It wasn’t long before several parents complained. Despite his fear of Bruce’s father, the principal was forced to call a meeting. Larry and his mother sat with Bruce and his father inside the principal’s office to hear what had been alleged by several unnamed students.
Larry denied everything and asked the principal what proof he had. Since none of the children were willing to step up and accuse Larry and Bruce personally, their parents had lodged the complaints. By doing so, they marked their children as snitches.
Larry stopped the protection racket. He’d already made more than enough to offset the cost of Bruce’s candy addiction. Along with being smart, Larry was patient. He kept the names of the tattletales in the back of his mind and waited for summer to roll around.
Bruce wasn’t the only big kid that he knew. There was a teenager named Victor who shoveled snow for Larry in the winter. Victor, who was fourteen, might have even been less intelligent than Bruce, but he was just as big, and he had a temper. He had beat up a customer who had tried to get out of paying him for shoveling the man’s walk. The customer claimed that Victor hadn’t done a good enough job. Victor beat the man with his shovel and the cops were called. The man later refused to press charges. He didn’t want the word getting out that he’d had his ass beat by a kid.
Victor wasn’t into candy. What he wanted was a ten-speed bike. Larry agreed to get it if Victor did a few little favors for him. The four kids who had snitched on Larry all became victims of vicious beatings by someone wearing a mask. The fathers of those kids all left work the next day to find that the tires on their cars had been slashed and that their hubcaps and car stereos had been stolen.
Victor got his bike. Larry even added on a headlight because he was so pleased. Fencing the stereos and hubcaps covered the cost of the bike and left a few dollars for profit. The looks on the faces of the kids who snitched was priceless.
When the new school year began, Larry’s reputation as someone not to mess with was firmly established. As he got older, Larry retained the services of other Bruces and Victors for various projects. He made a business out of renting them out to those who needed muscle or used them to carry out plans he had made himself. He’d also come up with the name Logan Fortunato because he thought it conjured an image of a tall and muscular man.
In time, Larry, now Logan, saw the need to insulate himself from the risk of arrest or prosecution. That was when he hired a man named Hutchinson. Fortunato gave the orders and Hutchinson saw that they were carried out by their minions. At the age of forty-nine, Logan Fortunato was worth many millions of dollars and had never paid taxes or worked a day in his life. There was no record of him anywhere other than his school records. He didn’t even have a birth certificate on file since his mother delivered him in the basement of a brothel with the help of a midwife. The birth certificate that was presented when he’d started school was a fake. As an adult, he’d never had a driver’s license but had been chauffeured about most of his life. When he wanted a woman, he rented one. His utilities were listed under a false identity and he never used his real name. If the police ever came after him, they would assume that he was Hutchinson. Hutchinson knew that was a risk and Logan paid him to take it. Like the members of Cipher, Logan Fortunato had insulated himself well and was all but invisible.
He thought of himself as a director, an administrator. He told others what to do and they made certain that things got done. That freed up his time to pursue more cerebral pursuits. He spent a good portion of every day playing chess online.
When Cipher asked Logan Fortunato to handle the “Tanner problem,” as they put it, Logan contacted Hutchinson by using a burner phone. As far as Cipher and other clients of Logan Fortunato knew, Hutchinson was Logan Fortunato. And for Hutchinson, Logan was just a voice on the phone.
“Tanner? The Tanner. This is that hit man we’re talking about?” Hutchinson asked.
“That’s him. They also sent me a file they had compiled on the man. He will be the greatest challenge we’ve ever had.”
“Can I make a suggestion, Logan?”
“Yes.”
“Tell Cipher no. I don’t need to read a file to know what Tanner is. People have been trying to kill him for years and they all wind up dead. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to join that list.”
There was silence on the line. Then Logan said, “You’re afraid of this man?”
“Yes. Yes, and I don’t mind saying so.”
“This sounds like you’re talking from experience.”
“I once worked for a man named Frank Richards. Richards was born wealthy and only got richer as the years went by. That wasn’t enough for him. The man craved power so he made deals with the mob and eventually was on the precipice of controlling them. That was when he had a dispute with Tanner and decided to have him killed. Within weeks, Tanner had killed Richards and destroyed the organization he had built. Not long after that, Tanner went down to Mexico and killed a cartel leader who was living in a fortress surrounded by hundreds of guards.”
“That was in the file I read, and yes, it’s impressive, but the man relies on his brawn and guns to get things done. I can’t imagine that I’ll have a problem outwitting him.”
“You might be right, but you can count me out.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t want anything to do with Tanner. If you’re going after him, I won’t be helping you.”
“You truly are afraid of this man?”
“I am. I also don’t plan to commit suicide by challenging him.”
“Cipher is an important client. We make millions off of servicing them and they’re offering three times the usual fee for dealing with Tanner. If I refuse this contract the relationship we’ve built with them will be in jeopardy.”
“Yeah, but you’ll go on breathing. If you fail to kill Tanner, he’ll kill you.”
“Hutchinson, if you abandon me like this there will be consequences.”
“I don’t want to end our association but there are risks I won’t take. If the police arrest me someday, I’ll do time, but I’ll still be alive. That’s not true if Tanner gets me in his sights.”
“Fine. Quit. But remember this, I’ll make you pay a steep price for it.”
Hutchinson laughed. “Logan, you won’t be alive to follow through on the threat. Not if you insist on going up against Tanner.”
“You’re a coward!”
“A live coward. Goodbye, Logan. Remember that I warned you when Tanner catches up to you.”
The line went dead and Logan looked at his phone with disbelief. He had never known Hutchinson to be rattled by anything.
“It doesn’t matter,” Logan said to himself. “I was prepared for this.” By being prepared, he meant that he had a list of all the people they used. He also had a computer program that could make his voice sound exactly like that of Hutchinson. When he made the calls needed to assemble a small army to go after Tanner, the people he spoke to wouldn’t know that it was he they were speaking with.
Despite his claim to Hutchinson that Tanner relied on brawn and guns, Logan’s review of the file on Tanner revealed that the man was intelligent. Tanner was a thug, yes, but he was not a stupid one. The man thought things through and used surprise as his main weapon. To defeat him, one would be wise to turn that weapon against him.
Along with the report on Tanner, Cipher had also included a review of the problem with the missing rare bill and the search for the crew that stole the valuable old currency note. Logan was given the name and probable location of a man named Karl Weber. It just so happened that Fortunato knew of Weber and his association with Cipher. Weber was thought to be in hiding outside the Dallas area. Since Tanner had been a step ahead of Cipher so far, it was a safe bet that Tanner had already gotten to Weber or was on his way to see him. It was a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. That is, if there was still time.
Fortunato stilled his mind and released the
anger he was feeling toward Hutchinson. He did his best planning when he was calm.
Thinking of Karl Weber gave him an idea. Within ten minutes that notion blossomed into an ingenious plan that would bring about Tanner’s death. Logan did a mental review of the resources available to him and smiled when he thought of a group of operatives he could use. They were seven of the best and were located in northwest Louisiana. If they were available and hurried, they could make it to Weber in a matter of hours. Logan used a laptop computer to bring up the voice synthesizer that would help him mimic Hutchison’s deep voice, then he placed a call.
12
The Magnificent Seven
Logan Fortunato contracted with a team of ex-special forces members to kill Tanner. He had used them a number of times in recent years and they had been excellent, professional, and well worth the high fee they charged. With the target being Tanner, Fortunato had to double that fee. The money was of little concern. Cipher covered expenses. They had never complained or questioned them because Logan had always gotten the results they wanted. He was determined that this time would be no different.
The team called themselves the Magnificent Seven. Not because of the movie that bore the title, but because they numbered seven and had a high opinion of themselves.
They addressed each other by the code names they had used when they were in the military. Their leader was named Boss because he was in command. Boss was six-foot-three and hailed from Louisiana. The other six were named Gearhead, Rabbit, Turtle, Boomer, Biker, and Monkey. The names were given to them because they matched either their personalities or skill set.
Gearhead was into gadgets and had been working on cars as long as he could remember. His father owned an auto repair shop in Milwaukee. Rabbit was the smallest of the crew and the fastest. Turtle did everything slow including the way he talked. He was a black man with a southern drawl and sleepy eyes. People tended to underestimate him and usually regretted it—if they lived long enough.
Boomer was the team’s sniper. Put him within a mile of a target and the target would soon cease to exist. He hailed from Alaska.
When out of uniform, Biker wore leather, pants included. He had never owned or ridden a motorcycle. Monkey was given the name before joining the military. He had been a tree trimmer and could climb a tree like a chimp. It wasn’t unusual to see him shooting at an enemy from the branch of an oak during a battle.
They worked well together and had been doing so for eight years in and out of the military. They had started their civilian lives by planning and executing armored car robberies with the same zeal and precision they once used to carry out missions against terrorists. After their fourth one, with the authorities turning up the heat, Boss decided that they needed to end the robberies. They had grabbed enough money to live well but were too young to sit on a beach all day for the rest of their lives.
That was when they began selling their services and became involved with Logan Fortunato. Fortunato appreciated their talent and gave them targets that were worthy of them.
When Boss received the call asking him to go after Tanner, he said yes immediately. He and the others had heard of Tanner and knew that he was a formidable target. To sweeten the pot, Fortunato had information that might lead to Tanner’s location.
Their mission had three objectives. They were to eliminate Tanner. That was priority one. Their second target was a man named Karl Weber. They were to interrogate him. It was possible that Weber could lead them to their third and final goal, the recovery of the rare bill and the elimination of the thieves who stole it.
Boss and his men were pumped and eager to complete every aspect of their mission. They were also aware that if Tanner was true to his rep, some of them might not survive. They knew this, but no one gave voice to it. The possibility of dying was something that they had come to terms with a long time ago. Whether it came about through a man named Tanner, an IED, or God forbid, friendly fire, sudden death was just a fact of the life they led.
Boss and the others were on a helicopter forty-six minutes after accepting the mission. Their pilot was a man who would fly you anywhere at a moment’s notice and ask no questions if you met his fee. Once you were on the ground, he would wait for you until the hour you stated that you would return. After that, you were on your own. Boss wisely always exaggerated his estimate of how long a mission would take, that way, their ride wouldn’t fly off early and abandon them.
He was told that there was a likelihood that Tanner was looking for Karl Weber. If the assassin got to him first, he could have a huge lead on finding the thieves. If Tanner hadn’t made contact with Weber, Boss would wait to see if Tanner showed up. That would be ideal and even better if they had the time to set up traps.
Boss’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming over the headphones he wore. It was the pilot of the Sikorsky S-76.
“We’ll be in the area in minutes. How far out do you want me to set down?”
“Do a flyover of the vicinity first and then we’ll decide. But I’ll probably want you no more than two klicks away.”
“Roger that.”
Tanner, Henry, and Crash had landed at an airfield near Dallas then climbed into the rental car that was waiting for them. Karl Weber was on a farm fifty odd miles north of Dallas and near route 377. The cottage he had been in since fleeing the festival was surrounded by fields that had been harvested weeks earlier. He owned the twelve-hundred acres of farmland after having recently inheriting it from a widowed sister who had passed away. The land was still registered in her name and he hoped that would be enough to keep anyone from finding him. It wasn’t. Researchers working for Cipher had uncovered Weber’s connection to the land. Tim Jackson had tracked Weber there by locating his car. Weber would have been better off if he’d stepped on the first bus or train he could find and riding it to its destination. It was too late for that now.
Tanner spent time checking out the area around the cottage with the aid of Crash’s drone. The cottage was at the end of an area of cleared fields that had stretches of forests on either side of it, and a wider expanse beyond the cottage. A wooden water tower dominated the landscape as someone had painted it a bright yellow. The tower was facing the front of the cottage and was about a thousand yards away. Beyond it lay more fields. The cottage’s nearest neighbor was miles to the north.
There were two vehicles parked on a paved section in front of the small home. One was Weber’s white Volvo S90 and the other was a silver Toyota Camry.
While it was possible that the Camry belonged to someone sent to torture and kill Weber, Tanner doubted it. Crash had gotten his drone in low enough to make out details. There were small rainbow-colored teddy bears looking out of the car’s rear window, and it had a vanity license plate that spelled the name Amelie. Tanner knew from the information Tim Jackson had supplied that Weber’s daughter and only child was named Amelie. Why the man would invite his daughter to be near him when he thought people were out to kill him was beyond Tanner’s understanding. The fool must think that he had chosen the perfect place to hide. Tanner was soon to show him how wrong he was.
Tanner strapped on the backpack before heading on foot toward the cottage. Henry would accompany him while Crash stayed with the car and kept an eye out for trouble by using the drone. If anyone arrived in the area, Crash would warn them, and they could prepare. He was east of the cottage and the car they had arrived in was tucked beneath trees that were steadily dropping their leaves. There were still enough leaves left to place the car amid shadows.
Instead of cell phones or walkie-talkies they were using sophisticated earbuds that were hands-free and worked over a distance of five miles. Given the predominantly flat terrain they were on, that range might extend farther.
Tim Jackson wasn’t the only one who had helped Tanner. Caleb had phoned while they were riding toward Weber’s hideout and had news about the heist crew. The dead member of the crew, Marco Deering, had fenced several valuable pieces of je
welry in Las Vegas nine weeks before the robbery in Stark. The man who’d bought the items from him said that Deering was with a bearded man he introduced as his pen pal.
“Cody, that’s pen as in the state pen. The bearded guy you’re looking for might be an old cell mate of Deering’s, or at least someone he’d served time with. I hope that helps.”
“It does, Caleb. It narrows down the field. Did Deering ever mention the guy’s name?”
“Yeah, the fence couldn’t remember it, but he did say it was an uncommon name that started with a B.”
“That narrows it even more. I’ll tell Steve what you found and let him work on it. It might be enough to track the man down. Thanks, little brother.”
“You got it, and stay safe.”
“You too… Stark.”
Caleb laughed. “I guess neither of us was cut out for the quiet life. Give Sara and the kids my love.”
“Will do.”
“What’s in the backpack?” Henry asked Tanner. He was still wearing the blue hoodie that had his college’s name and logo on it, but he was wearing it inside out so that the image and letters were difficult to make out and couldn’t tie him to that institution and region of the state.
He and Tanner were walking toward the cottage to talk to Karl Weber. They were approaching it from the rear and moved slow enough to keep an eye out for boobytraps or anything that might warn Weber of their approach. Crash had been left with the car and had the keys for it. Tanner told him to leave the area if he felt threatened or if they lost contact for any reason.
“There’s a chance that we might need more than our guns if someone else comes looking for Weber. The items in the backpack will give us an advantage.”
“What have I missed since the other night?”
“After our talk with Raúl and Felicia I had a run-in with their replacements. They were a step up in the threat department. I doubt they’ll be the last flunkies I’ll have to deal with.”
To Serve And Protect (A Tanner Novel Book 39) Page 9