by Dale Mayer
She shot him a shuttered look, then quickly walked in through the double doors. As she entered, she stopped in that open doorway to take a moment and look around the big vast empty room. Only about sixty people were in the workshop right now. She was expecting everybody to show up for the afternoon session. There should be hundreds of attendees. She frowned and took a seat close to the back of the room. She could see the doorway from here and the front of the room. It wasn’t her normal position, but something about Erick’s warning made her choose a place where she could see all the action.
As she sat, she watched a couple other people enter. She smiled up at them. “Glad to see you. I was afraid I was in the wrong room.”
They laughed. “Everybody’s in the bar.”
At that she relaxed. “That’s where everyone went. I went up to my room when we took a break for lunch. When I came back down, nobody was here.”
David, his big smile blasting, walked toward her. “Sorry about that. You could have joined us for lunch. I did look for you, but you’d disappeared.” He leaned closer. “I was afraid you’d found someone more entertaining than us in the workshop.” His smile turned flirtatious. “I’ve seen you several times now with another American group. How nice for you.”
“And I would have joined your group,” she admitted lightly, ignoring the rest of his comments, “had I known where you were.”
Another group came in behind the first then. Obviously a few drinks had been consumed. The group was jovial with big smiles, a couple with pink cheeks. She relaxed even further. Nothing sinister was going on here. Seeing Erick had set her off. Determined to enjoy herself, she focused on what really mattered as the prof and lecturers came in again, walking to the front of the room. With everybody else clustered closer to the front, she got up and joined them. She had come here for a reason. No way would she miss out on the information being shared today. Erick be damned. Whatever he was up to, he could keep it well away from her.
And she turned her attention to the speakers.
Erick stood in the middle of the lobby, his arms crossed, a dominant force as he watched hallways that went off in both directions. One of his buddies had gone one way, the other in the opposite direction. He knew exactly where Honey sat and knew when she got up and moved to the front of the conference room with the others. He’d also seen a man place a proprietary arm around her shoulders in a familiar way. And noticed she didn’t move back. Neither did she move closer. He could see just enough through the double doors to view her seating choice.
He also understood why. But it was irritating. It meant she didn’t listen worth a damn. Still, he wasn’t expecting trouble in the hotel. But instinct said it would find him regardless.
He wished he knew what she had seen, but he had no reason to think it was connected with their job. But, after the trouble in England … He waited for his friends to check in, his senses on high alert. Cade strolled in from behind. “All clear,” he said in a low voice.
Erick didn’t acknowledge his voice in any way. They needed Talon to come back with a similar response.
Talon walked in through the front doors at that moment. He nodded to the two men and then joined them. “I didn’t see anyone inside. I did see somebody racing through the parking lot toward a vehicle, which then took off at top speed.”
Erick frowned. “But no way to know why, correct?”
Talon nodded. “No, it could be just a coincidence.”
The three men exchanged hard glances. They all knew there really was no such thing.
Erick checked his watch. “It’s time for us to leave anyway.”
They walked out the side door to the parking lot where their rental vehicle was. Talon said, “I’ll drive.”
Erick got in the passenger seat, while Cade settled into the back.
As he pulled out of the parking lot, Talon said, “It’ll take us a good fifteen minutes to get out of town. And probably another twenty minutes after that.”
Erick didn’t say anything. He couldn’t stop thinking about the skulking guy in the hotel. Didn’t it figure that Honey would notice? He’d seen the workshop placard earlier and realized it was for dentists. In the last year he had never once considered what she might have done for a living. She had been very rattled after she’d hit his car. But then he had not been in very good shape either.
In fact, it was his first trip home from the hospital after badgering the doctors to let him try living at home. It had been a lot more difficult than he had expected. The automobile crash had just amplified his feelings.
He gave his head a shake and refocused on things around him. This was not a place to start daydreaming. “It doesn’t look any different than when we were last here.”
Cade added from the back seat, “Still jam-packed with people, still hot, still dusty.”
Erick laughed. “Well, you’re not wrong, … but it’s a city. People would say that about downtown New York.”
“Only it’s very dark because the towers are so high, and everyone wears black, and nobody smiles,” Talon said with a grin.
He was right too.
They were out of the town limits within fifteen minutes. Erick checked the GPS on his phone and said, “About halfway there.”
After that they drove in silence until Talon took a series of turns and parked them by a property surrounded by an old wooden fence. Houses were on either side, but the area was poorer. Instead of pulling into the driveway, he got out on the road. Erick hopped out and took a look around. Not much here except dirt. There was no paved road, so the benefits of society hadn’t fallen out this far. A gate crossed the driveway. He knew that was on purpose. He had texted his contact, saying they were outside.
Within minutes a man walked from the house, down to the driveway, dogs barking at his heels, and pulled the gate open. He took one look at the jeep and said, “Bring it inside.”
Talon raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. He backed up all the way into the driveway, up close to the house. Once Erick and Cade had entered the yard, the gate was locked behind them. The man never said a word but walked up to what appeared to be a large workshop beside the house. They entered behind him to find an arsenal that would have done the military proud.
Talon shot Erick a hard look. Erick just nodded. They hadn’t expected much to choose from. They picked up the weapons they’d ordered, along with a few extras as they packed up the back of the jeep. The jeep was a soft top but they wouldn’t be putting it down given the sand in the region they were traveling to.
Erick pocketed the handgun he needed in the back of his jeans. As they completed payment, he asked, “Do you do deliveries for special items?”
The man had said very little so far. “Depends if I can get it. If I can, then, yes.”
“Antitank land mines?” Erick asked in a calm voice.
His friends froze beside him. The dealer looked up at him and shrugged. “Sure. You just have to have money.” He shook his head. “Why the hell you would want that, I don’t know. You have to dig them into the ground. It takes a shit ton of work.”
“How deep do they have to go?”
“They’re pressure sensitive, so the closer to the surface, the easier they go off. If you want cars to be affected, then it has to be very close to the surface. If you want people, it’s basically on the surface, but, if you want a heavy truck, then it has to be buried deeper so it doesn’t go off with other vehicles.”
Erick understood the theory behind them. “I just want a ballpark figure. Can you give me an idea what one would cost?”
His price had Erick’s eyebrows rising. “So little?”
The dealer looked at him and laughed. “So little for you, you’re American. But, for people here, it’s lots of money.”
Talon was on the far side of the warehouse, looking at the ammunition they needed for their weapons.
“Have you sold any lately?”
“I’ve only sold two in my lifetime.” The dealer cackled. �
�Takes money, remember?”
“How long ago?” Erick asked casually. He waited for the answer, knowing his friends were studiously trying to act natural, but they were all waiting to hear what he’d say.
“Roughly two years ago. Sold them both to the same guy.”
Erick let his breath out slowly. “How much money to find out who that guy was?”
The dealer turned to look at him, his gaze narrowing. “It would take a lot. He’s a regular customer. I really don’t want to lose his business.”
Erick nodded thoughtfully. “Any idea what he did with them?”
“Blew up a tank, I presume.” The dealer laughed. “He got one about two and a half years ago, to test it for something. And then a second one about six months thereafter.” He shook his head and walked over to another wall and studied the weapons there. “Are you guys returning the weapons in twenty-four or forty-eight hours?”
“Does it matter? And this buyer, did he pick them up himself?”
The dealer turned back, then shook his head. “Just a price difference in my rental fee. And, nah. He had one of his men come.”
“So how do you know it’s the same buyer?”
“Because this buyer never steps inside my shop. I’ve never seen him. I don’t even know his new name. But he always pays. He runs a large region. No one crosses him. At least not twice.”
“But you know him by some name?”
The dealer shrugged. “I’ve only heard it once or twice. It’s not a name I’m sharing if I want to live.” The dealer motioned to the rest of Erick’s gear. “Are you done? Or is there anything else I can do for you.”
Erick shook his head. “If I think of something else, we’ll get in touch with you.” He glanced at the weapons. “We’ll be back soon.”
The dealer nodded.
The three men hopped into the vehicle with Talon once again in the driver’s seat. They waited in silence until the dealer opened the double gates and let them out. As soon as they hit the road, they all started talking at once.
“I really think it’s the same guy,” Talon said.
“Shit, I can’t believe that,” Cade added.
Erick took control of the conversation. “It could be a coincidence, but I know how you feel about that. Same as I do.”
“We just bought weapons from the asshole who sold the antitank land mine that blew us all up,” Cade said incredulously. “Anybody else see the irony in that?”
“I’m not seeing so much irony as I am feeling the anger,” Erick snapped. “I want to go back in there and smash this guy to smithereens.”
“No, we won’t do that. But we will use him,” Talon said. “He has a connection to the guy who bought the land mine. We can’t be sure he didn’t buy it for somebody else. We can’t be sure the guy who bought it is the one who used it. But it’s a connection. And it’s a big one.”
“We also can’t be sure the one this guy sold is the same one that blew up our truck,” Cade said from the back of the truck. “We’re too close to this issue. We all have to take a step back and calm down.”
On that note, silence filled the vehicle.
Erick had to admit Cade was right. “You know?” Erick said, breaking the silence. “Although it pisses me off to think such weapons are accessible to the general public, it would take an IED specialist to use a compression-sensitive land mine.” But he couldn’t let go of the dealer’s comments. “We’ve already found out more than we thought we would. So we’ve made good use of our time here. And it’s only day one.”
“Not to mention more information could still come to light,” Cade said. “And, at this point, I’m thinking we’re up against something a little bigger than we expected.”
“No. It’s still the same. Let’s just make sure we don’t go off half-cocked. We are here for a couple days. If we can find out who the buyer was, even better. But we have to do it without letting our dealer know.”
“I might be able to help there,” Erick said. “I planted a bug.”
Talon took his gaze off the road to stare at him. “You did what?”
Erick looked at him. “I brought several with me. I put one in his workshop. Or his arsenal.”
Talon gave him a slow grin. “Good for you. Where’s the receiver?”
“Unfortunately back at the hotel,” he admitted. “I wasn’t sure we’d have any reception out here.”
“That’s fine as long as you’ve got it on video.”
“I have it on audio. No video feeds. But it’s recording on the laptop in my room.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that you were doing that?” Cade asked.
“It was on impulse. Once I realized he had possibly supplied weapons to the person who had set us up, I knew we couldn’t afford to let that go. It was a fluke that I brought them at all. But once I saw the dealer …”
Cade nodded. “Good thinking. I’m sorry we didn’t have a dozen with us.”
“I thought about asking him for some more while we were there,” Erick admitted, “but I didn’t want to arouse his suspicions.”
“I doubt he had them. He wasn’t into electronics. He was into weapons of mass destruction,” Talon said with a hard tone. “I think the electronics would be a bit beyond him.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I left a bug behind. What I don’t know is if we’ll hear anything or if it’s too far away.”
“Depends what kind,” Talon responded.
“They’re new ones,” Erick said. “Badger had them brought in when he started making plans to come over here. He got them off Levi a month or so ago. Don’t forget. Badger’s been making plans for a long time. So these bugs were cutting-edge military grade.”
“Well then,” Cade said, “maybe the dealer’s not that far away from town. But, with the lack of roads in his direction, it took us twice as long to get there.”
“I’m still thinking the bugs won’t make it.” Erick turned to look out at the endless open countryside around them. “But I had to try.”
“Not a biggie,” Cade said. “We’ll just keep our plans fluid in case we get a break.”
Erick shook his head. “We’ll need to. The bug is a good attempt. If it works, great. If not, we can place a second one when we return the weapons.”
“And yet that was the original plan?” Cade asked from the back seat. “What changed?”
“Honey changed it when she thought she saw somebody skulking around the main lobby. We got the weapons, but we didn’t get any cases. Short of dismantling them all and taking them to the hotel room in a bag or rolled up in our jackets, what do you suggest?”
Talon thought about it for a moment. “Where do you want to go instead?”
“It’s already past five now. There’s a place we can rent a room about an hour ahead. I suggest we go there, do some research and then be out by dawn. We can hit the village early in the morning, do whatever we need to do, maybe do a trip out to the site afterward and then come back.”
The others thought about it, and Cade said, “It won’t be quite as comfortable a night, but you’re right. I hadn’t considered trying to get the weapons into the hotel room. And the jeep won’t be secure enough to keep them.”
“Exactly,” Erick said. “And I don’t want to bring trouble into the hotel.”
“Because of Honey?” Cade asked.
Erick shook his head. “Not just because of her … A lot of innocent people are there. And it only takes one person to call in the police on us, and we’ll be in a situation we don’t want to get into.”
“Of course it doesn’t hurt that Honey is there though, does it?”
Erick shot Cade a disbelieving look. “She crashed into my Mustang,” he protested. “Why the hell would I want anything to do with her? However, neither do I want to make her a target.”
“Well, she’s cute, intelligent, a professional, and she’s single,” Cade added to Erick’s comment. “You obviously have a connection.”
Erick shook hi
s head. “Don’t even go in that direction. Besides, one of the men in the conference is all over her.”
“You’ve got to admit something is definitely fiery between you two,” Talon said with a smirk. “So what if someone else is interested? Since when did competition scare you off?”
“Never,” he snapped. “Remember, she’s the one who crashed into my Mustang. Took me until now to get it fixed with original parts. And I still have to get a couple more parts banged out.”
“And you will. But, when I see you together, I don’t see the same friction you see. I see attraction, sparks. And they’re good sparks. You could do a lot worse.”
Erick snorted. “You guys need your heads examined.”
“So do you,” Cade said cheerfully from the back seat. “She’s obviously interested.”
“She’s nuts.”
“You’ve been called the same,” Talon said. “I don’t think she’s psycho. Neither do I think she made up what she saw. And I don’t think she exaggerated. I think somebody was skulking in the lobby. What I don’t know is if it was an accident that she saw him, or if he wanted to be seen. And was he there because of us, or was he there because of her, or was he there because of something completely unrelated?”
“Either way we’re not returning to the hotel tonight, so it doesn’t matter.” Still pissed, Erick stared out at the countryside around them. “I have to admit that I won’t mind going home.”
“No, neither will I,” Cade said. “But I want to go home with answers.”
Erick agreed. The last thing he wanted was to spend the next two to three days chasing leads and going home empty-handed. Still, they’d already found out a lot they hadn’t expected to find out. Now they just had to lock down who was buying the antitank land mines and what was he doing with them? It wasn’t like bringing bowling balls home for the kiddies.
His phone went off, disturbing the silence. He pulled it out and checked it. “Hey, Badger, what’s up?”
“I just got a phone call from Kat. She said she heard from a friend of hers who said she ran into you at the hotel.”