Shadows (Black Raven Book 1) (44 page)

Cheeks that had been pale were now flushed with red. “Are you threatening me?”

“No,” Zeus said, his voice low, his tone matter-of-fact. “Not at all. What Sebastian is telling you is that he has your balls in his hand, and it’s up to you how hard he squeezes.”

Double-teaming the senator with his new reality would have been fun, if the stakes weren’t so high, if Sebastian had never seen Skye and Spring in person, if he hadn’t fallen for the sisters as hard as he’d ever fallen for anything in his life. This wasn’t fun. It sucked. And he didn’t have the time that it was going to take to negotiate a deal with this devil.

He swallowed back his impatience and said, “The way I see it, right now Black Raven has two choices. One, all the crap Black Raven now knows about you and your involvement can be shared with the marshals and any other federal agency involved in this investigation. Or two, it never needs to see the light of day. If your involvement gets exposed, it won’t be through Black Raven. Your fucking choice, option one or-”

“Sebastian, Zeus, the talking head on the news this morning, Whittaker,” Ragno interrupted, and he paused, staring at the senator as he listened to Ragno, “was paid large amounts by a company that has connections to Trask. This week. Wire transactions occurred yesterday. Contributions from that company have also been made to the Committee to reelect Robert McCollum, as well as other companies owned by Trask. Many, many contributions.”

Ragno’s news resulted in a new problem. He glanced at Zeus, whose dark eyes were intense as he nodded to Sebastian. They both knew of James Trask, the man behind the conglomeration of companies under Trask Enterprises. Black Raven had provided protection in South America to oil interests, where the threat was discovered to be from people associated with Trask Enterprises. Trask was known to be a brilliant, ego-driven narcissist, whose ideas weren’t always based in reality. He was also a recluse, seldom seen in public. His companies had properties all over the world, with hundreds of properties in the U.S. alone. “Location?”

Not able to hear the mic’d convo, the senator looked puzzled. “Wh-”

Sebastian put up a hand to quiet him.

“We need that from the senator. I can’t pinpoint it yet,” Ragno said. “Maybe not for a while. However, I know McCollum, at the time the negotiations with Young, Root, and Trask were ongoing, spent a good bit of time in Norfolk, Virginia, at the east coast headquarters of Trask Enterprises. The senator’s security detail and aides love Waffle Houses and strip clubs in their time off. Lots of credit card transactions at both of those places. Among other things.”

“Your choice, Bob,” Sebastian said. “Option one or two? One, do I spoon feed everything I’ve got to the FBI or whatever Senate subcommittee might be tasked with focusing on impeachment targets, or, two, do I pretend it doesn’t exist and,” he paused, sweetening the deal, “if the opportunity to make you look good presents itself, seize it.”

The marked silence between Sebastian and Zeus gave the senator a moment to invent options for himself that did not exist. With his face beet red, the senator cleared his throat. “Does your option two include destroying the data that you have that links me to Trask?”

Sebastian exchanged a glance with Zeus. Black Raven didn’t usually destroy data. They didn’t broadcast it, but that was a far cry from destroying it and potentially interfering with investigations by law enforcement agencies. The senator lifted his hands to his temples and squeezed, hard. “If you agree to my terms, I can tell you exactly where James Trask is holding Richard Barrows.”

“Our option two does not include destroying data,” Sebastian said, sinking into his chair, readying himself for the negotiation. “We may not broadcast it and we may not deliver it to the FBI with a bow on it, but we don’t destroy it. I’d prefer to admit failure and lose Richard Barrows and his daughter. I can assure you of one thing. If that happens, I will take you down with me. I will destroy you.”

Sebastian and Zeus had planned the negotiation strategy. While he wanted to fly over the desk, knock the man down, and pound his head against the floor until his thick skull cracked and brains leaked out, Sebastian curbed the impulse. Once he received the go-ahead nod from Zeus, it took ten minutes of time that he didn’t have, but after painting a picture of political, personal, and family ruin from which the senator would never recover, Sebastian and Zeus walked out of the townhouse with exactly what they had hoped for.

Within minutes of McCollum pinpointing the location, the twenty-agent mobile tactical force that Sebastian had on stand-by in Denver was en route to Norfolk, Virginia. The C130J was stocked with weapons, ammunition, explosives, parachutes, night-vision goggles, bulletproof vests, thermal imaging equipment, rappelling equipment, and any and all additional equipment necessary to outfit fifty agents. The cargo hold also held two armored vehicles and a combat-ready chopper, equipped to handle medical evacuations. A physician and four paramedics completed the unit.

Like a good Boy Scout, Sebastian was prepared for all sorts of shit to hit the fan. Problem was, this wasn’t about fucking merit badges. What the plane didn’t carry was an answer to the question of the safest, most efficient, foolproof way to extract Spring and her father. That fell to him. While he’d love to rush in and grab her, the one thing his experience had taught him was a hastily-planned extraction was a surefire way to lose her.

In the background, Ragno continued to assemble the forensic information, bringing all the threads together. Sebastian’s mind raced through options as intel streamed in. Flight time from D.C. to Norfolk was two hours less than the flying time for the Denver-based team. As he stepped off the jet and into the private, secured hangar, Ragno said, “The sum of all of this is Trask wants for nothing. I’m not sure what you can offer.”

“No negotiating,” Sebastian said. “He’s got what he wants. He has the backup for Shadows and LID Technologies and with Spring there, he’s going to have the remaining code. He’ll use her to get it out of Barrows.”
I hope to hell that’s all he’s going to use Spring for.

He stepped into a nondescript sedan with Zeus. Sebastian, riding shotgun, Zeus in back, and Agent Stan Black driving, did recon past Trask Enterprises. As they approached, he signaled for Agent Black to go slow.

The sprawling property spanned a city block, and was bordered on three sides with a ten-foot-tall, wrought iron fence. Trask Enterprises was housed in a white granite, ten-story building, that spanned more than half of the property. Money there. A lot of it. Small, rectangular windows were on most of the floors. The top two floors had larger, floor-to-ceiling windows. All the windows were tinted, lit uniformly. It was impossible to tell by glancing at the building where people were located on the interior. The team on the ground had reported that distant thermal imaging revealed significant heat sources on the sixth through eighth floors, with minor heat sources spread throughout the rest of the building.

The parking lot was half full of cars. There was only one guard station, with only one official entryway though the fence. Three guards manned the station. At least two additional guards roamed the ground-level parking lot. Those two had Dobermans on leashes. On the fourth side of the building, the side that fronted on the Elizabeth River, there were docks and boats, all owned by Trask.

It wasn’t snowing, but the gusty air was damp and chilly. The quiet streets of the warehouse district were slick. Billowing, dark clouds covered the moon and stars. A pile of leaves blew in a swirl down the street.

“Gusty.” He turned to glance at Zeus.
Not good for a night drop.

Zeus nodded in response to Sebastian. “Cloud ceiling’s questionable.”

“If you decide on a targeted parachute jump onto the roof, the wind and clouds will be problematic,” Ragno offered.

“HALO?” Sebastian asked. A high-altitude, low-opening jump might be their best bet. The technique would prevent detection of the plane and jumpers if they decided to access the building from the roof. Trask was no fool. He’d have high-tech tracking systems to notify security if the perimeter was breached.

“What I was thinking,” Zeus said. “Extreme accuracy will be a bitch with this wind.”

“It might be our only op-”

“Too dangerous. HALO onto a ten-story building under these conditions? I’m analyzing parameters given wind and cloud ceiling,” Ragno said. “With freefalling to 3500 feet before opening your chutes, that’s a terminal velocity-”

“Ragno,” Sebastian said. “We know. Just check out the weather for a HALO drop in approximately two hours, with the understanding that it won’t be a cakewalk.”

Of the agents who had arrived with him from D.C., four were on the ground, nearby. The bum huddled in a doorway a block down was theirs. A guy who appeared to be sleeping off a drunk in his car about a third of the way into the block was theirs. Two others were unseen, but they hadn’t yet stepped onto the property. Two other agents were doing recon by boat on the water side of the building, looking for a weakness there.

“That was Mike Jackson, and Soams guarding the front entrance,” Zeus said, his tone grim as they passed the midpoint of the block.

Up until a year ago, both men had been trusted Black Raven agents. “Yeah. Saw them.” Sebastian indicated to Agent Black to continue forward. Best not to pass in front twice. His agents—ex-agents—would notice the vehicle if they drove by twice. “Begs the fucking question; how many more of our people now work for Trask?”

“How much of us did they take to him?” Ragno snarled. Sebastian heard her fingers going a mile a minute. Closing gaps, he knew.

“One situation at a time,” Sebastian said

“I can multitask,” Ragno answered.

Yeah, she could. Like no one else. “Remind me to recommend you get a raise.”

“Thank you. I gave myself one last month.”

Sebastian grinned. “Hope it was substantial.”

In reply, all he heard was her soft breaths and the clacking of her keyboard.

“Back to the hangar?” Agent Black asked.

“Yeah. Hot coffee, energy drinks, and strategies. We’ll be ready to fill the others in as soon as they land. I want a foolproof plan in place when they get here.” Foolproof, meaning Skye’s family would be reunited. As hard as he tried not to think about her, she was in his mind as he raced through scenarios. Each option was viewed with the importance of making sure collateral damage—meaning damage that would affect her—was avoided at all costs.

He’d seen enough of the property and Trask Enterprises building to know that he needed to use all agents who were headed his way. Ragno’s team was pulling every satellite map, every public-record plan of the building, and any and all information they could find on James Trask, who had purchased the property three years earlier. After months of extensive renovations, it became the East Coast headquarters of Trask Enterprises. Much of Trask’s labor-intensive operations were in Third World countries. Sebastian, having firsthand experience in how much easier it was to work in countries other than the United States, could guess why.

Planning time was torture, yet Sebastian considered, and rejected, multiple methods of attack and extraction. Given the manner in which Trask had brutally killed the marshals and his own agents, he knew he had to be careful. In this situation, to fail to plan was to plan to fail. One false move, and both Spring and Barrows would be dead.

If they weren’t already.

“Sebastian. Three of our current agents have prior experience working with Trask,” Ragno said. “Two of them are in Syria at the moment and one of them is in Russia. One was perfectly clear with us at the time of hiring, that he’s operating under a false identity. Agent Zane Axel.”

They didn’t often hire agents who were under assumed identities, but it happened when there were good reasons for it. “What are the reasons for the assumed identity?”

“He worked for Trask for seven years. Said he needed to change his name when he left Trask. He’s been with us five years. Exemplary record. A valuable agent.”

“What were his references, because I’m assuming we didn’t call Trask?”

“None. He tested in.”

Sebastian was impressed. Very few agents were hired by Black Raven without references. Testing in meant that he went through six months of rigorous exams, mental and physical, without getting paid anything but a subsidence salary. “Find Agent Axel first. While I talk to him, find the other two and talk to them.”

“Will do.”

With a moment free from Ragno, and a few minutes before they reached the hangar they were using as a staging area, Sebastian called the agent who was in charge of the D.C. safe house where, he knew, Skye was restless, scared, and doing her damned best to hold it together. “How is she?”

“Calm,” the female agent said, “but pacing.”

“Put her on.”

He heard Skye draw a deep breath in the slight pause before she spoke. He visualized her collecting herself, her right hand at her collarbone, tapping at it with her index finger, trying to be calm when she felt anything but. “Please give me good news.”

“I know where they are,” he said, “and I’m assessing extraction options.”

She drew a deep, shaky breath, the kind that pulled every nerve in his body taut. His mind ached to reassure her, while his body ached to hold her. Even now, she wasn’t the type to cry. God. She was exactly the kind of woman he had always hoped to find. Before he gave up looking.

Her next question was simple and direct. “How long?”

He glanced at his watch. The C130J was still an hour and a half from landing. He’d have a plan by the time they landed. It wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to organize the agents. “Not more than four hours. Maybe less.”

Silence.

He didn’t know what else to say.

“I’m afraid I’ll die without them,” she whispered. Her tone wasn’t accusatory. It reflected that she was staring into the pit of despair, was desperately afraid, and she didn’t have a damn soul but him to confide in.

“I know,” he said, understanding the stakes long before she voiced them.
Not on my watch.
He wanted to tell her that, but he couldn’t.
No one else is dying today
. He couldn’t promise that, either. “And that won’t happen, if I can do anything in my power to stop it.”

Lame beyond words. But honest. Anything else amounted to false assurances, because he didn’t have control of the situation. Not yet. While confident in his ability to rescue Spring and Barrows, he had no idea what shape the two were already in, nor did he know what the hell was going to happen the minute Trask became aware that his property was breached. He added, “I’ll call the minute I know more.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice firm. “Be safe.”

“Sebastian,” Ragno interrupted, and the connection to Skye was gone, “I’ve got Agent Axel on the phone. I’ve given him the facts.”

“Sir,” Agent Axel said. “I was in charge of Central American security operations for Trask Enterprises. I left before Trask acquired the Norfolk, Virginia property. Trask is a paranoid, sadistic son of a bitch. He loves to torture.”

Not something Sebastian wanted to hear. “Why did you leave?”

“I understand chain of command, and I understand the need for blind obedience. With Trask, though, I witnessed one too many arbitrary killings.”

“Arbitrary?”

“James Trask kills managers whose factories don’t meet quotas. Beheadings are not unheard of. He’s got handlers who make sure none of his more heinous acts are traced to him. He’s nothing but a rich and powerful terrorist, fighting for the glory of nothing but James Trask. I didn’t sign up for that, sir.”

“You felt compelled to change your name?”

“Yes, sir. I was on the fringe of Trask’s inner circle in Central America, working with men who do not have the option of leaving. They’re highly paid. Staggering amounts. More than I can ever hope to make as a Black Raven agent.”

That said a lot, because Black Raven’s pay scale was astronomical. “So he pays for silence and loyalty.”

“And he kills people who aren’t loyal. Hence my name change. I’m sure he expended significant efforts hunting me down,” Agent Axel said. “In his Central American headquarters, several rooms were reserved for Trask’s aberrant behavior. His all-consuming need to torture. He called them treatment rooms. They looked like hospital rooms. He had medical staff. The top floor of his building was his private living quarters, and nothing else. He likes his rooms large and spacious, with views. Below his top-floor living quarters was his private office, where only a few people were ever allowed. On the floor below his office were the treatment rooms, with a private stairwell between the floors. I’d suspect he has the same set up in Norfolk. He’s a creature of habit.”

Agent Axel drew a deep breath before continuing. “Sir. This man craves torturing others. He’s a freak. When he’s in his torture chambers, or when he’s going to kill someone, he wears a strange sort of mask. It distorts his features. Changes colors. In general, it’s horrifying. I can’t describe it any other way.”

Sebastian’s stomach twisted. “Anything else?”

“Yes. When I worked for him, he always had an exit strategy. The man didn’t so much as drive to one of his own factories, without having his security detail know exactly how to extricate him from any adverse situation that might arise. His overseas holdings are extensive. From Norfolk, he can easily disappear into any number of countries that wouldn’t extradite him to the U.S.”

Sebastian glanced into the visor mirror. Zeus was also listening to Agent Axel. Their eyes locked. Carefully orchestrated exit strategies indicated that Trask was not the type to stand and fight. Cowards ran. A man worried about saving his own ass might not stop to kill his hostages. A sadist might, however. The security detail in charge of the man would also have other priorities, and those priorities would revolve around saving Trask, not killing hostages, or taking them with him.