by Mike Ryan
Jones stood up, putting himself between the two of them. “Michael.”
Haley, standing against the wall, also sensed things were starting to get heated, and walked over between the two as well. He nudged Recker a few extra inches away, just to make sure they were out of hitting range of each other.
“It’s partially my fault,” Haley said. “I told him to shoot at whatever had a gun out there. I didn’t realize Vincent’s men were coming.”
Recker wasn’t taking his apology though. “No, you know as well as I do that when you have a gun out there, you know damn well what you’re shooting at before you pull the trigger.”
“Let’s everyone just cool their heads a little,” Jones said. “It’s been a rough day, things have happened, getting in each other’s faces won’t help to diffuse the tension.”
“OK, maybe I should have waited another second or two,” Phillips said. “But I looked over, saw a bunch of people running at us with guns, considering everything else that was going down, what would you have done? Just sit there with your gun in your pocket and let them start shooting?”
Recker backed up and then started pacing about like he was prone to do. He was huffing and shaking his head. He really didn’t know what else Phillips was supposed to do. Maybe nothing. Maybe he would have done the same thing in Phillips’ place. Recker realized that Phillips was brought into a tough situation. Probably an impossible one. Here he was thrust into a situation where he didn’t know who the players were and had no knowledge of the history of anybody there. If the roles were different, maybe Recker would have pulled the trigger too. But he wasn’t. The situation was as it was. Plus, he just didn’t like Phillips’ demeanor. He seemed a little cocky. A little arrogant. A little careless. And a whole lot of attitude.
“I’ve started filling Paxton in on our relationship with Vincent,” Jones said.
Phillips shook his head. “Yeah, it’s a little crazy, and I’m not sure I really buy in and all, but… I guess it is what it is. I mean, being in cahoots with a mob boss like that while we’re trying to clean up the city just doesn’t seem right.”
“We all know there’s going to be crime,” Recker said. “We can’t eliminate that completely. But what we can do is allow the big shark to scare off all the little fish so we don’t have to worry about them.”
“So he gets a free pass?”
“Nobody gets a free pass. We’re here to protect and save the innocent. That’s our mission. Always has been, always will be. We’re not here to put criminals away, that’s just an aftereffect. If Vincent steps out of line and does something where we need to be on the other side of the street then we will be. But Vincent’s not stupid. If he gets into confrontations with other criminals, that really doesn’t concern us.”
“But this Jerrick thing? We’re involved in that, aren’t we? Why are we getting in the middle of two gangs wanting to kill each other? Let them wipe each other out.”
Recker looked at Jones for a second, getting the feeling he was talking to deaf ears. “Because Jerrick also wants to eliminate us. He’s targeted us, he’s made it known he wants us dead, and he’s willing to do anything to anybody in order to accomplish that.”
“So the enemy of my enemy is my friend, sort of thing?”
It was a much too simplistic way of saying that, but if that’s what it took for Phillips to understand, Recker was fine with it. “I guess that’s a way of looking at it.”
The rest of the afternoon was pretty much Phillips hanging onto Jones’ shoulder as the founder of the company tried to explain their way of doing things. Recker and Haley largely stayed away from talking unless they were asked a specific question. Recker figured if he was leaving, and he wasn’t sure when or if he was coming back, his opinion on anything didn’t really matter. It was Jones and Haley who were going to have to develop a reputation with Phillips. Not him. If he ever came back, he’d worry about fitting in with him at that time. But he didn’t need to do it now.
For Haley, since he didn’t have a great first impression of his new partner, he really didn’t want to talk to him at all if he could help it. Plus, since Jones was the one who started it all, there was no one better to explain the way they operated. Haley was cleaning a few guns in the cabinet when he saw Recker walk over to the Keurig machine. He quickly put the guns away and closed the door, then walked over next to Recker and started talking, keeping his voice low.
“What do you think?” Haley asked.
“What I think doesn’t matter. I’m leaving and don’t have to deal with anything. What do you think?”
“I don’t have a good first impression of him.”
“That makes two of us.”
“I’m just hoping he’ll eventually fall in line.”
“I’m just hoping he doesn’t eventually get you killed.”
Haley briefly looked at him. It was obviously a scary notion, but not one that Haley hadn’t already thought of. “Well, I guess it was a tough position to put him in to start with.”
“No doubt,” Recker said. “It’s not really what he did that bothers me. I can understand his reasoning. The logic can’t really be argued. He’s right, if you don’t know anyone, and there’s people with guns coming, after everything that happened, you can assume they’re on the opposite side. It’s just his attitude that worries me. He strikes me as the kind of guy who believes they already know it all. That there’s nothing more they need to learn. Or want to learn.”
“Yeah. I’m hoping David can help straighten him out.”
“There’s only so much David can do. He can give him the tools, he can give him the instructions on how to use them, but if you’re just gonna throw that book away and try to build something on your own, there’s no telling how many ways that can go bad.”
“I’m hoping David didn’t finally pick a dud here.”
Recker took a sip of his drink. “I hope not too. But one thing’s for sure, the more people David has to pick for this thing, the chances increase that he’s eventually gonna swing and miss on one. It’s inevitable.”
“His record’s good though. Phillips, I mean.”
“A lot of things look good on paper. You can’t measure what’s in a man’s heart and soul by reading about him on a piece of paper. Especially where he comes from. Where we come from. Things get doctored all the time to make things look different than they really are. And we’re not in Asia or Europe somewhere trying to track down and eliminate some terrorist threat or something, acting alone, where you assume everyone is your enemy and trying to kill you. It’s different here. And not everyone can adapt.”
“Maybe this will be somewhat of a wake-up call for him.”
Recker grinned. Haley still had that sound of hope in his voice, though it was obvious it wasn’t really genuine. He hoped that Phillips was going to come around, but it sure didn’t sound like Haley really meant or believed it. They stood there together, sipping on their drinks, while they both stared at Jones and Phillips, who were shoulder to shoulder looking at information on the computer.
As Recker stared at the two men, he couldn’t help but think that he was leaving at the wrong time. He’d hoped that bringing another man in would help to solidify things while he was gone, so that the team wouldn’t miss a beat. But now that he looked at things, it seemed like he was catapulting the team further into chaos. Part of him wondered if he should just call the whole vacation thing off. He wasn’t going to, party because Mia had already scheduled the time off from work, and him telling her he changed his mind would be a discussion he had no interest in having. The other part was that he really did think he needed the time off to recharge his batteries.
But as he stood there, looking at the new team dynamic, he really wasn’t liking what he saw. He hoped it turned out for the best, but something was tugging at his insides saying the worst was yet to come.
13
It’d been a couple days since Phillips joined the team. But since that explosive an
d volatile first day, things had been pretty quiet. There was nothing happening on any front. They’d spent that time, almost every second of the working day, trying to get Phillips up to speed on the way they did things. He seemed to be a fast learner. And his arrogance level seemed to go down a little as he got to know everyone. That didn’t exactly turn Recker and Haley’s thinking around that Phillips might be a mistake, but maybe it didn’t resonate as loud with them now. Maybe their initial impressions were wrong, as initial impressions could sometimes be.
One of Jones’ machines started sounding an alert, causing him to quickly go over to it.
“What is it?” Phillips asked.
“Looks like we’ve got something going down,” Jones replied.
Phillips shook his head, marveling at the technology. “Where’d you pick that up from?”
“Text messages.”
Phillips grinned and continued shaking his head. “And you picked this stuff up from the NSA?”
“That’s correct.”
“Amazing. You guys and the NSA, man, unbelievable. And the public thinks the CIA are the sneaky ones.”
“Well, I’d say they are probably on par with each other in terms of public distrust.”
Recker walked over to the pair. “What do you have?”
Jones started writing things down. “Looks like we are going to have a robbery very soon.”
“Where?”
“Convenience store.”
“Time?”
Jones looked at his watch. “About one hour from now.”
Phillips looked around at everyone, not sure why everyone was so calm. It seemed to him they should’ve been getting started. “Well? Shouldn’t we get going?”
Jones looked at him and nodded. “Yes. Yes, we should.”
Recker and Haley went over to the gun cabinet and started grabbing their weapons. Phillips then went over to it as well.
“Mike, I think maybe you should sit this one out,” Jones said.
“What?” Recker replied.
“I think it would be better if Chris and Paxton took this one.”
Recker looked over at the two of them and nodded. He knew what Jones was trying to do. With him leaving, he wanted Haley and Paxton to start developing the chemistry that Recker and Haley had. It was something that was built up over time. It didn’t come fast, there were no shortcuts to it, and it couldn’t happen with Recker lurking over their shoulders. Haley would always look to him first instead of Phillips, and Phillips would probably look to Recker as well, being the senior ranking member of the team. Recker put his gun back in the cabinet, then walked back to the desk and sat down next to Jones.
“How many men are we dealing with?” Haley asked.
“Looks like three,” Jones said. He leaned over the desk and handed Haley a paper with all the pertinent information, including names, and the address of the upcoming robbery. “Everything you need is there.”
Haley briefly looked it over, then looked at his new partner. “You ready?”
Phillips smiled, looking jovial about having an official mission to go on. “Ready to go. Let’s light these jokers up.”
Maybe it was just a play on words and he really didn’t mean it, but it was somewhat alarming to Recker. He wasn’t exactly slow with using a gun, and a lot had been made of his frequent use of firearms over the years, but he never went into a situation like this with the idea that he was going to kill some people. Sometimes it worked out that way, sometimes there was no other way, but he always hoped it would be the last resort. He never went on a job hoping to drop some people. Unless it was a personal vendetta against someone who had wronged him or tried to hurt Mia. But that was different.
“Let’s go,” Haley said.
Recker and Jones watched the two hurry out of the office. It occurred to Recker right then and there that he was probably going to be benched and on the sidelines for his remaining days there. And he understood why. With the others gone, Jones turned to his friend to start explaining himself.
“Listen, the reason…”
Recker put his hand up to prevent his partner from going any further. No explanation was necessary. “It’s fine. I know what you’re trying to do. It’s the right call.”
“Oh. Well I’m glad you think so.”
“Just a little strange being on this side of the desk.”
“Chris has been on jobs without you before.”
“Not permanently.”
“Only a few days left before the big send-off.”
“Yeah.”
“How are you doing with that?”
Recker’s eyes got a little glossy, but he quickly got them under control before a tear shed. He shook his head, trying to find an answer. “I don’t know. It’s strange to think about leaving. Like I’ve said before, this is home. It’s really been the only home I’ve ever known.”
“It’s not necessarily for good. You leaving, that is.”
“It’s the thought that it might be,” Recker said. “What if I get out to Hawaii with Mia, and we’re there for a few weeks, and we’re enjoying ourselves… and I don’t wanna come back?”
Jones looked down at the desk for a few moments, trying to organize his own thoughts. “Well, if that were to happen, I think that you should embrace the next chapter of your life. You know, when we started this thing a few years ago, I’m not sure either one of us ever thought it would turn into a lifelong commitment. It was just something we were both passionate about doing, hoping we could make a difference, and hoping we could do it for a while.”
Recker nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“If you go out there and decide you don’t miss this glorious office and the safety of patrolling the streets, I don’t think there’s a need to be sad about that. You’re just moving on to the next chapter of your life and I think that’s normal for all of us.”
“You’re not moving on to a new chapter.”
Jones shrugged. “I don’t have the same circumstances that you do. For one, I wasn’t travelling the globe for ten years, putting myself in harm’s way almost every second of it like you were. I don’t have that same wear and tear that you do. I also do not have a woman that loves me like you do, and that’s a serious consideration to make as well.”
“And if you did?”
Jones thought about it for a few seconds. He tried to give an honest answer. “Well then I think at some point, if she was as patient and forgiving as Mia, I think at some point I would have to consider her feelings as well.” Jones thought about everything for another minute as silence fell between them. “You know, we’ve given so much of our lives to this pursuit of helping people, even long before we started this, you in the CIA, me in the NSA, and then even now. And you in more harrowing situations than I. But at some point, I would think in all of our lives, you, me, Chris, and anyone else who does this sort of work in whatever capacity, at some point, there will come a time when you stop putting the focus on helping other people… and you just focus on yourself. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. But at some point, and I think it will happen to all of us, that we step aside, focus on ourselves, and let someone else step in and take over. It’s just a matter of when.”
Recker stared out in front of him, just letting Jones’ words sink in. He didn’t even know what else to say. Jones pretty much said them all.
Jones continued his speech. “And even if you decide this life isn’t for you anymore, there’s nothing that says you have to stay away. You could still live in the area if that’s what you wanted. Or you could move elsewhere and come back to visit periodically. And whether you’re part of this team or not, you will always be family to both Chris and myself. That won’t ever change. Even if you leave permanently, it doesn’t have to mean goodbye. It just means you’ve moved on. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve given everything to this. And there’s nothing to feel guilty about.”
Recker just nodded, continuing to stare at the wall. Jones laid it out
as well as anyone could. He had felt guilty about leaving, even if he thought it was best. With Jones’ words, maybe he could finally lift the burden off his shoulders a little bit.
“Is there anything else bothering you?” Jones asked.
Recker stopped staring and focused on Jones. “Such as?”
“I don’t know. It seems that maybe there’s something else on your mind.”
Recker’s thoughts immediately went to Phillips. “Well, as long as you’re asking and we’re being honest here, I’m not sure the new guy is what I expected.”
Jones nodded, knowing exactly where he was going. “He is a little rough around the edges.”
“Rough?”
“They’re downright sharp.”
“He’s going to need some work, no doubt about it.”
Recker gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m not sure about that.”
“You don’t think he’s capable.”
“Capable of doing the work, I don’t think there’s a doubt. He’s talented. Capable of changing his attitude, I’m not sure about that.”
“Everyone can change.”
“To a degree. You have to want to change to actually be able to do it. I don’t exactly get the vibe that he does.”
“He’ll need time to adjust.”
“I dunno. I just think maybe we pulled the trigger too fast on this one.”
“Do you think I took some shortcuts in my approach to finding him just to get another member on board?”
“Well you did find him pretty fast.”
“I told you, I changed my search parameters and made a few adjustments. Plus, I did speed things up a little, but I did not take shortcuts. He was the best candidate.”
“On paper.”
“Well that’s all we have to go on initially.”
Recker raised an eyebrow. He still wasn’t sold on the guy. “I suppose.”
“Listen, in the event we’re all sitting here talking six months or a year from now, and he still hasn’t made any improvements in some areas, there’s nothing that says we all can’t move on. We don’t sign any contracts here preventing people from moving on. And that goes both ways. If it doesn’t look like he’ll work out, we can simply say it’s not working and go our separate ways.”