by Mike Ryan
The Cain Redemption
By
Mike Ryan
Copyright 2015
Mike Ryan/Maverick Spur Publishing
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are products of the author and his imagination. The book is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the reader and may not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without the express written consent of the author or publishing company.
Formatting by Polgarus Studio
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Chapter 1
It’d been three months since Matthew Cain gave Director Conlin his final answer on re-joining the Specter outfit. He’d spent that time doing just about what he envisioned he would. Absolutely nothing. Though he was still having seizures regularly, they were a little more sporadic. Instead of almost daily seizures they’d whittled down to two or three a week. He put his personal appearance to the back burner as well. He grew his hair long with a matching beard that indicated he hadn’t shaved in a long time. Probably in three months. If he got any mail he usually threw it out without even looking at it and he rarely even glanced at his phone. Sometimes if he heard it ringing he just socked it away in a drawer to forget about it. His apartment was a mess, clothes all over the place, dirty dishes everywhere; cleanliness wasn’t something he was overly concerned with anymore. Cain usually only ventured out once or twice a week, and that usually was to get food or buy some groceries. He really didn’t care about his former life anymore. As far as he was concerned, he was done. But his former life wasn’t quite done with him.
Director Conlin had called an emergency meeting that required the presence of his high level assistants as well as several handlers, including Michelle Lawson. The meeting consisted of about fifteen people. The purpose was to discuss Ed Sanders and his former cohorts that used to run The Specter Project. They had gotten close to finding them at various points but every time ran into a dead end. Someone would just narrowly escape or throw them off their trail at what seemed like the last minute before they closed in. Everyone was seated, waiting for Conlin to appear, wondering what the jest of the meeting was about. It was rare for all of them to be in the same room at one time. Conlin came in a few minutes later, file folders in hand, and walked around the oval table to his spot.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I don’t want to keep you too long from your duties so this won’t be a long meeting,” Conlin began. “The purpose of our meeting here today is to discuss these men,” he continued, the pictures of Sanders and his henchmen being shown on the board.
“We’re doing the best we can to find them,” a handler stated.
“I know you are. But with all due respect to your efforts, it’s not good enough,” Conlin calmly replied. “These just came in this morning,” he said, showing the pictures of three dead bodies to the group.
“Who are they?” Lawson asked.
“They are the bodies of agents that worked for us. Until now, we haven’t gotten that close to them. Not really. This shows how close we are. Unfortunately, it’s still not good enough. Three agents, all killed sometime yesterday. One in Italy, one in France, and one in Russia. We believe the culpitrators to be Booth in Italy, Proulx in France, and Collins in Russia.”
“What about Sanders?”
“We have no idea where he is. But we all know he’s still pulling the strings on these men.”
“So what’s the plan now?”
“That’s what we’re here to discuss. We lost three men yesterday. I’m not about to lose any more. I believe we’ve been going about this the wrong way. We’ve been sending men all over the place following whatever leads we’ve had, none of which have really panned out.”
“How else would we go about it?” Lawson wondered.
“Systematically concentrate on one target at a time. Once we find one, we’ll find the others.”
“You’re saying to go up the food chain. Get the lower level guys first which will lead us up the food chain.”
“Exactly. It’s unlikely we’ll find Sanders until we find the rest. It’s proving to be too difficult to get a handle on his location. Let’s start with the lower tier guys. Once we find Booth, he’ll lead us to Proulx, who’ll lead us to Collins, who’ll then lead us to Sanders. We have to start small and work our way up. Trying to get the top dogs first hasn’t yielded results yet. We have to try something different,” Conlin told the group.
“So who do we target first?”
“Booth. We know he’s in Italy. I want this to be everyone’s top priority in this office. Track down every lead, every contact you have, even the most remote possibility. This agency will always have something hanging over its head until these men are eliminated. I want this to be the beginning of the end.”
Conlin spent the next forty five minutes presenting some of the leads they had for the group to brainstorm on. It also gave them a starting point to focus their efforts on. There was still something else on his mind though that he wanted to discuss in private with Lawson. After the meeting adjourned he asked Lawson to stick around a few extra minutes. The room cleared out until it was just the two of them.
“I want your honest opinion,” Conlin started. “Do you think this’ll work?”
“I do. With the right men tracking them down,” Lawson replied. “To be honest though, even the best plan can only get us so far if it isn’t executed properly.”
“What are you saying exactly?”
“Even if we know exactly where each of these men are, we can’t send just anybody to capture or kill them. With these men, nothing will be as it seems. If we find them too easily, it’s cause they want to be found. Once we get a lead on them, we have to send the very best we have.”
“I agree. Which brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about,” Conlin stated.
“OK?” Lawson responded, having a good idea where he was going.
“We need Cain back. He’s the most dangerous agent we have. Nobody is better qualified than him to do this. Nobody would have a bigger stake in this than him.”
“Or he’s too personally involved to think clearly and wouldn’t be his normal self.”
“I guess that’s always a risk when a mission becomes personal. But I think he’s too good to let that get in the way of doing his job.”
“Even if that’s true, there’s still the problem of getting him to come back,” Lawson said.
“You still keep in contact with him?” Conlin asked.
“I’ve tried,” she told him, throwing her hands up. “I call him once a week but he never answers or returns my call. I send him a few texts a week with no response. I’ve even gone to his apartment a few times but he doesn’t answer the door. There’s no way to get to him.”
“Well, he has to go out at some point, right?”
“Well…yeah.”
“Put someone on his apartment twenty four hours a day. The moment Cain leaves I want us to be notified.”
“I will.”
“One more thing…what about his ex-girlfriend?”
“Heather? What about her?”
“Does he still talk to her?” Conlin wondered.
“No. I talk to her once or twice a week. They haven’t communi
cated since they broke up.”
“Maybe it’s time we changed that.”
“Why?”
“He’s obviously not the same without her in his life. For whatever reason, that was his choice. If she walks back into his life, maybe he walks back into ours,” he reasoned.
“You want us to play matchmaker?”
“In a word…yes,” he smiled.
“I didn’t think the United States government cared about their employee’s love life,” Lawson joked.
“If that’s what it takes to get him back we do. He needs to have meaning back in his life. Right now he has none. She can bring that. Is she still single?”
“Yes. She is.”
“You think she still loves him?” he asked.
“She does.”
“Good. Make it happen.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“One more thing, Shelly.”
“Yes?” she answered.
“Eric Raines is wrapping up his mission within the next week or so.”
“OK?”
“That means he’ll be coming back here and working out of this office again.”
“I’m not getting your meaning,” Lawson said.
“I know you two have a history. I trust that won’t be a problem?”
“I don’t see how it would be unless…are you assigning me to be his handler again?”
“Any reason why I shouldn’t?” Conlin asked.
“I’m sure there are other handlers equally as capable of having him,” Lawson objected.
“I’m sure there are. But is there another handler who knows him better than you do? You know his strengths and weaknesses, and what he’s capable of better than anyone. Isn’t that true?”
“Yeah. I guess it is,” she reluctantly agreed.
“So you can make it work?”
“I have a feeling no matter what I say you’re going to assign him to me anyway.”
“That’s pretty accurate,” he smiled. “I just figured I’d give you the courtesy of letting you know beforehand so you could prepare for it.”
“Thank you,” she replied, faking a smile. “I’ll be as professional as I can be.”
“I know you will.”
Lawson got an agent to stake out Cain’s apartment to see if he went anywhere. The agent stayed on Cain for two weeks. Cain went grocery shopping on Monday’s, Wednesday he went to the corner restaurant for breakfast, and Friday’s he went to dinner at the same restaurant. He followed the same pattern each week. The following Wednesday, Lawson waited for Cain outside the restaurant so they could finally talk. She got there about five minutes before he usually arrived. Right on cue, Cain showed up a few minutes later and was taken to his usual table towards the rear. As he was looking at the menu, Lawson made her move. Cain had the menu in front of his face and never noticed his old handler walking toward him.
“Hello Matt,” Lawson greeted as she sat down at his table.
Cain lowered the menu slightly, just enough for his eyes to peer over it to see his acquaintance.
“You know if you wanna hide from people and not be found you shouldn’t be predictable and go to the same places every week,” Lawson said.
“So you’ve been following me.”
“Not me. But we’ve had someone keeping an eye on you.”
“So what’re you doing here?” Cain wondered.
“Well, since you haven’t returned any of my calls or texts in the last three months, I figured it was time for us to chat.”
“I think everything was said the last time we talked. Nothing has changed.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that. You’ve uhh, changed a little,” she said, noting his appearance.
“You haven’t. Still look as pretty as ever.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me. You know that.”
“Just checking,” Cain stated, still looking at the menu. “For the record, I’d recommend the French toast. It’s ridiculously good.”
The waitress came by and took their order, Lawson taking Cain’s suggestion. Once she left, Lawson got down to business.
“Can we talk about what you don’t want to talk about?” she asked.
“Seems like you’ve already started. Anyway, I don’t suppose it’d do any good if I said no.”
“It wouldn’t.”
“So what is it now?” Cain wondered.
“We need you.”
“I’ll give you the same answer I did before. Not interested.”
“Does this interest you?” Lawson asked, tossing pictures of the dead agents in front of him.
“What are these?”
“Dead Specter agents. They were killed by Sanders and his cronies.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Cain sorrowfully said.
“Yeah, and they’ll probably be a few more in the coming weeks and months unless you come back and help us.”
“Don’t put this on me.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. But we need you.”
“You have other agents who are capable.”
“Not as dangerous as you,” Lawson replied.
“Shelly, I respect and love you, you know that.”
“I feel a but coming on.”
“But with my condition you can’t expect me to be able to do the things I used to do,” Cain stated.
“I don’t. That’s why you’d have to get it fixed first.”
“That’s not gonna happen.”
Lawson could tell that the conversation was going nowhere again. But it was basically what she expected out of him. She didn’t figure she’d just roll back into his life after a couple months and get him to change his mind.
“I’m meeting Heather tomorrow for lunch,” she blurted out.
“Oh? How’s she doing?”
“As well as can be expected I guess. Still dealing with a broken heart.”
“She’ll be better off in the long run for it,” Cain told her.
“So you say.”
A few seconds later Lawson faked a surprise look, spotting Heather walking towards their table.
“Oh my gosh, look who it is,” Lawson stated.
“Who?” Cain asked, turning to look.
“Gee, I hope I didn’t get my days and times mixed up. I could’ve sworn I said tomorrow. Hmm.”
“I bet,” Cain sighed, looking down at the ground away from the table, hoping not to be recognized. “Wow. This doesn’t feel the least bit orchestrated.”
“Hey Shelly,” Heather greeted, not initially recognizing the shaggy haired man with the long beard across from Lawson. She stood next to Cain without really looking at him.
“Aren’t you two gonna say anything to each other?” Lawson asked.
Heather looked confused as she was sure she didn’t know who the man was, at least not from the back. She looked down and was shocked at the face looking back at her, wearing a grin.
“Hey,” Cain stated.
“Oh my God, Matt?” Heather asked, astonished at his looks. “What happened to you? Have you been on a secret mission or something?”
“Uhh, something like that.”
“Wow. I didn’t even recognize you.”
“Yeah, that was kind of the idea.”
“So…how are you?” Heather uncomfortably asked.
“Great…and you?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“You look good,” Cain told her.
“Thanks. Should we make this another time, Shelly? I don’t want to interrupt you two talking business,” Heather asked.
“No, sit down,” Lawson said.
“Yeah, it’s OK. I was just about to leave anyway,” Cain said.
“You were?” Lawson asked.
“Yeah. I have some business to attend to. Remember?” Cain replied, raising his eyebrows, hoping Lawson would play along.
“Oh. Sure.”
“It was nice to see you again,” he told Heather as he stood up.
&n
bsp; “Yeah, you too,” she smiled.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Cain told Lawson as he turned to walk away.
“Yes you will,” she smiled back.
Heather sat down, taking Cain’s seat as she put her purse on the ground next to the chair.
“Well that was certainly unexpected,” Heather noted.
“I know. I got here a few minutes early and saw him sitting here.”
“He doesn’t look well. Hope that wife of his is taking good care of him.”
“Yeah, well, that’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today.”
“What?”
“I didn’t ask you here just to have breakfast and catch up. Most of it is about him,” Lawson told her.
“Shelly, if he’s having problems at home or whatever, I really don’t think I should be getting involved. And I don’t want to,” Heather responded.
“He doesn’t have any problems at home.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that he doesn’t still have you in his life and it’s killing him,” Lawson stated.
“I don’t understand,” Heather said, shaking her head. “That doesn’t really make any sense. Why would I be a problem for him?”
“Because he still loves you.”
“Please, Shelly, I assure you that he doesn’t. He made his decision a long time ago and I respected and understood the choice he made. I don’t fault or blame him for it.”
“There’s so much that you think you know that you don’t know,” Lawson said.
“You know, I really don’t have time for this,” Heather replied, standing up and pushing her chair out, ready to leave.