Troubleshooter

Troubleshooter

SUMMARY: The maestro of pulse-pounding suspense delivers an explosive new white-knuckle thriller featuring deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Rackley -- a lawman driven by honor, morality, and a thirst for justice. The leader of one of the country's most violent biker gangs, Den Laurey should have been behind bars. But thanks to a daring escape on an L.A. freeway, several deputy marshals are dead and Laurey is riding free. Rackley, back on the Service's warrant squad, is in hot pursuit of the outlaw and his ruthless gang -- with a media whirlwind and the entire Los Angeles law-enforcement community driving him. Just when Laurey is within his grasp, circumstances force Rackley to let him go -- with devastating results. A few miles up the road, a sheriff's deputy is attacked: Tim's pregnant wife, Dray. Driven by guilt, Tim vows to hunt Laurey down -- a search that will lead him into a dark world of deception and lies, a world of criminals and undercover cops, drugs and mutilation. And the key to the violent puzzle lies in the discarded corpses of women -- women for whom Tim must seek justice when no one else will. With the stakes rising, Tim must unravel a horrifying secret and confront a deadly terror that reaches from the back alleys of Mexico to the poppy fields of Afghanistan ... and threatens to explode on the dark streets of L.A.

Chapter
1

Den Laurey strained against the cuffs so his shoulders bulged under his jailhouse blues, sending ripples through the FTW tattooed above his collarbone. An amused smile, all gums at the corners, rode high on his face. In an additional security measure, the chain of his leg restraint had been knotted, narrowing the space between his ankles. Kaner sat beside him on the transport's bench seat, stooped so his head wouldn't strike the roof during freeway turbulence. Because he was too broad for his wrists to meet behind his back, Kaner's arms were secured with two sets of handcuffs linked together. A onetime sparring partner to Tyson--in prison--he'd snapped more than one set of cuff chains, so a second pair of restraints secured him at the forearms. Beneath a wild man's spray of black hair, a 22 tat on the back of his neck advertised his previous stint in the pen. Kaner had a broad, coarse face and prominent earlobes, fleshy tags that lay dimpled against his skull.

Den, president of the Laughing Sinners nomad chapter, and Kaner, the biker gang's national enforcer, were being driven under heavy guard directly from sentencing to San Bernardino County Jail, where they'd await Con Air transport to a federal penitentiary. They'd been convicted of the torture-killing of three members of the Cholos, in retaliation for the shooting of a Sinner. Den, renowned for his knife skills, had severed the victims' heads with surgical precision and set them in their laps. For good measure he'd removed their hearts and left them on the Cholos' clubhouse doorstep. The gesture marked another leap in the escalation between the Sinners and Cholos, a broad-ranging turf war for control over key arteries of Southern California's drug-trafficking network.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Hank Mancone, a fixture behind the wheel of the transport van, was the only nonprisoner in the three-vehicle convoy not a member of the Service's Arrest Response Team. Frankie Palton in the passenger's seat, the four deputy marshals in the armored Suburban behind them, and the two in the advance vehicle five miles up the road were all part of the district's ART squad, called in for tactical strikes and high-risk transports. Mancone was a deputy as well, but given his retirement age and contentment in grousing about his narrow bailiwick, he had little interest in the ARTists aside from giving them the occasional lift.

Palton pivoted in his seat, meeting Den's shit-eating grin through the steel security screen. "Nice tats."

"You can take our clothes, but you can't take our colors."

"What's 'FTW' stand for?"

"Fuck the World."

"We keep having these Hallmark moments, I might get dewy-eyed."

The radio crackled in from the chase car. Jim Denley--Palton's partner: "Eyes up on your right. We got some more bikers coming on."

Palton looked in the sideview. Two bikers rattled past, double-packing, their mamas reclining against sissy bars and offering the deputies languorous waves. Another three bikers zipped by on the right, flying colors, filthy club logos flapping on the backs of their leather jackets.

Mancone's grip on the steering wheel eased once the whine of the Harleys faded. "What's with all the bikers?"

"Relax, lawman," Den said. "It's the season. You got your Love Ride in Glendale, the Long Beach Swap, San Dog Run, Left Coast Rally in Truckee, Big Bear Ride, Mid-State Holiday Hog Run in Paso Robles, Squaw Rock Run, Desert Whirlybird Meet." His smirk bounced into sight in the rearview mirror. "All the wannabes on the move."

Kaner's three-pack-a-day voice emerged from the tangle of hair down over his face. "I'll still take it over you citizens driving around in your cages."

"Hear that, Mancone?" Palton said. "We got nothing to worry about. Just wannabes. And to think I was carrying this gun for no good reason."

Den said, "You want to get your shorts twisted over some weekend warriors, be my guest."

From the chase car: "Shit. Greaseball alert number two."

Two streams of bikers throttled by on either side of the van, their top rockers--the strips of stitched leather cresting the jackets' logos--announcing them as Cholos. Their bottom rockers showed their mother-chapter affiliation: PALMDALE. A few minutes later, a beefy biker rolled past and did a double take at the prisoners. When he lingered to gloat and flip them a middle finger, Palton raised the stock of his MP5 into view. The Cholo opened the throttle, ponytail flicking, and his bottom rocker came visible: NOMAD.

Den laughed, scratching his cheek with a swipe of his shoulder. "Good ol' Meat Marquez. Now that his nomad buddies met their untimely demise, poor spic's gotta ride all by his lonesome."

They came around a bend in the 10 and were greeted by hundreds of brake lights. As Mancone cursed and slowed to a crawl, Palton got the advance car on the air. "What's with the traffic?"

"What traffic? We sailed through."

"Accident?"

"Probably, but stay alert. We'll exit and wait."

Once traffic ground to a standstill, a biker wearing a duster pulled a few lengths ahead of them, stopping where the space between idling cars narrowed. He was low in the seat, pint-size but exuding attitude. He turned and looked back, the van reflected in the silver blade of the helmet's faceplate. The distinctive Indian logo identified the motorcycle frame's maker, but the rest of the sleek bike seemed to be custom-built. It sported a leather saddlebag on the left side, but its mate was missing on the right. The biker revved the engine, giving voice to 1,200 cubic centimeters of rage.

Jim's voice came through the radio again, and Palton replied, "Yeah, we got him. Looks to be unaffiliated--he's not flying colors."

A Harley white-lined through the traffic jam, easing up past the right side of the Suburban and van. The helmeted rider paused a few feet back from the other biker, across the lane, idling.

Hands tensing around his weapon, Palton checked the side mirror. Jim had the stock of his MP5 against his shoulder, ready to be raised. Something was lying on the ground under the Suburban at the front left tire. Palton clicked the rearview controls, centering the object in the mirror.

A leather saddlebag.

Palton's eyes lifted, noting the bare right side of the Indian bike ahead. He raised his gun, spinning around. Den and Kaner were lying on the floor, braced against the seats, covering their heads. Palton grabbed for the radio. "Shit, get off the--"

The biker on the Harley raised a lighter-size initiator. His gloved hand tensed.

A low-register boom. The Suburban rose up on the fireball eruption, crashing on its side. The surrounding cars slid a few feet from the blast, doors caving in, windows shattering.

The transport van skidded forward on its front tires, its ass end lifted by the explosion under the trailing vehicle. It smashed the car in front and slammed down directly beside the Harley. Seat belts gut-checked Palton and Mancone, their weapons banging against the dash. The Indian's kickstand was down; the small biker sat backward on the seat, sighting with the AR-15 he'd produced from beneath his duster.

The two deputies raised their heads as the first volley of bullets punched into the window, degrading the armored glass. The inside layer fragged out, glass embedding in their faces. When the windshield gave, their bodies jiggled like marionettes.

The man on the Harley had dismounted and was firing into the van's side lock. When the door slid open, he threw down his gun and caught the bolt cutters his partner tossed him. Rolling to the edge of the van, Den offered up his arms, then his legs, the steel jaws of the cutters making short work of the connecting chains. He bounced out of the van and hopped onto the empty Harley, cuffs rattling like jewelry around his wrists and ankles, chains dangling. A jagged edge by the door lock caught Kaner's prison jumpsuit as he stood, ripping it from collar to tail. Kaner hopped on behind Den, their rescuer leapt on the back of the Indian, and the two bikes took off in opposite directions, splitting lanes.

The four deputies in the keeled-over Suburban strained against their seat belts, coughing out glass and bleeding from the ears. One set of motorcycle wheels zipped past, heading the wrong way. Innumerable car alarms bleated; someone's cry of anguish expired in a gurgle.

The wind picked up the severed chains dangling from Den's and Kaner's shackles, drawing them horizontal. Kaner's torn shirt flapped open, showing off his backpack, the club logo rendered on his flesh in orange and black. They sped off, the flaming skull screaming back from the receding bike at the dead and wounded.

Chapter
2

Silver rattled on china as white-gloved waiters cleared the remains of the five-hundred-dollar-a-plate luncheon. Marshal Tannino stood milling with other Angeleno political luminaries, looking mildly out of place with his coiffed salt-and-pepper hair and his department-store suit. He tugged at his too-short shirtsleeves to bring his gold-star links into view and squinted up at the chardonnay-haired woman holding a glass of white wine.

"If we really are serious about committing resources--"

Across the vast ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, someone's beeper chirped--a cutesy electronic rendition of "Jingle Bells."

"--to fully secure the courts, we need to--"

Another pager added a discordant melody, and then a multitude chimed in. Tannino glanced down, frowning at his own beeper. "Excuse me, Your Honor."

State assemblymen and deputies alike scurried to the ballroom's exits, checking the reception levels on their cell phones. Tannino was halfway to the lobby when the city attorney approached, holding out a Nextel. "It's the mayor."

Tannino snapped the phone to his ear, still moving. "Yes, sir. Uhhuh. Uh-huh." His face tightened. As he continued to listen, he fished his cell phone from his pocket and, holding it down at his waist, speed-dialed. "Right away, sir."

He handed back the Nextel and pressed his own phone to his ear. "Get Rackley."

Chapter
3

Tim jogged down the Federal Courthouse corridor, pulling off his blazer and cuffing his sleeves. Tannino had called him with the news--an emergency of sufficient magnitude to yank Tim from mind-numbing court duty, where he'd been suffering through day three of jury selection for a tax-evasion case. He'd been offered a road back into the Service--but only so far back in--as a reward for a stellar freelance investigation he'd conducted on a mind-control cult in the spring. Court duty was a penance of sorts, one he'd gladly been paying. But this afternoon he felt no happiness at receiving the long-awaited summons back to the Warrant Squad's Escape Team--two deputies dead, four injured, and Den Laurey and Lance Kaner out cruising California Central District's asphalt.

The marshal's assistant glanced up from a bank of blinking phone lights and nodded him in. Despite his stern posture, Tannino still looked short behind his great oak desk. He eyed the hole shot through a warped piece of metal--just minutes earlier a badge. A distinguished man with an age-softened linebacker's build half sat on the arm of the opposing chair, hands laced over a knee. A razor-straight crew cut completed his square face.

"Rackley, you know the mayor?"

"Of course. How are you, Your Honor?" Tim regarded the mayor's expression. "Right."

They shook hands all around, then took seats on the couch and surrounding chairs. Tim's right knee popped when he sat--it still gave him trouble from time to time, though the scar on his chin had resolved nicely. Souvenirs from the investigation eight months prior. He adjusted his old-school Smith & Wesson wheel gun in its hip holster; checking the revolver was second nature. He'd never made the jump to an auto and probably never would.

"How are the boys?"

"Everyone's holding. Jim seems to have lost hearing in one ear, but the docs say it ought to be temporary. We're arranging Frankie's service for tomorrow. And Hank's." Tannino tugged at his face, which had gone gray, and his eyes pulled to the bent star on his desk. "I just got off with Janice, convinced her we need to go closed-casket. Bastards put a lot of holes in the bodies."

"Let's get down to business." Mayor Strauss, like Tim, was a former Army Ranger. In his brief time in office, he'd developed a reputation for being a man long on efficacy but short on tact. "You'll be the deputy in charge of the task force."