Full Circle

by RJ Scott

  Morgan coughed and cleared his throat and then began. "We are following leads to the brokers behind the senate powers, in this case, that of Senator Thomas Bullen.

  The third and remaining Bullen brother out there is where much of the research we have pulled together is directed.

  We have limited listening surveillance in the senator's home office but he isn't there an awful lot and comms haven't picked up anything useful." He looked at Nik who just smiled reassuringly at him and then, shuffling papers, he continued.

  "Adam Brooke and a partner with the FBI managed to get Gareth Headley to turn and Alastair was arrested. As you've probably all seen on the news, Senator Thomas Bullen, 56, has issued a press release detailing his shock at an 'unprecedented scandal'. We think he thinks…" Morgan paused and looked a little flustered at his overuse of the word think.

  Manny sympathized. He hated standing up in front of people and doing these freaking briefings. He was far happier and a lot more efficient emailing reports.

  "Sorry." Morgan coughed. "Maybe he considers the press release will take the heat off of him."

  "It won't," Michaela said forcefully. Morgan nodded in eager agreement.

  "No it won't," he continued. "It may actually make our job harder. Still, it doesn't mean we won't reach the same conclusions or manage to get to the same evidence.

  He hasn't moved to the Bullen mansion despite the fact there is now no brother in the house. He is keeping his head down, his rhetoric up, and as far as the public are aware he is simply having nothing to do with the family businesses under investigation. Uhm—" Morgan checked down at his notes again, "So… His approval rating is sliding to new lows and for all intents and purposes he's lost the chance of becoming governor, but how much that has put a fire in his belly to seek other ways of gaining control over anything at all? We won't know for sure for a while. Our suspicion is that he could see his future with the family business and not representing constituent interests."

  Manny listened to the carefully spoken words. From the head nodding, the senator taking a greater hand in the family business was what everyone in the room was thinking he may do. The senator was a smooth, urbane politician with all the right words and all the right actions but scratch just a little beneath the surface and he would bleed Bullen blood.

  "He already appears to be fighting to stay in control of the family and we think he's stamped his mark." Morgan looked down at the paperwork. "There have been three bodies in as many weeks, and the Bullen family's connection is red-flagged all over the place."

  "Anything we can pull him in for?" Jake asked quickly.

  Manny waited for the answer. He already knew what Morgan was going to say as it had been Manny who pulled together that particular party room of blood and gore. Morgan had paled when he had been handed the data.

  None of the murders had been pretty. In fact, the guy in New York had died a particularly violent death involving knives. Not a nice thing to be looking at over your

  breakfast cereal.

  "Nothing concrete," Morgan offered after a moment's consideration. "Some second-level guys from competing groups who have their hands in pies in Albany.

  One from New York City itself." The knife victim.

  Michaela whistled. "The Bullen's are going up against the New York City families?"

  Morgan shook his head. He didn't have an answer although he, Nik, and Manny had discussed that very thing over pepperoni pizza and a single beer each two nights ago.

  "Not the senator, necessarily; it could be Alastair is trying to consolidate his position since he's been released from his arrest." This from Nik who sat forward in his chair with his hands steepled and his chin resting on them.

  Morgan cleared his throat again and then sipped some water. Manny caught Jake sending the young man an approving supportive smile. That single action had an immediate effect on Morgan as he stood a little taller.

  "Bullen has a fortune in the millions of dollars, most of it the result of his ownership of stock in various companies, including a huge holding in Selby Oil. Emily Selby is his wife and the shares came to him by way of some kind of dowry, I guess. They were a wedding present from Emily's father and they far outweigh what is in Emily's name.

  Bullen's financial disclosure form lists blind trusts valued between $15 million and $45 million. The financial disclosure lists are used as a tool for the public to monitor possible conflicts of interest. It's also for constituents to judge official conduct, especially in light of possible financial conflicts with private holdings."

  "Or whether he received the money as proceeds of crime," Michaela said dryly.

  Manny looked over at the agent and concentrated on the seriousness in her expression. She clearly hadn't made that statement to sound ironic; it was literally that her opinion was focusing entirely on the Bullens' money and how it could have funded the senator.

  "Exactly," Morgan said simply. "Bullen's primary legislative focus has been on family values and on the environment. In the Senate, he led the fight against gay marriage, marking the usual line that unions outside church designation undermined family values. He also voted for the reduction in funding for cross-state-line adoptions."

  "He's an asshole," Manny interrupted. Jake shot him a quick look of censure, but Morgan smiled gratefully and for that Manny was pleased. His cell vibrated in his pocket and surreptitiously he pulled it to check the screen. Josh had cleared another hurdle. Interesting.

  Morgan continued. "The Senate Ethics Committee cleared Bullen in two thousand ten of impropriety over not declaring all his income from Selby Oil but criticized him for poor judgment. Several hundreds of thousands went to charities and all seemed to have been forgiven. So, that takes me to what the other agencies have on him." He stopped and then fiddled with the projector from the laptop.

  The first screen showed a list of investigations all preceded by the FBI code for organized crime. No one in the room would probably understand that code as well as Manny did.

  He knew exactly what he had managed to pull from the Bureau's mainframe. Not even the ex-Feds in the room would know this depth of FBI codes.

  "It's all organized crime focus with the Bureau."

  Morgan flicked to the next screen which was apparently a random list of murders, ending with the entries dated last week. "Then we have the police reports and also those from homicide at Albany PD and NYPD."

  "And there's nothing on these lists we can get him on here?" There was disbelief carved into her face as Michaela leaned forward in her seat.

  "Nothing concrete, same as his brothers. Until Headley turned we had no one backing up the charges against Alastair. We need to find that same leverage to get to the senator. Because, let's face it, he's put a lot of money into reinventing himself as squeaky clean. He was cleaner than a pan full of bleach as a senator. Apart from one photo we have, which is kind of grainy and distorted, showing him receiving a blow job from an anonymous woman, there is very little we have to work on."

  "Is that a personal observation?" Jake asked quickly.

  Manny bristled at the tone used toward his friend, and then just as quickly knew that Jake was simply trying to get to the root of everything. He pushed down the instant need to defend Morgan who actually didn't appear at all fazed.

  "No. He's brought in several new members of staff.

  Two from NY that are connected, albeit at a low level, with the organized crime families and with his brothers, and one from Los Angeles. If he's looking to make his mark then that is the first step."

  "He's connecting?" Nik summarized.

  "He's pulling in from other families?" Jake asked quickly.

  "Looks that way," Morgan said simply.

  Manny sat upright. For all his coding and analyzing and observing he hadn't realized what other people in the room were finally seeing. If the ex-senator was really building the Bullen family to full strength then that meant connecting outside of the state, maybe even going to the West Coast.
Fuck.

  "It's a bit of a big change for someone professing to be the stand-up guy who was heading for governor," Dale said.

  That was exactly what everyone else was thinking and most nodded their approval at the statement. Manny was still focusing on the West Coast issue. He'd already pulled together information for a direction he felt they should be going in. Fear trickled down his spine at the tension building inside him. Ideas and thoughts were spilling into his head. If Thomas Bullen was building up his organization, and if he was looking outside of Albany to do so, then the Altosinno family, Seattle-based and nearly defunct, was where it was at. Lots of loose ends to tie up out there. One of them being Manny himself.

  Morgan was still talking. Explaining how his murder board type display linked from the death of Elisabeth Costain and then outward in a tangle of red lines.

  Manny attempted to listen even though he felt nauseous.

  "He still has this face that the public sees. Concerned, contrite, supportive of his wayward brother and leaving office to look after family concerns. No one without the right connections could possibly see anything else. He's still in the public eye, portraying himself as some kind of generous philanthropist focusing on his family. Well, his wife anyway. He has two daughters. The others in his organization show no links to Thomas himself."

  "We need someone on the inside. If only to get information or to set up surveillance," Manny said. He felt rather than saw Jake move and stand upright. He refused to look at his boss. Jake would hate this idea, but maybe it was the quickest way inside of all of this mess.

  "On what premise?" Nik asked.

  "Someone from another 'institution'," Manny imbued the word with derision. "Someone who is looking to party on the East Coast. Someone who maybe sees a vulnerability in a rival Family and wants to exploit that weakness. The story could be they're revitalizing family connections and offering the Bullens a merger that would benefit both of them. Also, they'll only deal with the top."

  "Manny. We'll talk about this later," Jake interrupted.

  "No, it's cool." Manny looked around at his friends.

  At the people he had known for a long time and at Morgan who was new to his world. When he signed up for Sanctuary he knew that possibly one day his past would catch up with him. Jake knew all about it. Jake was the one who'd bailed him out and took him under his wing. He owed Jake. Hell, Jake had made him who he was today. He was a mentor and a friend. "I could pull up an old persona.

  I have an in with organized crime. A link to a cousin of the former head of the Altosinno family."

  "What kind of an in?" Nik asked when no one else seemed to want to ask.

  "The cousin I'm talking about was my dad."

  CHAPTER 4

  Jake paced from one end of his small office to the other and then stopped, turned to Manny, and opened his mouth to talk. Manny waited for the usual lecture but suddenly all the energy left Jake in a rush and he slumped down into his chair. That single action was both worrying and reassuring.

  "Manny," he started. Then he stopped the talking as well.

  Manny watched his boss and friend and sighed inwardly. When Jake had found Manny, so many years back, the event had been the turning point in Manny's young life. Twenty, and for the first time away from his family and in some respects the Family, he was at MIT and cruising his degree. Jake wanted someone to help expand his dad's fledgling foundation, something called Sanctuary, and he went straight to the best. He called an open interview for graduates but as soon as Manny hacked the system and added himself to the list it was over.

  "Do you remember that first interview?" Manny asked carefully.

  Jake smiled fondly, despite the concern etched on his face. "You mean MIT? The one you should never have had?"

  "Do you recall what I said to you?" Manny waited for Jake to process the question and knew exactly when Jake put two and two together.

  "Besides the fact you told me you didn't need MIT

  because you were past what anyone there could teach you?"

  Jake said dryly.

  "Besides that."

  "You told me that one day you would be great in spite of your family and not because of them."

  "Even then I was full of shit." Manny laughed.

  "Can you believe that was eight years ago now?"

  Jake said. He leaned forward on his desk and his expression was tight. "You're my friend, Manny. I don't want you doing this. Hasn't eight years of working with Sanctuary settled whatever debt you feel your family left?"

  Manny sighed. "As a kid I always imagined I would go into the Bureau, or maybe turn into some kind of masked vigilante and make things right." He laughed.

  There was no way he wanted Jake to see what was really going on in his head. Fear. Apprehension. Maybe even a sense of inevitability. "No, I think I've done enough. Still, I'm not volunteering for this because of who I was, but because of who I am now."

  "You're not making any sense." Jake was

  frustrated—that much was obvious.

  "I need to approach the family, with the usual backstory in place and some kind of hint that I want to re-establish the Altosinno footprint. What if he goes for it?

  Then we'd have someone on the inside. We can see who's pulling the strings now that Gregory is dead and Alastair is looking a sentence in the face. If it's the senator, then let's face it, he's the last domino of the three to fall."

  "Imagine for one minute I would sanction this. How the hell will you get in there?"

  "Pay my respects for my dead friend Greg Bullen.

  Who's to know that I didn't actually ever meet the guy? I have the backstory in place. The Altosinnos are long gone, reduced to nothing but some thugs who make a living off the street. They've lost any of the real power they wielded.

  I'll approach whoever is running the Bullens and talk about how I wish things were different. If it's the senator then I offer him my skill set in the stabilization of his brother's activities. If it's Alastair himself, then I'll go for information."

  "They won't fall for it. The senator is still playing the whiter than white guy for the masses. And what would Alastair gain? He'll just shut the door in your face."

  "We won't know until we try," Manny insisted. "I'll need an apartment, not too flashy, I'm thinking Sanctuary eleven. Seven floors up, panic room, good view of the Capitol—"

  "And a cover story," Jake interrupted. "A damn good one."

  "Already done." Manny felt relief wash over him.

  Jake was going for this. They were talking over each other and a curl of excitement flickered inside him.

  "I have something else to run by you," Manny added. After his conversation with Josh and feeling the way he did about his own family, he had made a decision that he hoped Jake would go for. "I'm taking Josh into S-eleven as my backup."

  "No. I'm sending him back to Jennifer. He should already have gone." Jake was adamant and his tone brooked no argument. "Nik is transporting him—"

  "Wait. Listen to me, Jake. He's where I was eight years ago. He wants to be involved. He's not going to sit there and deal with the shit as an afterthought. He'll just get out of the safe house again and cause trouble. He wants to be part of it—"

  "No—"

  "Yes. Jake, come on. He can be my tech support, my handler. He won't leave eleven, he'll be as safe there as anywhere. I just think he needs to be there doing something."

  "If this gets back to his dad, that we are using his son—"

  "He's doing it for his dad. He's taking the power back."

  "Fuck, Manny. You sound like some kind of crappy motivational speaker." Jake shook his head.

  "I know." Manny grinned. He knew he had Jake where he wanted him. This killed two birds with one stone.

  He could get straight into the middle of the action like he wanted to. Maybe even grab enough information from the senator or Alastair that would make it worthwhile. On top of that he may be able to give Josh some kind of closure for his da
d.

  Another win-win.

  He wasn't even going to begin to consider the attraction he felt for Josh. All dark-haired and soulful-eyed he was so serious and closed off. And hurting. Manny would have to be a fool not to see that. The enormity of what was pressing down on Josh was something Manny could identify with.

  "Just do me a favor, Manny. Remember he isn't you. He won't react to situations the same way as you. Not everyone has your strength of character."

  "I think he's a lot like me," Manny said calmly. He could see it inside Josh however hard the other man wanted to hide it. "He wants to make things right."

  The journey was quiet. Josh was seemingly lost in thought and Manny was happy to leave it that way. He was already considering how to approach the Bullen family, or what was left of it, and Josh talking was just making his stomach flip. He'd not felt attraction to someone quite as markedly before. He'd had his moments, hookups, always outside Sanctuary, even a couple of longer relationships that he ended when they started asking questions. He wasn't a monk but he was a private man who had a lot of secrets.

  To sit in the same car as Josh and feel the tension pouring off of him in waves made Manny feel a new protective instinct. And the distinct need to kiss some of the worry away from Josh.

  Kissing. For God's sake. He was a Sanctuary operative with an angst-ridden wannabe hero in his car.

  Kissing was way down the list of things he should be considering. Locking Josh in a room before he caused any more chaos? That is what he should be doing first.

  Hell. There was attraction and Josh had some kind of freaky power that was making Manny concentrate on what the taste of Josh would be like as opposed to concentrating on his own cover story. No one had ever been able to do that to him. Hell, he wouldn't have let them even if they'd tried. Before Sanctuary—before Jake—he had focused, prickly, and uncommunicative down to a fine art. Then, of course, Jake happened. Bit by bit, when Manny looked for a friend, that was who Jake became. And now? Look at him, Manny was a bona fide member of the human race with confusion and worry inside him that was way more normal than he ever thought.