by Mike Ryan
8
Recker tried calling Mia several times, though she never picked up. He wasn’t sure of her work schedule these days, so it was possible she couldn’t get to her phone. It was also equally possible she saw him calling and chose to ignore him. He sat down and put his elbows on his knees as he rubbed his eyes, not sure what to do next. Jones could see he was frustrated he couldn’t get through to Mia and wondered what else was going through his mind. Though Recker wasn’t showing any other outward signs of debate, Jones was sure he must’ve been having a lively conversation within himself, probably beating himself up over how he’s handled things with her. Jones started to feel bad for his friend and tried to make things easier for him.
“Fine. I’ll call her,” Jones said.
“Well if she picks up right away I guess we’ll know what’s what.”
Jones took out his phone and dialed Mia’s number. Much to his surprise, she picked up barely after the second ring. It wasn’t too surprising to Recker, however, as it merely confirmed what he suspected. She was in fact ignoring him.
“Mia. Hi.”
“David. Hi,” Mia said, mimicking his tone.
Jones coughed, trying to figure out the best way to begin. “So, umm...”
Mia could tell right away by Jones’ stammering he was uncomfortable with whatever he had to say and attempted to snuff out what she suspected it might be. “David, if you’re calling to plead Mike’s case, please don’t bother. I know he’s tried to call me a couple times, but right now I’m just not interested in talking to him. I said everything I had to say back at the hospital and nothing’s changed since then.”
Jones cleared his throat as he attempted to proceed. He might have been worse at relationships than Recker was. And he didn’t even have a romantic interest in her. After all, telling someone their life is in danger isn’t exactly a pleasant conversation.
“No, Mia, I’m not calling to talk about Michael.”
“Then what? Is everything OK?” Mia asked, sounding concerned.
Though she had her issues with Recker at the moment, she didn’t have those same problems with Jones. They’d always had a pleasant relationship, and probably because neither had romantic feelings for the other, always seemed to respect each other and their positions. So if Jones was calling to discuss something other than her relationship with Recker, she knew something was amiss.
“What is it?” she asked again, knowing something was wrong.
“Well...”
“David, you always dance around the subject when you have bad news or you don’t really wanna talk about what you need to talk about.”
“I do?” Jones asked, not realizing he did.
“Yes. You do. Now spill it.”
“Fine. The reason Mike’s been calling you is not because he’s trying to make up, well, he is, but it’s not it right now.”
“David,” Mia said sternly.
“The reason we’re both calling is, we’re concerned for your safety right now,” Jones said finally.
“My safety? What are you talking about? I’m fine.”
“I only wish that was the case.”
“David, just say it,” Mia said, clearly getting worried.
“Several months ago, you and Mike were spotted in the hospital cafeteria by a very dangerous person who runs a rather large criminal enterprise in the city.”
“And?”
“The man just gave Mike an ultimatum and is planning on using you for leverage,” Jones said.
“Leverage? How? What would he want with me?”
“He doesn’t want you per se. He wants Mike to kill Vincent for him so he can take control of the criminal enterprise of the city.”
“I still don’t get what this has to do with me.”
“Because Mike doesn’t want to do it.”
“You mean there’s someone out there Mike doesn’t want to kill?” she asked sarcastically.
“Mia.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Unfair.”
“It’s OK. Anyway, that’s the gist of it, so we need you to lay low for a few days until we get things sorted out.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That’s it? There’s gotta be more to it. What you told me doesn’t seem to have anything to do with my laying low. Why would I have to do that? What are you not telling me?”
Jones sighed, knowing she was too smart to pull the wool over her eyes. “As I said, Mike doesn’t want to kill Vincent, certainly not for someone else. This man, Jeremiah, has threatened to hurt you if Mike doesn’t do it though.”
“Why? What do I have to do with it?”
“Because he knows you’re important to Mike and he needs to use you as leverage to get Mike to do what he needs him to do.”
“Yeah, well, if this guy really knew us he’d know I’m not important to him,” Mia said.
“Mia, you know that’s not the case.”
“I’m not gonna hide somewhere, David. Just tell Mike to take care of it.”
“It’s not quite so simple.”
Mia sighed loudly into the phone, fearing there was yet another shoe to drop. “Is there something else you’re not saying?”
“Well, that’s pretty much it,” Jones said.
“David, if you don’t spit out the rest of it, all of it, I’m hanging up this phone right now and never talking to either one of you again.”
“Jeremiah’s got men watching your every move.”
“What?”
“If Mike doesn’t kill Vincent within the week, then Jeremiah will have you dealt with.”
“Dealt with? Are you trying to say he’s planning on killing me?”
“Well, I was trying to say it a little more diplomatically, but that’s basically the gist of it.”
“Why do these things keep happening to me? You may not believe this but I never had my life threatened before I met you guys. Seems to be an annual occurrence now.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I wish there was something else I could say.”
“So what are we gonna do?” Mia asked.
“Until Jeremiah’s been dealt with, we’re going to have to keep you here for your safety.”
“Here? Where? You mean your office?” she asked, clearly surprised.
“Unfortunately, yes. It’s the safest place we know. We can’t take you somewhere else and fight this threat effectively, so here it is.”
Knowing there was nothing else to say and no use in fighting it, Mia resigned herself to her fate. At least for the moment. “So, should I just come there now or what? How are we doing this?”
“No. As I said, there are men watching you wherever you are. Where are you at right now?”
“At home.”
“In order to bring you here safely, Mike’s going to have to deal with the men watching you.”
“Can’t you just do it?”
“Mia, I understand your feelings right now, but for the moment, let’s put all that aside for the betterment of the situation.”
“OK. You’re right. When’s he gonna get here?”
“Good question. Uhh, hold on, I’ll get right back to you.”
“You mean you haven’t figured it out yet?”
“Well, no. We figured the toughest part was you agreeing to come with us,” Jones said. “Let me talk to Mike and come up with a game plan and I’ll call you right back.”
Jones put the phone on the desk and turned toward Recker, wondering what their next move would be. Getting Mia on board was the first step, now, they had to figure out how to lose her watch dogs. Or kill them. Whichever would be easier.
“Well, we’ve got her in the loop, now how are we going to bring her in?” Jones said. “It’s a cinch you can’t just go over to her apartment, put her in the car, and drive over here.”
“I’ll have to meet her somewhere. A neutral location.”
“Hospital’s too dangerous,” Jones said.
“Somewhere they haven’t seen her go before, but a place we both
know,” Recker said, thinking of a location. “Somewhere I can take out whoever’s behind her without a crowd or alerting anyone who’s nearby.”
“Sounds like Jeremiah’s meeting house.”
“Yeah, someplace like that,” Recker said, still thinking. “Wait. I’ve got it.”
“Where?”
“Haddix Apartments. She knows it, I know it, and they’ve never seen her go there. If I get there first, I can see how many people follow her in.”
“And if any shooting starts?”
“They’ll be used to it. And it’s not if...it’s when. We’ll do it tonight, use the cloak of darkness so we’re not easily spotted by anyone.”
Though they’d continue talking it over and come up with the exact specifics later, Jones called Mia back to let her know the general plan. She expressed disdain at going back to the Haddix Apartments after the last time she went there, but she reluctantly agreed to do it. She was told Recker would call her later with a more detailed plan, but for now just to stay put and get some time off from the hospital since they didn’t know how long she’d be gone. With things settled for the time being, Jones would leave Recker to figure out how he was gonna save Mia. His chore was to get back to Bernal and find him.
Even though Jones was knee deep in trying to locate their target, and was a little behind due to the Mia situation, he still found some time to start running a new program. It was actually something Recker said to him before they left for Detroit, but it had been ruminating inside his head for a while as he considered the merits of it. Over the past year, they’d increasingly seen tougher and more dangerous assignments, and at times seemed like they had more work than they could handle. Now, Jones was finally ready to bring someone else aboard, if he could find someone who met his qualifications. Someone like Recker would be ideal, with his values, with his work ethic, with his skills, but maybe with slightly fewer violent tendencies. Jones didn’t particularly care if it was a man or a woman, as long as they had the required prerequisites. It wasn’t something he was ready to pour himself into totally yet, not with the other issues they had at the moment, but he could at least get the algorithms working.
When he ran his first program, it took Jones several months until he found Recker. He assumed if he constructed his software in a similar manner, the results would probably take around the same amount of time. Of course, with the experience of the first search, he could eliminate a few mistakes he made previously. He hadn’t yet let Recker know he really was considering bringing someone new into the fold. He figured he would do that once the Mia situation was resolved and Bernal had been taken down. Since Recker was the one who originally mentioned it, Jones assumed he’d be relieved he was commencing the search. With Recker’s input, it might even take less time than he anticipated, but it was something to worry about for another day. His chief concern at the moment was just bypassing the CIA’s infrastructure without being noticed, which was no small task. Once he did that, he could start extracting the desired information a little at a time.
Recker saw Jones was feverishly working on the computer, splitting his time between several at once, though he didn’t question what his partner was doing. He just assumed it was all in the effort of finding Bernal. But his main worry at the moment was protecting Mia. For the next several hours he went over various plans and ideas, tweaking a few things, abandoning other components entirely until he finally came up with something he was comfortable with. And something he legitimately thought would work. With Jones wrapped up in his own work, Recker didn’t bother to share the details. All Jones needed to know was if it would work. Hopefully it would. Any more issues might be too much for them to handle.
As the sun was setting, Recker grabbed his gear and left the office, only letting Jones know he’d be back later, with Mia of course. His plan was to survey the area of the Haddix Apartments, and even though he was already remotely familiar with it, he still preferred to stake it out for a while first to cement his getaway plan, just in case the police came in hot and heavy. Once he pulled into the parking lot of the apartments, he gave Mia a call to inform her of his plans. Though he was relatively sure she was going to answer his call this time, there was still part of him expecting a hostile response. Much to his surprise, the phone never got to a second ring.
“Hey,” Mia said solemnly.
“Hey. So, I’m at the Haddix Apartments now. At eleven o’clock, I want you to leave your place and head over here.”
“Why do I have to wait so long? Why can’t I just come over now?”
“It’s gonna take me a little time to set some things up,” Recker said.
“Set what up?”
“Well, I can’t say yet. I wanna make sure it’s viable first.”
“OK.”
Recker could hear in her voice that she seemed depressed and sought to reassure her. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know. I trust you completely,” Mia said. “If there was anybody I had to do this with, you’d be the person I’d call.”
“I guess this is the one thing I’m good at.”
“Not the only thing.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’ll see you when you get here.”
“Wait. What do you want me to do when I arrive?”
“Go inside. When I figure out which apartment I’ll text you the number.”
Recker went inside, and as Detective Scarborough, knocked on a few doors until he came across an empty apartment. It was just what he was looking for. He jimmied the lock of the apartment he was intending to use and looked around inside, just to make sure there would be no surprises later. Satisfied it would suit his purposes just fine, he texted the number to Mia. Then he went back outside to his car and drove out of the lot. Next to the apartments was a shopping center which Recker drove into and parked. The shopping center and apartments were separated by grass and a clumping of trees and bushes. There was a dirt path which led from the apartments to the center, but it was further down from where Recker was setting up. The foliage was thick and would allow Recker to stand beside the trees without being spotted from either the shopping center or the apartments. He could stay there and watch anybody coming into the apartments. Besides the trees and bushes, the spot he was standing was not well lit and nobody would be able to see him unless they already knew he was there, and even then it would be a stretch.
Recker was eager to see how many people would be following Mia. He estimated it would be three, though he had nothing to base that off of and was just a guess. He hoped it would be less since it would be less work for him. His plan was to pick off her guards, hopefully by splitting them up if possible. He didn’t want Mia to get caught up in any crossfire, which is why he hoped to kill everyone before they knew he was there. As he waited amongst the trees and bushes for all the players to arrive, he mentally went over how he envisioned the events playing out. He also predicted any problems and how he would handle them if they arose.
As eleven o’clock hit, Recker noticed Mia’s car pull in, right on time. He watched as she parked the car, then got out and entered the apartments. As directed, she went right to apartment 108. Recker left the door unlocked so she could go right in and wait for him. She felt uneasy being there, especially after what happened the last time she visited the place. It didn’t help matters that it was so late at night. It was bad enough being there in the day time, the night just made it seem worse. She also didn’t like waiting in the apartment alone. But when Recker texted her the apartment number, he also gave her advance warning she’d be in there by herself for a few minutes until he arrived. It didn’t really help her anxiety though.
Recker didn’t especially like Mia being in the apartment by herself either, but he needed to see who was following her. About a minute after she arrived, a black SUV pulled into the lot. The vehicle stopped by the curb near the entrance and two rough looking characters got out of the back seat of the car and headed inside. Then the truck pulled i
nto a parking spot, the driver staying inside and waiting for his friends to return. Though the rear of the truck was now facing Recker, he noticed as it pulled in there was also someone in the passenger side of the front seat. He emerged from the darkness of the trees and headed straight for the truck. He removed his police badge from his pocket and held it in his left hand, then gripped his gun in his right. His biggest fear then, was one of the men inside the car recognizing him and jumping out of the vehicle blasting away at him. After a minute of cautiously walking toward the car, Recker reached it without incident. He walked up to the driver side window and tapped on the glass, surprising the men inside. Recker showed his badge and the driver sighed, thinking their plans had just gone down the drain, and reluctantly rolled down the window.
“What are you guys doing here tonight?” Recker asked.
“Nothing. Just waiting for a friend to come out.”
“You guys carrying guns or anything?”
“No, sir.”
“You guys work for Jeremiah, don’t you?” Recker asked, ready to come up firing.
The two men inside the car looked at each other, wondering how he knew, and whether they should reveal the truth. The man in the passenger seat leaned forward and looked more closely at the man outside their window and thought he looked familiar. Before Jeremiah met with Recker to reveal his plans for Mia and Vincent, he had distributed Recker’s picture to most of his men so they could be sure what he looked like in case they ran into him. The man in car remembered the photo as he looked at the police officer questioning them.
“Wait a minute,” the man said, squinting his eyes. “You’re not a cop, are you? You’re The Silencer.”