The Falau Files Box Set 1

by Mike Gomes

  “So what happened to him.” she asked keeping an emotional distance in her voice.

  “He got shot.”

  “Shot? He was going to Duke’s house. How did he get shot?”

  “I am not really sure. He was pretty out of it when I got there. He opened his communication so I could hear what was going on. It was a fight. I tracked him with some of my software and went directly there. When I was on the way I heard the shot. Someone ran from the back of the house and took off. I never got a good look at the guy.”

  “That identification would be helpful about now.” said Gabriela with a bit of irritation in her voice.

  “Sorry. I was a little busy keeping this guy alive.” said Tim laying on the sarcasm in a thick dose.

  “I didn’t mean it that way...”

  “Yes you did. I understand. I wish I got a look at him. My hope is that he was just there to rob the house and Falau walked in on something he should not have. But it was clear there was a fight. Whoever the guy was he didn’t back off.”

  “He... was... a cowboy.” groaned Falau not opening his eyes.

  “A cowboy?” replied Tim shooting a glance to Gabriela and wondering if Falau was muttering nonsense in a dream.

  “He had... on... a cowboy hat.”

  “In New York? Why would a cowboy be in Duke’s house? Personal protection?” questioned Gabriela.

  “Could be. But if it were protection he would have been around Duke when he was out with you.” replied Tim.

  “He... wanted Duke too.” said Falau finally opening his eyes. “He was hard core. Wanted... Duke just as bad as we do.”

  “Think he is a killer?” asked Gabriela.

  “No.” grunted Falau sliding another pillow under his head in an attempt to prop himself up. “He said he was a private debt collector and was here to make Duke pay up.”

  “Interesting.” said Tim. “Sounds like Duke got mixed up with some organized crime guys. I have heard of this kind of thing. When I got out of the Seals some guys I knew from the special forces were in that line of work. They have no interest in killing anyone if they can help it. They are there for the money and to take it back in any way they have to.”

  “Torture?” asked Gabriela raising her left eyebrow sounding more inquisitive than judgmental.

  “If it comes to that they will torture. It is a great deal for them. They get to take ten percent of the money they collect so if they can get it all they are in for a good payday. They don’t send these guys out for a few hundred grand. It’s millions we are talking about and I would bet dollars to donuts that Tristan Duke took plenty from them to cover up his failing deals.”

  “Tim help me sit up.” asked Falau.

  Tim walked over and placed his hand under Falau’s good arm and helped push him to a sitting position. The blood rushed from Falau’s head and he became instantly dizzy and had to catch himself from falling over. His face lost all color and his eyes started to roll back in his head. He shut them as fast as he could, grit his teeth and squeezed a fist with the hand that was at the end of his good arm. As Tim called to him asking him if he was ok, Falau concentrated on his fist and rode the lightheadedness until it started to pass.

  “I am fine. Just got up too quick. Must have lost too much blood.”

  “That won’t be a problem for much longer. I checked your blood type and we are a match. I am going to give you a pint of mine later.” said Tim rummaging through his bag that sat at the end of the bed.

  “Is there anything you won’t do?” asked Gabriela smiling at Tim.

  Tim raised his head and stood up straight. A gentle smile fell over his face as he walked over to Gabriela getting just a few feet from her. “My dear Gabriela there is nothing I will not do for a member of this team. Maybe it is my military side speaking but nobody gets left behind. I take that very seriously. If I go home alive and one of you are dead it is a failure to me. If I can help one of you and don’t I have failed you and myself. I can only hope that the two of you feel the same way. My guess is you do.”

  Tim turned and walked away as Gabriela’s mouth hung open trying to understand why a man she had just met in the last few days would be willing to risk his life and give up his blood for two people he barely knew.

  “We are in... a race.” Falau said breaking the tension between the other two. “If he gets to Duke before us. We lose.”

  “We can still pick up Duke. He just wants the money.” said Tim reaching back into his bag and pulling out his laptop.

  “Your forgetting the second part of the mission. To get the money back. This guy will take everything he can get. Why stop at what is owed when he can take so much more. He was ready to kill me for just being there. Killing Duke is no problem for him.”

  “Duke went home.” said Gabriela starting to pace the far end of the room. “He will have seen the blood from you being shot. He knows something happened there. No way he will stay behind.”

  “There was more than my blood. I took out a security guard in the kitchen and there was a lot of blood there and I didn’t just get shot in the entryway. We had a big fight. No way Duke could miss any of it.”

  “I think it is safe to say he is on the run and will be breaking our date tomorrow night.”

  Tim moved and sat next to Falau on the bed and started to rub an alcohol swab on Falau’s good arm. “Stay still.”

  “You’re doing this here and now?”

  “Yes lay back down. It will help the blood move.”

  Falau did what was requested and felt the sting of the needle entering his arm and Tim taping it off. A small thin tube ran approximately two feet and was clamped off to not let any more of Falau’s blood out. Tim went to work on his own arm prepping it for the needle.

  “Tim. What the hell man. You’re not sticking that thing in your arm. It looks like the pin for pumping up a basketball.” said Falau with concern covering his face.

  “Ya, it is a fairly big gauge but I have had worse. I gave you the small needle because you're such a baby.”

  Tim pierced his skin with the large needle and let out a slight grunt. A bit of blood ran into the attached housing and he clamped off. Then he created a junction between the line that ran from Falau’s arm to the needle in his arm and opened the clamps. Blood slowly worked its way down and started to enter Falau’s body.

  “The biggest problem we have is that Duke knows Gabriela’s face and the cowboy debt collector knows your face Falau. That limits what we can do.” said Tim as he opened his computer and started to type with just one hand.

  “It’s a major problem.” said Gabriela. “Duke was so focused on me tonight he would have had his guard totally down when we went back to his house. We could have taken him without any problem. He falls in love much too easily.”

  “Unfortunately, he is not going to fall in love with Tim or me. We need a whole new plan.”

  “Well, I hope you like London because I just ran his credit card and that is where he is going. He has a flight leaving for there in just a few hours. He is at JFK right now. We have no chance in getting there in time to get him.”

  “When’s the next flight to London that we can make?” asked Gabriela.

  “Two hours. We will be flying on a private jet complements of Tristan Duke and his corporate account. He has a standing contract with Blue Stone Jet Leasing. We have plenty of time to get there and we can sleep on the flight. Falau you’re going to need to lay down most of the time and recover as much as possible.”

  “Is it smart to be using his jet?” asked Falau.

  “I bet he has no idea that he even has it any more. It’s a lease that acts like a timeshare. He can call up and use it but probably just used it for big clients to bring them in for paperwork when he was cutting his deals. The corporate account just kept paying the fee even while he was at jail. I took the liberty of just saying we’re going for business. I can use your aliases to tie us in with manifests after we take off. All of that is on their corpora
te computer.”

  “I like your style Tim. Nothing but first class and nice clean blood.” joked Falau patting the leg of Tim.

  “I have a little more good news. Mr. Duke reserved himself a room at the London Marriott just across the river from Big Ben. This guy has no clue how to stay hidden. He might as well just text us what he is doing and where he is going.”

  “That’s great news. I bet the cowboy must have the same ability for tracking him as we do. We are going to have to beat him to the target and take out Duke as fast as we can.” said Gabriela grabbing her bag from under the sink and placing it on the bed getting ready to pack.

  Falau nodded his head in agreement “Getting him back is going to be a problem too. This whole mission just turned into something none of us expected.”

  Chapter 20

  “Hi folks, it’s Captain Mike. We are on final approach for landing at London City airport. You will be approximately 22 minutes outside the center of London. If we can provide you with directions or car service please let the flight attendant know and we will make sure all your needs are fulfilled. As requested we will be staying in London and will be just a phone call away for when you want to make your return trip to the United States. I hope you have had a great flight.”

  Falau tilted his head back against the seat and he could feel the wet spot from his sweating. Air travel was a weakness of his. He knew all the statistics and saw all the information on why air travel was safe. He was an intelligent man that understood the workings of aircraft and how they stayed in the sky. But the one thing that nagged his mind was that the plane was so damn heavy. Fool’s logic told him it should fall out of the sky and while physics clearly explained why it didn’t the terror in his soul said the plane should crash.

  The pain from the gunshot was still stinging in his arm. Every time he moved he got a sharp pain. Tim refused to let him have a drink and gave him ample amounts of Tylenol to kill the pain. Early on he offered an oxycodone he had, but Falau rejected it. He had more than enough problems with booze. He did not want to open the door to opioids.

  If all that were not enough to make six hours in the sky seem like six years, the flashbacks were coming into his head. The beautiful woman Jennifer who once accepted a ring that he gave her down on one knee was torturing his mind with her death. She reminded him over and over that “You killed me” “It was your fault.” Falau feared closing his eyes because the nightmares would set in. He was sure of it. So he stayed awake the whole time fighting off one flashback at a time. The distraction of the mission normally helped stop her voice in his head, but the strain of flying and the pain of his wound had him vulnerable and she took advantage of him in this weakened state.

  His fingers gripped the arm of the chair hard causing the knuckles to turn white as the plane hit a small pocket of turbulence. Falau glanced to the side and saw Tim laying across two chairs sleeping as if nothing were different than his own bed. He was calm and relaxed snoring every once in a while until he would wake himself up. Gabriela was not much different. She decided to take up residence at the back of the plane. Her instincts for protection could not be calmed. Entering the plane she searched it and made sure they were there with just the crew. Immediately she went to the back section so any action would take place in front of her. She had the entire plane in her field of vision and was ready for anything that came her way.

  Falau knew that if he had been more comfortable with flying that the experience would have been wonderful. The plane was one of the higher standards of luxury. It was a G5 capable of making the trip to London from New York in just over six hours. The stairs folded down to the outside of the plane. When boarding, the cockpit was directly to the left and housed a pilot and copilot. Directly in front was the area that the flight attendant used to prepare meals and drinks. Supplies were kept in this area as well. To the right the main cabin opened into what looked like a living room. Wall to wall carpeting. A sofa. Several chairs that swiveled. A table for conducting business. The cabin had been treated with insulation minimizing the sound from the engine and the air outside. Falau knew that the plane was more impressive than most of the apartments he had had in his life and far more expensive than any of them.

  “Excuse me sir, will you need me for anything in regards to transportation after landing?” said a young man, with a lisp, dressed in the uniform of the private airline.

  “Oh yes. Thank you.” said Falau trying to focus on the young man and not showing his fear of flying. “Could we get a car. Four doors. Maybe an SUV. But no driver. We can take care of that ourselves. Thanks.”

  The young man smiled and placed his hand on the top of the seat that Falau sat in and leaned over. “It’s ok.” he whispered. “Lots of people don’t like flying. In these little jets it is scarier than the big ones. Landing is hard on most people afraid to fly. I know your friend didn’t want you to but I hate to see you suffer.”

  The flight attendant reached into his coat pocket and retrieved two nips of Southern Comfort whisky and slid them to Falau blocking the view of Tim. Falau took them and tucked them into his jacket and smiled at the man.

  “Thank you” he mouthed not giving their secret away. The attendant smiled in return and walked back to the preparation area at the front of the plane.

  Holding the bottles with the hand of his wounded arm he twisted the tops of each one watching to see if Tim reacted to the breaking of the seal on the top of the bottles. Tim’s breathing was slow and calm. Falau checked over his shoulder and saw Gabriela with her eyes closed and her head laying on her shoulder. The smell of the whisky came up and caught his nostrils. It beckoned him to drink it. He had started to feel the withdrawal starting for him. It was never bad because he binge drank but it was uncomfortable. He quickly brought the bottle to his mouth and downed the first. The familiar first sting of the whisky sliding down warmed his belly and right up through his chest. The second one went smooth and easy and a slight buzz started to fill his head. The effect would not be long probably just enough to get him through the landing.

  Falau looked down at the two little empty bottles in his hand half filled with relief and half filled with shame knowing that he would start counting sober days again tomorrow.

  Chapter 21

  The steps of the G5 opened and Falau was the first person to get his feet on terra firma. If it had been possible he would have ran from the plane but the pain in his arm slowed him.

  Parked at the edge of the runway sat a black Cadillac Escalade with black tinted windows. The flight attendant walked briskly over to the man standing next to it and then motioned for Falau, Tim and Gabriela to come over.

  “OK. This is your car for your stay here in London. Just call me on the number on this card when you want the plane ready in 30 minutes.” he said handing the card to Tim with the keys. The flight attendant opened the door for Gabriela as Tim got in the driver’s seat. After the doors were shut Falau extended his hand to the flight attendant.

  “You do great work. I am sorry I didn’t catch your name?”

  “Randy.”

  “Well Randy thank you so much. The tinted windows are a great touch.” said Falau opening the door and starting to climb in.

  “Very good for a guy with a gunshot wound. At least that’s what Tyler told me.” said Randy closing the door and walking away briskly as Falau let out a laugh in the car.

  Tim stepped on the gas and took the car out of the airport and set the GPS for the Marriott. Within 30 minutes they had arrived and were ready to intercept Duke as he entered the hotel.

  “Gabriela, take up station across the street. Tim, you get in the lobby. I will be about a hundred yards down the street. We move in slow. I will try to hit him before he gets to the door and I will move him away. Gabriela and Tim that’s your cue to join me and we will usher him to the car and go straight to the airport. If he somehow beats me in, Tim, you pick him up in the lobby and follow him to his room so we know where he is staying. Later we can pop
the door and put a rush on him. His flight landed just about the same time we did so he should be getting here in about an hour. Everything clear?”

  Gabriela and Tim nodded in agreement.

  Tim pulled the car up to the parking garage that laid beneath the Marriott hotel. The three staggered their exits from the car so they were not seen together. First Tim, then Falau, and then Gabriela. Moving swiftly to their locations they set themselves for a middle of the day kidnapping just a stone’s throw from Big Ben. Hundreds of tourists and business people roaming the streets. If Duke were to put up a struggle things would get very touchy very fast.

  Gabriela positioned herself across the street where the two lanes moved down into one to cross the Westminster Bridge. The Gardens of the Florence Nightingale Museum were a beautiful backdrop for her mission, but now there was no time to admire it. She could play the part of the vacationer taking in the sights but still keep an eye across the street.

  Falau kept himself up the road further near the Park Plaza hotel. He didn’t want Duke getting the chance to get back into his car and go away from the bridge. The Westminster Bridge was a perfect bottle neck that caused traffic to come to a standstill. There was no way to get around it.

  Tim sat at a bank of phones in the lobby talking to nobody on the other end of the receiver. Duke had never seen him but he had seen numerous pictures of Duke from his research. If Duke were to make it this far it would be easy to follow him. Tim reached into his pocket and pressed a code into a small hand held device not much larger than a rabbit’s foot and the ear pieces came alive in all of their ears.

  “Role call sound off, this is Tim.”

  “Gabriela here”

  “Falau here. Everyone in position?”

  “Yes.” the other two answered in unison.

  “Let’s keep radio silence until he is spotted. Going silent now.”

  The voices stopped but some of the background noise was still being picked up causing each of the members of the team to have the opportunity to hear if things started to go wrong.