by Heskett, Jim
He cleared his throat. “Marcus says he’s leaving town tomorrow. For good, I suspect.”
“Understood,” Ember said.
“One other thing: Marcus has two phones. Serena told me she thinks she was able to notice that without him noticing her noticing.”
“Two phones? It could be an angle worth exploring.”
“I agree,” Layne said.
“I’ve got an appointment now. Let’s link up later.”
They said their goodbyes and Ember sighed as she retrieved her pistols from the steering column. She strongly suspected going after Tyson was a fruitless exercise. Layne had all but confirmed it during their last conversation.
Still, she had to try. There had to be a way to link Marcus and the sniper Omar White, and Tyson still seemed like her best bet to make that happen.
Ember crossed the street and unbuttoned the top button of her top to display a dash more skin, in case that might give her an edge. Men were sometimes easily distracted.
For a second, she thought she saw someone she recognized from the DAC driving by, but a moment later, the car passed without incident and her fear subsided. So far, she hadn’t had to face any assassins looking for revenge. That didn’t mean it wasn’t coming, though.
Ember pulled back the door to A1 Lawnmower Repair and shuffled inside the cramped and dank space. The air was thick and pungent, full of dust and the stink of oil and metal. A single dim bulb hanging above lit the whole one-room store.
Tyson was behind the counter, sitting on a stool, glasses perched on the end of his nose. He tapped on an ancient plastic adding machine with one hand, with a slew of paper receipts clutched in the other. Ka-cherg, ka-cherg, ka-cherg.
The lackey was standing near a shelf closer to the back door, eyes forward. The man did track Ember as she came in, but he said nothing and made no defensive movement.
Tyson took off his glasses, giving her a look at that curved scar under his eye. He smiled. “Well, good morning. What can I do for you?”
She reached into her pocket. The lackey broke his statue pose, reaching a hand inside his coat, but Tyson flexed a few fingers of one hand to wave the guy off.
Ember took the printed picture of Omar White and set it on the counter. Tyson glanced at it, then he grinned up at Ember. He had one of the smarmiest smiles Ember had ever seen, and it made her want to crack him in the nose with a clenched fist.
“Wait. I know you. You’ve been to my other business, haven’t you?”
“Do you know this man?” she said, pointing an angry finger at the picture.
Tyson shrugged. “Hard to say. It isn’t very clear.”
“I don’t care about you. I’m not here for you, so you can drop the self-important act.”
Tyson grunted and shifted on the stool, making it creak. “Now you’re hurting my feelings.”
“The man in the picture is Omar White, and I know you know that. Like I said, I’m not here to take you down. I know you’re way too careful for that.”
Tyson kept his eyes on her, not looking down at the picture. “Don’t know him, sorry. Do you need lawnmower parts, or is there anything else I can help you with?”
“He works for you.”
Tyson shrugged. “If you say so. A lot of people work for me.”
“I just need to know if you put Omar in contact with a man named Marcus Lonsdale. I need something concrete. Your name doesn’t have to be included.”
Tyson pursed his lips and sighed, studying Ember. He didn’t appear willing to budge. All paper trails leading out of A1 and Pink Door were airtight, and nothing physical connected Marcus to Tyson to Omar.
But Ember still had to try. She was banking on the hope that Tyson would have no love for Marcus, since he so often tended to rub people the wrong way. Especially if they were no longer useful to him.
“Marcus Lonsdale doesn’t care about you. He will chew you up and spit you out without giving a single shit about what happens you or your business. There’s no benefit to you protecting him.”
“Can’t help you,” Tyson said, and said nothing more. His eyes lowered, and he went back to his bookkeeping task. Ka-cherg.
If Ember had to, she could put a bullet in the lackey and subdue Tyson. She could take one of those coiled hunks of wire on the nearby shelf and insert an end under Tyson’s fingernails. Torture might make him admit he knew both Omar and Marcus, but to what end?
Ember already knew she would find no direct evidence, and an admission from local up-and-coming gangster Tyson Darby wasn’t worth much.
This wasn’t working.
“Thank you for your time,” she said as she picked up the picture of Omar and backed out of the shop. As the door closed behind her, Ember realized there was a good chance she would never find justice for the killings of Gabe and Isabel. All of this had been for nothing.
But she wasn’t ready to accept defeat yet. Time for a new plan.
Chapter Thirty-Six
HELMUT
Helmut had to rent almost the entire third floor of this motel to house all his men. It was an expense he hadn’t wanted to personally shoulder, so he used Thomas’ corporate card.
No one in Sacramento knew about his death. That was one task the brawny eastern European wasn’t yet willing to undertake.
He had things to do first.
Helmut had gathered most of the men in two adjoining rooms in the motel, and he had them working on finding Ember Clarke. They were on laptops, sketching notes and maps on legal pads and whiteboards, trying to pin down her location. Their physical skills were wasted googling and checking social media feeds, but he needed eyeballs, and they each had two to spare at the moment. The flurry of activity and chatter back and forth between the men gave Helmut a sense of purpose, something he desperately needed now.
Helmut walked from room to room, hands behind his back, saying little. Not only because his swollen tongue still made speech tricky. Also, the pain in his heart made him want to weep, which he couldn’t do in front of his men. The intensity of the feeling still surprised him, but he couldn’t deal with that now. They needed him to be solid. They needed strength and guidance.
Helmut had known Thomas for several years. They had maintained a working relationship despite multiple company reorganizations, as the companies like to shuffle leadership hierarchies from time to time. Through it all, Helmut and Thomas had stayed together. And, even though Helmut was a couple of years older than Thomas, he had always thought of his boss as a father figure. As a mentor.
And now, everything would have to change. The mentor was gone, and now Helmut had to figure out how to carry on the legacy, and to make sure the void created by Thomas’ murder didn’t widen and swallow them all.
He paused by a group of three men working to access Ember’s credit card history. So far, they’d had no luck, and he could tell his hovering presence made them uncomfortable. So, he wandered away after a few moments to stand in the corner of the room and observe everyone at once.
This whole business had turned from promising to catastrophic. Some unknown assassin had taken out Thomas in his office trailer last night and then vanished into the night without a trace. With one flick of a knife, the whole landscape of Firedrake Biochemical had changed. Soon enough, the failsafe project would be canceled. Draconis or Drache Global or Drago Medesinsk or some other branch of the tree would absorb all of Firedrake’s resources, and Thomas’ name and his deeds would evaporate. Whatever Draconis’ future plans, Helmut and the others at Firedrake would have nothing to do with it. They would receive no credit for the work they had already done. The name “Firedrake” itself would be scrubbed from the records like a failed startup that never achieved full speed.
Lost to history. This potential erasure hurt almost as much as Thomas’ death.
And so, Helmut knew he needed to do something to stop it. He needed to wipe out Zach Bennett and Ember Clarke. And he needed to do it fast. Soon, one of these foot soldiers would tip off someo
ne back in California about Thomas’ death, maybe even accidentally. That information would make its way to the higher-ups at Draconis, then this little recruiting experiment in Colorado would end. Helmut would be called home, given a new babysitting assignment, looking after some idiot junior executive.
Killing Zach and Ember wouldn’t bring back Thomas. Also, it probably wouldn’t save the failsafe project. But it would be something. Maybe it would show the leadership team at Draconis that Firedrake could continue, under Helmut’s careful and experienced guidance.
The chances were slim, but he had to do it. Besides, hadn’t Helmut walked alongside Thomas Milligan for years? Had he not been privy to many conversations, many business lessons from Thomas? Enough to qualify as an extended mentorship? Perhaps Draconis would take that into account.
He felt wetness invading the corners of his eyes, so he excused himself from the room and stood on the walkway overlooking the motel courtyard. Snow covered a set of patio furniture down below. He leaned over the railing and inhaled deep breaths, trying to calm himself. Above all, Helmut needed focus now.
His phone buzzed, and he took it out of his pocket to see an unknown number. Helmut usually didn’t answer such calls, but something told him to take this one. He held it out in front of his face, whistling air through his nose as he debated tapping the button to accept.
“Hello?”
“Helmut Semjonov?”
“Who the hell? How you get this number?”
The voice on the other end of the line chuckled. “My name is Marcus. You don’t know this, but you and I have a shit-ton of things in common. Particularly, one nasty little bug who’s been plaguing us both.”
“Is that so?”
“It sure is. It’s time you and I opened a line of dialogue about Ember Clarke.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
EMBER
For the second time in two weeks, Ember piloted her car to the airport with the express intention of sending her passenger off for a flight. A week ago, Zach had decided to stay, because they still had unfinished business. Now, as far as Zach was concerned, that business had been finished.
Ember hadn’t told him Helmut was still alive, and still in Colorado. If she told him about that, Zach would want to stay and help, and there wasn’t much he could do in that department. He didn’t know how to handle a gun, he didn’t know how to gain the element of surprise on an unsuspecting target. In the upcoming challenges, Zach would only be in the way.
He would hate to think of himself as dead weight.
Making the decision not to tell Zach about Helmut had been a difficult one. After admitting her real name and real occupation, she had promised him she would never lie to him again. She’d meant it when she’d said it, but the circumstances had changed. She had to conceal the full truth to save his life.
Keeping him hidden was an obstacle, and if he intended to insert himself in events, that made managing variables too difficult. Her charming boyfriend was so insistent on helping and feeling useful. If he stayed, it would only result in his death. Ember felt certain of this.
If she lost him… she didn’t know what she would do.
Things were about to get more complicated. Much more complicated and much more lethal. She could feel it in her bones that the end was near. His safety grew with his distance from Denver, and if she had to lie to potentially save his life, that was a piece of guilt she was willing to swallow.
He looked at the boarding pass on his phone, hand on his backpack. “What do we do in Michigan?”
“Try to stay warm in the winter. When the weather turns nice, we can go camping up in Sleeping Bear Dunes, we can pick cherries in Traverse City. Did you know you can surf in Michigan?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I had no idea.”
“How do you feel about all this?”
Zach puffed up his cheeks for a second and then blew the air out. “It’s weird to think that it’s over. My Firedrake drama, at least. For a while now, it’s felt like a bad relationship I’ve been trapped inside of, thinking I might never be free of it.” He paused to face her. “I have you to thank for pulling me out of it. Seriously. Everything you’ve done for me.”
“You’re my man. I'll always keep you out of trouble. Maybe next time, though, we do a little research before you accept a job offer?”
His laugh-snort broke the tension. “Yeah, that’s fair. Also, I can say, without a doubt, since you sat across from me on that patio and I came over to offer you a doughnut, this has been the most interesting six weeks of my life.”
“Yeah. Mine too.” She leaned over and looped her fingers inside his. “I love you, Zach.”
“I love you, too.”
His response had come with no hesitation, which surprised Ember, since those three little words had unintentionally slipped out of her own mouth. They weren’t words she’d used often in her life, even with men she’d dated for extended periods.
She hadn’t meant to say it. But it came with a giant sense of relief that the mountain of drama had been worth it.
“You do?” she asked.
“I do, and I didn’t think that would happen. I didn’t think getting caught up in a ring of intrigue and violence and extortion and that sort of mess would be the second most compelling thing that happened to me over the last month-plus.”
“Me either,” she said. “I’m going to be done with all this in another day or two. Then I’ll be on my way to meet you, and we’ll never have to deal with this, ever again. You and me against the world from here on out.”
He paused, staring at the floor mat. “Should I stay?”
“No baby. You have to go. I have to know you’re okay, far away from here.”
“Are we going to be on the run? I mean, I don’t know if I’m prepared for that. Is that our life from now on? ”
Ember pursed her lips for a second and considered selling Zach the positive spin on that possible outcome. Instead, she shrugged. “I don’t know. That depends on what happens here, I think. I still have work to do.”
He took a breath and cleared his throat, appearing deep in concentration. His little brow wrinkled as he thought, and Ember smiled at his sincere and endearing contemplation face.
“Hopefully, our future has fewer guns and tactical vests, and more picking out couches and silverware sets.”
“I want you to train me,” he said.
The sudden change of topic startled her. “Huh?”
“I don’t want to be helpless any more. I don’t want to be at someone else’s mercy.”
“Train you to do what, babe?”
“How to fight. How to… do spy stuff, I guess. I want to be able to take care of you, and myself, too.”
She leaned over to kiss him. “‘Spy stuff?’ You’re so cute. Sure, I can teach you how to fight. The other stuff… we’ll have to see how you do.”
“I can live with that.” He glanced at his phone and frowned. “I should go. The TSA line at DIA is always awful at this time of decade.”
He pulled her close for another kiss as the cars behind them appeared to grow impatient, waiting for her to relinquish her coveted spot along the main drop-off curb. Zach put his hands on either side of her face as they looked at each other, twelve inches apart. “Come back to me. Okay? I don’t want to do this without you.”
“I promise,” she said.
Zach nodded. “I don’t want to get all weepy, so I’m going to just go.”
She didn’t want him to leave, she wanted him to stay and spend every available second with her. Such a powerful feeling overwhelmed her. It even frightened her a little, because Ember couldn’t remember feeling this way about a guy before. That dagger of hypothetical sadness at the thought of separating for an extended amount of time. It cut into her.
She bit on her lower lip to add a little physical pain to distract from the emotional pain. “I’ll see you soon. Don’t you go falling in love with some random Michigan hussy before I get a chance to joi
n you there.”
He paused with the door open, grinning. “No promises. I’ll text you when I land.”
Then he shut the door and walked away, and Ember felt a sting in the center of her chest, like the stab of a scorpion’s tail. For the first time since they had met, Zach was going away. Minutes after Ember saying those three powerful words for the first time, he would hop on a plane and travel halfway across the country.
This burdened her. She had to assume he would be safe, far away from Firedrake, far away from Helmut, far away from anyone who could do him harm. Still, she wanted him close for his protection. She wanted to know he was okay at all times.
These thoughts weighed on Ember so heavily that she didn’t even notice the car tailing her.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
EMBER
Today Ember was driving a late model Toyota Camry. She hadn’t touched her own car in several days, not since finding out Marcus had used the general DAC message board to expose her as a (former) employee of the FBI. With a couple weeks of Club members warring, she had no idea how many were left. Sixty? Eighty? Some of those remaining might not even care about her real identity.
But, she knew plenty of them would be mad enough to devote a few days to hunting and killing her. There was no acceptable number of assassins Ember wanted to have on her trail, no matter how few.
She had enough to worry about. Problem number one was Marcus Lonsdale. Ember was currently on her way to meet with Layne to talk over the plan. They had to get Marcus and get him soon. If he were able to board a plane and disappear for a month or two, Ember knew she would never find him again. He would have enough time and resources to cover his tracks and make any and all evidence go away. There would be no justice for Gabe and Isabel.
That couldn’t happen. They had today and maybe tomorrow left, and then he would vanish.