Dying For LA

by Ian Jones

  And maybe Morgan would care to use them to find the Russian and Chinese information. The man told him he didn’t care who’s side he was on.

  After all, it was only about winning.

  Morgan admitted he didn’t think very long about it, the pride of the US army; his army, was at stake. Until he got the call he hadn’t taken it seriously at all, but once he realised the game was actually happening and he had so far done nothing he made the decision, one that would ultimately cause the deaths of innocent people and his own downfall.

  There was not much else to ask.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The cheeseburger was good again, and even better chased down with a beer. Major Turner was happy. Lieutenant Colonel Mathews was happy. The army was in the clear. Any fallout would go to no more than two individuals, there would be no impact anywhere else. They sat around a table in the corner; Turner and Reed on one side and Mathews and John on the other.

  ‘You’re welcome back here anytime John, and I mean that,’ Turner said seriously.

  ‘Thank you. I plan on keeping in touch with Tom anyway.’

  ‘You better.’ Reed clinked his bottle hard against John’s.

  ‘You know this thing is almost impossible to imagine. When we first started working on it I thought either the CIA or the FBI would take it and everyone else could forget about it. But it just got more and more complicated. It’s like a bad film. General Morgan, Colonel Carter and poor old Hayter all involved in it and look how it all turned out,’ John said.

  ‘Well, General Morgan is in it now for sure, I guess he’s looking at jail time and I’m guessing Carter has a lot of explaining to do. He is doing all he can right now for damage limitation. Miraculously he produced the schematics, like he just found them by chance, but there ain’t nobody gonna fall for that. You know I really believe that Hayter had no idea. He was told to look after the drawings and that’s what he did. But Morgan knew that 1-Too were playing both sides, he can’t have told Carter everything,’ Reed pondered.

  ‘Morgan and Carter were old buddies, and the pair of them also knew Hayter pretty well. So there is a history between them, but for sure Hayter didn’t have a clue what was going on. Hell, all he ever thought about was going to Vegas every weekend. The army was strictly just there for the paycheque every month. My guess is that as soon as Morgan knew he was off to the Pentagon, him and Carter panicked that the drawings could get found. After all, Morgan’s name was all over the schematics, which he would never have been able to explain. So they must have wanted to stash them, and where better than with the guy that runs the stores? Tons of paperwork goes through there every year, nobody would notice. Hayter had no idea what it was, and just stashed it in an old ammo case to get rid of it. He probably forgot all about it. You know we would never have found it, Carter cracked, although he tried to make out he guessed and we got lucky there,’ Turner said with a wry smile.

  ‘It’s all about money. This kind of crap always is. Always. 1-Too must have decided if the Russians wanted it that badly then so will the US. They would have made it sound easy to Morgan. But this couldn’t have been cheap, and I suppose we’ll never find out where the money came from. Morgan can’t have got it out the army coffers surely?’ John asked.

  ‘I think I can help there. Colonel Carter’s wife is rich. I mean really rich. So my guess is that is one of the reasons Morgan got him involved, it wouldn’t have just been because they are buddies,’ Turner explained.

  ‘Rich? Then why the hell is he in the army?’ Reed wanted to know.

  ‘Appearances. You know how these rich guys look; son-in-law a colonel in the army, it’s all good. He’s a less successful clone of General Morgan, and his father, grandfather, etc. all served, all heavy hitters in the army. So they follow in the footsteps and as we all know, if you’re in with the right people then that’s how to get on. And that ain’t just the military. It’s that shit everywhere. So Colonel Carter is gonna be real uncomfortable now, my bet is he’ll have some kind of a story worked out for sure and it sure as hell better be good. But he’ll serve his time, retire and never have to lift a finger again,’ Turner replied.

  ‘Mind you, I guess that isn’t so certain now. Morgan is up on serious charges, and he may not want to take the fall alone,’ Mathews added.

  ‘But the worst thing for me is that Hayter and his wife both ended up dead as a result of it. Yeah, Deanna was recruited we know that, but she didn’t know the half of it. All she wanted was the forty thousand. And Madeline only wanted her daughter back. They really didn’t deserve what they got. Hayter was just the dumb schmuck who needed the cash too,’ Reed pondered sorrowfully.

  ‘And what about Pinsky? And the general in Moscow?’ asked John.

  ‘Well, Pinsky is some kind of superman. He’s had some real serious wounds over the years, but still keeps going and the word is he will walk from this. I guess it was no surprise he’s gonna get disappeared, no way was he ever going to stand trial over here. We know that for damn sure. It’s just like what we know about Colonel Carter, for Congress, this is all about damage limitation. Whatever gets said publicly, they are not going head to head with Moscow over one bad guy. Even after we lost a major, a CIA agent and three cops plus five members of the public. And there was no linking Pinsky to either the Metro attack or major Hayter’s murder. The Russian army are denying he has any attachment, they say they lost all track of him. They released some information, which is how we found out about his previous injuries but nothing up to date. And the general, Rostov? Claims to know nothing, doesn’t even remember the summit let alone General Morgan, and says he never heard of Pinsky neither. So our word against theirs, the only satisfaction we get is they spent a fortune and got nothing in return.’

  ‘Pinsky got played by Deanna, and Madeline probably,’ John commented.

  ‘Yeah, that’s for sure. She did get forty grand, I bet she probably only gave Hayter a couple to get married, and she only did that to get Pinsky off her back. And Hayter would have taken it, he just wanted the cash to stay at the tables, he had no credit left anymore at Indigo. I get the feeling he would have done anything to keep going to Vegas. But I got no idea what Pinsky thought Deanna was gonna do to get the plans, it ain’t what I’d call pillow talk. He must have thought Hayter had them in his room or something. Maybe he got the idea they were gonna play happy families in Vegas. I don’t know. The deaths at the Metro still make no sense, somebody must have decided she was carrying them I guess, maybe she even told Pinsky or someone she did have them just to keep them sweet,’ Turner said soberly.

  ‘Maybe it was that guy Voorhees. It sounds like he wasn’t delivering,’ Reed said.

  ‘Could be. It looks like Pinsky didn’t waste any time getting rid of him. Perez has been saying he was told it would be at most a month and then more than four later and still they’d done nothing. He says the Metro attack was planned in two days. Voorhees must have been feeling the pressure.’

  ‘Two days? How did they know Deanna would be there?’ John asked.

  ‘Again, Perez and Rodriguez can’t answer that. My guess is she was set up to go. Maybe promised as attorney or something to do with Madeline’s daughter,’ Turner pondered.

  ‘It is unbelievable. All this for a game.’ Reed shook his head.

  ‘You got that right. Morgan should never have been at that summit in the first place. That guy makes nothing but bad decisions. You always said he was an asshole,’ Turner looked at Reed with a grin.

  ‘Yeah, I did. I probably shouldn’t have but there you go.’

  Turner sat back with a rueful smile.

  ‘You know I got a call this morning. I was told that the state department made contact with Grand Marshal Yin, in Beijing. I guess that was an awkward conversation but he did confirm Morgan’s story about how it all started, although his version is that General Rostov put him up to it. Make Morgan look stupid is how he put it. But one thing he did say was, he enjoyed it. And what’s intere
sting about that is we got some intel that the Russians believe that China have got hold of information on a new fighter jet. So I wonder how they got that?’

  ‘I have to ask, but I guess I’m not gonna like the answer. What is anyone doing about these 1-Too assholes? They seem like they need wiping off the face of the earth to me,’ Mathews asked, serious for the first time.

  Everyone looked at John, who shrugged.

  ‘I don’t really know how to answer that. Look, they have been chased around by law agencies all over the world for more than ten years. They came out of nowhere. They’re organised, and if anyone ever does get taken nobody really knows the setup so there is never any useable information. Just like we got with Perez and Rodriguez; they don’t know a damn thing. Keane doesn’t either, and we can’t speak to Pinsky. Maybe we could have got something out of Voorhees, who knows. You can be sure the CIA, Interpol, MI6 and many others will continue trying to track them down and hopefully there will be a breakthrough.’

  ‘But who the hell are they?’

  ‘Well, it is now believed they originated in Beirut, but again, nobody really knows. All anyone is sure of is they are a big organisation, and rich, a lot of power. Morgan paid a great deal of money and Rostov is likely to have shelled out the same.’

  ‘Didn’t work out for them this time,’ Reed commented.

  ‘No, they lost here. For all the secrecy, and their obvious organisation at the end of the day they are only as good as who is on the ground, and it didn’t go as planned in LA. Their name will come up again, unfortunately.’

  ‘So, do I get Tom back now? I’m positive there will be some GIs up to no good that need the crap scaring out of them somewhere on this base,’ Turner asked, still smiling.

  ‘Of course, thank you very much for the loan,’ John said smiling back.

  ‘So, what are you going to do now, John?’ Reed asked.

  ‘Now? After this I’m meeting Sammy, then we’ll just see what happens. I’m off to New York at some point soon anyway, I want to see my daughter. I make sure I do that at least once a month.’

  ‘Sammy?’ Turner looked puzzled.

  ‘Sammy King,’ Reed told him.

  ‘What, her? Off the TV?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Wow John she is hot as hell. Hotter.’ Turner looked at John in wonder.

  ‘Yeah, she is.’

  ‘And she likes John,’ Reed said with a wide smile.

  John looked at the two men.

  ‘I just had a thought. I’m meeting her downtown. How the hell am I going to get there from way out here? Is there a cab office?’

  Mathews laughed.

  ‘You know what John? Least the army can do is get you there. I’ll arrange a driver.’

  ***

  John was late, but Sammy forgave him, and greeted him with a big kiss. They had a couple of drinks, then set off back to Santa Monica, John still had the hotel room and he had to get his stuff anyway.

  ‘Are you still saying I don’t get an interview?’ Sammy teased as they made their way across LA.

  ‘Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.’

  Sammy grinned.

  ‘We got all we need. And your picture is front and centre. You’re public property now. You know John, I told Costas all about you. He was very interested.’

  ‘Costas?’

  ‘Costas Blanic, he owns the channel. He’s Albanian, a real fascinating guy actually. Anyway, I told him about you, what you do for a living and he wants to meet you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He wondered if you might do some work for him.’

  John’s phone rang loudly, he looked at the display, he had no idea who was calling but answered it anyway, he was in a good mood.

  ‘Hey, is that John?’ A woman’s voice. John had no idea.

  ‘Yeah, who’s this?’

  ‘Oh, hey, it’s Sugar. You won’t remember. You came into Miss Sin once. I was your hostess.’

  John thought back.

  ‘Yeah I do remember. What can I do for you Sugar?’

  ‘Well, it’s kind of difficult but you said for me to call. Like, if I was having trouble with some guy. You know, the one that likes to get rough. Anyway, he’s here, and he’s making me real nervous. He always stays till we close and that’s when the trouble starts. The problem is I need this job. You know. But you said you can help. I got nobody I can ask. I got nobody looking out for me, but I know you were for real I just know it. And I thought about that ever since. In case he came back. I knew he would, and he’s drunk and already making trouble for me.’

  ‘Yeah, I know I did. I’ll do what I can. I’ll get there, just stay away from him if you can.’

  ‘Really? You mean that?’

  ‘Yeah. Sit tight.’

  John hung up the call and looked over at Sammy who was obviously trying to listen while appearing not to.

  ‘Er … Sammy. I’m not trying to be a pain in the arse but can we go via Hollywood? It won’t take long.’

  Copyright

  Published by Clink Street Publishing 2021

  Copyright © 2021

  First edition.

  The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and

  Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that with which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  ISBN:

  978-1-913962-28-9 - paperback

  978-1-913962-29-6 - ebook