Black Brick - Part One

by Dan Decker

  As Shannon followed me down the alley, I kept a close eye on the roof and heaved a sigh of relief when we ran out the other side.

  Chapter 3

  The sun peeked out of the clouds as Shannon and I walked onto Kingstone Campus; it was nice to have a brief moment of heat to temper the cold of the early spring. As the sun disappeared again, I dug my hands deeper into the pockets of my coat and tried to clear my head from the morning’s research. Everything I’d read was starting to jumble together and I was glad for the exercise.

  “Why can’t the news sites get anything right?” Shannon asked as she walked with her phone in hand, eyes glued to the screen while she flipped through stories. “Here’s one that claims you and I were Latino men. I just finished another that said it was a fight between three rival gangs.”

  I was glad the media didn’t have their facts straight. It made it harder for the incident to be linked back to us.

  “Any word on the ID of the victims?” I asked, wishing that we would have had time to snap a few photos of Andrews’ assailants. At least then we would have had something more to look into.

  Shannon shook her head without looking up. I took her arm and guided her to one side of the sidewalk so that a cluster of approaching girls could pass on the other side.

  Jeff Beltran’s contact with the police hadn’t got back to him yet, so we didn't know what evidence they'd been able to collect. Depending on what came back, Beltran might use his connections to obfuscate anything that led to us.

  We'd turned in the guns we'd fired and taken new ones. Our old pistols would be destroyed. The last thing we wanted was somebody connecting our missions together through ballistics.

  When I had produced Andrews’ throwaway cell phone, the people on our surveillance team had become excited. The information on the phone was being analyzed and we might have the results before we were done with class.

  I hated waiting. I needed something to do.

  “Why didn't the sniper kill us too?” Shannon asked for the twentieth time, putting away her phone and pulling several strands of hair out of her eyes as she put on her sunglasses.

  She was wearing a thick purple coat that complimented her figure nicely. I didn't tell her she looked good, for some reason she didn't enjoy those types of compliments even though she went to a lot of effort to keep her clothing trendy. The only time I got away with that type of thing was when she was in the right kind of mood.

  I shrugged in response to her question and pushed away thoughts of the man I’d killed. I hadn’t slept much the night before, the shooting continuing to play in my mind. Shannon had wounded her guy, why couldn’t I have done the same with mine? At least then I wouldn’t have another death on my shoulders.

  I took a deep breath and let it out.

  “I mean, it makes sense for the sniper to kill Andrews and the woman. He saw we had her and wanted to keep her from talking.”

  “You got it wrong,” I said. “Vargo figured out that Andrews was selling company secrets.” I was referring to Lane Vargo, the CEO of Diggon. “The woman was the buyer, that’s why he killed her too.”

  “No, the shooter and woman were working together.”

  “If they were, it would have made more sense for him to take out you and me.”

  She frowned. “Hmm. You have a point there. Ok, so the sniper probably wasn’t with the woman.”

  “And who else would have an interest other than Diggon?”

  Shannon nodded her head. “Assuming that’s true, why would the Diggon sniper leave us alone?”

  I smiled, a thought occurring to me, I wondered why I hadn't seen it before. “He knew we were government and was worried that killing us would result in a drawn out investigation.”

  The thought that Vargo might know about us made me uncomfortable. Diggon had been the target of numerous investigations over the course of the last two years. We didn't have anything definitive on the company, but as a whole, it smelled. I'm sure it wasn't the only defense contractor that got its hands dirty, but it was one of the largest.

  I suppressed a groan as I thought about going to class when we’d just made a breakthrough. I’d been in the middle of reviewing the surveillance logs we had on Andrews, wondering if additional evidence of the woman he’d been with last night would turn up, when Beltran had stopped by our desks and reminded us about it. Attending class was a distraction we didn’t need, but Beltran had been insistent that we keep our cover intact.

  “We must work for the only federal agency that requires their agents to masquerade as students,” I said.

  “You need to learn how to whisper,” Shannon said in a hushed voice that was almost as loud as mine.

  I looked around, there wasn’t anybody within earshot. “Nobody heard me.”

  “You of all people should know better.”

  I shook my head, she was right. We walked in silence the rest of the way to class. Several minutes later, when we passed a group of girls, I wondered what it would have been like to be a real student here. Even if I graduated, the degree would never do me any good because it was attached to a fake identity. And honestly, what good was a history degree anyway?

  We approached the George Washington building, an impressive old four story stone structure that housed the social science schools. We found our classroom on the second floor and took our seats at the back. The lecture hall was arranged with stadium seating and a podium was located in front.

  Professor Peck stood at the lectern, waiting for class to start. He was a tall man with black hair that was beginning to turn gray on the sides. Rumor had it that he was wealthy and taught for free because it was his passion. I had meant to look into Peck because of this peculiar story but hadn’t found the time.

  Somebody nodded at me from the front row and I made eye contact with Thor. I nodded back, doing my best to hide my dislike for the man. On one of those rare times when I’d paid attention, Peck had been drilling him. For some reason I couldn't remember, I’d read the assignment and after it was obvious Peck wasn’t going to let up on the poor kid, I'd jumped in and directed away Peck’s attention. I’d regretted it ever since because Thor hadn’t left me alone.

  Having outside connections wasn’t a good idea for my line of work. Friends were a luxury that I couldn’t afford. I’m sure Beltran would have wanted me to be nicer for the sake of my cover, but I didn’t see the need. It wasn’t worth the effort.

  While pulling out my tablet, I saw that the dark haired girl from several rows up was trying to make eye contact with me again. She’d been eyeing me since the beginning of the semester.

  I looked away with a tight smile and hoped that Shannon hadn’t noticed. Sure enough, a message popped up on my tablet from Shannon a moment later.

  I didn’t respond as I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position. These chairs weren't made for somebody with long legs like mine. That, combined with the body armor I wore, always made attending class a chore. We were also required to wear thin invisible latex covers that hid our fingerprints that made it harder to use the tablet. I’d long since gotten used to those, but I doubted I’d ever be comfortable with the armor.

  When I brought up the news, I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t checking out of guilt, but knew that it was a lie. A few minutes later I found a follow up to an initial news story about Bruce Andrews’ murder. They’d identified the woman Shannon had fought. Gina Townsend. I read on until the article identified the man I’d killed.

  Terrence Morrison. The name seemed to burn into by brain and I knew I’d never forget it. I scanned the rest of the article hoping for additional information about the victims but was disappointed.

  Still, the names would be a good starting point. I forwarded the news link to Shannon and then elbowed her.

  “You check the woman, I’ll research the men?”

  She scowled, wondering what I meant, until I pointed at the message that had just popped up on her screen. Sighing, she nodded.

 
Toward the end of class, I hadn’t managed to learn anything useful about Terrence and was becoming convinced that Terrence Morrison wasn’t the man’s real name. I didn’t have access to all the tools the research team did back at Black Brick, but I should have been able to learn something about him.

  Shannon nudged me and I looked in the direction she indicated. Peck was picking on a student in the row in front of us and the dark haired girl was staring at me. I gave her a small smile. She returned it with a wide mouthed grin. My face turned red and I avoided making eye contact after that but could feel her eyes burning into me.

  Did she have no shame? Shannon was sitting right beside me. Part of our cover was that we were dating. We acted the part when on campus in a way we never did at Black Brick. Well, at least not when others were watching.

  “Stop leading her on,” Shannon said.

  “You baited me.”

  “You know, there’s something odd about this. You’re ugly, cute in a blockhead sort of way, but still ugly. Think she’s onto us?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re paranoid.”

  Shannon scowled. “She’s way out of your league.”

  “Thanks for thinking so highly of me. She's not a problem.” My tablet vibrated and I turned the screen back on, Beltran had just sent an email. The results from Andrews’ phone were back. I smiled. The information gave us a new lead and Beltran had included a mission assignment. Shannon and I had less than two hours to catch a plane to San Diego. We needed to investigate a hacker named Jason Kurt.

  Bruce Andrews had called Jason Kurt seven times in the last two weeks. The surveillance team was going to be furious that they missed this. I didn’t want to be around when Beltran chewed them out for their mistake.

  How had Andrews kept the calls off the radars? We had his home, office, car, phone, tablets, and computer bugged.

  I was busy reading through the report when Peck called my name.

  “Mr. Chever, what's your take on Executive Order 11905?” I didn’t recognize the name until Shannon kicked my foot. I looked up, already halfway through Beltran’s email. The classroom discussion was the furthest thing from my mind.

  “Mr. Chever,” Mr. Peck said. “What’s more important than this class?”

  My feeling of elation evaporated as I looked up into the cold eyes of Peck and my mind went blank. I used my Sam Chever alias on campus and I was embarrassed I hadn’t recognized it.

  “Executive Order 11905?” prompted Peck.

  “Not sure I’m familiar with it,” I said.

  “Skipped your reading, I see. I’m referring to our government’s ban on assassination.” Peck folded his arms and glared. The man should have been a judge, I felt condemned and guilty. “Your thoughts?”

  I nearly choked.

  Terrence Morrison’s face came to mind unbidden. It was followed by the other man I had killed. Sure, I hadn’t assassinated any of my victims, but that sort of activity fit within my job description. “Uh... It’s important to make sure that other leaders feel reassured that we won’t target them. It would change the dynamics if we had an open policy of assassination.”

  “Open policy? Do you suggest that there should be a secret policy?”

  I cursed. I shouldn’t have answered that way. I wished Peck would leave me alone. “Why not? Why should soldiers sacrifice their lives because of disagreements among idiot politicians?”

  This wasn’t going well. Shannon was looking away, but I could tell she thought I was being reckless.

  “So. Mr. Chever, you have no qualms about our government planning cold blooded murder?” Shannon placed her hand on my leg, her nails dug into my thigh.

  “I didn’t say that.” I could feel sweat forming on my forehead. “I’m just saying war is costly. We should make the leaders duke it out in the ring instead.” It was a lame attempt at a joke but nobody laughed.

  “We’d stop electing old white men to the Presidency,” Peck said. He smiled at the smattering of laughter he received. The pressure from Shannon’s nails was going to tear through my jeans if she pressed any harder.

  “Mr. Chever, please be sure to read the assignment for our next class. I'll send you some extra reading, be prepared.” Peck dismissed us.

  “Skirting the line, Sam.” Shannon whispered as we packed up our things. I followed her eyes to the dark haired woman.

  “It’s going to take us forty minutes to get to the airport,” I said. We still had to get back to Black Brick and collect our luggage. We always left it packed so that we were ready to go at a moment's notice.

  I grimaced when I noticed Thor approaching, a wide grin on his goofy face. He was a short man and kept his hair cropped close to his head.

  “We need to go,” I said but it was too late. Thor was already here.

  “Peck was tough, but you held your own.” Thor grinned and alternated between me and Shannon hoping for an introduction. I wasn’t going to give it.

  “That wasn’t bad. I was just having some fun. Good seeing you.” I slung my pack over my shoulder and headed for the door, leaving Shannon to catch up.

  Chapter 4

  The frothy water reached out to lick the tip of my shoe, but my foot wasn’t down on the sand long enough for it to matter. The pounding of my legs on the beach seemed to be in harmony with those of Bill Martinez and Tom Vandyke who ran to the side of me. The crashing waves kept time with our gait and the sunny day was a welcome change to the cold back home.

  When we'd arrived at the airport the previous day, I'd been surprised to see Martinez, Tom, and Cherry Mann waiting for us. Beltran's email hadn't mentioned anything about them. Like Shannon and I, Cherry and Tom were still on temporary status.

  Martinez wasn't part of our usual team, but I'd worked with him in the past. I wasn't happy to have him along because I didn’t like the way that he operated. The last time we’d been on an assignment together he had broken a man’s kneecap to get him to talk. I could still hear the man’s screams whenever Martinez was nearby.

  The flight had been uneventful and we'd spent the evening before doing surveillance and research on our target, Jason Kurt. This morning, Kurt was still sleeping and we'd all agreed that we could afford some time at the beach before he woke up.

  I allowed myself to relax so that I could take it all in and was glad I didn't have to attend class today. A run on the beach was a much better substitute.

  The breeze was slight, the air warm, and the sun was out. It had been months since I’d experienced pleasant weather.

  One day I wanted to retire and live in a place like this. I took a deep breath and let it out.

  I closed my eyes and was a kid again, running through the desert sun of Texas, the beating sun cleansing my soul. That brought with it the disapproving face of Sister Bautista. I pushed it away and allowed my focus to return.

  Beside me, there was a swift movement as Tom kicked out and connected with my shin. I shifted my weight to compensate and was barely able to keep from toppling into the surf and got my foot wet in the process. So much for dry feet.

  “Still two to one,” I said, smiling when Tom didn’t answer.

  “Break a leg or sprain an ankle,” Martinez said. “I’m not helping either of you.”

  We fell silent and I pushed ahead while keeping a wary eye on Tom, he matched my speed and took a slight lead. I didn’t make a move to get ahead because I was better able to keep an eye on him now.

  “A little help?” A woman waved to get our attention and pointed at a volleyball that had landed just ahead of us. I was surprised to see a group of people out this time of the morning. It wasn’t even ten yet. They looked like college students. Weren't they supposed to be sleeping till noon?

  The jagged cliffs towered several hundred feet behind the woman and she was standing in front of a pile of a bulbous ocean plant that I had no name for. Despite my concentration, I noticed that her bright red swimsuit made a nice contrast to the rest of her.

  Like a distant gust
of wind in a storm, I didn’t allow this thought to touch me, and was surprised when I realized I was darting ahead.

  “Sure thing.” I scooped up the ball and tossed it to her before either of the others responded. It was of course no surprise that Martinez hadn’t made an effort and Tom appeared to not have noticed the woman.

  If Tom hadn’t been good with a rifle at a thousand yards and deft with a computer, he would have long since been washed off the team because of his habit of zoning out.

  “Join us?” The woman smiled, motioning back at the game. That small part of me that I never let take control was tempted. It looked fun, but we didn’t have long before we needed to return to Shannon and Cherry, who’d opted out of the morning run to tan instead. Tom, who’d just noticed the woman, looked ready to stop, but Martinez didn’t slow or even glance at her.

  “Thanks. Next time.” I felt a twinge of regret. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been able to relax and if I was honest with myself, I wanted nothing more than to join the game.

  I got lost in the run again as the sun washed over me. The warm breeze from the ocean felt good and both were a perfect help to maintaining my focus.

  Before long, we ran out of time. When the others turned back, I hesitated, and wished that I could continue.

  The cliffs ended just ahead and I could make out a greater expanse of beach. I’d run forever, if given the chance. For a fleeting moment, I thought of fleeing my problems, but slowed and chased after the others.

  True to habit, they were running faster now.

  One of these days, I would just keep running, but that couldn’t be today. I still needed the structured life that Black Brick provided. Without it, I doubted that I would have made it past the deaths of my parents.

  Even with our faster speed, Tom would still have attempted to trip me up, and I wasn’t in the mood for the game any longer. I kept Martinez in between us. If Tom tried it with Martinez, he’d end up with a broken neck.