Chardin looked up at me then, leaning back in his chair. “I know of you, John Harding. I know how you think.”
“No you don’t. If you did you’d be asking me to start recording everything about what I’ve asked.”
“You would risk an international incident with your ally Pakistan?”
“Why would you assume Pakistan will ever find out about this? Besides, they’re only an ally because they’re able to extort billions of dollars from the USA by pretending to be an ally, but thanks for caring. That’s really sweet.”
“I could be an invaluable asset.”
“I think you will be but only for a short time. Let’s start with something harmless. Do you have a contract on Samira Karim and was she the main target for tonight’s suicide bombing?”
Chardin returned his gaze to the floor. He’s not going to like these negotiations. Lucas comes in while I’m staring at our guest considering where I’m going to start negotiating from.
“Gettin’ anywhere, John?”
“Just moving past the preliminaries. You know how it is. I tell him we want to know everything about his mission and he says he wants to go to Disneyland in return. I tell him it ain’t happenin’ and he starts communing silently with the floor.”
“I think the silent part will be temporary. Denny’s on his way. Casey has the coordinates for the meet up. Denny told me he’s glad you prepped our buddy Chardin here. He hinted at a bargaining chip to avoid any distasteful interaction while we extract information. It seems Mr. Wonderful here left a couple of images on his phone.”
Chadin’s head popped up at that news, his eyes moving wildly between me and Lucas. Lucas took out his own phone. He displayed a photo on his screen for Chardin’s perusal. Chardin tried desperately to hold onto control as Lucas held the photo up in front of him. His mouth tightened in fury but he refrained from any comment, knowing we would not be moved by threats. Chardin’s hands clenched into fists. He returned his gaze to the floor once again but this time there was a perceptible shake to his hands. It seemed Nelson wasn’t Chardin’s only error in judgment.
“Well, well, well,” I exclaimed with enthusiasm, looking over Chardin’s shoulder at Lucas’s phone screen. “It looks like Claude has a very beautiful daughter of college age.”
“Denny says she attends Vassar. You must be very proud. Claude here never figured on ever coming close to getting caught, John. Otherwise, he’d never have left a trace like this for us to find. Think he’ll keep silent now?”
“How about it, Claude? Want to avoid mixing business and family?” I could tell my buddy Claude wasn’t a pure sociopath, at least not where it concerned his child.
“I know you will not torture a child.”
“Why hell no we wouldn’t torture a child, Mr. Chardin.” Lucas sat down in the chair I vacated to check out the photo. “We now know your college kid and her Mom. If such information should somehow… you know… get leaked to the wrong people it would be a real tragedy. Right, John?”
“You betcha.”
“You would sign the death warrant for an innocent woman and child?”
Chardin pulls the outrage card. Yeah, that’ll work. “Your past life signed the death warrant for them. We’re attempting to give you a way to keep them safe while making up a little for being a cold blooded, soulless monster, responsible for probably hundreds of deaths, directly or indirectly. You need to step up, Claude, because my boss ain’t much of a negotiator. He’ll want to just torture you, get the info, and then hold the wife and daughter over your head until we check out the intel you give us. Start talking now, me and Lucas give you our word no one will find out about your wife and daughter. We’ll also make sure they get some of your ill gotten gains.”
Chardin spat on the floor. “Your word. Your word means nothing to me.”
“John and I are Marines. Our word means everything. We don’t strap bombs onto children and blow them up in crowded places so as to kill untold numbers of innocents. If John says your wife and kid will be safe make book on it. We’d kill our boss if he ever broke our word and he knows it.”
Chardin stared at us as I came around him to stand next to Lucas. His choices were hell and his family safe or hell and his family dead. “You two have killed in cold blood. What is it you think makes you any different, truth, justice, and the American way? Bullshit! Set it up. I will record what you want.”
I looked at Lucas and he shrugged. What’s there to say? We are cold blooded killers but we know we’re not the same as Chardin. What’s the point of arguing with a dead man who has agreed to give us what we want? Time enough later if his info proves false. Then we’ll show him what cold blooded really means. I left and came back with a digital recorder from our equipment bag. I set it up on the bed next to Chardin and turned it on. The next couple hours were very interesting to say the least. He confirmed Reddig’s involvement. I think by the time he neared the end of his story Chardin was getting a buzz from telling it to us. Denny arrived toward the end so he fired off a few questions of his own he’d been putting together on the way out to meet us. Only one remained for me he hadn’t addressed to my satisfaction. We knew now who had hired him and why he set up a bombing using Nelson’s crew but we didn’t know what the goal was.
“Okay, so it’s Iranian money buying off some Pakistanis to cover your involvement in activating cells out here on the West Coast. I get the part they’re trying to smuggle spent medical irradiated material up from South of the border to use in dirty bombs. Why the hell did you need to risk it all on blowing up a kid in the middle of Jack London Square?”
“If non Muslim blacks were involved in a suicide bombing it would have put everything in a state of chaos for at least a few months. I picked that idiot Nelson’s crew because they were into everything but religion - plus, there was a five million dollar bonus if I could kidnap Karim in the aftermath of the explosion.”
I knew it wasn’t a coincidence but killing her was one thing, kidnapping was a whole other ball game. “But you would have risked having suspicion back on Muslims by kidnapping Samira, thereby undoing the reason for the bombing. I don’t get it.”
“We would have had her in the public eye from Afghanistan within a week, retrained to say anything they wanted her to say and make fools out of your security agencies. I was only to take her if the circumstances permitted. Reddig would arrive to draw you away on some pretense right after the blast. We would have only needed thirty seconds. Reddig was to get one million dollars for the risk.”
The fog lifted in my head a little. I’m already wondering if we’ll get to carve up Reddig. “I noticed only two Pakistanis in your ship’s crew. The others looked like a motley bunch with mixed blood. Are those the ones you’ve used before?”
Chardin hesitated a moment for the first time. He shrugged. “They’ve been with me a long time. We were to finish this job and use the boat to head South. This was to be our last job.”
“You got one out of two,” Lucas observed. “Casey will be happy with this news. It means the Pakis ain’t expecting to get their boat back. Don’t even look at me like that, Denny. We’re keepin’ the boat.”
“It’s your funeral. Don’t think for a second they won’t be looking for the boat. I have some connections down San Diego way. We might be able to get this baby a complete new look. How’s that sound, Lucas?”
“Like you’re tying strings to it as usual. You better not be thinking of putting my boat at risk. I’ll-”
“Your boat? Never mind that alternate reality stuff. In this reality you might get the boat but at some point in the future we may need to use it for company business. Take it or leave it.”
“Can I get something for the pain now? I assume you’ll keep me alive long enough to assess my information.”
Denny took a hypo out of his bag and stuck Chardin with it. The crunched look on the assassin’s face eased and he slumped backwards in the chair. Chardin began snoring as he passed out in relief from
the pain. I poured some peroxide onto my makeshift bandages from Denny’s bag to stave off any infection before we left the room together. Lucas started in on Denny the moment we cleared the room door.
“We want the boat without the strings, you prick. You know the first time we have to use it for company business we might as well paint a bulls-eye on the hull. When we take it out on a fishing trip I don’t want foreign ops blowing the shit out of us.”
“How about if I add some distinctive self defense touches to it… like a couple of fifties on hideaway turrets?”
“Damn! You can do that?”
“I know of a couple craft they’ve reworked that were smaller than this ship. Hell, you guys could go boating off the Somali coast with a couple fifties ready for action… not to mention travelin’ around in Mexican waters.”
“Okay, but I want it licensed to us with some NSA or Homeland Security covers.”
“Done,” Denny agreed.
“You might as well sign in blood, Lucas,” I told him. “The Devil here is a mean master, my friend. It is an interesting setup though. I’m thinking maybe a couple portable surface to air missile launchers to round out our array.”
Lucas chuckled as Denny’s mouth dropped open. “Oh yeah! I think that would be the perfect finishing touch.”
“You guys are nuts. I’ll think about it. Can we get back to the mission at hand? Leave Chardin and his crew for my mates. They’ll drop your boat off down in San Diego and relocate our guests for further questioning. We’ll take my launch, round up Samira, and stroll around Jack London like our lives depended on it after we take care of Reddig. It will be bad if Chardin messed with us. On the good side if he’s telling the truth, the night will be uneventful, and the Bowery Boys get a free dinner on the government tab for their date. I want you two wearing your com units.”
“Casey and I can’t be bought that cheap. I want a grand a piece overtime bonus.”
I laughed at Lucas’s demand as Denny turned scarlet. He took a couple deep breaths and his color faded a little. He needed them in the area as a precaution. Oakland cops would not kill on sight. Lucas and Casey would.
“Fine. Let’s go before it gets any later. I want Ben Reddig in our special room with plenty of time to spare for our Jack London Square gig.” Denny headed out of the room but Lucas hung back with me.
“Did you hear him throw that Somali line out there, John?”
Yeah, I did. “Noticed that, did you? I think Denny’s creative juices flowed the moment he got on board. There must be something cooking above our pay-grade they don’t want any significant money trail for. Denny’s a multitask kind of guy. He has our little terrorist cell problem all solved in his head and he’s thinking of some op he might get booted upstairs for pulling off. Believe this: it will have to do with a boat and Somalia.”
“Damn it! Couldn’t we get just one nice thing without selling our souls?”
I put my arm around Lucas’s shoulders. “Only if we frag Denny.”
* * *
Casey and I strolled into Reddig’s office dressed in our EMT outfits. Reddig looked up, saw my face, and went for his gun. Casey shot him through both shoulders before he could clear his holster with the silenced 9mm Taurus. I disarmed Benny boy and used duct tape as pressure bandages around the shirt and suit jacket he had on after I put him to sleep with a quick stab in the neck. We tranquilized him rather than the big sleep because Denny needed to cross all the T’s and dot the I’s. This wasn’t your regular nine to five office so we didn’t get more than a cursory look as we hustled Reddig out on the gurney Jafar had waiting outside his office. The Company employees were briefed ahead of our arrival. Clean up guys moved into Reddig’s office the moment we vacated it. Lucas had our EMT action van waiting at the curb on Market Street with Denny quickly opening the doors for us. We were on our way in moments.
The trip back across the Bay from San Francisco went fast with the sirens blaring. Lucas turned off the sirens as we hit the East Bay and headed for our intel gathering headquarters. Soon, Benny would be living a Dexter episode. I had no doubt he would be forthcoming with information quicker than Nelson before him. I doubted he could add much more than we already garnered from Chardin, but maybe I didn’t know the right questions to ask. Denny made Reddig comfortable with a second shot after we fastened him to our Dexter table. By the time we got back from the Square Benny would be primed.
Chapter Sixteen
Unexpected Hostage
Dev drove us around in the limo later while Denny and I snapped pictures and movies of every car or truck parked around the Square for blocks. The kids were yucking it up having a good time romancing while we developed a base line. Jack London Inn was a stone’s throw from the water and a couple great restaurants. The piers in front of the Square unfortunately were perfect for a snatch and grab. A grassy knoll a little past the greeting banner heralding the Square included a stand of tall palm trees. Jack London Square at dusk rivals many of the best ocean front scenes anywhere in the world. Recently upgraded, the always spectacular ocean view highlighted outdoor cafes, shops and piers with beautiful walkways everywhere. My pulse quickened as Dev slowed in front of the Square bracketed by flags and gateway. Alexi Fiialkov, accompanied by three of his men, was in attendance near the gate.
“Fucking Interpol! Sorry, Samira.” Denny stared at me as if I had some answer for him.
I waved him off. “Don’t look at me. You know who altered the Executive Order that lets that gang of extortion artists delve into our private business. We may have an Interpol mole and Fiialkov has all but admitted he has someone in Interpol. Let me go out and ask him what the story is rather than sit here playing twenty questions. I’m wired so listen in.”
“Go ahead, but I know you ain’t any more pleased with this than I am. We’ll have to rethink everything including your placement in the area.”
“Like hell.” I got out because I might say something stupid in front of the kids. Jafar and Samira were so into each other I doubt spending the night in the limo next to each other would bother them a bit. I approached Alexi with my hands in plain sight. He held out his hand when I was in range and I shook it. No sense being unfriendly until I had reason to be.
“Congratulations are in order.”
“You’re taking a big chance coming out here, Alexi. You have to know we don’t take kindly to moles outing our every move to the international community. Some of your valued loose ends are going to be tied up real quick over this.”
Fiialkov shook his head with a deprecating smile. “I know my knowledge of what went on today will be very hard to duplicate after this meeting. I am in your debt and I needed to make some small payment toward that end. There will be a gang incident right here in about an hour and forty-five minutes. It will have the cover of a protest over the Mehserle verdict. You have foiled a very dangerous situation but an outside force has paid for an alternate plan with the goal of abducting your charge when the police embroil themselves completely in the riot here.”
Okay, now I’m getting creeped out. That cover with a protest over a Bay Area Rapid Transit cop killing an unarmed teen was a hot item no matter the time passed. It meant the original group paying Chardin’s way knew he had been taken out and they wanted a shot at Samira no matter what. It also meant Nelson wasn’t the only one in the know. Nelson did what Nelson does best and blabbed it. I knew we should have kept that dweeb around. “That’s solid gold info, Alexi. Did you get anything on the ones buying this riot?”
“No. When Nelson and Chardin dropped out of sight today someone associated with Nelson put this disturbance back into play, but fortunately without a bomb. My contact in Nelson’s crew received money and orders when they were called together an hour ago. Nelson’s second brought it. His name’s-”
“Calls himself Obie Chrystal. Him and Nelson did a stretch in Folsom together.”
Alexi smiled. “He has the IQ of a tomato. These people must be desperate to use that simpleto
n. I can have some of my men break up this riot if you like.”
“I appreciate the offer but I’m going to let my boss tip the police off and then follow through on what we’ve been trying to do: get the playmakers before they decide to play around with anymore bombs. Thanks, Alexi. We’re even.”
“Perhaps you will consider a rematch with my man?”
“When we both heal, it’s on.”
Back in the car Denny talked animatedly on the phone. I can tell Jafar and Samira know we have problems because they’re staring at me expectantly instead of at each other. Naji looked up from the limo floor but relaxed when he saw me. Denny and I had decided on straight forward communication with all of us wired in together. Now, my whole crew knew what Alexi told me, including the walking target. Samira didn’t seem rattled, but growing up in an Afghan cave can do that to you. Denny hung up.
“I’m having someone I trust clue in the OPD. You still want to go through with this, Samira?”
“You will be able to get them if they attempt to take me. I trust your judgment. I am not afraid. Would these men take me even with Naji at my side?”
I’m not sugar coating this. “They would shoot Naji.”
“Then Naji must wait in your limo.”
“He has to be at your side, Samira. They may suspect we’re on to them if Naji isn’t walking along with you.” If we’re going through with this I want all the pieces in play. Besides, with me and my crew hovering around you, Naji might have to be the one to give us the split second we need to take your would be kidnappers down. I know Denny, Lucas, and Casey are the most deadly trio you’d ever want watching your back. Even with Reddig in their pocket this bunch won’t have been warned about Lucas and Casey.
Samira leaned over to put a hand on Naji’s head. “Do not let them hurt Naji, John.”
Denny patted her hand where it rested protectively on the dog. “Don’t worry. John would take a bullet for the dog anyway.”
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