Sabotage: A Reece Culver Thriller - Book 2

by Bryan Koepke

  “Sounds like we’ve got company.”

  “It’s amazing up here. I love this place,” Marie said. “Reece, I love spending time with you!”

  He’d heard what she’d said, but his eyes were on the two ATV’s approaching them from lower on the hill. Karl was leading and a second, red ATV was close behind. The driver was outfitted all in black and had a determined air. It worried Reece— the shots back at the condo in Denver had been too close.

  It looked like the guy on the red machine was chasing Karl, but he couldn’t be sure. Then both machines veered off to the right. He could still hear them approaching. Reece started his own machine and started down the trail, no wider than a car width with thick trees on both sides. Karl emerged from the forest about five hundred yards back and it looked like he’d lost the other ATV.

  “Hang on. Here they come,” he said, gripping the handlebars and waiting for the other man to pass. Karl flew by, stirring up a huge cloud of dust as he passed. Reece gunned it and took off after them, wondering where the other ATV had gone.

  After a few miles of chase Karl slowed as he topped a big mountain covered in thick green grass. Bristle cone pines dotted the landscape and the trail was a narrow dirt path that split the middle. Reece pulled up next to him. Candice was frowning, but Karl had a huge smile.

  “This is a fucking blast,” Karl said as he silenced his machine and climbed off.

  “Start yours back up and follow me,” Reece said.

  He drove thirty feet and then steered off the side of the trail so that other ATVs could pass. Reece opened a compartment on the front of his machine and pulled out a blue and green blanket. He spread it out and then put rocks on each of the corners to keep it from blowing away in the breeze. Up above, the sun blazed down on them from a cloudless sky. He loved it up here on top of the mountain.

  From the ATV he pulled the cooler he’d brought and set it down on the ground next to Marie. She took out a stack of paper plates and several other items. She unwrapped a bunch of chicken tenders she’d earlier put in tinfoil and laid them out on the lid of the cooler. Reece handed everyone a plastic cup, and after uncorking a bottle of merlot he poured the wine. Candice was on Karl’s right side and hadn’t said a word since they’d stopped. Clearly, she wasn’t enjoying herself, but he didn’t care. Marie was having fun and that was all that mattered.

  “After we rest a bit, I’ll take you guys up to one of the placers. This whole area up here was big gold and silver mining territory back in the 1860s,” Reece said.

  “That’s interesting. I didn’t know there was gold in Colorado,” Candice piped up. “The mine sounds interesting, but I vote for going back to the house and taking a drive over to Vail. Marie, I’ve heard there’s some great shopping.”

  Marie didn’t acknowledge Candice. It was like she heard what the other woman said, but wasn’t interested.

  A little while later, after visiting the gold mine, Reece led Karl on a ride to a small mountain lake. He came upon a narrow section of trail that had a big drop off on the left side. The hill rose steeply on the right and the trail in front of them pitched up steeply. Reece thought he heard the moan of another ATV coming up behind them. When the trail widened slightly, he slowed to listen.

  Karl was coming up fast. He squeaked past and Reece took off after him. Karl had definitely learned how to ride and was giving Reece some competition. He tapped Marie’s leg and hunched down, as if to say hang on. The speedometer was pegged at thirty-five miles an hour and rising.

  There it is again, that low torque of another ATV, Reece thought. He leaned to the left as they took a sharp corner, gaining on Karl and Candice. The trail straightened out and was flatter. He heard the noise again and looked to the left just in time to see a bald guy cruise past on his red ATV.

  Reece followed, wondering why the guy was in such a need to pass. The trail didn’t go that far. Maybe another mile or two and then it dead-ended at an area where the Forest Service had closed the trail to keep people off of the precious slow-growing tundra.

  Up ahead, the red ATV was closing in on Karl. Reece squinted past his goggles toward the dirt-covered landscape. There was no seeing in the cloud of dust. He slowed to allow things to clear so he could get a better look.

  The bald guy had something tucked under his right arm. Oh shit, is that a gun? Reece grabbed the throttle, sending them howling toward the red ATV. As he got closer, he could see it was a rifle the other man was aiming. The guy was about to take a shot.

  Reece grabbed Marie’s thigh and turned back toward her.

  “If you can reach it, get my pack off the back. It’s got some bungee cords holding it down,” he yelled.

  In the mirror on the left handle bar he could see her unfastening the web of stretchy black cords that held down the backpack. He felt one of her hands on his shoulder as if she was stabilizing herself as the ATV jostled over a section of rocks. Up ahead, Reece could see that Karl had gained some distance. Reece took his thumb off the throttle lever and let his machine glide down a hill. He reached back and took the backpack from Marie, placing it between his legs in front of him.

  With one hand Reece unzipped the pack and fished through it for his handgun. He couldn’t let the man take a shot at Karl. Mashing down on the throttle, he accelerated after the two vehicles. I know I put my gun in here. Where is it? He felt Marie wrap her arms around him and it helped. Reece pulled out the empty bottle of wine they’d drank earlier and tossed it to the side. He looked down at the speedometer and saw that they were traveling up a big hill at thirty miles per hour. He was gaining on the red ATV and he wondered if this was the same guy that shot out the windows on the side of the luxury condominium back in Denver.

  If so, Karl was in grave danger. Reece jammed his hand down into the pack and grasped something metallic. Without seeing he hoped it was his Smith & Wesson .357 magnum handgun. It had been his dad’s before him, and it was something Reece took great pride in owning. As he pulled his hand out of the backpack, he worked it down onto the grip and knew he had the gun he was looking for. It was loaded with seven rounds. A feature he loved about the .357P since most guns of this type held six bullets.

  It would be tough taking a shot left-handed. Reece was a righty. He lifted Marie’s hand from his waist, moving it up to the right handlebar grip.

  “You’re going to help me. Put your thumb here on the throttle,” he yelled.

  Marie let him guide her and took the throttle. She awkwardly sped up and slowed down bucking the ATV like a wild horse.

  “Just keep steady pressure on it like this,” he yelled, pressing his thumb on top of hers. She quickly got the hang of it and they began accelerating forward. Reece let go of the handlebar and passed the gun in front of his chest. Then he reached forward with his left hand, grabbing the bar. He aimed the firearm, but they weren’t close enough for him to take a shot.

  “Marie, we need to go faster. Get us up close behind that guy on the red ATV,” Reece yelled. As soon as he’d finished his sentence, he felt the vehicle accelerate into the dust cloud ahead of them. They were gaining and he squinted, trying to see the assassin.

  Karl was a few yards ahead of the red ATV. It looked like he was slowing to make a series of turns. They were all turning to the right. On the left side of the trail was a steep embankment. Reece pushed outward on the left handlebar, turning them to the right. He braced his handgun against the handlebars, aimed for the front of the red ATV, and pulled the trigger.

  The nose of the .357 jumped with recoil as he fired his weapon. Karl was ahead and the other ATV was close behind. Reece could see the man aiming his rifle. He had to stop him, and pronto.

  They were turning back left now around a steady curve. The terrain rose sharply ahead of them. Coming back to the right, Reece raised his gun aiming over the sight and fired at the front left tire of the red ATV.

  Suddenly the man in front of him jerked sideways and launched off the trail. Reece grabbed the brake on the left h
andlebar and mashed down on the foot brake. They slid to a stop and he watched Karl speed off in front of them, oblivious to what had just happened.

  Reece shifted his ATV into park, left the engine running and jumped off. He ran down the dirt trail, holding the revolver in his hand, ready to fire. Up ahead he saw what looked like tire tracks from the man’s red ATV. There was the imprint of the knobby tire and then nothing. That had to be where he left the edge of the trail and plunged down the side.

  A steep rock face ran almost straight down to a boulder-strewn bottom, but he didn’t spot anything there – no crashed ATV, no blood, no mangled body of the man who’d earlier fired his gun at Karl Rhodes. He had disappeared into thin air.

  Chapter 52

  Alex James held back a few feet behind the younger woman. An almost constant breeze ripped at her short black bangs. This was her territory, not his. She’d been trained for all sorts of things, and picking the lock of someone’s flat was the least of her skills. He could see the tattoo of the multicolored bird on her neck, and he remembered back to the time they’d been naked and inebriated and she’d shared its origin with him. That didn’t matter now. What mattered was whether they’d be able to find the computer this intruder had been using to tap into the dead journalist’s laptop.

  To their right was the front door of another unit, and out at the curb bicycles were chained to the black iron fence that held a gate leading to the lower level of units. A few hours earlier, the area would have been full of people coming and going from their work or school courses, but now they were relaxing, or in bed.

  She’d called Alex on his phone to tell him she’d seen the man leave, as he had every night fifteen minutes earlier. He had a routine, and if he followed the same way he had the previous evening, they’d have a half hour to search his home.

  He hated this sort of thing. The chance of getting caught in the act of breaking into someone else’s house was unsettling to him, but it had all come about so fast. This was the man she’d spotted spying on her, on the dead man’s computer.

  He heard a click, felt her hand tap his wrist, and he followed her in. The interior was devoid of light. The curtains were drawn, and it smelled like a mixture of Earl Grey tea and black liquorish. While Alex could understand the need for an occasional warm drink, he didn’t know the reason for the second odor.

  “You take the downstairs and I’ll go up,” Mira said.

  “No, we’re sticking together.”

  “Very well, then,” she said, making a face at him. They went up the narrow staircase to the upper floor. Once at the top, Alex eased into a room past a partially closed door. It was the bedroom, and the sheets and covers lay in a heap. To the right toiletries were spread out on the bathroom sink.

  “Bachelor’s pad,” she said.

  Alex pushed past her through the door he’d entered earlier, past the top of the staircase and into what looked like a smaller bedroom.

  “Got it,” he yelled a little louder than he’d intended.

  Mira sprinted toward him and went to work, dismantling the top of the personal computer.

  “What are you doing?” Alex said.

  “The hard drive. It’s the guts of the thing. Without it he’s got nothing.”

  “It’s that simple?” Alex said as he watched Mira pitch the flimsy black steel top toward the other side of the room and dig into the pocket of her black leather jacket. She took out her right hand and held a slender screwdriver, which she used to unfasten several metal screws from within the crowded confines of the computer chassis. In less than thirty seconds she’d unfastened and unplugged the heart of this man’s computer.

  Chapter 53

  Reece reached back and patted Marie’s thigh before mashing down on the throttle paddle. The ATV zoomed forward as he drove up a steep hill. The sides of the trail were covered in a thick weave of pine, spruce, and aspen trees. The air smelled clean and Reece smiled, hoping he’d taken care of the threat. Up ahead he saw that Karl had stopped. He and Candice were standing on the side of the trail, pointing at something.

  Reece rode up to them, shifted the ATV into park, and hopped off to see what they were looking at. A hundred yards to the west was a small group of deer. The animals were aware of them, but they held their ground, their ears moving like radar dishes back and forth.

  “Karl, are you guys okay?” Reece said.

  “Yeah, we’re fine. Why do you ask?”

  Reece led them over to the ATV and pointed at the right fender. Reece watched Karl’s reaction when he saw the bullet hole that had been punctured the thin plastic.

  “You guys are lucky. Some guy on a red ATV was following you. He took at least one shot. We’ve got to get out of here. There may be others,” Reece said.

  “What are you saying? Someone was shooting at us?” Karl said.

  “Yes, we don’t have time to stand around. Get on your ATV and follow me. I know a shortcut back to the house. Stay close and don’t lose sight of me.”

  *

  Once back at the cabin, Reece dismounted from his ATV with only one thing on his mind. Karl and Candice had already gone inside. Marie was walking that way too when she stopped and turned back toward him.

  “I’ll be right in,” he said as he shifted direction and headed over toward the garage. Once inside, he flipped on the light switch and opened the passenger’s side door of the car. What he saw next was no surprise. The glove box was wide open, left that way by whoever had been there before him. Two cellphone batteries and their matching SIM cards were sitting on the lid with the light from inside the glove box illuminating them.

  “Mother fucker!” Reece picked up the two batteries. KR, MR, but no CC.

  “That high-maintenance bitch,” he said, wanting to punch the dashboard of the car. Instead, he took Karl’s battery and SIM card to the workbench in the front of the garage. He set them down on the top of the red steel vise that had once been mounted in the garage of his father Al’s home back in St. Louis. Reece pulled a claw hammer down from the tool rack and smashed them both with repeated blows.

  Down on the floor, he spotted the five-gallon bucket he’d used for a recent gold panning trip near the town of Alma. Six inches of muddy brown water was left in the bottom of the pail. Reece scooped the shattered remains of Karl’s cellphone battery and SIM card off the vise and dropped them into the bucket, making a small splash. Now all I need is her stuff and we should be free. Reece stormed toward the cabin.

  Once inside, he heard their voices in the kitchen. Karl was at the table and Marie was close to him. Upon seeing Reece, Marie stepped back. Her body language changed and she folded her arms across her chest. Her reaction seemed odd somehow, but he didn’t have time for that.

  “Where’s that woman?” Reece said.

  “I beg your pardon,” Karl said.

  Marie went to the refrigerator and started pulling out lunch items. She set a loaf of bread and a package of lunchmeat on the counter, and then turned back toward Reece, giving him one of her coy smiles.

  He wasn’t impressed. She was still trying to win over her ex-husband from his younger mistress. Reece was tiring of all of them.

  “You might want to have a talk with your mistress,” Reece said, softening his tone. “She’s been using her phone, and that’s what almost got you killed this afternoon.”

  “What are you saying?” Karl said, standing up abruptly. “Are you sure of that?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Reece said.

  Almost as if on cue, Candice Carlyle walked into the room wearing a pair of too tight mid-thigh khaki shorts. She looked good in them and she knew it. That was the problem. For her top she wore a white tennis shirt, along with matching shoes with frilly yellow socks. She walked over to Karl and started rubbing his back. Marie was staring at the woman, and if her eyes had been daggers the other woman would have been bleeding to death.

  “What’s all the commotion about?” she said. “Are you ready to head into
Breckenridge? Or should we go up to Vail?”

  “Dear, have you been using your phone?” Karl said.

  Reece bit his tongue, expecting her to lie. Candice’s eyes darted to each of them and then to the ground. She took a tentative step back and then shrugged her shoulders, making a pouty face.

  “Well, if you really have to know. I did make one call last night,” Candice said. “It was for the company. I had to make sure my assistant was carrying on without me.”

  “What part of don’t you use your phone did you not get?” Reece said, raising his voice. He could feel himself turning red. He wanted to show all of them the door. “You know what? I’m done with you people. I’ll call the shuttle service in Breckenridge and get you a ride to wherever you want…”

  Chapter 54

  Haisley sat in the gloomy room waiting for Inspector Daren Dixon of Scotland Yard to return. He was thankful he’d seen the light go on in the upstairs bedroom and withdrawn back to the grocery where he’d gotten coffee and a paper earlier that evening. Five minutes later, he’d called Dixon and told him to go to the flat. After unlocking the front door, Dixon and five of his best people went in and cleared the place before Haisley was allowed to join them in the foyer.

  They quickly found the remains of the personal computer Karl Rhodes had left in his possession.

  The door to the room opened and Dixon walked in with a pair of steaming blue mugs. “I brought us some hot tea. So, Mr. Averton, take me through the events leading up to your seeing the light on in your bedroom,” Dixon said.

  “Well, like I told you earlier, I stepped out to get the paper and a pint of bourbon.”

  “Did you notice anything unusual on your way down the block?”

  “No, nothing other than a dog barking in the distance,” Haisley said.

  “Okay, so they took the hard drive out of Rhodes’ computer. Why do you suppose they were interested in that? I mean, we know they hacked into his computer a few weeks earlier at both his London apartment and at Draecon International,” Dixon said.