by Mike Ryan
Once he got to the main floor he squatted to make himself as little a target as possible as he looked around for a spot. He looked to his left and saw the faintest trace of Lawson’s hair sticking out from the corner of the boxes that he told her to hide behind. He thought about crawling over there but it was too much of an open space to be sure he’d get there in one piece. Cain quickly stood up and sprinted over to the boxes, diving over them and twisting his body to make sure his shoulder and back absorbed the blow of the concrete floor. Lawson was startled by the sight of someone diving over her and had her gun ready to fire but she recognized Cain immediately and lowered her weapon.
“Hey,” Cain said as he got up and scooted over to her.
“You all right?”
“Yeah. I’m good. You?”
“I’m fine.”
“Any idea where the other guy is?” he asked, still a little out of breath.
“I don’t know.”
“Well we’re gonna have to draw him out somehow,” Cain said, his breathing returning to normal.
“How about a diversion?” Lawson wondered. “I can maybe run for the door or something and try to draw his fire. Then you can see where he’s at and take him out.”
“No way. I’m not putting you at risk.”
“Well we can’t stay here all night.”
“I know,” Cain said as he considered the options.
“You all right? Your head looks a little bruised,” Lawson said, noticing a few welts on him.
“I’m fine.”
Cain peeked around the side and over the top of the boxes to try and find the last guy but couldn’t pick him up at all.
“He didn’t slip out the door or something when the other stuff was going on did he?” Cain asked.
“Not unless there’s a side door or something. Nobody went out this way.”
“There’s not.”
“What do you wanna do?” she asked.
As soon as she asked the question the other man rose from his position and sprinted for the door. He was firing his gun as he was running to try and give himself some cover. He figured if they were too busy ducking they wouldn’t be able to return fire, giving him just enough time to reach the door and get outside. Cain pushed Lawson to the ground as he dove to his right, giving himself a line of sight to the door. As soon as he saw the man’s outline enter his sight, Cain furiously pulled the trigger of his gun, unloading six shots in rapid succession. Four of the bullets found their target as the man fell short just inches from the door. Two shots him in the chest, one in the stomach, and one in the leg. The shots took him off his feet as he fell, settling against the base of the door. Cain got up and went over to Lawson to help her to her feet. He then checked on each of the victims to make sure they were all dead. Lawson scurried over to Cardullo and started searching through his pockets.
“What are you doing?” Cain asked.
“Looking for anything significant,” she answered, pulling out a few pieces of paper. “He mentioned Proulx’ name so he has to work for him.”
As Cain watched her, he got a chill and started shaking. His eyes started getting glossy and the dizziness returned.
“Hope you’re finding something good,” Cain said just before he passed out and dropped to the floor.
Chapter 6
Lawson had just walked into the room as Cain was finishing putting his shirt on. They sat down next to each other as they waited for the doctor to come in and explain the results of the MRI and CT scan that he just had. They didn’t have to wait long as the doctor came in within five minutes, holding his results.
“I’m Doctor Joyce,” he greeted.
“You’re American?” Cain asked.
“Yes,” he smiled. “Americans do live and work in France you know.”
Cain let out a laugh and shook his head. “Sorry. Didn’t mean any offense to that. Silly question.”
Joyce waved his hand at him as he took a seat. “Ahh. No apologies necessary. I’d probably wonder the same thing if I was you. Anyway, I have your results. Your girlfriend told me you recently had brain surgery, correct?”
Cain slowly turned his head in Lawson’s direction, who shot a smile back as she tried to maintain their covers.
“Yes. Yes I did,” Cain told the doctor.
“She said you got your current injuries trying to prevent her from getting robbed by three men. Very noble of you with your condition.”
“I’m still a little hazy on that part. I don’t really remember much of that…at all,” as he looked at Lawson again.
“Well, it’s to be expected.”
“So I’m good? No problems?”
“Well I didn’t say that,” Joyce replied. “The results of your tests indicate that you have a very small blood clot in your head.”
“Oh no,” Lawson stated.
“Do I need surgery again?” Cain asked.
Joyce put his hands out to each of them to prevent them from getting too worked up. “Let’s just calm down. It’s a very small blood clot. At this time I don’t believe surgery will be necessary.”
“How do I get rid of it?”
“Well before we get to that let me explain the different ways to go about getting rid of a blood clot because they’re treated differently depending on the size and location of the clot and the patient’s health. I’ll try to give the least amount of doctor speak as possible for you.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“There are anticoagulants, which is medicine that helps prevent blood clots from forming. There is thrombolytics, which is medicine that dissolves the clot. There is also a procedure in which we could surgically insert a catheter and direct it to the clot where it would deliver clot dissolving medication. Then there is just surgery itself to remove it.”
“And where do you stand?” Cain wondered.
“Typically surgery to remove it, or inserting a catheter, are more for clots that are considered life threatening and need to be aggressively treated,” the doctor informed them.
“Mine isn’t?”
“No. Yours is pretty small. I think treating it with medication should do the trick.”
Cain nodded in approval. “I’m on board for that.”
“You must exhibit extreme care for the next several weeks as far as taking care of your head. I know in this instance it perhaps was unavoidable but if you sustain more serious blows it could become a much more serious situation.”
“I’ll do the best I can.”
“Let me get the medication sorted out for you and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“No problem. I’ll just sit here with my girlfriend till you get back,” he sarcastically said, looking at Lawson.
“Well I had to come up with some kind of story,” she told him. “I couldn’t exactly just say you’re a secret agent that got into a shootout with some bad guys in a warehouse could I?”
“I suppose not. What exactly happened anyway?”
“You don’t remember anything?” Lawson asked.
“Umm…I remember standing there watching you and that’s about it.”
“Well you dropped to the floor. I dragged you out of the warehouse and got you into the car and took you to the nearest hospital I found.”
“I guess I should say thanks for taking care of me again,” Cain said.
“You can take me out to dinner when we get back to the states for repayment,” she kidded.
They waited another ten minutes for Dr. Joyce to return with the medication he was prescribing for Cain. While they were waiting, Lawson got a call from Director Conlin about the information she had gotten from Cardullo before Cain passed out. While she was tending to Cain, Conlin had other analysts run down the information she’d given them. Once Dr. Joyce came back, Lawson exited the room to continue her conversation and get the rundown from Conlin. Cain remained seated as the doctor began speaking to him.
“I would say that when you get back to the states, get your head che
cked again just to make sure the clot hasn’t gotten bigger,” Dr. Joyce told him.
“I will. Could it be gone by then?”
“Sure. No way to say for sure but it’s possible.”
The doctor gave Cain his prescription for some pills and as soon as he left Lawson came back into the room.
“What was all that?” Cain wondered.
“Conlin. I had them checking on some things while we were here.”
“Like what?”
“Cardullo had a key for the warehouse. He also mentioned Proulx by name. There has to be a connection there. Turns out the warehouse is owned by a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary and so on and so on which finally links to a Global Industries,” Lawson explained.
“Which means what exactly?”
“Now we find a link between Global Industries to Proulx.”
“You know, I was thinking, Proulx probably isn’t in one specific spot,” Cain noted.
“Why do you say that?”
“Seems like a safe bet. Can’t get a fixed location on his girlfriend. Raines couldn’t seem to find either of them. They must be moving around a lot.”
“I don’t know. That seems pretty risky don’t you think? Moving around a lot in a country like this. Seems like someone’s bound to spot you at some point.”
“You’d have to have a very secure travel system in place.”
“You mean like maybe he’s living on a bus?” Lawson asked.
“Yeah. Something like that. Bus, train, something where he’s somewhat sheltered and doesn’t have to be seen in public much.”
“I’ll get them looking into it.”
As Lawson called Director Conlin to get them checking on any links to a bus or train, Lawson and Cain left the hospital. Once they got in the car, Lawson turned to Cain for direction.
“So where to now?” she asked.
“Let’s see what we can dig up on Global Industries,” Cain replied. He then put his hand on Lawson’s arm to stop her from starting the car. “Wait, you didn’t tell Heather I was here, did you?”
“Of course not. Why?”
“Just checking. I don’t want to worry her unnecessarily.”
“You don’t think she needs or has a right to know?”
“I’ll tell her when we get back,” he told her.
“Why not now?”
“Cause I’m sure she’s already a nervous wreck. Telling her I passed out, was just in a hospital, and have a clot in my head, without me being there in person is probably not the wisest move.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
“I’ll tell her when we get back. That way I’ll be there and she can see everything turned out fine. Telling her now will just make her worry.”
“As if she isn’t already.”
“Well…worry more.”
Lawson started the car and they drove to a hotel, checking into a room. They got their computer equipment started and immediately went to work on finding out anything they could on Global Industries. Director Conlin had his analysts checking the dozen subsidiaries while Lawson and Cain checked Global. They sat next to each other at a desk, each working on separate laptops. Lawson was able to hack into records and financial information for Global Industries as the two tried to find the smallest detail they could turn into a lead.
“What was that girlfriend’s name again?” Cain asked.
“Maxime. Why? You got something?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied, typing away on the keyboard.
Cain continued plugging away at the keyboard for another minute before he stopped, something gaining his attention.
“Hey. Look at this,” Cain stated. He pointed to the entry that was intriguing. “Last year Global hired someone named Maxime Bisset.”
“Hmm. Doesn’t say what for.”
“Doesn’t list an address either.”
“That’s gotta be her though,” Lawson said.
“It’d make sense. Either that’s how they met or he’s using the company to give his girlfriend work.”
“Let me see what I can find on her. You keep digging on Global,” Lawson told him.
After a few more minutes, Lawson was able to find a web page that had Bisset’s information on it such as an email and the type of work she did.
“I guess I could email and see if she responds,” Lawson hopefully stated.
“Wait, look at the date on the bottom. What’s it say?”
“Two years ago.”
“That’s what I figured. Hasn’t been updated in two years. If she’s with Proulx, no way he’s letting her advertise her trade. The email will probably bounce back to you,” Cain told her.
“Well, let me try anyway. It’s worth a shot in the dark I guess.”
Lawson typed a short email to Bisset explaining that she was interested in hiring her for some work that she was doing. She hit the send button on the message and a few seconds later got a return message saying the email was undeliverable due to a wrong email address. Lawson sighed thinking they hit a dead end with her.
“Thought we might’ve had something,” she lamented.
“Still might. Have examples of her photographs on there?”
“Yeah. Mostly nature type pictures. Landscapes and such.”
“If there’s one thing I know about photographers it’s that they rarely just stop. They love what they do and they love taking pictures. Even if she’s not doing it professionally any more, she’s most likely still taking pictures.”
“And given the types of pictures she seems to like to take, where could she still do that?”
“Let’s see if we can tie her into any bus or train passes or tickets,” Cain said. “You take busses and I’ll take trains.”
They each looked up every bus and train that operated in France. It took each of them over an hour as they tried to track down any tickets sold to Bisset but each of them came up empty in their searches.
“Well, that was a no-go. How bout we just try Global now? Maybe it’s company linked,” Lawson said.
“OK. I got trains again.”
It didn’t take quite as long this time since they both already had their respective databases pulled up and they already knew what they were looking for. After half an hour, Cain’s face lit up like a small child who just received a new bike for Christmas. He stopped typing and lowered his hands to his lap as he just looked at the information on the screen. Lawson was still typing but noticed that Cain had stopped and looked at him, wondering what he was looking at. By his face she could tell that he had something.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Six train tickets sold to Global Industries three months ago,” Cain answered.
“What names are listed?”
“Just lists one name. Probably a guy in the company who bought them and distributed them to Proulx.”
“So it’d be Proulx, Bisset, and four more?” Lawson wondered.
“If I had to guess I’d say it was four bodyguards.”
“What train?”
“Railway France. Looks like the train goes through several countries,” Cain mentioned, bringing up information on the train on the computer.
“How can they just keep someone stashed there for months?”
“Probably have their own car. Kinda like how companies pay for office space. They’re paying for train space.”
“That’d make sense with Bisset and her photography. What photographer wouldn’t love snapping pictures of the countryside on a cross country trip of Europe? How are we gonna get aboard?”
“Well it’s not gonna run forever. It’s gotta stop sometime.”
“I know but don’t you think they’ll be on the lookout? I mean, I’m pretty sure Proulx knows your face.”
“Maybe.”
“Plus I’m sure they know what happened to Cardullo by now. They must know we’re closing in. They might not even be on the train anymore.”
“They’re on the train.”
“What if they’re connected to the ticket database somehow and can screen everyone who comes on?” Lawson asked.
“I really wouldn’t be surprised if that was pretty accurate. I’m sure they do somehow.”
“So how are we getting on?”
“It’d have to be by surprise,” Cain said.
“Well how’s that gonna work? Only way you’re getting on a train by surprise is if you drop in out of the sky,” she said with a laugh.
Cain looked at her with a grin on his face and simply nodded his head like he agreed with what she was saying. Lawson scrunched her face together trying to understand what his head shake meant.
“Wait a minute. Tell me you’re not actually implying that you can just fall out of the sky onto a moving train.”
“Well you just said it yourself,” Cain said. “The only way we’re getting on a train by surprise is if we fall from the sky.”
“I was obviously joking.”
“It makes sense though.”
Lawson put her hands on each side of her head as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. “Matt, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but this isn’t the movies. You’re not Tom Cruise, this isn’t Mission Impossible, jumping onto a moving train isn’t what I’d call a sound strategy.”
“It’ll work though,” he calmly replied.
“Oh my God. I need a drink. Something heavy.”