by Matt Lincoln
Nevertheless, he had a point. He hadn’t technically done anything wrong that we could prove, aside from pointing the gun at us. We could arrest him, but then that would defeat the entire purpose of coming here, as there was no way he would cooperate with us if we hauled him in right now. That being the case, there wasn’t really any good reason for us to keep our guns on him.
“Alright,” I replied as I returned my gun to its holster as smoothly as I could with my left hand.
“Seems like you’re having some trouble there,” Gray noted sarcastically. “Are you sure you’re fit for duty like that? Seems like a bad idea, if you ask me.”
“Nobody asked you,” I replied flatly before steering the topic of conversation back to the matter at hand. “You obviously know Reynolds is, then. Was he telling the truth? Can you get us the information that we want?”
“Oh, I know who Reynolds is, that little…” Gray sneered before collecting himself. “Distant relative. I’m assuming he’s been arrested since you’re here speaking to me. You’re cops, aren’t you? Or something like that anyway.” I didn’t like the way he was looking us up and down as he spoke, like a scientist analyzing a test subject.
“I know law enforcement when I see it,” he sneered as he reached below the counter. I tensed as he did, but he was only pulling up a bottle of brown liquid. “Scotch?”
He looked up at each of us, waving the bottle enticingly as he did.
“No thanks,” I replied, unable to completely keep the contempt I felt toward him out of my voice.
“Suit yourselves,” he replied as he poured himself a glass before draining the entire thing in one go. “So the little moron got himself into trouble and… what? Offered to rat me out in exchange for getting off? But no… you said you wanted information, didn’t you? That must mean it isn’t me that you’re after.”
This guy was good. Scarily good. The five of us had hardly said anything, and yet he was guessing exactly why we’d come here with frightening accuracy.
“Another criminal then,” he stated as he poured himself another glass. “You’re looking for someone, you’re all out of leads, and Reynolds probably told you that I could find him for you. Well? Am I on the right track?”
The guy was so annoyingly cocky that I really didn’t want to admit that he was entirely right. Regardless, the faster we finished this, the faster we could get out of here and find Viper.
“Good guess,” I answered. “So can you find him? Or are we just wasting our time here?”
“I guess that all depends on who it is you want me to find,” Gray muttered. “I’m not a magician, you know.”
“Jorge Rodriquez,” Hills spat out. He was glaring at Gray with unbridled distaste, and he looked like he was half a second away from leaping over the counter and beating Gray’s face in. “AKA the Viper. That’s who we’re looking for.”
“Him?” Gray asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “That clown who’s been running all over the place, pretending to be a pirate? Is that all? For all that fuss, I thought you were going to ask me to do something difficult.”
“Cut the crap,” Hills growled at him. “Can you do it, or can’t you?”
“We believe he’s on a ship right now,” Finch added. “Out on the ocean. You expect us to believe that you can find out where he is despite that?”
“Of course I can.” He grinned at her as he reached into his pocket to pull out an old phone. It was an old flip-style that didn’t have a touch screen. The thing must have been ten years old, at least. “It’s all a matter of knowing the right people, as with everything else in this world.” He reached down as though to press something on the phone before suddenly stopping. “Oh, but of course, there’s the matter of my payment.”
“How much do you want?” Finch asked him, her mouth twisting as she looked at him with revilement.
“Oh, I don’t want money,” Gray scoffed as he turned to look at me. “No, what I deal in is much more valuable.” He paused for a moment before speaking again, his eyes narrowed as he watched me again with that analytical stare. “You’re a fed, aren’t you? I can tell. You’re not a cop like this one.” He jerked his head toward Finch. “No, you’re not as brash. You spend a lot more time thinking. You’ve been thinking this entire time, haven’t you? I can see it in your eyes. Going over everything I say, running through every possibility in your head before you speak. You’re a federal agent. American, I presume, judging by your accent and the pompous way you carry yourself. No, I know exactly what it is I want.”
I had to force myself to resist the urge to shudder as he spoke. It was indescribably creepy how he was breaking down my behavior back to me, and I felt like I wanted to take a shower as soon as this was done.
“And what’s that?” I asked, trepidation building within me as I waited to hear his answer.
“A favor,” he replied, the unsettling grin on his face growing even bigger. “You see, that’s how an information broker does his work. It’s all about connections. The more people I know, the more friends that I have, in places both high and low, the easier it is for me to get the information that I want. To have a fed as a contact? I can imagine the possibilities--”
“Hell no,” Hills exclaimed, his voice rising to a shot uncharacteristically. “That’s not happening.”
“Really?” Gray turned to look at him, pulling the corners of his mouth down in the effigy of a pout. “That’s a shame. Then I suppose you won’t be finding out where Jorge Velasquez is.”
“Wait,” I gritted out as I moved to put his phone back away. “I have some conditions.”
“Marston!” Hills yelled in disbelief, his fists clenched at his sides.
“Are you sure about this?” Holm asked me, his eyes clouded with concern.
Of course, I wasn’t sure. I was dealing with a creepy madman who was clearly very smart and very dangerous. He was also the best lead we had to find Viper right now, though. I couldn’t just let this opportunity pass us by.
“Nothing illegal,” I insisted as I stared hard into Gray’s eyes. His expression soured immediately. He opened his mouth as if to protest, but I barreled on before he could say anything. “I’m not going to hurt anyone or do anything that might inadvertently put someone in harm’s way. If whatever ‘favor’ you intend to ask me for will result in innocent people being harmed in any way, then you can just forget it.”
Gray pursed his lips and crossed his arms thoughtfully before looking up at me with that unsettling smile again.
“Deal,” he replied smugly. “Though I have to say, you’re getting the better end of the bargain here. You’ve severely limited my options with those conditions. No matter, though, it’s always useful to have a member of law enforcement on my side. Besides…” he paused as he pressed some numbers on the phone before holding it up to his ear. “In my line of work, I rarely encounter ‘innocent’ people, anyway. The odds of them getting hurt are slim as it is.”
I waited with bated breath as the phone rang. I could feel Hills staring daggers into the side of my head, but I ignored him. He was the one who was always doing stupid, rash things. Besides, it wasn’t like I had to actually keep my end of the deal. Even with the conditions I’d set, if Gray asked me for something I wasn’t willing to do, I just wouldn’t do it.
I tensed as the call connected. I could hear a muffled voice coming through the phone’s speaker.
“It’s Lee,” Gray said seriously.
Lee? I thought to myself. It must be some kind of pseudonym. The guy’s name was Henry Gray. At least, that’s what we’d been told. For all I knew, that was a fake name as well.
“I need your current coordinates,” Gray continued. “Yes, right now. Do you think I’d be calling you if it wasn’t urgent?”
Whoever was on the other end of the phone began to speak quickly. I could hear their voice, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“Then I suppose you’d better not get caught,” Gray sneered. His voice was cold and m
enacing, completely different from the casual, carefree way he’d been speaking to us just a minute earlier. “Good, send them to the usual email. Goodbye.”
He ended the call abruptly before tucking the phone back into his pocket and smiling up at us, his expression cheerful once again.
“There we go, should be any minute now,” he declared as he reached down to put the scotch away. “Why don’t you shop around while you wait? This is a real store, you know? I put a lot of hard work into it. You should pick out a souvenir to take home with you, make sure you always remember this day. I’ll even give you a discount since we’re friends now.”
My skin crawled at Gray’s words. He was toying with us and having fun doing it.
“Is this some kind of game to you?” Hills snapped at him as he stepped forward aggressively. Chapman put out a hand to stop him, evidently as worried as I was that Hills really was going to fly over the counter to get at Gray.
“Everything is a game to me,” Gray replied sadistically. “In the end, isn’t everything in life a game? You struggle to do your best to win, but in the end, there’s only one winner and several unlucky losers. Even if you follow the rules and play fair, there’s no guarantee there won’t be someone better than you, and then what was all your hard work for? That’s why it’s better to cheat. Use whatever you have, do whatever you can to get to the top. Otherwise, you’ll always be just another loser.”
“You’re a psycho,” Hills replied, unmoved by the man’s impassioned speech.
“I’ve been told that before.” Gray smiled in response.
All of a sudden, there was a low chiming noise, like a phone notification. The goon behind the counter reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone.
“It’s here, boss,” the man declared as he handed the phone to Gray.
“Oh, excellent,” Gray replied, a giddy smile on his face. “That was even faster than I expected. What luck.”
He opened the phone, a modern one this time, and scrolled quickly through it.
“Nineteen-point-four-five-two...” I listened as he rattled off a long series of numbers before turning the phone so that the screen faced me. “Those are the coordinates of where Viper and his gang are at this precise moment.”
I stared at the phone in shock for a moment before pulling out my own to make a note of the coordinates. I couldn’t believe that whoever his contact was had actually managed to get us this information, and so quickly as well.
“That’s off the coast of Cuba,” Chapman suddenly chimed in. He was staring down at his phone. Apparently, he’d already plugged the coordinates in as Gray rattled them off. “They’re passing through the West Indies, between Cuba and Haiti. They must be on their way back to Georgetown to restock, just like Javier said he would.”
“Let’s go,” Finch urged us. “We need to get back and devise a plan as soon as possible.”
“I’m glad I could help,” Gray crooned before looking directly at me. “And don’t forget, you owe me one.”
My stomach lurched at the disconcerting expression on his face. The Cheshire Cat grin plastered over his face was enough to give me chills. I pushed the uneasiness away as I turned to leave the shop. I’d just have to worry about that later.
33
Ethan
“I can’t believe you agreed to that guy’s request,” Hills grumbled before taking a bite of the roast beef sandwiches we’d picked up on the way back to the police station.
None of us had eaten yet, so we’d decided to grab some fast food on the way back to scarf down before heading out to confront Viper. Now we were sitting in one of the empty rooms at the police station, discussing what we knew about the case while we waited for Leeland to get things organized with the Coast Guard.
“Ugh, just thinking about that weirdo makes me want to hurl. You can’t possibly trust him to keep his word about not asking for something illegal or sketchy, right?”
“Of course, I don’t trust him,” I replied as I took a swig of my soda. “And if he asks me for something like that, I just won’t do it. What’s he going to do? I’ve had criminals come after me before. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with.”
“I don’t know…” Chapman mumbled as he picked apart one of his fries into tiny pieces. “The guy’s behavior was weird. I mean, really weird. The way his demeanor and personality switched on a dime like that, it’s possible there’s some kind of sociopathy going on. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t let your guard down. People that like that can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel fear or guilt, so there’s nothing you can really use against them.”
“There was something extra creepy about him,” Finch added. “I’ve dealt with a lot of criminals in my time as a police officer, but he seemed…”
“Insane?” Holm suggested.
“That might be one word for it.” Finch nodded before standing up. “I’m going to see how things are going with the Sergeant. I can’t just sit around waiting.”
She gathered her trash and dropped it into a crash can by the door before leaving the room.
The moment she was gone, Holm turned to look at me.
“Don’t.” I stopped him dead before he could even say anything. “Whatever you’re thinking right now, just no.”
“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” Holm protested, pretending to be offended by my insinuation. “Then again, can you blame me for assuming? Your track record does precede you.”
“Are you talking about Marston and Finch?” Hills raised an eyebrow at Holm. “Hasn’t she been flirting with Junior the past couple of days?”
Chapman choked on the bite of the sandwich he’d just taken and spent a few seconds coughing before glaring at Hills. “What?” he croaked.
“Hasn’t she?” Hills repeated, looking bewildered by Chapman’s surprised reaction. “She listened while you were rambling on about the history of the island. And then she kept asking you questions about it, even though she lives here and probably knows as much about it as you do.”
“She was just friendly,” Chapman insisted, his face twisting into a frown. “Some people actually enjoy history and architecture, Charlie. Not everyone is boring like you.”
“I can assure you,” Hills scoffed, “that she would not have listened to you talk about British colonialism for twenty minutes straight if she wasn’t into you.”
“I—Well, whatever,” Chapman grumbled as he took a bite of his sandwich. “I have a girlfriend, so who cares?”
Now that I thought about it, Finch had been sticking pretty close to Chapman since yesterday. She’d been talking with him a lot, too. Not that the kid’s impromptu lessons weren’t interesting, but honestly, Hills had a point. It was easy to sort of drift off when he started going on tangents.
We finished wolfing down our lunch with relatively little chatter after that. The nervous tension in the air was undeniable. It was the familiar exhilarating feeling I always got when I knew that we’d reached a breaking point in a case. We were painfully close to catching Viper. We just needed to get there.
Only a few minutes had passed since Finch left before the door to the room burst open to reveal both Finch and Leeland.
“We’re ready to go,” Leeland declared, his voice serious. “The Coast Guard is standing by, ready to move out as soon as we do.”
“Awesome,” I replied as I crumpled up the food wrappers and bags, then stood up to walk over to the same trash can that Finch had used earlier to dispose of her trash. “So, how are we doing this?”
“Are we doing the same thing as last time?” Chapman asked as he and the rest of the agents stood up, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke. “Going out on a ship?”
I could understand why he was worried. That mission had ended pretty disastrously, and it was frankly not something I was keen to try again.
“No,” Leeland replied as he led us out of the room toward the entrance of the station. “We’ve rethought our strategy since the last time. We aren’t trying to lur
e the pirates to us, in this case. On the contrary, we’re the ones chasing after them, so we have a little more freedom in our methods. This time, we’ll be traveling by air.”
“We’re flying there?” I asked, shocked by his answer.
“Well, air and sea, to be precise,” he explained as we stepped out of the police station. “There will be a few teams going in by helicopter, including yours. The Coast Guard will be covering from below. This way, there’ll be less of a chance for confusion. The teams in the helicopters will be able to locate the ship and relay its exact coordinates to the Coast Guard officers down in the boats.”
“Wow,” Chapman replied, his voice tinged with anxiety.
“We’ll be taking off on a set of smaller helicopters from a heliport just a few miles from here,” he explained as we walked into the parking lot. “The Coast Guard will carry the bulk of the fighting in attack helicopters. Once the situation is under control, we’ll move in to formally make the arrests.”
“Sounds good,” I replied.
The Coast Guard had special helicopters and trained gunners that were qualified to carry out missions while on the water. It wasn’t like we could shoot at the pirates with our handguns while we were up in the sky, so it made sense for us to wait for them to do the bulk of the work before we moved in to grab Viper and the rest of the Viboras.
“Follow me then,” Leeland said as he climbed into his car. The rest of us piled back into the van we’d been using up to now. Finch drove, following closely behind the sergeant as he made his way out of the parking lot and down the street. Nobody talked as we made our way down there. We were all too primed and focused for idle chit-chat right now.
Just a few minutes later, Leeland pulled in next to the same blue building I’d seen earlier, the one with the “helicopter tours'' sign mounted out front. For a brief moment, I was worried that we were about to fly a tiny, commercial helicopter into the middle of a battle scene. My fears were abated, however, when Finch drove into the same parking lot, and I caught sight of the bright orange choppers sitting next to the fleet of small, round, black ones commonly used for tours and excursions. They were very obviously Coast Guard helicopters. They must have used the landing pad since it was fairly close to the police station.