Eva stabbed her gun in the direction of the shipping container. “Get the kid.”
Mick stood still.
She jabbed the gun again. “Get him now, he’ll help explain. He’s the reason why you’re involved.”
Mick walked over, unlatched the arm, and opened the door. I sort of expected Stanley to burst out of the container, but he didn’t. In fact, Mick had to coax him out, which was understandable the more I thought about it. He was probably terrified, now that the reality of his situation had finally settled in – and because a bullet had ripped through the container just minutes ago.
“Let’s go, kid,” Mick said.
Stanley shuffled to the door and peeked out. Mick politely helped him all the way out of the container.
Stanley looked up at Mick. “I’m sorry, I was naïve.”
Mick just shook his head.
Stanley turned in my direction. “Agent Chase, I told you I wasn’t lying about Operation Crucible.”
I sighed. “I know, kid, you bought her crazy story. I get it now. You sent that email to the CIA, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “But—”
“Stanley,” Eva interrupted, “we wouldn’t be standing here right now if it wasn’t for you. You understand that, right? If you hadn’t poked your pointy little face into everything, and sent that email to the CIA, you three wouldn’t be on the brink of burning to death.” She thought for a second. “Well, at least not you and Mick. Gary certainly would be.”
The kid stomped his foot. “It was my right to have a position in any intelligence group. My absolute right. And you’re blaming me for this?”
Eva laughed. “Don’t think you’re innocent in all this, Stanley? You broke many laws, spying on the television network, breaching secure NSA databases, violating numerous privacy laws, and blackmailing me—”
“I never blackmailed you,” he said.
She scoffed. “What was the email to the CIA all about then? Did you honestly think I wouldn’t have found out about that? Within a day of you sending that email, Anfernee Gates was in my office questioning me and confiscating my computer. Sending that email was your way of trying to control the situation, to make sure you had leverage over me, to make sure you got what you wanted. But I wasn’t about to let you control anything, Stanley. Your amateurish game brought Agent Cranston into this. Now he has to die today and leave a widow and kids behind.”
“What?” Stanley said, almost screeching. “Don’t put that on me?”
“It will be on you, and so is Agent Gate’s death. He was starting to put the pieces together and needed to be taken care of. If you hadn’t sent that email, kid, he’d still be alive. Although his death will be blamed on Gary, it should be on your conscience.”
While Stanley whined to Eva, my mind processed all the information I’d just heard. No wonder Gates had such a beef with me. Maybe he thought Eva and I were in cahoots because we were dating. Or maybe because Mick and I were friends and former partners. Nothing mattered about that situation now because Gates was dead. If something miraculous didn’t happen soon, the three of us would be dead too. That would leave only Karla alive to untangle everything and clear our names. Nobody else knew a thing. Karla, however, was likely in the hands of Eva’s hitman right now.
I clenched my fists tight, blew out a frustrated breath, then refocused the scope on Eva. I searched for any possible shot. She somehow had to be stopped.
Unfortunately, I had no shot. The only way to take her out was to also take out my son. I wiped away another sheet of sweat moving down my forehead.
Mick took a step toward Eva. His body had a slight shake to it, so I knew he was raging. “Why threaten my family and terrify my wife to death? I get it that you needed three people to frame, and one of them needed to be me since I work for the SCS, but why not have your father’s hitman kill Stanley and Chase. Why put me, and my family, through all that?”
He took another step. “Tell me.”
Eva extended the gun. “Stop right now.”
Mick shuffled closer. “Just tell me and I’ll stop.”
“Stop first or I’ll shoot. I’m in control here.”
Mick pushed it and took another step.
“Fine,” she said. “I told you I’d shoot.” She jerked the gun to her left, dropped the barrel six inches, then pulled the trigger.
And shot Stanley Tuchek.
CHAPTER 33
Iheard Stanley drop, but I didn’t focus on him.
I looked at my son. The gun had gone off only a foot from his ear, but Simon didn’t wake up. I wondered if she’d drugged him so bad that he was dying. Surely a gunshot should have woken him. Right? He had to be okay. He just had to be.
Sweat sheeted down my face, so I put down the rifle, tore off my shirt and wrapped it around my forehead like a bandana. Stanley started howling, which commanded my attention.
I put my eye back to the scope and found the kid. He was crumpled on the ground, holding his left side. It looked like the bullet had torn clear through the left side of his stomach.
Mick was at Stanley’s side. He had ripped off his shirt and was applying pressure to the wound. Blood had already soaked the shirt and was pooling underneath Stanley.
The kid struggled to say a few words. It sounded like he was saying, “She’s crazy, she’s crazy.”
I wanted to abandon my post and help, but I knew I had to keep the rifle on Eva. Any mistake she made, I’d have to capitalize on. Otherwise, Stanley would bleed out, and Mick and I would burn to death.
I refocused on Eva. She hadn’t moved an inch. Her face was blank and devoid of any emotion.
She carried on explaining things to Mick, as if she hadn’t just shot the governor’s son. “My father and I debated heavily over that very point, Agent Cranston. Here’s the thing: The associate my father sent was more skilled in abduction. He wasn’t as finally skilled as a killer as we would’ve liked. We didn’t trust him to cleanly take out all three of you. Killing three people is far too risky. Way more opportunities to screw up and be seen and leave evidence behind. We wanted our associate to have limited involvement so that nothing could point back to my father. Basically, Agent Cranston, we needed you to do the dirty work.”
Mick shook his head, then spat in her direction. I’d never seen him spit before.
“Plus,” Eva continued, “the story is more plausible if you’re personally involved, Agent Cranston. And the details, especially the death threats, make more sense. Think about how the story plays out. The three of you are complicit in selling arms to terrorists. But there’s a massive internal fight among you guys, some serious issues, maybe money, maybe somebody grows a conscience, it doesn’t matter what it’s about. All that matters is that it fractures your group. Stanley and Gary end up on one side of the divide, and you on the other, Agent Cranston. You turn on your partners. You send death threats to Stanley, which prompts the governor to request protection. Remember, those death threats can be traced back to our organization.”
She motioned at Stanley’s crumpled body. “Naturally, he advocates for Gary to protect him. Then you, Agent Cranston, go after the two of them. You try to kill your best friend, and also burn down his house. The more personal it gets, the more plausible the story becomes. After that, you try to kill Stanley at the coffee shop, then his house.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” I said. It was far from intelligent, but I didn’t know what else to say. Eva had clearly thought everything through.
“I will,” she responded. “And that’s the point. The plan is brilliant.”
Stanley lifted his head and pointed his finger at her. “My father will never let this go. He’ll never believe I was a traitor.”
“Let me ask you, Stanley, how good a job did you do planting the evidence on Gary’s computer?”
Stanley thought for a second, then laid his head back.
“Exactly,” Eva said. “Nobody will doubt that those emails came from Gary’s computer
. For what it’s worth, kid, you do have the skills to be an SCS agent.”
In the distance, faintly, I heard the sound of an outboard motor, which seemed to be getting louder.
Eva didn’t pay attention to the sound. “I’ll be the only one alive who knows the truth. So I’ll be able to shape the story how I want it, and I know the evidence supports my version. I’ll even look like a hero, not that I care about that. Everyone will know I was on to Gary’s involvement. That’s why I was dating him. To gather evidence against him.”
The drone of the motor grew louder. The boat was definitely heading toward the pier. Eva still didn’t acknowledge the sound. I didn’t know if she was unfazed by the sound or if she was too wrapped up in gloating about her deception to notice the approaching boat.
“Did you really think I’d do it?” Mick asked. “Kill Stanley and Chase?”
“I didn’t know what you’d do, Agent Cranston. It was fifty-fifty for me. I do know we all do crazy things for our family. Look what I’ve done for my father. And we all know Gary will do anything for his son. So, yes, I thought there may be a chance you’d follow through with your directives since your family was threatened. At the time I thought that if you did follow through, that would be perfect, so much easier for me and my father. But if you didn’t follow through, I wasn’t that concerned. And I had no reason to be, because it’s worked out in my favor, hasn’t it? It clearly looks like you tried to kill Stanley and Gary. And even though you didn’t succeed, it still bodes well for my story. At any rate, I had this warehouse rigged for my original revenge plan. After Stanley sent the email to the CIA, the new plan was to lure you, Agent Cranston, and whoever you didn’t kill to this warehouse. And make sure nobody left alive.”
Eva turned in my direction. “Get a good look at your son, Gary, one last time. I can’t imagine anything worse than a father knowing his son will grow up with the burden of his father’s sin. Think about the shame and humiliation this will bring to your son. This is our revenge.”
I scoffed. “Except it isn’t my sin—”
“But your son won’t know that,” she said. “Nobody will know that.”
The Weatherby’s barrel bounced up and down. I couldn’t keep my eye on the scope anymore. My arms shook in rage. Unadulterated, raw emotion coursed through my body. I’d never been so out of control in a kill situation. I’d never wanted a target to die as badly as I wanted Eva to die.
The boat motor pulled me from my rage. The engine suddenly cut off, then I heard someone jump onto the dock.
Eva still didn’t respond to the sounds.
“The thing is, Gary, you can end this all now, can’t you? I’m sure you’ve thought about that already, right? All you have to do is pull the trigger and I’m dead. Then you, Mick, and Stanley live to tell the true story. Except that your son dies in the process. You sacrifice him for the truth. Like Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament. Ask yourself: can you do it, Gary? Can you put a bullet through your son to stop me? You can end this right now.”
“Stay calm,” Mick told me.
“You talk about the greatest good,” Eva said. “What’s the greater good here, Gary? The truth, or your son’s life?”
“Shut it,” Mick snapped at Eva.
Two sets of footsteps hit the dock. I could hear them over the thump of my heart. The footsteps continued toward the front of the warehouse, then seemed to fade away. I waited for the doors to slide open or a bullet to break through, but nothing happened.
I refocused the scope. Naturally I wouldn’t kill my son, never in a million years. I’d sacrifice my legacy for my son’s life, without question. Even so, knowing that Simon would grow up with stories about his father being a traitor gutted me. The shame, humiliation, and denial my son would go through was too much to think about.
So I listened for more footsteps instead. Maybe it was Karla and Frank.
“Do it, Gary,” Eva said. “End this. The truth is always the greater good.”
“You know he won’t,” Mick yelled.
“I know,” Eva said, smiling. “But wouldn’t it be great if he did? I’d die for that story. I’ve thought hard about it. It would be worth it to know you killed your only son, Gary, just to clear your name. You’d have to live with that choice and all the judgment and condemnation from the rest of the world.”
I kept my finger on the rifle’s trigger and pressed my other forearm against my forehead. The bandana was soaked through and couldn’t stop the sweat from entering my eyes. I positioned the crosshairs on the only part of Eva’s head I could see, the upper right side of her forehead. The target was only about a cubic inch, though. The shot was far too risky, especially with my breathing out of control, so I took my finger off the trigger and aligned the crosshairs on Simon’s face instead. I wanted to see him up-close one more time.
My son’s mouth hung open a fraction and his hair was messed up. I imagined that was exactly how he looked curled up in bed.
The sound of a car engine distracted me. It grew louder, clearly aimed toward the warehouse. Eva didn’t respond to the sound. A moment later the vehicle’s high beams lit up the tiny warehouse windows. The vehicle stopped right in front of the building, and two car doors opened. Seconds later, the warehouse doors screeched open too.
I swung the scope to my left and watched Karla step into the warehouse. For a split second my body relaxed, but it didn’t last.
The Italian hitman stepped in behind Karla, a gun pressed into her back.
CHAPTER 34
The hitman tugged on Karla’s shirt and inched her backward. Karla’s teeth were gritted and her fists were clenched. The hitman wrapped his hairy forearm around her neck and pulled her close. I pounded my fist on the shelf. I had no shot.
“Perfect,” Eva said. “Now everyone who knows anything is here. Only one more loose end to tie up.” She looked at Stanley. “Laptop, now.”
Lying in his blood, Stanley managed to lift his head and sputter, “Never.”
“Spare me,” Eva said. “I know you have it on you, or it’s somewhere close. I know you kept the original arms evidence on it. It’s the last piece I need. Stanley, I’ll kill Karla first, then Cranston, then Gary, in that order, until you cough it up.”
“I don’t have it with me,” Stanley said.
Which was true. I had it in the back of the Suburban.
“Fine, if you want to play that game.” Eva turned to her right and pointed the gun at Karla. I watched Eva’s movements in my scope. She was serious. There was tension on her trigger finger, too much tension.
“Wait,” I blurted out.
I knew we were all going to die, either by fire or bullet. It was only a matter of time, so I needed to stall. For what? Maybe a miracle. I didn’t know. All I knew was I couldn’t watch Karla die.
“I’ve got it,” I said.
Eva released the tension in her trigger finger.
“It’s in the Chevy,” I said. “A few piers back.”
“No, it’s not,” the hitman said.
What? Why was he arguing with me?
He looked at Eva. “The Chevy’s out front.”
Right. They must’ve walked to the Chevy after getting off the boat, then driven it closer. My admission had bought no time. I was about to lose any leverage I had.
“Go check,” Eva said. “He may be lying to stall. Drive the Chevy in here; it’s going to burn, too.”
The hitman backed out of the warehouse, with Karla pressed close. A minute later the SUV fired up and drove through the double sliding doors. He parked it in the middle of the warehouse. Karla was in the front passenger seat; the hit man had handcuffed her wrists to the ceiling handle.
He turned to Eva and rolled down the window. “Laptop’s here.” He held it up.
“Run it over,” she said.
So he did, about ten times. Back and forth until only small bits remained.
When the Chevy shut off, Eva said, “Now grab Cranston and handcuff him in the bac
k seat.”
The thug hesitated, motioning toward my corner.
“Gary,” Eva said. “Tit for tat. If you shoot my man, I’ll shoot yours.” She trained her gun on Mick.
I had no interest in the hitman. My attention was on Eva, waiting for some type of mistake, yet so far she was flawless. She kept her gun on Mick while the hitman led him to the Chevy and handcuffed him in the back seat.
I saw Mick’s face through the scope. His outward appearance looked calm, but I knew him too well. He was itching to snap the man’s neck and go after Eva, but he didn’t. Like me, he knew Eva wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him. He had no play.
“All set,” the hitman said. He walked around and stood by the driver’s door.
“One last thing,” Eva said to the hitman.
“What’s that?”
“Earlier I stashed a gun under your vehicle’s seat. I need you to get it.”
“Sure thing.” He opened the driver’s door and searched under the seat with his hand, then looked back at Eva. “Nothing here.”
“Right,” she said. “I must’ve left it under the passenger seat.”
The hitman leaned all the way into the vehicle. He pinned Karla’s legs against the door with one hand and searched under the passenger seat with his other hand. I had an elevated angle and could see everything through the passenger window. I heard some movement and swung the rifle toward Eva. She had shifted a little to her right, her gun pointed toward the Chevy.
“Nothing here either,” the hitman said.
Suddenly Eva’s gun coughed.
Karla shrieked.
The gun coughed again.
I looked back at the Chevy. Karla had blood splattered all over her shirt, but she was okay. She frantically pushed the hitman’s head off her lap, at least what was left of it.
“Karla,” I yelled. “You okay?”
The Greatest Good Page 29