Black Brick - Part One Read online

  I sometimes wished that my life had turned out differently. That instead of chasing down terrorists, I was actually attending a university. College was supposed to be a defining life experience and I was doing it as a cover.

  We came to the end of the campus and turned towards Black Brick. Despite its name, there wasn’t a single black brick in the modern ten-story office building.

  I parked in the underground parking garage and we took the stairs to the main floor. The most notable feature of the lobby was the thin large televisions in the entryway; they rotated through promotional information for Zerutas Ventures, Inc. The company was our cover and did a little business to keep away suspicion.

  The plush couches, handmade solid wood furniture, and elegant art had been designed to give the impression that Zerutas was prospering, but wasn’t raking in money. A handful of guards were located inconspicuously throughout the floor and could easily be missed by a casual observer. Various weapons were hidden around the lobby in addition to those the guards had secreted away on their persons.

  In the middle of it all, stood a large reception desk that reminded me more of a fortress than a place to greet visitors. Instead of hiring receptionists to operate the desk, Beltran assigned analysts to a four hour rotation. I greeted Dolores and received a warm smile in return. I’d often wondered what a woman like Dolores was doing working for Beltran. She shouldn’t be stuck in the office all day slogging through reports.

  Dolores had a new hair cut that was barely longer than mine. It was a rare woman that was able to pull off hair that short, but she managed to do it. I noticed Shannon frowning at me as we headed to the elevator. What was she unhappy about now?

  The tint of the windows in the conference room on the fourth floor had been darkened to provide contrast with the large touch screen at the front of the room where Gus Capps, the head of research and intelligence, was touching the monitor to zoom in on a picture of several people that I didn’t recognize. Beltran turned when we entered and motioned for us to take a seat. He was a short man, but solid.

  The conference room table was long and narrow with twenty seats around the outside. Cherry, Tom, and Martinez were already seated at the far end of the table. They had returned on a flight earlier in the afternoon, bringing with them several hard drives, the pictures I had found in the wall, and Kurt’s laptop. Martinez nodded to me and I hesitated before returning the gesture.

  Martinez leaned over and whispered something in Cherry's ear. She smiled, covering her mouth with a hand as a lock of brunette hair fell into her face. I was surprised to see such an overt demonstration right under the nose of Beltran. Shannon was staring their way. By her expression, I could tell that she knew about them as well or at least had her suspicions.

  “Continue Gus,” Beltran said, oblivious to Cherry and Martinez.

  “We’ve identified a man with Gina Townsend in the photos you found,” Gus said motioning with his scrawny pale arm that looked like it had never seen the sunlight. Rumor had it that Gus hadn’t left Black Brick for several years. While I didn’t quite believe it, I had to admit that Gus was more disheveled and pale than normal.

  He clicked the remote in his hand and the picture of Gina and the man I had recognized showed on the large television screen that hung at the front of the room. “I believe this is Brian Payne.”

  I was taken aback. Payne was an elusive man. Nobody had a picture of him. Where had Jason Kurt come by it? Why did he look familiar to me?

  Upon closer reflection, Payne did look a little like a movie star, but I wasn’t familiar enough with those things to know who.

  “Kurt was stealing money from Diggon and transferring most of it to Payne,” Gus said.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Cherry said, tightening her lips. “Why would Andrews hire Kurt to steal from Diggon only to give it to somebody else?”

  I frowned, wondering what I missed. It would have been nice if they’d waited for us to start the briefing.

  “Isn’t it obvious,” Tom swiveled to look at her. There was a flash of something in his eyes when he looked at Cherry that I wasn’t able to interpret. “If it comes out, Diggon wants deniability.”

  Diggon had hired Kurt and Payne? I wondered what else I had missed.

  “Agreed,” Gus said. “Kurt siphoned off close to one million for himself in addition to the couple million he transferred to Payne and was covering his tracks well. Andrews probably didn’t know how much Kurt took, though I assume part of their arrangement was that he’d pocket--” A ringing phone interrupted Gus.

  “Is anybody going to shut that off?” Beltran asked before it got to the second ring. I checked my phone, I wasn’t the culprit. The others were doing the same when it stopped. Beltran nodded to Gus who opened his mouth when it started up again.

  Shannon nudged me and motioned to my briefcase. I could feel Beltran’s eyes boring into me as I set my bag on the table and removed Kurt’s tablet. It was flashing a notification of an incoming video call. Ordinarily, Shannon and I would have stopped and left the tablet and the hard drives on the third floor with the tech team, but there hadn’t been time.

  “It’s Kurt,” I said, “calling his tablet.”

  “Well shut it off,” Martinez said.

  “Hold on,” Beltran said. “I’m curious.”

  I shrugged and answered.

  Kurt appeared on the screen. His face was scarred with acne and black wavy hair framed his chubby face. I recognized Kurt’s room in the background and wondered if the bugs we’d hid had picked up any useful information yet.

  “You shouldn’t have answered man,” Kurt said. His lips were turned up in a snarl and he looked ready to attack, bits of food were stuck on his unshaven face. Cheetos? “I’ll find you guys! Ya hear? Prepare for the world to come crashing down on you.” Kurt worked his keyboard.

  “Nice place you have,” I said. “How many years did it take to cultivate the smell?”

  “I’m taking you guys down!” Kurt held up a picture of Shannon and I leaving Kurt’s bedroom. I swore. I’d looked through the room and removed several cameras, I must have missed one. I smiled, hoping I’d covered my shock, but it was too late because a grin split Kurt’s face.

  “Now that I’ve got your attention.” Kurt held up another picture, this one showed me walking into a store. “Not incriminating in itself, but later that day you were seen murdering a man.” He held up another photo that featured me with a mask wearing the same clothes, Shannon was visible in the background of both. “Put the two together and that’s some powerful evidence.” The photos were convincing; he was a good artist.

  Shannon muttered something I didn’t catch.

  “Return what you’ve taken,” Kurt said. “Or you’ll be the most wanted man in America. I’ll plant more photos of you doing other questionable activities. By the time I’m done your own mother will hate you. How would you like the police to come knocking at your door?”

  “Yes, well, I’ll be waiting,” I said. “In the mean time, you might want to run as well. I have proof of the money you stole from Diggon. What do you bet they handle it internally? You were supposed to take some, I’m sure, but I bet they didn’t plan on you stealing a million.”

  Kurt paled.

  “Oh, it seems I have a card to play too.”

  “Perhaps we can reach an agreement.”

  “No,” I said. “There’s nothing to--” I stopped when I heard screams come from the tinny tablet speakers. A chill ran through my heart as I recognized the high pitched scream of a child.

  Lisa.

  The next moment Kurt was engulfed in flames and the video feed ended.

  “Bomb,” I said, looking around my room. Shannon had a look of horror on her face. Cherry was tearing up. Gus looked like he was going to get sick and even Martinez who was normally stoic, was trying to regain his composure. Of the people in the room, only Beltran didn’t seem bothered.

  I pulled out my phone. There may still be time. P
erhaps the kid would be okay. I hadn’t dialed more than the first number before Beltran grabbed my arm.

  “Think about this. What good will an emergency call from here do? Kurt’s in San Diego. You won’t even get the right operator, we don’t need the attention.” Beltran turned to Gus. “Have one of your tech guys make an anonymous call that looks like it’s coming from nearby Kurt’s place.” They waited in silence while Gus made a call and relayed Beltran’s instructions.

  “Good work Jake,” Beltran said. “We confirmed that Kurt was working for Diggon as well as robbing them. Gus, continue.” I watched as the others turned back to the briefing. I was surprised by Martinez’s reaction, he had a faraway look on his face. Sadness or disappointment? I couldn’t tell.

  Maybe I was wrong about Martinez; maybe he didn’t lack normal human empathy. I just couldn’t get past Martinez slamming a man’s hand into a car door and then shattering his kneecap with a baseball bat. The man had refused to give up the information we’d wanted but we could have got him to speak another way.

  Shannon looked at me, concern showing on her face. It was the first unguarded emotion I’d seen from her in a while. When she touched my hand, I realized I’d been on the verge of snapping the tablet in two. I dropped it to the table.

  “People just got hurt,” I said, interrupting Gus. “A criminal, yes, but his innocent little sister was in the house as well.”

  “Truly regrettable,” Beltran said. “But there’s nothing more we can do but to soldier on and get to the bottom of this so we can stop it.”

  “We’re supposed to protect people,” I said, “not get them killed.”

  “Your anger is understandable,” Beltran said, “if you want to take some time off, fine. Otherwise, sit down. We have work to do.”

  I hadn’t even realized that I’d stood. I shook my head as I sat, trying to clear it of an image of Lisa burning to death.

  Shannon nudged me. “You okay? Let’s take some time off. I could use a day by the pool.”

  I shook my head. The cold hard truth was that Beltran’s words made sense. There wasn’t anything we could do other than continue on our path. I tried to concentrate during the rest of the meeting, but kept hearing Lisa’s screams.

  “Good work with Kurt,” Beltran said to us once the briefing was over. “The op went well. Before you know it, you’ll all be active.” While the others exchanged smiles, I just bared my teeth, if Beltran noticed, he didn’t say anything.

  “Ordinarily, I’d like to give you guys a chance to rest, more especially so given the events of this evening, but I don’t have the time. I have a list of about a hundred things to do. Martinez, a man fitting Payne's description was seen downtown earlier today, find him. I'll email you what we know.”

  “Jake and Shannon, shadow Lane Vargo. I want you on him in case the sniper from the other night is targeting Diggon’s executive team. I’ll have mission briefs in tactical by the time you’re ready. Get going.” He looked at Cherry and Tom. “I need you to help out the analysts. You’re going to review the files we have on Ronan Wright and Lauren Griffith.”

  Black Brick had been keeping watch on Bruce Andrews, Lane Vargo, Ronan Wright, and Lauren Griffith for the better part of a year. Wright was a Senior Vice President and Griffith was Vargo’s personal assistant, but did far more than that. I don't know what Beltran had been hoping to find on Vargo, Wright, or Griffith, but so far we hadn't turned up anything that was actionable.

  “Have you thought this through?” I asked. “Shannon and I were left alive by Andrews’ murderer for a reason. If Vargo was behind that, he may recognize us.”

  Beltran frowned. “Unlikely. Bruce Andrews was Vargo’s liaison with Kurt. Get going.”

  First, Andrews was stealing from the company. Now, it sounded like he’d been doing it under orders from the CEO. What was going on? What had we missed? When had Beltran learned this and why did he wait until now to tell us?

  Shaking my head but deciding against further voicing my doubts, I left with Shannon in tow. If the information was true, that blew apart our theory that the shooter from the other night was working for Diggon.

  “Quite the show in there,” Shannon said once we were out of the room. “Next time you’re going to explode like that, let me know? I’ll bring popcorn and a coke.”

  I didn't respond and tried to forget what had happened, but knew I never would. The thought of Lisa’s curious bright face being torched with flame would plague me for a long time.

  Chapter 7

  It took considerable control to not wolf down my food when our orders arrived. I was famished and bit into the hamburger, swallowed, and took another bite. This was the first chance to eat since some stale peanuts I'd had on the plane.

  There hadn't been time for a meal after my run on the beach with Tom and Martinez earlier that morning. As soon as we finished cleaning up, we had left for Kurt's house. I’d downed a Gatorade and eaten a Cliff bar on our way.

  After our work there, I'd been too distracted by my worry about what police had on us to think about eating. When we'd gotten off the plane, Beltran's order to return had stopped us from getting dinner.

  I ripped off another bite and looked around the restaurant, trying to appear like a casual observer. It was unfortunate that I wasn't going to be able to enjoy my meal properly. We’d had to scramble after our briefing with Beltran and the others to get here before Vargo. It was loud and hard to hear. The stale smell of fries and onion hung in the air.

  My eyes glossed over Vargo and the woman he was with, Janessa Carlton. They were several tables over and their conversation was being relayed to us from the surveillance van several blocks away. A member of the surveillance team had been able to slip a bug onto Janessa before they’d entered the restaurant.

  Vargo was paranoid and had his office, his person, and everything else around him swept for bugs on a regular basis. It was lucky our team had been able to get to Janessa as they entered the restaurant; otherwise, Shannon and I would have been sitting here in the dark.

  That wouldn’t have been so bad, it had been weeks since the last time we’d managed to slip out of work and enjoy ourselves.

  I was only giving casual attention to Vargo’s conversation over my ear bud. Based on what I’d heard already, Vargo didn’t seem likely to discuss Diggon’s covert activities with Janessa. At the moment, they were discussing an employee that was giving Vargo a headache.

  Janessa was a human resource consultant to Diggon and Vargo regularly sought her services. According to our surveillance team, it wasn’t uncommon for them to meet at lunch or dinner and discuss various problems. When somebody needed to be fired, she handled everything. She also did recruiting as well.

  Shannon twirled her fork in her pasta and raised some to her mouth. She had a direct view of Vargo, but I could tell she too was bored.

  I couldn’t decide if Beltran was paranoid or if he had information that he wasn’t sharing. If my theory was correct and the sniper that took out Andrews was from Diggon, Vargo wouldn’t be in danger.

  And even if Vargo wasn’t safe, what did we care? We’d been trying to nail him to the criminal activity of his company for the better part of two years.

  I suppose that as a government agent I should have subscribed more to the innocent until proven guilty philosophy of our justice system, but I didn't like spending my evening playing babysitter. It had already been a long day and I needed time to process everything that had happened.

  The quick glance I had caught when we were seated was enough for me to know that Janessa was a fastidious dresser, but that she paled in comparison to Shannon. Well, at least when Shannon bothered to smile. The red evening gown Shannon wore suited her, if not the restaurant.

  When we'd left Black Brick, the surveillance team had told us that Vargo was wearing a tuxedo and had purchased tickets to the opera. Halfway there, we’d received a call that Vargo had changed directions. Our team knew enough about Vargo’s habits, that t
hey’d given us instructions to come here.

  This is why I'd started off wearing a bow tie, but had ditched it and swapped out the suit jacket for a leather coat that happened to be in the company car we’d taken. I wasn't sure who it belonged to, but I was glad to make use of it. It was a bit small but passable at a glance. Shannon hadn't been as lucky, because her formal gown wasn't as easily dressed down.

  If I was taking out a woman like the one who now accompanied Vargo, even if it was just business, I would have chosen a classier restaurant. A restaurant with televisions hanging on the walls tuned to basketball games wasn’t my idea of a good date. Vargo was a wealthy executive and he’d chosen to take his attractive consultant to a hole-in-the-wall hamburger joint? Seemed strange to me, but maybe the man liked his hamburgers.

  I leaned towards Shannon. “How long have you known about Cherry and Martinez?”

  She hadn't looked surprised to see the flirty exchange between the two of them during the briefing earlier. I still couldn’t believe that Beltran had ignored it. There was no way he hadn’t noticed. Perhaps Martinez had done it on purpose to try and get a rise out of Beltran. That was something he sometimes did.

  “What do you mean?” Shannon took a sip of her water and studied me with a slight frown and a considering look.

  I took another bite. The burger wasn’t particularly good, but it was big and required two hands. Ketchup and mustard along with some grease dripped onto my chin and I grabbed a napkin while precariously holding the burger with the other.

  “Why do you always call him Martinez?” Shannon asked. “He prefers Bill.”

  “Sure, Bill and Cherry.” That took me by surprise. In my dislike for my Martinez, I hadn't realized that I'd been calling him by his last name. I hoped my distaste for him wasn't obvious. Martinez’s brutal techniques weren’t common knowledge.

  Shannon was no longer paying attention to me and didn’t hear my last statement, I nudged her. She gave me an annoyed look and shook her head. She started to raise her hand and then stopped, looking like she’d wanted to point to her ear.