Pestilence (Jack Randall #2) (21 page)

While that was bad enough, it got worse. Lobbyists from every cause imaginable could be counted on every night. Most mingled in the bar or were seen treating lawmakers to dinner as they shamelessly pushed their agendas. Some would say that more lawmaking got done in the club bar than in the capitol building, and they’d be right.

It was not Jack’s first choice, but he had let Debra choose and that’s what she had decided on. He knew her real motivation. She desired to regain their status lost during her husband’s involvement in the sniper shootings months ago. With Jack’s new status as the nation’s answer to the embassy bombing, she felt it the right time to show their faces on the power circuit again, and what better place than the Cosmo Club?

Debra squeezed his hand as he rested it on the shifter, a habit he transferred from the Corvette. He returned her smile before lingering on the dress. Something she pretended not to notice. She was decked out in her finest tonight. She had come home from shopping with a new black Vera Wang and had topped it off with the pearl choker he had given her for Christmas last year. Every hair was in place and the makeup applied with artistic quality. A multitude of shoes had been auditioned before the current pair had been chosen. Jack had been offered several views and questioned repeatedly. He had wisely approved every choice until his wife had given up on him. Never one to dwell too deeply on fashion choices, he had watched with amusement as his wife tore through his closet, selecting and rejecting items until an ensemble of her approval lay on the bed for him to wear. He knew when to fight and when to just give in, and, on donning the suit, had to admit that his wife knew how to make her husband look good. At least he had chosen his own cufflinks, something he was currently proud of.

As he navigated another corner he also had to admit that her choice of destinations was not entirely without some perks for him. There would no doubt be some high level government types present tonight and they would not pass up a chance to congratulate him on his most resent mission. More importantly, be seen doing it. Others would note this as planned and follow their lead. Jack would be polite and humble, give the people what they wanted. His wife would bask in the glow of the attention given her husband and share knowing looks with the other wives. There would be friends as well as enemies in the room and the whole evening would resemble a high school popularity contest. Jack found it amazing that such successful and well-educated people placed so much value on this game of perpetual adolescence. He had no doubt in his mind he would be looking for the exit long before his wife.

As he approached the canopy entrance a valet ran up to the passenger side and assisted his wife as she emerged. Jack surrendered his keys to another and reclaimed her arm before they entered.

“Jack?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Could you at least smile?”

“Sorry.” Jack put a grin on his face as the door was opened and the maître d’ welcomed them in by name.

•      •      •

The valet quickly pulled the Cadillac around to the garage and parked it well out of sight of the guard at the entrance. As he left the driver’s seat he scanned the area for his coworkers, but saw only one sprinting back to the restaurant entrance. He was alone.

He quickly examined the license plate and compared it to the numbers he had been provided. He had a match. He moved to the bag he had hidden behind a post in the garage earlier that night and extracted an object wrapped in a plain brown bag. Pulling the bag inside out over the object, he exposed it and wrapped his hand in the bag. Being careful not to get any dirt or grease on his uniform vest he dropped to the ground and secured the object to the frame of the car. Flicking the switch on the side, he was rewarded with a flashing red light for three seconds before it shut off. He extended the tiny antenna before scrambling to his feet.

Dusting himself off, he casually walked away from the car and back toward the entrance. Once past the guard he removed his cell phone and placed a call. It was answered on the first ring.

“Yes.”

“It’s done. They arrived about five minutes ago.”

“Good, notify us immediately when they leave.”

“Okay.”

The line went dead and the valet pocketed the phone before sprinting back to his post. He wasn’t sure what he had just done, but it was the easiest $1000 dollars he had ever made. Now all he had to do was keep an eye out for when the couple left.

•      •      •

The van was beginning to smell. The people had been packed in along with a variety of gear for several hours now and the tension combined with the close quarters had resulted in a rise in temperature. The 80s station preferred by the driver did not really help matters, but they bit their tongues. The driver was the one paying them.

The blare of the radio almost drowned out the ringing cell phone, but they were relieved when it was silenced in order for the phone to be answered. The conversation was short. The driver merely grunted a reply before hanging up.

“We’re moving,” he called back to them as he started the van.

The men in the back checked their gear and stretched out their cramping legs in preparation for the task they had been hired to do. While they were all experienced thieves, this was the first time they had been hired to
not
steal something. But the money offered was good and the job well within their abilities. Some examined the picture of what they were after. They had all been provided a shot about the size of a playing card to take with them. They also had digital cameras hanging around their necks as well as video cameras mounted to their heads over the masks they all wore. The cameras would feed out to the van to be monitored and recorded by the driver. Again, very strange to them, but it was not their job to question.

The van pulled through the neighborhood at just below the speed limit and approached the home without fanfare, pulling into the long driveway and right up to the garage door. Here the driver quickly exited, and holding his breath, punched in a code on the keypad located on the frame of the garage. He let out the breath as the door immediately opened. Not only had the code worked, but he was lucky enough to have chosen the door housing an empty space. He pulled the van in and quickly exited a second time to close the door behind it.

The van door stayed shut until the garage door was completely down. The driver stared at the blinking light on the alarm control panel next to the house entrance as the team spread out around him. One man elbowed his way to the front and examined the panel as well before noting the look of concern in the driver’s eyes.

“Relax. We have two minutes before it goes off.”

He pulled a small screwdriver from an inside pocket of his coverall and pried the cover off the panel. On the inside was a sticker with several numbers. He compared the numbers against a list held in his other hand until he found the code he needed. He snapped the panel back in place with his gloved hands before carefully punching in the code. The blinking red light turned to an inviting solid green. He then reached out and turned the knob on the door. It opened without resistance. The team quickly piled into the house.

“Maintenance code, direct from the manufacturer,” the man explained to the driver before he followed the team inside. The driver just shook his head and returned to the truck. He pulled the small TV around in the passenger seat and turned it on. He was treated to a screen split into four views, each of them the bobbing head of a team member. Flashes went off as they took pictures of every room before they began their search. Everything must go back exactly as it was found without exception. No one could know they had been there. For thieves used to trashing the places they robbed it was taking some discipline to do this. It was helpful to know they would have plenty of advanced warning when the owner was returning. The driver settled in to wait and watched the action on the screen. Under his seat was a box of vials, exact duplicates of what they were searching for. Unknown to the driver, they were filled with this year’s flu vaccine. He would swap them out if any vials were found.

He couldn’t help but glance out the side window at the Corvette that shared the garage. A few more jobs like this and he could have one for himself.

•      •      •

Not far from where Jack and his wife were eating, a young man pushed a cart of cleaning equipment down a hallway at the Hoover Building. He considered himself lucky to have this job as they were hard to come by in the District. If he had not obtained this job when he did, the only other alternative was dealing crack. Something many of his friends had taken up.

While the job offered some security, it did not pay much, and he was always looking for an extra dollar. Tonight such an opportunity had come up. While he knew it was wrong, the money had been too good to pass up. He wasn’t actually taking anything. They hadn’t asked him to. Nor was he taking any pictures like the spy always did in the movies. They had just asked him to look and tell them what he saw. What could be the harm in that? They seemed to know he was escorted by security everywhere he went. He was never alone in any of the offices he cleaned, and there were cameras in the halls. So he would just look. It was up to him to tell them what he saw and he had already decided not to tell anything he felt was dangerous. Easy money.

“Hey, Tony.”

Tony rose from his seat behind the desk and grabbed his hat.

“Ready when you are, Ricky.”

The pair moved from office to office and Tony watched Ricky empty trash cans and dust shelves. Tonight wasn’t a window cleaning night so the work went quickly. They talked of sports and little else as usual until they reached the office Ricky had been told of.

Here Ricky rounded the desk to fetch the trash can from under it. He was relieved to see it was half full. No red burn-bag for Tony to take care of. Ricky looked at Tony as he raised the can to dump it and purposefully missed the large bag hanging on his cart, dumping the contents on the floor.

“Missed an easy lay up there, kid.” Tony smiled.

“Yeah, just take a second.”

Ricky took his time cleaning up the papers, doing his best to scan each one as he reloaded the trashcan. He was able to make a few mental notes, but it was mostly nothing. He deposited the last piece before attempting another transfer into the large bag. He rounded the desk again and planted the now empty can under it. A glance at Tony showed him texting something on his phone, so Ricky took a chance and moved a couple of files on the desk to see the titles. Just numbers. He managed to memorize one before he heard Tony flip his phone shut. The only other paper on the desk were a couple of receipts, one from a gas station in New Jersey, and the other from a McDonalds in the same area. That was it.

Ricky pushed his cart out the door and followed Tony to the next office. As he waited for Tony to unlock the door he looked at the closed door of the one they had just left. The door said “Sydney Lewis.” Ricky wondered what they wanted with her.

•      •      •

The Driver was getting anxious. They had been at the house for two hours and had not found anything yet. As rooms were cleared, he compared them to the shots taken as they had entered them. The crew was doing well for their first time. He had only had to make minor adjustments before he was satisfied. But they were running out of time and still had several rooms to go. So far they had eliminated places that people normally used—desk drawers, office cubbyholes, clever knick-knacks—and moved on to more serious hiding places. They had checked the refrigerator, removed access panels to appliances, and looked in every air duct. Still, nothing had been found. He understood that there was no way to be 100% sure the items weren’t in the home, but he could at least make an effort.

He was considering moving a team member to the garage when the phone rang. He quickly thumbed it open and answered.

“Yeah?”

“They just sent me for the car.”

“Got it.”

The driver left the van and whispered into the mic. “Finish it up people. We are out in exactly eight minutes.”

All four acknowledged as he made a quick sweep through the garage. He was careful not to move anything, just making a visual sweep. It was a typical garage, nothing out of the ordinary. He quickly gave up and returned to the van. Pressing a few buttons he now had a street map of DC on the screen. A red dot blinked at him from dead center. He glanced at his watch.

“Seven minutes,” he voiced.

The dot on the map began to move.

•      •      •

Jack breathed a heavy sigh as they pulled away from the curb. It did not go unnoticed by his wife.

“What’s the matter, honey?”

“I thought that damn congressman was going to go on forever. A freshman from California, Berkley no less, lecturing
me
on privacy rights. I should have decked him.”

“That would have been a hell of a story for tomorrow’s paper,” she chided.

“And that general, acting like the Africa operation was all his idea. Really had to bite my tongue there.”

“I thought you did very well, Jack, and everyone there knows who did what. That general is on his way out and was just puffing his chest. His wife dragged him out before he made a spectacle of himself.”

“Sorry I missed that part.”

“Let’s just get home and I promise to do my best to make you forget all about it.”

Jacks eyebrows peaked at that. He glanced at his wife and saw that look. Her hand crept across the center console and into his lap. Jack’s foot tapped the accelerator to avoid the turning red light.

The tires only squealed slightly as he rounded the corner.

•      •      •

“Damn, he’s moving,” the driver voiced aloud.

“What?”

“The guys hauling ass home-get moving on that damn alarm!”

“I only get one chance at it.”

“Well make it a fast one.”

The team watched anxiously from the rear of the van. It felt strange to them. Usually they would be packed in among artwork and bags of items taken from the home. While they had all seen items they would have normally taken, they had left everything in place as they had been hired to do. Some were contemplating a return trip, but that was not an option per the agreement. Maybe in a year, they would save the code just in case.