Erick

by Dale Mayer

  “We’ll add you to Laszlo. And that means Erick will have twice the incentive to show up at the meeting.”

  “He will show up at the meeting anyway. He’s here to get information. About what, I don’t know. But, if you only said that you had something for him, he would have been there in a heartbeat.”

  “Well, now we do have something for him. We’ll have you and his friend.” Then he gave her a smile that chilled her. “And when that business concludes, we’ll have those few days where it’s just the two of us.”

  His smile made her realize he wore a mask so well that she never saw this coming.

  Erick stared at the message from Honey. Then the photo and another message. He turned to Cade and said, “We have another player.”

  Cade frowned. “Who?”

  “David from the conference. He wants me to show up alone at this address if I want to see Laszlo alive again.”

  The three men stared at each other.

  Talon stepped forward and said, “They took Laszlo?”

  Erick studied the photo of Laszlo secured to a chair with two big men standing on either side. He flipped the phone for the others to see. “Apparently.”

  They passed the phone around, studying the details of how Laszlo was sitting. He appeared to be unconscious with his head falling forward on his chest. “What did they do? Hit him with a tranquilizer dart?”

  “As we well know, there are a lot of methods to knock somebody out, even somebody who’s well trained like Laszlo. But this ups the ante.”

  Just then a third text arrived, this time saying Honey was in trouble too. “Shit,” he muttered.

  “They’ve taken Honey captive as well?”

  “Apparently she’ll join Laszlo. This will be her last communication as per her kidnappers.” He read that and swore. “We need to find out where the hell this address is, and we need to get there ahead of them.”

  Erick quickly brought up the address on the laptop. It took a few minutes to get the spelling correct, and he realized, probably out of nervousness, Honey had spelled the address slightly wrong. But, when they brought it up, it was easy to check. “According to the map, we’re looking at approximately ten minutes to get there.”

  “What is it?” Cade asked.

  “A warehouse of some kind. A commercial building.”

  They all nodded. “That would make sense.”

  “What time is the flight this afternoon?”

  “Four o’clock.”

  “We have to be there by two for international flights.” He checked his phone. “It’s just now eight-thirty.”

  “That gives us less than six hours to get to the airport.”

  “We can get there, if all goes as planned,” Cade said.

  “We have to rent a vehicle,” Talon said quietly. “We returned the weapons and jeep yesterday.” He got up. “Let me take care of that. We’ll get it for one more day.” And he quickly disappeared.

  Cade and Erick sat down and worked out a plan of action. It was not cool that Laszlo had been taken. That left them short on men. Given the area, it was pretty easy to come up with more men if needed, but Erick wanted men he could trust, and that was a different story altogether. He studied the map and said, “We need a history on this David guy. She doesn’t mention any other names. But she headed down to have breakfast with David this morning.”

  “David who?”

  “Well, that’s one of the problems, isn’t it? We’ll have to figure that out. But he was at the seminar.”

  Cade was already clicking rapidly on his laptop. “I have a list of the seminar lecturers. There’s a David Aramean. He’s one of the main coordinators and one of the dentists who lives and works locally.” He brought up a picture and turned it to show Erick. “Do you recognize him?”

  Erick studied the photo and nodded. “Yes. She usually sat with him.”

  Cade whistled. “In other words, he was keeping her close.”

  “But did he know her before all this, or did he bring her over for a different reason, or did he have nothing to do with it?”

  “It’s hard to say. She did say something about having met him before,” Cade added. “But I don’t remember if there was anything else. Something about getting a last-minute spot at this conference. However, that doesn’t explain how he’d know about you. Except the automobile accident is on record, so, if anybody searched into her history, they would have found you. You’ve also been seen with her several times here. Not to mention if anyone checked her texts, just imagine the messages.”

  Erick winced. “True. But that was since being here. There was no communication beforehand.”

  “Just the auto accident,” Cade said. “Still, it’s not like you guys had a relationship. So inviting her wouldn’t bring you here.”

  “Unless they thought that having her here as a captive would make me more cooperative?” Erick said slowly, trying to work his way through that.

  “Maybe they saw this?” Cade lifted the laptop and twisted it so Erick could see the screen. And there in front of them was a picture of Honey and Kat together. As Cade flicked through the photos, they found half a dozen of the two friends.

  Erick whistled. “After England, where Kat and Badger were seen together, maybe I was brought into the picture. Not to mention you and Talon and, of course, Laszlo. Damn,” Erick said softly. “If they read about the car accident, then that would be a connection. A tenuous one but, if they could work it to their advantage while Honey was here …”

  “When was she invited to this seminar?” Cade asked quietly. “Do you think that was a complete setup?”

  Erick looked at him and shook his head. “I have no idea. She said she got a call about a last-minute opening, but I’d hate to think she was only invited because of that. According to Kat, Honey is a damn good dentist and has been wanting to attend this conference for a long time. At least that’s what she said the last time I spoke with her. It’s quite possible Honey was invited on her own merit—or for some completely different reason.”

  “Maybe, but she’s young. And this is very advanced stem cell testing. Hard to say what the reason is or the criteria for attending one of these.”

  Erick nodded on the outside, but inside Erick was damn afraid the reason she’d been brought here was a tenuous connection to him. And then he shook his head. “You know? It’s probably not so much the connection to me as much as the connection to the group. Maybe any connection would do. If they couldn’t get Kat here, they could get Honey.”

  “Talon and I will research more behind-the-scenes stuff and see what this actual connection is,” Cade offered.

  “The fact that we got Badger and Kat now popping up is major,” Erick said. “I’m calling Badger now.”

  Cade shook his head. “No, let me do that. You need to get the blueprints for that building to devise an exit plan, and we need some idea of where to place men for backup. We can’t count on Laszlo if he’s unconscious, and we can hope Honey will be awake, but there’s a good chance we’ll have to carry both of them from that building.”

  Erick nodded. “We need more men.”

  “There’s no time. Everybody we know is too many hours away, and there were four of us here. We thought for sure we were good.” Cade was dialing now.

  Erick swore softly under his breath. He racked his brain trying to come up with a plan. Just then his phone rang. It was Mason. Erick answered the call. “What are you doing still up?”

  “Badger says you’re in trouble.”

  Erick glanced at Cade talking to Badger now. “Okay. That’s fast, even for you guys.”

  “Kat sent me a text. Badger’s on the phone now with Cade, I presume?”

  “Yeah. Honey has been kidnapped. Laszlo has been imprisoned as well. I’ve got a picture of him tied up in some warehouse-looking building, and they are adding Honey to the mix. I’ve got to meet them in another …” He checked his watch. “Forty-five minutes.”

  Mason swore. “Look. I
can get you a couple men. I just don’t know how fast.”

  “Not only does it have to be fast but I have to know they’re our men, and I need them at this address.” He ran off the address for Mason to take down. “And they must know who is on the right side, who’s on the wrong side. I’m sending you a picture of David. He’s the man from the seminar Honey attended. She met him for breakfast, and then all hell broke loose. Plus we have pictures of the guys who caught Laszlo in the alley and the two bruisers who were in the coffee shop with Honey. Levi’s working on IDs. But regardless these are our known bad guys.”

  “I’ll get back to you in ten.” And Mason hung up.

  When the call came through ten minutes later, it wasn’t Mason but Levi. Erick smiled. “Levi?”

  “Mason called me. I happen to have two men in your neck of the woods. One is in Kabul. The other is just on the outskirts.”

  “How far on the outskirts?”

  “He’s in a helicopter going to the city airport right now. I can divert his landing if I know when you need him. Do you have the address?”

  “I do.”

  “The first man is already on his way.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Brandon. He’s been spending a lot of time with Kasha at Bullard’s place.”

  Erick whistled. “Okay. I’m not sure who Kasha is, but I’ll take both of them.”

  “Kasha wouldn’t get there in time. She’s at Bullard’s African estate. But Brandon is in town on a layover. He’s been updated. I’m sending you his image, and he has yours. I’ll get my other man, Merk, over there as fast as we can. Everybody will convene at the warehouse address. Do you have a plan in place?”

  “I’ll tell you the little bit I do have,” Erick said, explaining what he’d worked out. “I’ll send you the blueprints and the images. Honey and Laszlo are the ones being held.”

  “I know Honey,” Levi said. “She’s a friend of Kat’s, right? Stone mentioned it. He knows both.”

  “Yeah, small world.” Erick smiled. “Okay, I’m getting off now.” He shook his head, turning to Cade who was now off the phone. “Levi just called. We’ve got Brandon already in Kabul, and Merk is on his way. He’s not far out. He can get here pretty fast. Brandon will meet us outside the address. I’m sending photos.” His fingers clicked as he spoke. “And the blueprints. So we have one extra backup and one more potentially coming in after the fact or potentially right into the middle of the mess.”

  “Merk is a good guy,” Cade said quietly. “I was in his unit many years ago. Then I moved back East.”

  Erick nodded. “I’ve never worked with either of them. But, if either Levi or Mason say they’re good men, I’ll take that as the best reference anybody can get.” His heart pounded in his chest as he thought about what Honey must be going through. But he couldn’t let himself be distracted. This was too important. “What I really want to know is, who is this friend I’m supposed to meet?”

  “And how does he know you?”

  At that moment the door opened, and Talon stepped in. Erick barely remembered him stepping out in the hallway when his own phone had gone off. Talon waved his phone back and forth. “Brandon just called me. Apparently he’s already making his way to the warehouse.”

  “Nice to work with pros.”

  Talon smiled. “I’ve worked with Brandon before. I don’t know Merk, but apparently he’s on his way too.”

  “Cade’s worked with Merk, and so this is old home week in many ways.”

  “It’s not good though. We thought we could come in, ask a few questions and get out. What triggered this?”

  Erick switched out of his jeans into his camouflage pants with pockets and holsters built in. He filled them, sliding his knife into its sheath and putting his small sidearm into his ankle holster. He’d packed them in his duffle bag for traveling but it was the first thing he’d pulled out. He couldn’t wait to get a prosthetic with a built-in holster. He’d talk to Kat about that as soon as this business was over. He straightened, pulled on his T-shirt, untucked, a vest atop it. “Honestly I think it’s our weapons supplier.”

  The men looked at each other and then nodded. “That would make sense. He’s most likely the one to send out a warning,” Cade said.

  “He does anything for the right price, as we well know,” Talon added. “We’ve utilized that part of his personality many times.”

  With the men ready, they took one last look at the hotel room and slipped out. “Let’s go. I want to be there a little early. We have reconnaissance to do. I hate going in blind. We need visual intel before we get there.” Erick scanned and sent the blueprints on the building to his phone and their phones.

  “We also don’t know exactly where they’ll be,” Cade said. “This is a big building. We have to make sure we can get in and out, preferably without being seen.”

  “Not just without being seen,” Erick said. “We need to grab the hostages, the kidnappers and David, the asshole who has plans for Honey.”

  Talon said, “I asked about David at the front desk, wanting to speak to him about attending another workshop. According to the hotel he’s already checked out.”

  “I think he should be picked up for some questioning. Preferably not by his Afghanistan military but by somebody from our team. The questions we want answers to are not ones the local military will give a shit about.”

  “We’ve got ourselves in a fine pickle now,” Talon said as he stepped out in the hall. “It’s time to take care of business.”

  Erick gave him a fat smile. “Just the kind of job we like.”

  Chapter 11

  Honey brushed the damp tendrils off her forehead. In the dark, she was scared, worried about Laszlo’s health. He hadn’t made a whimper since she’d been shoved into the room with him. The odd thing was, she’d been left to stand and walk around, whereas he was tied up. She’d gone to him to figure out how to untie the restraints around his elbows, but they were chains, with a lock securing them behind him. She checked his feet. Chained too. Both with a lock as well. Which was, of course, why they had left her free to move about. She might even have tried her luck picking the locks, but she didn’t have any tools.

  She knew someone like Erick could probably pick what appeared to be a standard lock in no time. But, in her case, locks weren’t exactly what she used picks for.

  There were no windows, and nobody had entered or said a word to her since she’d been dropped in this cold dusty room.

  She walked back to Laszlo, gently massaging his shoulders. “Laszlo, can you hear me?”

  A heavy breath escaped his chest, and he slowly lifted his head. He blinked at her several times.

  She crouched in front of him. “Are you okay?”

  He frowned and tried to move his arms.

  She squeezed his shoulders. “We’re both captives. You’re locked up with chains, and I’m loose, but I don’t know how to get your chains off,” she whispered.

  He stared at her for a long moment. “Check my pockets. There will be a pick.”

  “Sure, and, if I were cleaning your teeth, I’d know what to do with it,” she said wryly. “Other than that, I have no clue.”

  He gave her a half smile. “No, but you have to try.”

  She nodded. He was right.

  “In my back pocket is a tool kit.”

  Only he was sitting on it. He tried to lift his butt enough that she could get her hands in his back pocket. She managed to grip the small plastic case and pull it out. She opened it up in front of him, and he said, “The middle tool.”

  She pulled out a simple plain flat pick and studied it. “What is it I’m trying to do?”

  In a dry tone he said, “Unlock the lock.”

  She frowned at him, but he then explained what she should listen for.

  “There’s a lever just inside. Try to push it to the left. It’s got to be at the right angle and at the right depth. If you can catch it at that spot, it will undo the lock. Think about a ke
y going in and turning. You want to reverse it so the same lever is triggered but without a key.”

  Understanding in theory what he meant, she crouched behind him and played with the lock. But after three minutes of frustrating effort, nothing happened. “I can’t do this,” she cried out.

  “Keep trying,” he said. “You’ll never get it if you are angry. This is the kind of thing you have to do slowly and carefully. Once you’ve done it the first time, it will be easy forever afterward.”

  “I doubt that,” she snapped. But she went back to trying. And, when she thought she got something, she said, “I’m up against something hard. I feel like it’ll push aside, but I can’t quite get enough effort behind it.”

  “That’s because effort is not needed,” he said. “Move it gently. Don’t give in to it, just ever-so-slightly keep up the pressure. And, all of a sudden, it’ll give.”

  Instead her pick slipped off to the side. She sat back down and groaned, and then blew the tendrils of hair off her face again and tried once more. When she heard voices outside, she froze.

  In a low voice Laszlo said, “Don’t panic. That’s the worst thing you can do. Stay calm, stay focused.”

  And she tried, she really did. Finally she got into another position where she thought she was right back at that same pressure point. And using the pick with a different hand motion, she managed to keep up the pressure, turning it and turning it, and boom, it clicked. Then the lock popped open. “I did it,” she hissed.

  He laughed as he untangled his hands from the chains. “Give me the pick.”

  She handed it to him, and, in less than five seconds, he had both his feet unshackled. He straightened, stretched, kicked out his legs to put more blood back into them. “Now that’s more like it.”

  “Well, I am definitely glad to see you back on your feet instead of tied up, but what are we supposed to do?”