Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) (34 page)

Andrei and Dmitri arrived at Jasmine Flores' apartment
building.  The parking spaces were numbered and her space was empty. It wasn't
likely that she was home.

“I'll go check out her apartment,”  Dmitri stated.  “You
wait here and keep watch.”  He wanted to be the one to check out her place in
case it turned out someone was home.

“I don't think so,”  Andrei protested.  “I'll go, you wait
here.”  He started to get out of the car.  He didn't like taking orders,
especially from someone he viewed as incompetent.  Dmitri yanked him back in
the car.

“What the hell is wrong with ...” Andrei turned to Dmitri and
stopped short as he came face to face with the barrel of his gun.

“I don't know what you've heard,”  Dmitri growled.  “But I
do not tolerate insubordination.  I am in charge.  You will do as I say or I
will put you down like a dog.  Are we clear?”

“Very.”  Andrei glared at him.

“Call me if anyone shows up.”

Dmitri put his gun away and stepped out of the car.  He
walked to Jasmine's apartment and knocked on the door.  There was no answer so
he let himself in.  Big surprise ... no one was home.

While searching the kitchen, he found a pay stub and an
address book chock-full with family and friends.  Good thing he was in charge
or things would no doubt get very ugly.   He had to get word to Michael and
warn him.  Maybe he'd be able to find this woman before they did.  He put
everything back the way he found it and left.

He walked back to the car and stood next to Andrei's
window.  “We may be here a while.  I'm going to walk down to that gas station
and pick up some food and something to drink.  Do you want anything?”

“I'm fine.”  Andrei grumbled, obviously still peeved.

MICHAEL AND
Jinx were only a few streets from her
apartment when his phone rang.   He didn't recognize the number so he answered
but didn't say anything.

“Michael, it's me,”  Dmitri's voice came over the line.

“Dmitri.  What's up?”

“Does Jessica know a Jasmine Flores?”

“Jasmine Flores?”  he repeated.  “I don't know, I'd have to
ask her. Why?”  He felt a tug on his arm and turned to Jinx who looked
petrified.

“I'm Jasmine Flores.”

“Scratch that.  She's right here with me.  What's going on?”

“Vlad got her name from his guy at the CIA.  I was just in
her apartment.  She needs to disappear.”

Michael pulled off the road.  He sighed and clenched his
jaw.  “Thanks for the warning.  I was just headed there with her.”

“Michael, with this guy Andrei, I'm afraid it's only a
matter of time before our paths cross.”

“So what are we going to do about it?”

“I want him alive.  As soon as I'm off with you, I'm calling
in an extraction team to take him back to Russia.  He's worked for Vlad for a
long time apparently.  He may have information on others in our government who do
too.  I've been trying to extract information from him while he believes we're
on the same side.  When I can no longer control him, he will have an
unfortunate accident.  At least that's the story Vlad will hear.  Until then ...”

“I get it, don't kill him.”

“Yes.  Please don't Michael.  We need him alive.”

“No promises, Dmitri.  If it's him or me, I'm going to
choose me.”

“Understood.”

“I owe you Dmitri.”

“Yeah, you do.”  Dmitri smiled and hung up the phone.

Michael turned to Jinx, who was anxiously waiting to hear
what was going on.  “They found you.  We can't go to your apartment.”

She let out a terrified whimper as she raised a trembling
hand over her mouth.

He took her other hand.  “You're safe, Jasmine.  They don't
know where you are.  I will protect you and I will get you everything you
need.  I won't let anything happen to you.”

She nodded her head as a few tears fell.

JOSH OPENED
the garage door for them when they
arrived.  Michael parked the truck and they got out while Josh closed the door
behind them.

“Did you get it?”  Josh asked.

“No.”  Michael looked over at Jinx as she came around the
truck towards them.  “They found her.”  He saw Jessica appear in the doorway to
the office out of the corner of his eye.

“What happened?”  Josh glanced between Jinx and Michael.

“Dmitri called before I reached the apartment and warned
me.  They were there waiting for her to get home.”

“Jesus.”

Michael looked over at Jessica.  “You see now why I need to
know these things?”

She quickly turned and left visibly upset.

“She feels bad enough, Michael,”  Josh reprimanded him.

“We'll see how you feel when she's been lying to and
manipulating you.”

“You know damn well she wasn't doing it maliciously.”

Michael looked down at the floor and sighed.  He knew Josh
was right, but he was still angry.

“Why did he call you Michael?”  Jinx asked after a long
silence.

“My real name is Michael.  Jake was a cover name.”

“Oh.” She wasn't sure how to feel about that.  “So what
should I call you?”

“Michael.  I used a cover name because I didn't really
expect to see any of you again or to ever involve you in any of this.  Now it
doesn't really matter.”

“Okay.  Michael.  I'm going to check on Summer.”

“No.  I should talk to her.  You go upstairs with Josh.”

She was a little taken aback with him ordering her around,
but decided not to make a scene and started walking to the stairwell.  When she
got to the stairs, she stopped and turned to Josh.

“Is he always like that?” she asked.

“No,”  he replied.  “Sometimes he sleeps.”

She laughed and Josh gave her a huge grin.

MICHAEL STAYED
in the garage for another minute after
they left.  Then he walked into the front room of the building next to the
office and heard soft crying coming from the tiny bathroom.  He knocked and the
crying ceased.

“Jess.  We need to talk.”

“Just leave me alone.”  The crying resumed, more intense
than before.

“I'm sorry.  I know you feel bad.  Please come out.”  Half a
minute passed with no response.  “Jess.”

The doorknob finally turned and the door slowly opened.  Her
eyes and nose were red and she tried in vain to wipe the tears away with her
hands.  There wasn't any toilet paper or paper towels in the bathroom to use. 
Michael let himself feel pity for her.

“Do you want my shirt?” he joked.

“Yes,” she answered knowing he didn't really mean it.

Michael took it a step further, pulling off his shirt and
holding it out to her.

She looked up at him.  “I'm not using your shirt.  It's your
only one.”

“I'm sorry,” he said again.

“You don't have to apologize.”  She looked down and brushed
away a stray tear.

“When are you going to start trusting me?”

She shook her head.  “I don't know why I didn't tell you.  I
mean, at first I didn't tell you because I didn't think they would be able to
find her and I just wanted to get the translation program.  But later, I should
have said something.  I still didn't think they would find her.”

“You can't underestimate what they're capable of, Jessica. 
You'll get yourself or someone else killed.  I've already done it.  My friend
Charlie is dead because of me.  I have to live with that.  I don't want you
to.”

Jessica nodded her head and started crying again.  Michael
took her in his arms and kissed the top of her head.  “It's okay, Jess.  She's
safe.”

Back upstairs, Josh was introducing Jinx to the Gomezes.  He
was completely taken with her and was trying to be as charming and entertaining
as possible.  Alonso and Elaina picked up on it and gave each other a look.  He
was trying so hard, it was actually quite adorable.  His efforts weren't in
vain.  She was quickly warming up to him.  Jessica and Michael though soon
joined them and spoiled the moment.

“Josh, can you call Martin and see if he wouldn't mind
covering for a few hours?  I'm going to need your help tonight.”

“Yeah, sure.” Josh looked at Jinx and smiled before tearing
himself away to phone Martin.

Michael reached in one of the duffel bags on the floor and
tossed a deck of cards to Alonso and told everyone to settle in for a long
night.  Then he went downstairs to the truck and started unloading the weapons
and equipment, setting the bags on the office floor.  Josh joined him and the
pair spent the next few hours checking over their equipment, cleaning the guns
and loading cartridges.  Shortly after nightfall Jessica came down the stairs. 
Michael was sitting on the floor across from Josh cleaning a dismantled assault
rifle.  Josh was doing the same with a handgun.

“What's up?”  Michael looked up at her.

“The Gomezes are going to bed.”  She rubbed her arms and
took a deep breath as she glanced around at the weapons and ammo littering the
floor.

“You should probably do the same.”  Michael kept working.

“Yeah, well.  Neither of us feel like sleeping.  We were
wondering if we could hang out with you guys.”

“Sure,” Josh jumped at the prospect of spending time with
Jinx.  He broke into a shameless smile.

Michael gave him a look then turned to Jessica.  “We'll be
leaving in a few hours when Martin gets here.  Until then, you're welcome to
sit with us.”

Jinx must have been waiting on the stairs because as soon as
Michael gave the okay, she appeared.  She found an open spot on the floor to
sit while Jessica cleared a space next to Michael.  For the next few hours,
they swapped war stories.  Jessica and Jinx reminisced of their hacking
escapades while Josh and Michael told a few of their tamer experiences abroad. 
Josh, of course, had to tell the nude beach story again.  Michael vowed revenge
as they all had a good laugh at his expense.

When Michael and Josh had finished cleaning all the guns and
refilling the magazines, they organized everything back into the duffel bags
and put them in the garage by the door.  They returned to the office and
continued chatting with the girls until Martin arrived shortly before midnight.

After briefly introducing Martin and Jinx, Michael suggested
the girls try to get some sleep.  They reluctantly agreed and went upstairs.

Michael looked back at Martin.  “I can't wait to see what
I'll have to do to make up for all your help.”

Martin chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.  “Nothing a
good friend wouldn't do.”

“Right.”  Michael smiled, knowing it would be something more
than helping him move.

Agent Gatti was sitting in the conference room with Agent
Price, who had been in charge of finding Michael.  They were looking over the
police reports on the cases they had taken over, trying to make a timeline and
gather some sense of what was going on.

“Okay, well Cailen and Lavene have a history.  They worked
together and were known to have been good friends. So the fact that he was
staying with him isn't so surprising,” Gatti was talking the case out loud. 
“But this Brook Fosters.  What was he doing with her?”

“Well, I doubt he was dating her.  She's not his type at
all.  From what I know of him, he'd rather chew off his right arm than be with
someone like her,”  Price responded.  His knowledge of Michael was quite in-depth
as he had spent the last four years searching for him.

“So she's an asset.  What's he after?” Gatti asked
perplexed.  “Do we have her file?”

“Yeah.”  Price grabbed a file from the middle of a stack on
the table and passed it to him.  “Her parents are dead.  She has an uncle in
prison and her brother was in trouble a few times, then dropped off the grid.”

“Do we know where he is?”  Gatti asked still looking over
the file.

“Yes. I started working on that when Cailen's prints showed
up at her house.  We tracked him to a small town in Pennsylvania.  I have
agents on the way.”

“How long before they arrive?”

Price looked at his watch.  “Should be any minute.”

“Get them on the phone.”

Price reached out to the phone on the conference table.  He
hit the speaker button and dialed.  Someone answered.  “What's your status?” 
Price asked.

“We're almost there.  We just pulled onto his street.”  A brief
silence followed.  “Alright, we're here,”  the agent announced.  “There's a
black BMW parked on the street in front.”  The agent rattled off the plates.

“We'll check it out.”  Price said as he jotted it on a piece
of paper.  He waved it in the air to someone outside the conference room and
they came and took it from him.

“Ahh, I gotta go,”  the agent said nervously.

“What's wrong?” Gatti asked before Price was able to.

“Windows are shattered.  Looks like gunfire.  We're going to
secure the house.  I'll call you after.”

“Should we send back-up?” Price asked.

“Negative.”  He hung up the phone.

Price and Gatti looked anxiously at each other and the
phone.

“Guess we know what he was after,”  Price asserted.

Gatti rubbed his forehead and leaned back in his chair.  Ten
agonizing minutes went by before the phone rang in the conference room.  Gatti
hit the speaker button.

“We got one dead body.”

“Any ID?” Gatti asked.

“Negative.  Looks like he's been dead a few days.  Shot in
the head at close range.  We found an assault rifle close by.  Looks like there
was an exchange of gunfire with someone in the house.  Another weird thing, we
thought someone was inside, but it was just a shirt hanging from the ceiling
fan in the kitchen.”

The person Price had given the plates to popped his head in
the conference room.  “Plates are stolen.”

Price nodded and directed his attention back to the phone. 
“Stay there until we can secure the house.  We need to find out who that is.”

“Does he match Cailen's description?” Gatti asked.

“Can't be sure, but he doesn't look tall enough.”

“All right, thanks.”

They ended the call and sat in reflective silence for a
minute or two.

“I'm tired of being behind this already,” Gatti complained.

“I know how you feel,” Price sympathized.

They went back to looking over the files and reports strewn
on the conference table.  Gatti picked up Josh's file and looked it over more
closely.  They knew Josh had worked with Michael which explained why he might
go to him, but they hadn't looked any further than that.

“Did anyone talk with Lavene's cousin, Martin?”  Gatti
asked.

“Don't know.  Why?”

Gatti looked up at him.  “He's ex-CIA and lives in Boston.”

You could almost hear bells go off.  If Michael had sought
help from Josh there was a really good chance they would have also sought help
from Martin.  After securing Martin's phone records, they boarded a plane to
Boston.

MARTIN RETURNED
home from keeping watch at the
hideout and was sound asleep when Gatti and Price arrived on his doorstep. 
Awoken by the sound of the doorbell ringing, he groaned and rolled off the bed
still fully dressed.  Groggily, he walked to a window and looked out at the
front door.  He saw a dark colored SUV with a man in the driver's seat and two
men in suits standing at his door.  After grabbing a handgun, he cautiously
opened the door, keeping the gun hidden.

“Martin Lavene?”

“Who's asking?”

“I'm Agent Tim Gatti, this is Agent Allen Price.”  He
flashed his CIA badge.

“What can I do for you?”

“May we come in?”

Martin looked at them for a few seconds while he slid the
gun into his waistband and covered it with his shirt.  He stepped back and
opened the door for them.  “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Have you heard from your cousin, Josh?”  Gatti asked.

“Not since the shootout in his apartment.  Why is the CIA
interested in Josh?”

“We're not.  We're interested in who he's helping, Michael
Cailen.”

“Never heard of him.”

“When's the last time you saw Josh?”  Price asked.

“I don't remember.”  Martin looked at him stone faced.

“Well, are we talking days, weeks, months?”  Gatti asked
with a condescending tone.

“What is this about?”  Martin deflected the question.

“We know you're helping him,”  Gatti asserted.

“He's my cousin.  I've helped him with a lot of things. 
Helped him move, fixed his car.”

“You know damn well that's not what we're talking about.” 
Gatti was getting annoyed.

“Honestly, I haven't a clue.  Why don't you fill me in?”

“Four days ago, your cousin was involved in a high-speed
shootout through town that ended when his car flipped over and crashed. 
Witnesses say a woman was taken from the car and driven off in a tan Mercedes
by men who spoke with Russian accents.  The driver of the car, your cousin,
then walked away from the scene and was never found.  Within ten minutes of the
crash, you received a call from a pay phone just a block away from the
accident.  Would you like to tell me who that was?”

“Wrong number.”  Martin didn't even flinch.

“You're hindering an investigation.”  Gatti tried to
intimidate him.

“What investigation?”  A slight smile crossed Martin's lips,
knowing they would either have to inform him of what they were investigating or
drop it.

Gatti stared down Martin, but he didn't budge.  He was
debating how much to tell him.  “We're investigating the attempted assassination
of one of our own.”  Gatti tried to appeal to Martin's experience as a CIA
operative.

Martin held his ground.  “I wish I could help you.”

Gatti was vexed, though not surprised.  He clenched his
jaw.  “Have it your way.”  He insincerely thanked him for his time and they
left.

“Did you really think he'd tell us anything?”  Price asked
as they walked down the sidewalk to the truck.

“I want his house and phones bugged, and round the clock
surveillance on him starting now,” Gatti ordered gruffly.

Martin watched them until they got in the truck.  He grabbed
a screwdriver from a kitchen drawer and quickly walked to his bedroom.  He
unscrewed the cover for a light switch.  Turns out it wasn't really a light
switch at all but a hole in the wall and the switch was just a disguise.

He pulled out a bag containing two cell phones and
chargers.  He put the battery in one and plugged it in the charger.  He dialed
the phone Michael was using.  It rang and then went to voicemail.  He dialed
again.  This time, Michael answered.

“It's Martin. You need to get new phones.  And I can't help
you any more.”

“What happened?”

“I just got a visit from the CIA.  They were asking about
you and Josh.  I didn't tell them anything, but they know I've been helping
you.  We can be sure they'll bug my house and phones and be watching me from
now on.”

“I'm sorry, Martin.”

“I've been expecting it to happen.  I was prepared.  The
agents were Timothy Gatti and Allen Price.  You should see if Alonso knows
them.  They're investigating the attempt on his life.”

“Hang on, I'll ask him.”  Michael walked over to the bedroom
door and knocked.  Alonso opened it.  “Do you know a Tim Gatti or Allen Price?”

“I know of them.  Why?”

“They're handling the investigation into what happened to
you.”

“I don't know them personally, but they both have sterling
reputations.”

“So you think they might be the good guys?”

“I would lean that way, yes.”

Michael turned away from Alonso and continued talking with
Martin.  “Maybe we can use this to our advantage.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I don't know just yet.”

“Well, when you figure it out you can reach me at this
number.”  He gave him the phone number to the other cell phone.  “It's clean. 
You should ditch the phones you have now.  They already have my phone records
and they could even be tracking now.  I'm tossing this phone once I'm off with
you.”

“Thanks, Martin.”

“Be careful.”  Martin hung up the phone and removed the
battery.  He peeked out a window and quickly spotted some agents in a car up
the street.