his foot onto the gas. The back wheels spun in the gravel and dirt, and the car only fishtailed a bit before the tires got traction.
Levi started the countdown in his head.
Fifteen seconds for a quarter-mile at sixty miles per hour.
At four seconds, Levi tightened his grip on the steering wheel and the car finally settled into a straight path.
At eight seconds, the trees on either side of the road became a blur as the street approached.
At twelve seconds, Levi saw the intersecting road—and the black car. The world seemed to slow as he noticed Anspach’s hands were at ten and two, his eyes focused on the road ahead of him.
With a slight turn of the steering wheel, the Cadillac, weighing two thousand pounds more than its target, launched itself at the side of the black Buick LaCrosse, hitting it dead center.
Glass shattered all around Levi as his body was launched against the seat belt.
The steering wheel cracked, and the shriek of metal came from all around as the Buick was launched from his view.
Levi slammed on the brakes—by some miracle, they still worked—and it was all over.
His ears buzzed. He heard a voice yelling, the pinging sound of his engine stalling. The smell of burning rubber brought him to his senses.
The entire dashboard had collapsed in on itself, yet from beneath it came a voice.
“Levi? Levi!” It was Lenny. Levi’s phone must be somewhere down there.
“Ya, I’m here,” Levi shouted. “Just trying to get myself free of this mess.”
“Holy shit, man. I heard that from over here. You’re a fucking lunatic!”
Levi wasn’t sure he disagreed as he tried unlatching his seatbelt.
“I’m calling Dino to get you. I’ve got the other car coming for your guy.”
Levi finally managed to undo his seat belt. He felt around under the collapsed dash and found his phone. Miraculously, the screen wasn’t even cracked.
Levi futilely tried opening the door with the door handle, but it was jammed closed by the impact.
Wiping the beads of glass from the window frame, Levi crawled out, Dukes of Hazzard-style. He removed his helmet and neck brace and stretched. To his shock, he felt fine, apart from what was almost certainly going to be a painful bruise from the seatbelt, he didn’t seem to have any other issues.
Dino’s Escalade arrived as Levi was surveying the damage to the Buick. It was a mess. It had rolled onto its side and the airbags had deployed, obscuring Levi’s view of Anspach.
One of Dino’s men hopped into the ditch, climbed up onto the car, and looked into the driver’s-side window. “Holy shit, the guy’s still alive.”
Lenny arrived with a tow truck and almost immediately began hooking the Buick up to large winches attached to the truck.
Dino’s focus shifted to Levi. “Are you even bleeding, you crazy son of a bitch?”
Levi chuckled and surveyed himself once again. “Other than some pearls of tempered glass probably still in my hair and down my pants, I’m no worse for wear.”
“Okay, then, let’s get you out of here and back to your car.” Dino opened the passenger side of the Escalade and Levi hopped in. “The boys will take care of your friend.”
Levi leaned back in the leather seat and smiled. He had done it. And depending on what happened next, he might actually be done with DC for a while.
###
“What do you mean June and Helen are in protective custody?” Levi asked. An FBI agent drove away, leaving Yoshi and him alone in the same parking lot where they’d parked earlier in the day.
Yoshi shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s all O’Connor would say—that they’re keeping Helen and June in a safehouse until they sort all of this out. I know O’Connor really wants to talk to you.”
“Do you know where this safehouse is?”
“No clue. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to Helen before she went silent.”
Levi looked at his tracking app. Helen’s car had been one of the ones he was tracking, just in case. “This says her car is still at her apartment.”
“I tried calling her place, her cell phone, everything. Couldn’t reach her. But that jibes with what O’Connor said. When people are taken into protective custody, they’re not allowed to have any items that someone might use to track them. That includes phones, cars, and any electronics whatsoever.”
“Well, I suppose that’s going to be temporary.” Levi sighed. “This isn’t going to make your brother or Mister Tanaka very happy.”
Yoshi nodded and looked very uncomfortable. “I probably shouldn’t admit this to you, but I’m a bit worried that Mister Tanaka might try to kidnap June, now that we know where she is … or at least we will.”
Levi imagined what Tanaka might do in this situation. He wasn’t welcome in this country, but it was obvious to him that the mob boss saw June as his sole heir, and for his only blood heir he’d be willing to move the earth and sky. Maybe even kidnap her for her own so-called safety.
They shook hands, then Yoshi suddenly pulled Levi into a hug. “Thank you for everything you did. If it weren’t for you, June would probably still be in the kidnapper’s hands. Or dead.”
Levi patted Yoshi on the back and smiled. “Listen, things like this tend to work out. The worst is over for June and Helen, and that’s what’s key.”
Yoshi gave him a weak smile. “I know, and thanks again.”
Levi felt sympathy for the man, he had to have a bunch of conflicting things brewing in his head. But Levi had only one thing on his mind: talking with the head of the Tanaka syndicate.
###
Levi walked along the cold shore of the Potomac, with his phone to his ear. The international connection was a poor one, and odd pops and random echoes made it hard to understand what was being said.
Levi repeated himself in Japanese. “Yes, Tanaka-sama, I found your granddaughter. She’s alive and well.”
Even though Tanaka was on the other side of the planet, Levi heard him take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thank you, Levi. I’d prepared myself for the worst. So, I’d like to speak to my granddaughter.”
Levi winced, knowing this explanation wasn’t going to go over well. “Unfortunately, the FBI has June and her mother in protective custody. They’re now hiding them.”
“But why? I don’t understand. I thought you said you found her. Why did you let them take her again?”
“I apologize, but it’s complicated. I wasn’t given any choice in the matter. It will only be temporary. The FBI is still trying to piece things together. As far as they’re concerned, the person who took June is missing. So I think they’re truly trying to protect your granddaughter and her mother from further harm.”
Tanaka’s voice sounded menacing. “And the kidnapper? What happened to him?”
The Inside Man Page 19