Contents
Dislaimer
Other Works
Dedication
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Conversation
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Copyright © 2015 Robert E. Crull.
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Other Robert Crull novels and short reads
BOOM!
To my wife and son, for their continual support.
Monday
The alarm went off and I silenced it with a smack. It was still early, damned early but, I got up anyway. The sun hadn’t risen yet and I was a little groggy so, I headed toward the kitchen. I’d learned the night before how to set the timer on the coffee pot and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it glowing blue from across the kitchen. It meant I was getting coffee PDQ this morning.
Cup under the brewer and the go button pressed, I stretched to work the kinks from the nights sleep out of my back. The smell of the bold brew brought a bit of a grin to my face. I liked dark coffee, a little on the bitter side and this one smelled perfect.
Cup in hand I went to the keeping room to spend a few minutes thinking through the last couple weeks. It had been hectic to say the least and, we liked to stay busy. The pace had been one we’d not seen for several years. Times were good.
The fodder from the press over the bombings at the airport had subsided and the latest celebrity personal faux pas had taken its normal place as the most important news the American public was interested in. We’d done good work for the Government, and we were damn lucky no more people were hurt than there had been.
I had considered taking some extreme action on one Steve Johnson, a man who had raped his daughter after the death of his wife. Problem was I wasn’t sure how extreme I wanted to be but, I knew I’d figure it out with a little help from my friends.
The time I’d spent with Dallas DiRose had proven to be both exhilarating and productive. My search for property in the mountains had proceeded but was going to take some time given the specific set of requirements I’d given the realtor. I had even given some thought to the idea of building exactly what I wanted. I hadn’t decided but, I was considering it.
It was the day my partner, Don Coyne, and I had decided to test the water with our longtime office manager about becoming a partner in the company. We only had one concern about the proposition; we didn’t know if Laura would be fully accepting of our complete line of business. We’d kept her shielded from most of our dark ops and let it pass as special projects requiring one or the other or both of us to be out of town for a period of time. Most of our business was derived from local cheaters and thieves both business and personal.
I’d know soon enough whether there was going to be any insurmountable kickback from Laura. We’d ask her to clear the schedule for the day and let our contractors and clients know we’d be closed.
“Good morning,” I heard come from the kitchen.
“Morning.”
“Did you sleep well,” Dallas asked.
“I did. How ‘bout you?”
“Yes, I did.”
Dallas and I had been spent a decent amount of time together and when she didn’t have meetings at the Ted she’d stay out with me.
“Whats the day hold?”
“We’re having a bit of an internal business meeting with Laura today. As far as anyone outside the business knows, we’re closed.”
“Anything drastic?”
“Maybe,” I said. “We’ll be proposing to Laura she be promoted to junior partner today.”
“That’s awesome Hugh! Does she have any idea this is going to happen?”
“Nope. None. We’ve been talking about it for the last couple of weeks. She’s been with us the entire time we’ve been in business and its time for her to start sharing in the profits.”
“Oh how wonderful for her,” she said.
“Let’s hope she feels the same way.”
“I’m sure she will. She likes working with you two as best I can tell from our conversations.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said.
We spent the next forty-five minutes discussing what she had planned for the day and what the week in general would hold for her. She’d have to be in town most of the week as there were meetings with the merchandisers who would be at the Ted for the postseason games. I enjoyed her being around on the weekends, but truth be told I needed about a weeks worth of alone time to get centered back up after the last couple Dallas heavy weeks.
+++
Showered and shaved I headed toward the kitchen to brew a cup for the road. Dallas met me there with a long comfortable hug which left me wishing I had a couple hours to spare, but I knew Laura would be waiting.
Coffee in hand I went to the garage and climbed in my Jeep Wrangler. It wasn’t always as dependable, but I’d enjoyed doing all the work to bring her back to the dependable girl she’d become. I opened the garage door, backed out, and left the house.
+++
I parked at the office in my normal spot for the Wrangler, on the back row in two spaces. It could’ve been viewed as a dick move, but we seldom had enough traffic for it to be a problem. I climbed out, grabbed my tablet, and made my way to the front door.
“Good morning Hugh,” Laura said as I walked in.
“Morning.”
“So when do we want to start this meeting?”
“Is Don here yet?”
“Yeah, in his office,” she said.
“Ok, let me grab him, make a cup of coffee, and we’ll meet you in the conference room,” I said heading across reception to the hallway and my office.
I stopped by Don’s, immediately across from mine, to let him know I was there.
“Hey. You ready?”
“Yup. Sure enough.”
“Let me drop my stuff off and grab a cup of coffee and I’ll meet you guys there,” I said as I headed across the hall.
Jacket and tablet dropped off, I grabbed my coffee cup and headed back across reception where I saw Don and Laura enter the conference room. I selected a bold blend like I had before I left the house, and pressed the brew button. In less than a minute I had a steaming cup of god nectar ready for me. I reached into the fridge and grabbed three bottles of water and headed to the conference room.
“In case anyone needs water,” I said as I placed them on the table.
“Thanks Hugh,” Laura said.
“I suppose you’re wondering why the big deal for a business meeting, huh.”
“Yeah, it’s a little out of the ordinary for the two of you to close the office for one of these,” she said.
“Laura, in all honesty, Don and I have been talking behind your back,” I said.
“I kn
ew something was up for the last couple weeks.”
“There’s some stuff we need to tell you,” Don said.
“Oh no, is the firm in trouble? Am I in trouble?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. Don and I need to tell you the rest of the story of the business.”
“The rest of the story?”
“We’ve hidden certain aspects of the business from you for the last eight or so years.”
“Hidden things from me? How so?”
“We haven’t told you all the business we have. We’ve been providing you with plausible deniability,” Don said.
“You see Laura, we have some fairly large clients who ask us to do illegal things. A perfect example is the bomb which went off at the airport a couple weeks ago. Those were our bombs.”
“And who was the client?”
“We only refer to them as the Government. Stevens is our primary contact there.”
“So what you’re saying is your assassins? Guns for hire? Am I right?”
“Yeah it is Laura,” Don said.
“Why are you telling me this now?” she asked.
“There is something else we need to talk about, but we need to know where you stand with this information first,” I said.
“I don’t like secrets. And, to know the two of you have been keeping them from me for so long is disturbing.”
“Are you upset we do dark ops for paying clients?”
“Up until about five minutes ago, I had always assumed there was some covert type work being done, and the two of you would never do it if the deal was suspect, like killing someone’s ex to get them out of alimony. Tell me you don’t do personal requests!”
“Not at all,” he said. “We mostly do dark ops for government agencies and law enforcement. We’ve never taken a dark project from a civilian, nor will we.”
“That’s good to know,” she said.
“The reason we are telling you all this is because we’d like to make you a partner in the firm.”
“A what?”
“Partner,” Don said.
“I can’t do the things the two of you do, there’s no way. You guys have a lot more experience than I do with all the covert stuff.”
“Would you be interested if we offered to train you in planning of the operations. We wouldn’t expect you to go out and perform them, just do the planning for them, run the show,” I said.
“Run the show! Now I know you’re fooling around.”
“Listen, Don and I have all the faith in the world in you. You have great instincts and are a natural at the planning aspects of this business. Take that and couple it with a select few of our contractors and you’re off and running.”
“We’ve thought about this for a while, Laura. It’s not something which came to us over the weekend,” he said.
“We’re getting to the point we’d like to be more in the planning and less in the delivery and, eventually we’d like to turn the bulk of the business over to you to run and manage.”
“This is a lot to think about. Do you have to have an answer today?”
“Not at all. We’d like an answer soon because we’re going to need to find your replacement, and get training started for you and for them.”
“You’ve already thought this through and you think I’ll need replaced?”
“Let’s say we’re hopeful you’ll accept our offer,” Don said.
“So what are some of the specifics of being a partner?”
“It means you share in the profit the firm generates. For the last five years we’ve been splitting about fifteen million dollars, give or take.”
“You’re kidding me right? You’re saying a part of the profit would be mine?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what we are saying and, for sharing profit you’ll be gradually taking over. The more you take, the more you make,” he said.
“Incredible!” she said.
“So what do you think right now?”
“Not looking for a commitment. What do you think of being a partner?” Don added in.
“It’s a generous offer, I have to think about it and weigh it against my morals. I’ll let you know before the end of the week,” she said.
“That’s fine Laura,” Don said.
We broke up the meeting and all went to our separate offices. In mine, I started my computer and launched the email program to see what needed to be addressed this morning. With everyone thinking the office was closed today it was a good chance for me to catch up on the pile which had accumulated.
“Hugh,” Laura said from the door.
“Yeah Laura, come on in.”
“Tell me how you are ok with the idea you kill people?”
“I understand how you’re having difficulty with the concept Laura. Don and I have a military background and part of what has to happen in the defense of the country is bad people need to be terminated.”
“But who are we to make the determination?”
“We don’t. We only do terminations for the government and then only after we’re sure the threat is real, or at least passes the morality check for us.”
“So if someone comes to the office and asks for their eighth grade teacher to be killed, we don’t do those kinds of things do we?”
“Not at all! Our biggest money comes from the government, but the bulk of our business is setting up investigations for personal or business situations. We assist the local police in cases from time to time, but the bulk of what we do does not involve killing or any other form of objectionable activity.”
“That helps a little. When you guys first told me about the bombings, I was shocked. A close friend of mine lost a cousin down there, so its kind of personal to me.”
“Oh God Laura, I’m sorry. I had no idea it had been so close to home for you,” I said.
“Thanks. Tell me why it happened though.”
“The plane which came in that day was carrying some pretty nasty drug cartel members in it and the government wanted them taken care of in as public a display as possible, and it wound up being the best option of several bad ones to accomplish the goal.”
“So it was all about drugs?”
“Yes, it was and, it was right at the edge of what we consider to be right.”
“Ok, I see why it was done and I agree with you. It wasn’t national security, but it was undertaken to reduce something which is damaging the fabric of America,” she said.
I’d never heard her be patriotic before. Maybe she was closer to our line of thinking than we had first thought.
“That was the justification Don and I used at the time.”
“Thanks for the time Hugh. I’m going to go have this same conversation with Don, see what his take is.”
“That’s fine Laura, you need to talk about it within this office as much as you need to. When and if you decide to join us, we’ll become all about full disclosure. The fact is most of our dark ops work has been strictly need to know.”
“I understand Hugh. Thanks again,” she said leaving the office.
+++
“Hugh Ranier,” I said answering the cell phone.
“Hugh, Christy McDougal, how have you been?”
“Been good Christy, what’s up.”
“I wanted to let you know I have a couple properties for you to take a look at and, I think you’re going to like what I have.”
“Good deal,” I said. “Are you going to email me the details?”
“I already have. Give them a quick look and let me know if you’d like to see them sometime.”
“I’ll do that, thanks for the call Christy,” I said ending the call.
I stood up to brew another cup of coffee and stuck my head in Don’s office.
“Hey, how’d your conversation with Laura go?”
“Well, I think,” he said. “She seems to be gettin’ more comfortable the longer the day runs and the more talkin’ she does.”
“She did seem to settle in pretty well during our
talk. The biggest issue is the trust she feels she wasn’t given.”
“Yeah, but I think with a little more discussion I’m pretty certain she’ll come around to our way of thinkin’.”
“Lets hope so. Listen I got a call from the realtor up in Blairsville, she’s found some property for me to review via email. You want to take the afternoon and head up to look at a couple of them?”
“Naw, I’m gonna take the time while we have it and read some. It’s been awhile since I’ve read anything other than a magazine,” he said. “Thanks for the offer though.”
“Maybe I’ll see if Dallas wants to run up with me.”
“Piece of advice bubba?”
“Sure.”
“Go alone. This is for you. Don’t let what you want get polluted by someone else’s opinion or wants. Pick out what you like, everyone else will enjoy the fact they can use it, whatever it is.”
“Never looked at it like that. Most likely better long term.”
I went to fill my coffee cup and decided water would be good; I’d already had about six cups total for the day.
“Hey Laura, Don and I are taking the afternoon off. I’d like you to do the same, give yourself some time to think about the offer. Enjoy some extra personal time.”
“Thanks Hugh, I will.”
In my office I pulled up the email from Christy and saw there were four properties listed. The first one was a classic A-frame house with wings on each side. Not my style.
The next one looked like a big log cabin. Blonde colored logs with cement between. Fairly nice, with four bedrooms, and four and half bathrooms. Large open kitchen and living area with a large fireplace. The only aspect I didn’t like about it was it was right on the side of a hill. I’d wanted more of a flat lot when Christy and I first talked. I couldn’t remember if I’d made it a requirement at the time or not. Regardless it wasn’t worth a look.
The third property was on a flat lot with a total of about ninety-eight acres. This one was more traditional; it was four sided brick with multiple levels to take advantage of the natural roll of the lot. It held some promise. I’d definitely be taking a look at this one.
Hostage!: A Hugh Ranier Novella (Hugh Ranier Short Series Book 2) Page 1