The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set)

by Remington Kane

  Ellison thanked him and was telling Olivia about Seth when Anders returned and handed him a slip of paper.

  “That’s the name of the head agent who will be leading the task force looking into today’s events. She’ll be at the station tomorrow at eight a.m.”

  Ellison looked down at the paper.

  “Task force? You have an FBI task force coming here?”

  Anders looked worried.

  “Is that enough help, or should I have asked for more?”

  Olivia laughed.

  “A task force is awesome, Mr. Anders, and thank you.”

  “Good, and Deputy Ellison, please call me Martin.”

  “Martin? All right, and I’m Olivia, Martin.”

  As they were leaving, Anders asked Olivia for her phone number.

  “I’d like to call you... for updates.”

  Olivia smiled and gave him her number.

  ***

  While they were riding down in the elevator, the chief made a prediction.

  “I bet Anders calls you for more than news about the task force.”

  “That’s fine by me; the man is cute.”

  “And rich, you have my permission to marry him.”

  Olivia laughed and felt the tension of the day slip away.

  CHAPTER 21 – Toothless and blind

  Early the next morning, Tanner went shopping with Sara, while Pete and Rocco tagged along. The siblings had basically been evicted by The Brotherhood, and so Tanner bought them clothing and other essentials.

  Alexa had decided to stay behind and sleep late. She was depressed about losing her house. Tanner couldn’t blame her. While the house hadn’t meant as much to him as it did to her, living there had grown on him.

  Tanner had spent most of his adult life moving from one temporary residence to another. He had also spent those years going from one woman to another. Having passed the last few weeks with the same woman inside the same home was a new experience for him, but far from unpleasant. Perhaps it was his age, he thought. He was in his mid-thirties and had done more living than most men do in a lifetime.

  Hotel room service was a beautiful thing, and lovely young ladies eager to please were even nicer. However, he had risen the day before, and sat out on his deck drinking coffee while waiting for a woman he loved to rise from their bed and join him.

  Tanner had liked that, was discovering that he looked forward to those simple pleasures, and far more than he ever thought he would. He wanted more of them. He could have them for the asking if he gave up being a Tanner. However, that was something he would never do. He loved being a Tanner. But, Alexa’s offer was tempting, while the thought of losing her fostered bleakness.

  ***

  Pete and Rocco smiled with delight every time Tanner said yes to something they wanted, but he made sure that they understood that nothing was free.

  “You’ll earn everything I’m buying you. Miss Blake and I are letting you live in the shack and you can work as caretakers. Neither one of us will be staying in the RV’s full-time and you two can make sure that no one breaks into them.”

  “You’re gonna let us live at the lake, Tom Myers?” Rocco asked.

  “That’s right kid, do you want to?”

  Rocco grinned.

  “I love swimming and fishing, so yeah.”

  Sara smiled at Rocco. She had spent time with him on the previous evening and found him to be an innocent. That was a rare thing in this world.

  She was also impressed that Tanner had taken the time and risked himself to rescue Rocco and his brother. Tanner could be ice cold at times, but he wasn’t heartless. After learning about the trauma he’d suffered through while losing his family, Sara felt as if she understood him better.

  The simple truth was, the more she learned about the man, the more she liked him.

  “We still have to buy the drone and a water gun,” Sara said. “But then I think we’re good. I stopped in the electronics department and found an earpiece that you can wear while I direct you around The Brotherhood’s men.”

  “I’m more concerned about the drone. It needs to be as quiet as possible. If it’s spotted, someone will shoot at it.”

  ***

  The toy store was huge and carried some basic fishing equipment, so Tanner hooked up Pete and Rocco with poles and lures.

  When they saw that Tanner was buying a water gun, they insisted on having two of their own. Tanner let them grab what they wanted, but put his foot down and removed the cans of Silly String that Rocco sat in the cart.

  “No more of that,” he said. “It took me an hour to get it all out of my hair.”

  Sara gave them a questioning look, but Tanner waved her off.

  The boys also got a dart board, and at Sara’s urging, bicycles, to be delivered. They were the type that had a big basket at the rear to transport things.

  “They’ll need a way to get to the store and the laundromat,” Sara said.

  “I can drive a car,” Pete said. “And so can Rocco... a little.”

  “I’m not buying you a car, kid,” Tanner said.

  They settled on a drone that appeared to meet their needs. It was supposed to be quiet, while the camera had good definition. Sara and Mike Hodges would be operating the drone from the nearby park so the range of the radio signal was more than sufficient.

  ***

  Tanner returned to the RV to find that Alexa was up and dressed.

  After putting away the bag of food he had bought, Tanner told her that he had to leave for Killburry.

  He had expected Alexa to argue and to ask him to please let his battle with The Brotherhood go, but instead, she kissed him and told him to be careful.

  “I’ll be back later,” Tanner said.

  Alexa just nodded at him, but then something occurred to her.

  “Are you using my car? If you do, I’ll be stuck here.”

  “No, Sara rented a car while we were out.”

  “Good.”

  “Are you going anywhere?”

  “I don’t know, but I just didn’t want to be stuck here.”

  “You’re not stuck here, Alexa,” Tanner said, and the double meaning of those words weren’t lost on him, or her.

  “I’ll be here when you get back.”

  “Good,” Tanner said, and then he left the RV, his destination: Killburry, and war.

  ***

  Mike Hodges let out a whistle of appreciation when he saw the drone Tanner and Sara had purchased. It had a much wider wingspan than the one he was used to, but he found that the controls were similar.

  By noon, Mike could maneuver the machine wherever he wanted it to go and was enjoying the speed of the drone. Although bigger and heavier, it was also faster than the toy his grandson played with.

  While Mike had been getting used to the new drone, Sara and Tanner had worked on the communication devices, and Tanner could hear Sara’s voice in his ear even over a great distance, as well as communicate back to her.

  Mike complained about the weather, which was cloudy and windy, with the threat of rain in the forecast.

  “I got the hang of this thing real quick, but it would be much harder for anyone to spot if it were bright and sunny.”

  The two of them gathered around Mike as he sent the drone on a recon mission over his late nephew’s house. There were men on all sides of the home, and Sara wondered how Tanner could approach it without being spotted.

  “If you cut through the other yards, the men atop the porch will see you,” she said.

  Tanner pointed to the stream that ran behind the house.

  “I’ll wade along in that until I’m at the back of the house. There are trees there that will block the view of the men on the porch.”

  Sara shook her head.

  “That will get you there, but you’ll still have five men to kill, and you’ll have to do it without alerting the men stationed on both sides of the house.”

  “I’ll have to be patient after leaving the water
, and wait until one of them comes to me. Once I eliminate the first man, I’ll only have to kill four at once.”

  “Why would one of the men go into the trees back there?” Sara asked.

  Mike answered her.

  “They’ll go there to take a leak. It’s easier than going inside the house. But Tanner, four guys is still a lot. You can’t miss a single time and they’ll have to be fatal shots.”

  “I know, Mike; I can do it.”

  Sara touched Tanner on the arm.

  “I could come with you.”

  “No, I need you here to read the scene and let me know what’s around the next corner. Mike could do it, but I’d rather he’d just concentrate on flying the drone, especially with the wind picking up the way it is.”

  “All right, but if you get into trouble I’ll have your back.”

  “No, Sara. Stay here no matter what happens. If we do lose communication I’ll find my way out of there, but not until I give The Brotherhood a taste of what they dished out yesterday. Those bastards are going to pay for burning Alexa’s house.”

  “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?” Mike said.

  “Toothless and blind will be more like it,” Tanner said.

  Sara pointed at the view the drone was transmitting. They had watched the arrival earlier of over a dozen important men. The men seemed important because each of them arrived with two bodyguards. Tanner assumed that they were council members, and saw that they were being led around the area as if on a tour. The outing appeared to be over as everyone was entering Burt Hodges’ house.

  “It looks like The Brotherhood Council is going inside for their meeting,” Sara said.

  Tanner put on the backpack that held his weapons and ammo, including the water gun and the container of gasoline.

  “That’s my signal.”

  “Be careful, Tanner,” Sara said, “and come back in one piece.”

  Tanner inserted the audio device into his ear.

  “You’ll be with me every step of the way.”

  “Give ‘em hell, Tanner,” Mike said.

  Tanner sent him a nod and headed off to do what he did best—kill.

  CHAPTER 22 – Whoosh!

  Chang accepted the praise that came his way from most of the members of The Brotherhood Council, who were gathered around a conference table.

  His acquisition of Hodges’ properties was pivotal in establishing a base for their organization. In Hartford, the different groups that comprised The Brotherhood were scattered about the city by necessity, but now, now they could be united.

  “It is from here that we will launch our attacks on New York and Boston,” Chang said. “And before long, we will control the entire east coast.”

  One of Chang’s dissenters was a tall Black man named Williamson. Williamson controlled a militant group with ties to New York City. He stood and spoke to Chang.

  “New York will know we’re coming, Chang. Your boy Adán and his crew got their asses killed by a damn suburbanite. I also heard that the man knows Joe Pullo. If that’s true, we won’t have to go to Pullo, Pullo will come here.”

  Chang forced a smile onto his face. It was something he was good at. Williamson was always a thorn in his side, but he knew how to handle him.

  “Pullo may be alerted, but what does it matter? We are strong, we are many, and we will overrun New York and crush The Giacconi Family. Don’t forget, Williamson, Pullo’s organization is still recovering from their earlier wars.”

  “I’m not forgetting shit, but Pullo is no joke. Plus, he’s got Tanner on his side, and that son of a bitch is a damn killing machine.”

  Chang’s smiled widened, as if to dismiss Williamson’s assertions.

  “You worry too much. Tanner is just one man.”

  “So was this guy who whacked Adán and his crew. And what about him? He still has to be handled.”

  Chang held up a finger as if to say, “Wait a second,” he then fiddled with his phone and sent a photo to the flat screen monitor that had been hung over the fireplace. It was the photo of Tanner and Alexa with Alexa missing from it. Adán had sent Chang a picture of it the day before, then died soon after at Tanner and Sara’s hands.

  “Adán sent me this picture of Myers. I suggest we distribute it to—”

  “Oh hell no,” Williamson said, as he rushed over to the monitor to stare at it. “This is no damn Tom Myers. This dude is Tanner. I met him once.”

  “Tanner?” Chang said. “Are you certain?”

  “Look at those eyes, who the hell could forget him? The dude is smiling in the picture and I still feel threatened.”

  One of the other council members stood. His name was Roberto, and he ran a gang that had over a hundred men in it.

  “If this Myers is really Tanner, then Joe Pullo already has his eye on this town. That means that troops from New York City could be headed here right now.”

  “Forget, Pullo,” Williamson said. “We need to worry about Tanner. He’s already here.”

  Conversations broke out around the table as the council members discussed their options; Chang watched it all with a growing sense of frustration. This was not how he had planned for the day to go. Unfortunately, things were about to get worse.

  ***

  A faintly orange stream of liquid arced through the air as Tanner slit the throat of a gangbanger who had been taking a leak. The urine mixed with the blood from the man’s jugular and flowed down the short hill and into the stream.

  Tanner left the man lying on his back and gasping for air his lungs would never receive, as his windpipe had also been severed.

  Two men stood atop the porch, while two more sat on the back steps and smoked.

  When one of the men on the porch decided to sit, Tanner figured that he would never have a better chance and took aim at the seated man while leaning around a tree.

  Tanner was using the guns designed by Deke Mercer. They were damn near silent when used with their special ammo, and Tanner placed a round just below the nose of the seated man.

  The man grunted as his head snapped backwards, but the other man on the porch ignored him. He had heard the gun, and quiet or not, it put him on alert.

  “Did you guys hear—”

  The second round ended the man’s query, as well as his life. As he fell onto the floor of the porch, the other two men snapped their heads his way. One of those heads exploded in the following instant, while the man beside him took two in the back of the neck.

  That man flopped noisily atop the stairs before dying, and Tanner asked Sara if the men on the side of the house had heard the commotion.

  “No, you’re good, Tanner, the men on both sides of the house are busy talking to each other, and nice shooting.”

  “Thanks, but I’ve a long way to go. I’ll kill the men on my left next.”

  “How do you plan to kill the two men on that side?” Sara said. “They’re staying close to the front, and there are another five men out there.”

  “Bait, and once they bite, I’ll have them.”

  Tanner removed money from his side pocket and dropped it on the ground. The day was cloudy, but there was wind as well. The money moved along the side of the house sluggishly, since it was still wet from Tanner’s trek in the stream. The bills caught at the base of the small shrubs at the side of the house, where they flapped in the growing breeze.

  It took more than a minute, but one of the men stationed at the side of the home noticed the movement, and began walking towards the rear.

  “They’re headed your way, big spender,” Sara said.

  Tanner smiled, but readied himself for action. As the men grew nearer, he heard them talking.

  “It’s money, man, look, a ten.”

  “Screw that, I see a twenty,” the other guard said, he was leaning over to pick it up when Tanner shot him in the crown of his head, then fired a pair of well-placed shots into his buddy, who was also bent over.

  Tanner left them where they lay and headed t
owards the front, but not before using the water gun to send streams of gasoline over the rear of the house. He laid down some along the side, and also wet the wood on the window sills.

  “How are you going to take out the guys up front, Tanner?” Mike asked. He spoke loud in order to be heard through Sara’s microphone.

  “It’s time to start the fire.”

  “You mean...?”

  “That’s right,” Tanner said. He flicked on a disposable lighter as he moved along and locked the flame on high. The water gun could shoot liquid over thirty feet, and Tanner walked around the side of the house while firing a stream of gasoline.

  ***

  At the police station, the FBI was gearing up to send more than eighty men and women at The Brotherhood. Chief Ellison learned that the FBI had already formed the task force that was in his town. It had been based in Hartford and had tracked the activities of The Brotherhood for months.

  The carry permit that his officer had seen the day before was legit, but had been obtained through graft. The FBI could prove that, as well as other charges, and given The Brotherhood’s recent activities, it had been decided to take them down.

  What had been a task force, became a joint task force of FBI agents, state police, and officers from the Killburry police department. Those officers included the chief and his daughter.

  Once warrants were issued, Ellison and Olivia climbed into a black SUV with the head FBI agent, and drove towards Burt Hodges’ house.

  The chief smiled at his daughter.

  “So much for our quiet little town.”

  Olivia smiled back, but she felt a flutter of fear as well.

  ***

  The first man to spot Tanner was a White supremacist with a gleaming shaved head. He opened his mouth to shout and Tanner filled it with gasoline. The other four men were also sprayed to one degree or another, and Tanner tossed the lighter, even as one of the men fired at him.

  A loud WHOOSH erupted amid the men’s screams, as overhead, the drone lost sight of Tanner as a gust of wind pushed it out of position. The last sight Sara had seen was that of Tanner falling to the ground.

  “Damn the wind!” Mike said. “Hold on, Sara. I’ll put her back in the right spot.”