by Mike Ryan
“Yeah. Think things would have turned out differently for you had you had a normal childhood?”
“I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not gonna be one of those people who blames what I’ve become on my parents or having a rough childhood. Everybody’s got problems. People just deal with them in different ways. Everyone has choices to make, no matter what has happened to you in the past. But the choices I’ve made are mine. Nobody else’s. I’m not gonna say I was driven to this. I could’ve done things differently if I wanted to. I just chose not to.”
“So, how’d you end up with Vincent?”
“It was completely by accident. I don’t remember how old I was. Probably around twenty or so. I was working in this warehouse and Vincent came in. I think he was working on some kind of deal. Anyway, it was about fifteen years ago, and he’d just risen to power, taking control of the northeast. For some reason, the deal went sideways, and people started shooting at each other. Everyone started taking cover. Vincent somehow ended up near my position.”
“The start of a beautiful friendship.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, one of the people shooting came around and had the drop on him. He was about to shoot him right in front of me. I saw the whole thing. So, I jumped out and started hitting the guy. I wound up dropping him, knocking him out.”
“So, you left with Vincent right there?”
“No, him and the boys he had with him hurry up and escaped. He never forgot me though. He came back to that warehouse a few days later, wanting to thank me for what I did for him. He put a few hundred bucks in my pocket and asked if I wanted to make more money working for him.”
“So you did?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you know what he was doing?” Recker asked.
“Yeah, basically. He pretty much told me what I’d be doing. I started at the bottom doing a lot of low-level deals. He didn’t hand me anything. But he knew he could always count on me.”
“That’s never changed.”
“Took me about six, seven years to get to where I am now.”
“Ever think about striking out on your own? Starting your own group?”
“Maybe it’s crossed my mind a time or two,” Malloy answered. “But never for very long. I’m happy with where I’m at, what I’m doing, and who I’m working for. I have some things that I’m very good at. To do what Vincent does, to last as long as he has, you have to sometimes do things differently. I’m not sure that’s something I’d ever want to do or be interested in. Besides, I like where I am.”
“Makes sense.”
“What about you? Planning on staying in Philly forever?”
Recker shrugged. “Who knows? I honestly don’t make plans that far ahead.”
“I hear that.”
“Besides, for the next little while, all my focus is going to be on the Scorpions. That might take some time.”
“Why were you so focused on getting rid of them anyway?” Malloy asked.
“It’s actually a pretty simple answer. They’re bad people who are capable of doing bad things. The longer they’re here, the more work I’ll have to do.”
“And it’s as simple as that?”
“It’s as simple as that. Speaking of plans… what was your reasoning for taking out Billings back there?”
“I’ve got a simple answer of my own.”
“Which is?”
“It was a good opportunity.”
“But he was going to jail anyway,” Recker said. “Why bother?”
“I don’t want the Scorpions here either. They’re bad for our business. Vincent’s willing to wait and see how things shake out. I’m not as patient as he is. I’m much more of a strike while the iron’s hot type of guy. Billings was obviously high up in their food chain. Even if he went to jail, at some point, he’d be back out and we’d have to deal with him again. Now we don’t have to.”
“And it’s as simple as that?”
Malloy smiled. “It’s as simple as that.”
Once they finally got to the warehouse, they saw Vincent waiting in front of it, standing by his car. There were several more of his men stationed all around, just to make sure that Recker hadn’t been followed by the Scorpions. Recker got out of the car and helped Malloy get into Vincent’s vehicle. After a brief conversation, Recker grabbed his and Haley’s gear out of Malloy’s car. He then got back into Haley’s car and they drove off, soon followed by Vincent, who went in a different direction to get Malloy to one of his doctors.
“Where you wanna go?” Haley asked.
“Let’s get back to the office.”
“What about Mia?”
“I’m gonna have to figure out a way to get in there.”
“I could always go and check on her.”
Recker tapped Haley on the leg, appreciating the gesture. “She’d like that. But somehow, I gotta find a way to see her myself. I can’t just leave her there alone.”
“We’ll figure out something.”
“Until then, we need to start working.”
“On what?” Haley asked.
“We have to go hunting.”
“For?”
“Some piece of crap opened up and put some lead into a beautiful, innocent person. I’m not gonna let them get away with that.”
“You want the guy that pulled the trigger?”
“Oh, I want him in the worst way.”
Recker’s mind went back to the way he felt in trying to track down Agent 17. Hatred consumed him for taking away the woman he loved at that time. He was feeling it again, even though the circumstances were a little different, and Mia had pulled through.
“I don’t care who he is. Whoever it is… they are going to pay.”
23
Jones was still monitoring the situation at the hospital by the time Recker and Haley got back to the office. As they walked in the door, Jones came over to greet them, happy to see them back in one piece. He still looked them over, making sure they didn’t have any holes in them that they neglected to report.
“How was Malloy?” Jones asked.
“He’ll live,” Recker answered. “It’s nothing he won’t recover from. He’ll be off his feet for a week probably, but that’s about it.”
“Well, that’s a good thing.”
“You still been monitoring the hospital?”
“Of course?”
“Anything new?”
“Police are still processing the scene.”
“What about victims?” Haley asked. “Anybody else other than what we know?”
“No, thank goodness. The only bodies that have been marked as deceased are known Scorpions.”
“What about other casualties?” Recker asked.
“Two. One was Mia, as we know. The other was a visitor who apparently mouthed off at the beginning of the siege. He was shot in the leg but will make a full recovery. He’s not in danger.”
“Good.”
“What’s the chatter so far?” Haley asked. “What are they saying about us? If anything?”
“Right now, it’s a big blur from what I can tell. Nobody seems to know or have any good theories about what happened, which is a good thing from our perspective. The prevailing opinion so far is that there happened to be a group of well-skilled people in the building at the time who decided to strike back.”
“That’s a pretty weak theory,” Recker said.
“Maybe so,” Jones said. “But it’s the best one they have at the moment and the one they’re going with. With the building surrounded at the time and all entrances and exits blocked off, they’re saying it was impossible for someone to come in from the outside.”
“Unless you happen to know a cop who’s not quite on the up-and-up who’ll let you in.”
“Yes, well, let’s hope they don’t come to that conclusion as well. Speaking of which, is it possible they will find out about what that officer did?”
“I would think it’s unlikely. I think he just said that if anyone a
sked that he’d say he broke the door open before the rest of the team got there, thinking he heard a hostage in danger.”
“You think they will buy that?” Jones asked.
“With everything else going on there, you really think they’ll doubt it?”
“Maybe not.”
“He’ll be fine. They have too much else to worry about.”
Jones sat back down at his computer and started typing away. Recker went over to the big screen monitor on the wall.
“David, put up the known Scorpions on here.”
Jones immediately brought the pictures of the group on the screen. “Why, what are you looking for?”
“We’ll have to start crossing some of these guys off.”
“As soon as I got final confirmation on the names of the bodies.”
“Hey, what about Billings?” Haley asked. “Any blowback on him?”
Jones sighed, still not liking the fact that he was killed in the manner in which he was. “Not that I can tell at this point.”
“There won’t be,” Recker said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because Billings was killed with a gun that belonged to one of the Scorpions. Once they do ballistics, they’ll find that out.”
“They won’t buy that they went into that hospital to kill him,” Jones said.
“Maybe not initially, but they’ll come around to that point of view.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I think the official report will wind up saying that the Scorpions initially raided the building with the intention of freeing Billings. When that wasn’t possible, they decided to take his life instead of letting him go to jail and possibly risk him turning evidence and giving the cops a lot of sensitive info.”
“I think that’s flimsy,” Jones said. “Do you really think they would believe that?”
“What other option is there? They’re bad guys, David. People in that line of work turn on each other all the time. It’s not exactly unprecedented.”
“Well, that is true. It just seems to me that would be a bit of a stretch.”
“Considering he was shot with a gun of one of their own, what other evidence would they have to prove otherwise?”
Jones nodded, knowing he was correct. “No, you are right. It just seems… I don’t know. The whole thing is a mess.”
“It certainly is that.”
Recker looked at the pictures on the screen, feeling the hate burn inside him with each face that he looked at. There were a couple faces that he recognized already, as he remembered shooting them at the hospital. But he knew somewhere on that screen was the no-good bastard that shot Mia. As he looked back, he should have tried to question someone to see who the person was who pulled the trigger. But he knew that wasn’t the most pressing issue at the time when he was in the hospital. Besides, he fully intended to kill everyone on the floor anyway, making it a moot point. And it still might have turned out that he got the guy already anyway. He didn’t know for a fact that one of the men that escaped was actually the trigger man.
“I need to get back in there and see her,” Recker said.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible at the moment,” Jones replied.
“I don’t want to hear that. She’s lying in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot, I need to be there with her.”
“Michael, listen to what I am saying. I am not telling you no because I don’t think it’s a good idea, though I really don’t think it is, I’m telling you it’s not possible because the police are not allowing anyone inside the building who is not authorized to be there right now. At least until they get the crime scenes cleaned up.”
“Which means what?”
“Only people who are legitimately working at that hospital are allowed to be in that building. They are not even allowing visitors into the building at this point.”
“For how long?”
“From what I can gather, they are going to revisit the situation tomorrow and make the call then as to whether they open it up again for visitors.”
“They’re still taking patients?”
“Yes, and don’t get any ideas, because I won’t allow you to injure yourself just to get in there.”
“Not even what I was thinking of,” Recker said.
“Pardon me for not exactly believing you. I know how you are. You are somehow going to find a way in that building.”
“Well, you’re right about that.”
“With Billings dead, they shouldn’t have too tight a grip on things,” Haley said. “They’ll probably just have a few guys stationed at entrances, watching, things like that, just to make sure there’s no problem.”
“Very well could be possible,” Jones said. “Let’s just wait until tomorrow and see how it all plays out before you start figuring out a way to enter in some unusual way.”
“I wasn’t even thinking about breaking in,” Recker said.
“Then what did you have in mind?”
“Going in the front door like everybody else.”
Jones looked at him with a slight level of distrust. He didn’t quite like the sound of that. “Right through the front door?”
“Yep.” Recker went over to one of the other cabinets and took out their disguise kit. He placed it down at the desk and looked at Jones. “Right through the front door.”
Disguising themselves wasn’t something Recker and Haley did often. When they did, throwing a baseball hat on was usually enough. But every few months they had a job where a little more finesse was needed. Put on some facial hair, maybe a scar or two, and voila, they were a different person. It was something they learned in the CIA, though neither of them usually much cared for such theatrics, either then or now. But sometimes it was unavoidable, and they needed to don those types of disguises. As far as Recker was concerned, this was one of those times.
“You got any problems with that?”
Jones shook his head. He knew how important Mia was to Recker, and to all of them for that matter. Seeing how she was and visiting her while she was stuck in a hospital bed, was something that needed to happen.
“I’ll just be happy when all of this is behind us,” Jones said.
“That might take a while.”
“Why?”
“Scorpions are still out there,” Recker answered. “We might have taken a good chunk of them out, but they still got some numbers.”
“Maybe they will take this as a sign and split and go somewhere else.”
“I think there’s close to a zero percent chance of that happening. Especially after what else I’ve got planned.”
Jones stopped typing, perplexed by his partner’s words. He looked at him with a confused expression on his face. “What do you mean? What other plans do you have?”
“I’m gonna find out who shot Mia and I’m gonna make them pay the price for that.”
“Michael, that’s not what we’re about here. We’re about protecting the innocent. We’re not about personal retribution and revenge.”
“You’re not. I am.”
“We’ve been through this before.”
“I know, and you don’t have to tell me about it, I’ve lived it.”
“Everything’s fresh in your mind, you’re still charged up. Just let it lie for a while, so you calm down and look at things with a new perspective.”
“I don’t need a new perspective,” Recker said. “Calm, angry, relaxed, mad, it doesn’t matter one bit. I’m gonna take them out.”
“Take them out for the right reasons. Because it’s the only way, to save a life, because it’s the right thing to do… not because you’re angry.”
“I’ll do what I feel like I have to do.”
“So, what is the purpose of this visit for Mia? To actually be with her and comfort her and love her, to let her know you’re there for her in her time of need… or to pump her for information so you can go on this vendetta of yours?”
“Do you really need to as
k that question?”
“I didn’t think I did, but maybe I do.”
“Nothing is more important to me than her.”
“I would hope not,” Jones said. “Do you really think she would approve of you going out there, trying to gun down the man that shot her?”
“That’s really an irrelevant question.”
“Why?”
“Because she doesn’t approve of anything we do to begin with. She’d rather me quit this whole thing altogether. So that really means nothing.”
They continued talking for a few more minutes, but Recker had enough by that point and finally walked out of the office. He really didn’t want to argue about anything. His mind was made up about what he was going to do, and he didn’t want or need anyone’s permission to do it. Haley walked over to the window and looked out, seeing Recker get in his car and drive off.
“He just left,” Haley said.
“He just needs some time to cool down,” Jones replied. “He’ll be back.”
“I can’t really say I blame him.”
“Neither do I. I just want him to act rationally instead of on emotions. Reacting on anger is what gets people killed. Especially when we’re dealing with people on the level of the Scorpions.
“Maybe it’d be better to support him instead of trying to talk him out of it.”
“You weren’t here when he was tracking down Agent 17.”
“No.”
“He’s a different person when he’s doing things out of revenge,” Jones said. “My worry is that if he tries to find this person, and it takes some time, he could lose himself.”
“Maybe that was a worry before, but I don’t think it would be now. Mia wouldn’t let him stray too far.”
“Perhaps that’s true.
“One thing’s for sure, you’re not gonna talk him out of doing this,” Haley said. “His mind’s made up. He’s gonna do it. With or without us.”
Jones sighed. “I know. Believe me, I know.”
24