“The lead agent, Agent Dawkins, he appeared concerned, but he has to take orders from those above him and can’t operate in Mexico. The DEA is limited in what they can do there as well.”
Cody told Mendez about his conversation with Glenn Olsen. Mendez nodded.
“I learned some of that from the FBI this afternoon. They always wondered if Kagan would attempt to meet his son someday. Dawkins said that after Kagan came back for Anne, they had kept a loose surveillance on Laura’s old home until Henry was about three.”
“They must really want Kagan.”
“They do, but they want him alive. If the man could be made to talk, he’d be a wealth of info on the cartels.”
“Has Chris Monte said anything?”
“That shot to the head you gave him was a close call and put him out for hours, but he came to a little while ago. He’s refusing to talk and has lawyered up. A search of his house revealed a wealth of fingerprints, including those belonging to Henry and Jax. It looks like Kagan was using the place as a hideout.”
“Was there any blood found?”
“No, thank God. It looks like Henry and Jax are uninjured,” Mendez said, as he passed the white envelope to Cody.
“What is this?”
“That is a copy of the DEA’s file on Kagan. It also contains information gathered by the Mexican Federal Police. A fellow member of the Sword Bearers sent that to me. I’ll need you to destroy it once you’ve read it. Technically, I’m not even supposed to have it. If it were found in the possession of a civilian there would be an investigation.”
Cody opened the envelope and scanned the pages. There was a wealth of information on Kagan Andreas and facts about his underground shipping and supply network. The material concerning Kagan’s drug pipeline was exhaustive and detailed. There was also a long list of known associates and cronies.
Cody held up the file. “The DEA spent years gathering this information, didn’t they?”
“That’s right.”
“But they don’t do anything with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s enough here to destroy Kagan and the men who work with him. Why aren’t they doing it?”
“They’ve done that with others high up in the cartels. Went after them with rock-solid evidence and witnesses. The result was a bloodbath. Dozens of people were killed, threatened, made to disappear, and the buildings where the evidence was kept were destroyed by fire or explosives. In the end, no one was convicted. They know that if they made a move on Kagan that the same thing might happen.”
“Then they need to do more to protect the witnesses and the evidence. Send in some sort of armed force to fight fire with fire.”
Mendez smiled patiently. “Forgetting for a moment that Kagan resides in Mexico and we have no real authority there, DEA agents aren’t Tanners or vigilantes. They can’t just go in shooting like a rival gang looking to take over a territory. They have to gather evidence to build a solid case that will hold up in court. I’m sure if he needed to, Kagan could have a dozen people give him an alibi for today that would place him somewhere else. Those alibi witnesses would be solid citizens, perhaps even judges or police officers. His attorney would claim that the man seen on your surveillance video was merely a look-alike and any evidence we’ve gathered would disappear or be called into question for some reason. His involvement with the cartels has made Kagan very rich. He can pay others to make problems disappear.”
“But the authorities would know that his witnesses would be lying because they were either threatened or bribed.”
“Sure, they would know that, but proving it is another matter. The law is like a game, Cody; it has rules, and they have to be followed.”
“A game only works if all of the players agree to stick to the rules. Kagan doesn’t play by the rules. It makes no sense to go after him legally.”
Mendez pointed at the file. “That’s why I’m a Sword Bearer, and it’s why I gave you that file. You don’t play by the rules either.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get Henry back, Jax too. If I have to rip apart Kagan’s drug pipeline, then I’ll do it.”
“I’ll remind you again that he has a lot of resources. Several cartels rely on him to distribute their product. They’ll go after anyone that threatens that. And don’t think they’ll be intimidated because you killed Alonso Alvarado. These men have immense egos; they won’t fear you.”
“I don’t plan to identify myself. If they knew Tanner was out to destroy Kagan they would react quicker and with massive force. I won’t even make a move until I’ve gathered as much info as I can get. This has to be more like a rescue mission than a war. I don’t care about Kagan; I just want to get those boys back.”
“I figured that you would kill Kagan.”
“I might have to, but despite what else he is, he’s still Henry’s father. I don’t want to be the one who kills him if I can avoid it.”
“You think it would change how Henry feels about you?”
“It might, even though Kagan is a stranger to him.”
“I see your point.”
Cody held up the file again. “Thank you for this, Steve. It might make all the difference.”
“You’re welcome. I plan to get more information for you when I talk to Monte.”
“Why would he talk to you about Kagan?”
Mendez smiled. “He’ll talk. You’re not the only one who doesn’t play by the rules.”
Cody smiled back at him. “Try not to kill him before he tells you where I might be able to find Henry.”
Mendez’s grin vanished. “I could kill the son of a bitch for what he did to Laura. I like that lady and Chris is responsible for Henry’s abduction too.”
They said goodnight and Mendez left. Sara came into the office soon after with Lucas. She started the TV and put on a video that Lucas liked. It was an educational video that used cartoons to teach the alphabet.
Cody was leafing through the DEA file. She sat next to him on a leather sofa and asked what it was. He told her what the file contained.
“I’m glad to see that Steve is helping you. I only wish I could go to Mexico with you, but I don’t think I’d be much use in a pursuit these days, given my condition.”
“I need to go alone anyway. Kagan has allies but he must also have enemies or rivals. A man like that will have a lot of security around him. A stranger might go unnoticed but not a group.”
“Maybe his enemy could become your friend,” Sara said.
Cody had been scanning one of the reports in the file. A familiar name mentioned in it caught his eye.
“One of his enemies isn’t a friend, but he is someone I know. His name is Dante Cardoso. Dante helped me, Spenser, and Alexa kill Alonso Alvarado so that he could take over Alvarado’s cartel. He’s still in control and is a rival of Kagan’s.”
“A rival? Does that mean he has his own drug pipeline?”
Cody held up the sheet. “He had to build one when he took over. Damián Sandoval felt like Dante had cheated him out of gaining control of Alvarado’s cartel and made a deal with Kagan to refuse to do business with Dante. Alvarado also had his own pipeline in place because Sandoval hated him too. Alvarado was using the Chemzonic corporation as a cover for his distribution network. Dante must have something similar in place.”
“You’ve had dealings with Damián Sandoval too. Would he help you?”
“Helping me might mean harming his own business. Sandoval wouldn’t risk that. Besides, I wouldn’t want him to know that I’m involved. I don’t intend to start a war with a cartel.”
Sara, with some difficulty because of her pregnancy, rose off the sofa and stood. “I want a cup of tea and then I’m going to watch a movie. Do you want to join me?”
“I’d like to, but I need to study this file.”
“Okay, and I’ll take Lucas with me so you can concentrate.”
“No, leave him here. I’ll be away from him for a few days
soon; I’ll spend as much time with him as I can.”
Sara leaned over and kissed him. “You’ll get Henry back. I don’t doubt it for a second.”
Cody smiled. “Kagan doesn’t know what he’s done.”
“What do you mean?”
“He thinks Henry is just a boy, but he’s not. That kid is special; I knew that the first time I saw him. It wouldn’t shock me if Henry found a way to free himself.”
“Do you really think he’ll be your apprentice someday?”
“We haven’t made it official, but I already think of him that way. Henry has what it takes to be a Tanner.”
“If that’s true, Kagan better hope that Henry never finds out what he’s done to Laura. Father or not, I think he would kill him.”
Henry already believed that Kagan had harmed his grandmother, although he hoped he was wrong.
After crossing the border into Mexico without incident, they drove the van to the parking lot of a hotel. Once there, they were met by a limousine. The driver and a passenger got out and stood by waiting. Both men were burly Mexicans and looked like bodyguards.
Kagan spoke to him and Jax in English. “We’re going to take off your restraints. You’re in Mexico now and no one here can help you. Don’t try to run away or cause trouble. Henry, if you don’t behave your friend will be killed. Do you understand me?”
“I understand,” Henry said.
Kagan pointed at Jax. “And you, when we remove the gag you keep your mouth shut. I don’t want to hear a word out of you. You’re Henry’s friend, so you’ll be treated well as long as he behaves. When the time comes, I’ll have you taken back across the border. Nod if you understand me?”
Jax nodded and the gag was removed. He kept quiet and rubbed at the marks on his wrists where the plastic tie had bit into the flesh.
They got out of the van and walked over to the limo. Henry saw the two bodyguards treat Kagan with deference while eyeing him with curiosity. It seemed that they were aware that he was the boss’s son.
There was a white woman in the rear of the limo. Kagan called her Faye. She was beautiful, had auburn hair tied up in a bun, gray eyes, was about thirty, and dressed in a blue business suit that had a skirt. She greeted Kagan in Spanish and told him that she had nothing unusual to report and that all shipments were on schedule. There was one problem though.
“The jet is delayed, why?”
“A mechanical problem. We’ll have to wait an hour or more.”
“I’d rather stay on the move. We’ll keep driving south and they can meet us at another airfield.”
“I’ll let the pilot know,” Faye said, then she looked over at Henry and smiled. Her next words were spoken in English. “Your son is handsome, Mr. Andreas.”
“He looks like his mother, but he has my heart,” Kagan said, and rubbed the spot on his throat where Henry had hit him.
Henry smiled back at Faye but remained silent. Their talk about a plane had discouraged him. He was only miles from the American border and not very far from home, but if they took a flight, he had no idea where they might wind up going. He thought about Cody. Would he come looking for him? The answer was yes, and it filled Henry with hope.
They arrived at an out-of-the-way airfield two hours later. The van had followed the limo and parked nearby.
Henry informed his father that he had to use the bathroom. He was not alone in his need to urinate. The others had to go as well, only Kagan said that he would wait to use the bathroom on the plane.
The two young Mexicans and Vasquez went first, then the bodyguards. He and Jax were last; they were escorted to a small building by the bodyguards. The inside of the bathroom was filthy, and Henry knew why Kagan preferred to wait.
When they were alone in the bathroom together, Jax whispered to him as they stood next to each other at a pair of urinals.
“What the hell is going on, Henry? That guy Kagan is your father?”
“He is, but I found out the same time you did.”
Jax moved to the sink to wash his hands. Afterward, he used a wet paper towel and dabbed at the dried blood that was a result of the cut on his neck. “That other bastard tried to kill me.”
Henry was at the sink beside him. The basins were grimy and the water coming out of the faucet was tinged brown.
“Just stay cool, be quiet, and I’ll do what he wants long enough for them to let you go.”
“And what if they don’t want to let me go?”
“It won’t matter. There’s someone who will come for us.”
“Who?”
“Someone. We just have to be patient, and if we get the chance to escape, we’ll take it.”
“This is some fucked up shit, Henry.”
“I know, and I’m sorry you’re mixed up in it.”
Gunfire erupted outside and was followed by a scream of pain. The scream came from right outside the door.
“Get down!” Henry said as he dived to the floor. Jax ducked and several rounds perforated the bathroom door and shattered the mirror over the sinks. If Jax had still been standing, two of the bullets would have struck him.
Henry crawled across the filthy floor and cracked the door open to get a look outside. The limo driver and the other bodyguard were down and unmoving. There were nine hooded men all dressed in black firing at the limo. Their weapons were AR-15s.
Henry saw Vasquez kill two of them while crouched behind the front of the van and using its engine for cover. One of the young Mexicans, the one he’d elbowed in the eye earlier, went down with a wound to his throat as a shot hit him after passing through a window.
“What the hell is going on?” Jax said.
“Someone wants my father dead,” Henry told him, “and it looks like they might get the job done.”
13
Talk Or Else
Steve Mendez entered the hospital in Culver and stopped in the security office to speak to the guards on duty. He knew both of them, one was old and the other young. The older man had retired from the Culver police department a year earlier while the young guard was the son of one of his wife’s friends. The Chief had gotten to know him when they met at a wedding and it was Mendez who had recommended him for the hospital security job.
Visiting hours were still in effect but they had been told that Chris Monte couldn’t have visitors; not for a moment did they think that restriction applied to Mendez.
“I won’t be with him for long. Are there any Feds around?”
The older man laughed. “Those guys left already. Have you ever seen a Fed work long hours?”
Mendez smiled indulgently. He had seen federal agents work insane hours, himself included when he was with the DEA.
Many cops thought the Feds did nothing while many of the Feds thought the cops were lazy and only good for giving out parking tickets. Having been both a Fed and a cop, Mendez knew that it was the nature of the business that gave each group their perspective. Like any other job, there were slow times and hectic days.
A cop or a Fed could go out of their mind with boredom then spend weeks pulling double shifts if something big broke. Just because you’re sitting around the station one day doesn’t mean you won’t be searching the woods or desert the next for a vanished hiker or a missing kid. Mendez had lost track of how many triple shifts he had clocked in over the years.
Chris Monte was in a private room. His left wrist was handcuffed to the bed and the TV was shut off. The deputy was sitting up and staring straight ahead, as if lost in thought. There was a bandage wrapped around his head and another was across his chest and partly visible beneath the gown he wore. When Mendez entered the room, Monte stiffened but said nothing.
Mendez stood in the open doorway and glared at him. Monte wouldn’t meet his eyes and lowered them to stare at the sheet covering his legs.
Mendez walked slowly to the side of the bed and spoke in a low voice. “I want to know everything you know about Kagan Andreas.”
“Talk to my lawyer, Chief.
I’m not saying shit.”
Mendez moved a green chair with a cracked vinyl seat closer to the bed and sat.
“Have you ever heard the name Royce Whitaker?”
Monte nodded. Whitaker had been a drug dealer who’d sought revenge against Mendez after the chief had arrested him. Whitaker had gone too far and hurt the chief’s wife and threatened his children. Mendez had gone after Royce Whitaker and killed the son of a bitch. And damn if he didn’t let everybody know it too, although no body had ever been found. Monte knew what he was telling him, but the chief said it anyway.
“You tell me what I want to know or as God is my witness, I will kill you someday. I swear that on the lives of my children.”
Monte looked up, saw the conviction in Mendez’s eyes, and began talking.
Henry crawled halfway out of the restroom and grabbed a weapon that one of the dead bodyguards had dropped. It was a SIG Sauer P220 with an eight-round magazine. The guard had never gotten a shot off.
Henry was reaching his left arm out for the other guard’s gun when one of the attackers noticed him. The hooded figure was on the edge of a group of three men who were concentrating on sending a barrage of shots at the limo. The vehicle must have been bulletproofed because the glass had yet to shatter and the tires weren’t flat.
The man swiveled his rifle toward Henry and the boy responded by firing two rounds at him. Henry was prone on the ground with an unfamiliar weapon and aiming at an upward angle. He still managed to hit his target with one of the rounds. The hours of training on the range with Cody had paid off. The bullet caught the hooded man beneath his chin, and he fell sideways.
Henry grabbed the other gun and called to Jax, who was still behind him inside the rest room.
“Do you know how to use a gun?”
“For target practice.”
“That’s good enough,” Henry said and tossed the weapon to Jax. “We have to help kill these guys or we’ll be their next targets.”
“Kill them?”
“Unless you have a better plan?” Henry said. He got to his feet and sprinted to a maintenance shed. As he did so, he saw that the two young Mexicans were down, and Vasquez was bleeding from a wound to his calf. Vasquez’s injury was the result of a round that had ricocheted and struck him.
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