The Killing Chase (Beach & Riley Book 2) (12 page)

Chapter 15

“Is Tik safe?” Alan listened intently before his face showed some relief, for the first time since he’d read Dr. Tinsley’s diary. “Thank God she’s all right. Wait a second, Jake – I’m putting you on speaker. My partner, James Foxx, is with me.” Beach hit the speaker button. “Can you hear me?”

“Clear as a bell.”

“Why were you and Tik in Cambodia?”

“Long story. You know I had a brother, Shane. He was a SEAL, killed in action on a mission for the CIA. I did everything I could to find the shooter but couldn’t turn up a lead.”

“Couldn’t Equilibrium hack the CIA system?”

“There’s no electronic record of the mission. The only person who has access to the hard copy is the Director of the CIA, and he wouldn’t even meet with me. I knew I had to move on, but I always hoped one day…” Jake paused. “I couldn’t even bury him – his body was never repatriated. I can only assume the operation was so deep cover, they couldn’t afford the exposure of a retrieval mission. The upshot is my buddy and former CIA handler, Mike Lee, found the guy who did it. Don’t ask me how – he says he can’t tell me. The bastard’s name is Sergey Ugolev, some kind of Russian mafia boss. When we got too close to him, he grabbed Tik and used her to control us. Strange thing is, he gave her back unharmed. We can’t figure that one out yet. But now he’s in the wind.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

“I was hoping you’d say that. Tik overheard him talking on his phone. He told someone he was headed stateside. Can you track his arrival for me?”

Pleased that he could be the useful one in their normally lopsided relationship, Alan didn’t hesitate: “You bet we can help! Federal systems monitor all commercial airport arrivals. I can get —”

“What about private and chartered? We think he’s on a private jet.”

“Damn. Commercial’s easy, private’s more difficult, but still doable. We’ll get the ball rolling. Do you have an ETA?”

“He just left Phnom Penh. I don’t know what kind of jet he’s on, but even if it’s a Gulfstream with long-range tanks, he couldn’t make it in less than twelve hours. I also don’t know which direction he’s taking. It’s pretty close to the same distance either way, so it could be East Coast or West. West makes more sense though.”

“Foxx is calling in the alert now.”

“Thanks, Agent Foxx. I owe you a beer.”

“Looking forward to it. Alan’s told me a lot about you.”

“Yeah, he’s got a big mouth. So what’s your big news, Grasshopper? You sounded pretty rattled when you called.”

Foxx gave his partner a quizzical look, mouthing the word “grasshopper” before turning his attention to calling Homeland Security.

Beach shook his head. “Thanks a lot, Jake. Now I have to explain the whole Grasshopper thing to Foxx.”

“Think of it as character-building.”

“Yeah, right.  Enough fun and games. Like I said, this is deadly serious.”

Beach brought Jake up to speed on the Poughkeepsie murders and their investigation so far. When he described the small puncture wound on the back of Dr. Tinsley’s neck, Jake interrupted. “You’re sure about this?”

“I can’t be one hundred percent, but what we found next pushes it over the line. We went to search Tinsley’s home. His wife said he’d been depressed for over nine months, and it got suddenly worse right after the Poughkeepsie murders. Foxx found the doctor’s personal journal hidden in the bookshelf in his home office. It tells how Tinsley became wracked with guilt not long after we closed the Devlin case. Before I met him, he’d given consent for testing the Hallucineers technology on the serial killer, Bryan Adler. They hoped to use it to control violent tendencies in psychopathic killers. Adler was to be transferred to a secure facility Blue Sky had specially constructed for the tests. The transfer went ahead as planned, but at the time, Tinsley wasn’t aware that the DoD had already seized the entire project.”

“Why would the Department of Defense go ahead with Adler’s transfer?”

“That’s exactly what Tinsley wondered when he found out. He called his boss in the Bureau of Prisons and was told the matter was out of his hands. Tinsley probably would have left it at that, but the prisoner transport crashed en route. The driver and guard couldn’t get Adler out in time – his body was burnt beyond recognition. The incident report says they used dental records to identify the corpse before cremating the remains. Tinsley was suspicious and looked into the files. He found Adler’s original dental records were still at the institution, so how could his body have been properly identified?”

“It couldn’t,” Jake said.

“Exactly. So Tinsley made some calls. Turns out the driver of the transport and the guard both died in dubious circumstances not long after Adler’s death. Tinsley was nearly ready to present the results of his private investigation when he started receiving anonymously delivered photographs of his wife. The pictures showed her shopping, getting her hair done, meeting friends for coffee – surveillance shots. The threat was veiled but clear enough to deter Tinsley from reporting his findings. He held his tongue for the following months, beefing up his home security, and spiraling deeper into depression – no doubt from fear for his wife’s safety. When the Poughkeepsie murders went public, his suspicions about the veracity of Adler’s reported demise intensified. That’s when he called me. But by the time we got here, he was dead. And the mark on the back of his neck – that can’t be coincidence.”

Jake was silent for a few seconds. “Have you heard of DARPA?”

“I’ve heard the term, but I don’t know much about it.”

“Not many do. It stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.”

“Wow – how many secret agencies does this country need?”

“You’d be surprised, but that’s a conversation for another time. It’s the DoD’s highly secretive division of special projects. If they’re doing something with Project Hallucineers, you can bet it’s hidden away deep in the bowels of DARPA never to see the light of day. But why they’d fake the death of a notorious serial killer, and go to such lengths to cover it up, is beyond me. I’d like to help, but investigative skills aren’t in my wheelhouse. You know my areas of expertise, so if you turn anything up, tell me what you need from me, and I’ll get it done. In the meantime, I need to find Ugolev.”

“I’m well aware of your capabilities, Jake, and I do appreciate them. I could happily live out the rest of my days without ever seeing them up-close and personal again, but I’m sure as hell glad you’re on our side.”

“He’s not speaking for me, Jake,” Foxx chimed in. “I want to see the legend in action.”

“Let me guess, former Marine?”

“Damn, you are good!”

“It’d be pretty sad if I couldn’t sense the Devil Dog gung-ho of a salty Marine.”

“Ooraah!”

“Settle down there, Leatherneck. I like your attitude but, as you know, we don’t bust it out unless we need to.”

“Yeah, got a bit carried away.”

“Sounds like you’ve been out of the Corps too long. Memories are great, but you wouldn’t have left without good reason. I’m guessing one of the big two – family or money.”

“You been looking into me?” Foxx joked.

“No need, I’ve seen it a thousand times. You boys always were underpaid and underappreciated, and the sharp end of the spear is no place for a family man. Pretty sure you weren’t ready to ride a desk either, based on your new career choice.”

“You got me dead to rights. Our son just turned two.”

“Sorry to break up the bromance, guys,” Alan interrupted, “but can we get back on point? We might need to call on Equilibrium, Jake.”

“Given the circumstances, I’m betting you will. I’ll be talking to her when we hang up. You want me to ask her to make contact?”

“Please do. All those layers of security make it nearly impossible to get hold of her.”

“That’s the life of a professional hacker.”

“I fully understand the need for security, but her systems would put the NSA to shame. I’ll wait for her call then. And we’ll get back to you as soon as we hear anything on Ugolev. When will you be back in the States?”

“We’re on the next flight out. We’ve got to fly commercial, so we won’t make it to New York until tomorrow night Eastern Standard Time.”

“And if Ugolev’s heading for the West Coast?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. You just tell me where and when he arrives. Equilibrium will take it from there,”

Another voice could be heard in the background at the Cambodian end of the call. Jake stopped to acknowledge Mike Lee’s urging before returning to the Beach and Foxx. “We’ve got to get to the airport now if we’re going to make the last flight out. Our fastest route is a milk run, so text if you need me. I’ll pick it up at our next transfer point. Be safe, guys, and semper fi.”

Foxx smiled in appreciation, while Beach stared out the windshield of the SUV until his partner broke the silence. “What’s our next move?”

“I wish there was a clear path forward, but I think all we can do for now is look into the suspicious deaths of the prisoner transport driver and guard. Maybe there’s something in their financials. I’m going to call Talbot. He’ll be able to find out their identities and get warrants for their banking records.”

“Sounds like a plan. But while we wait for the warrants, shouldn’t we try the old-fashioned way and go check out their places?”

“Good point. Maybe they had wives.”

Beach’s phone vibrated again. This time it was a text message. “Security protocol orange.”  Smiling, Beach held the phone up for his partner to see.

“What the heck is that?”

“That, my friend, is Equilibrium’s calling card. Can you get a wireless Internet connection on your laptop here?”

“We’ll soon find out,” Foxx said, stretching into the back seat to retrieve his computer satchel. “What’s with the alias?”

“It’s her hacker handle. I don’t know her real name – not even sure if Jake does. She told us to call her Angie in private, but always Equilibrium on line and with other people. This woman is probably the most brilliant and elusive computer and Internet expert in the game. At one point she was an active CIA target. Jake had been assigned to find her, but she managed to evade capture until the Agency eventually realized they had the wrong target. Not long after that, Jake left the military, so his secondments to the CIA’s Special Operations Group ended. He and Equilibrium formed a secret cyber-alliance after he left the services.”

“What does a retired Delta Force soldier want with a computer hacker?”

“I should have told you earlier. Jake may have left the military, but he never stopped serving his country. The guy’s worth a fortune, and he uses his wealth to fund private missions like he did with me on the Devlin Conspiracy. Angie’s electronic infiltration skills have been invaluable on many of Jake’s personal missions”

“If I had serious money, I’m pretty sure I’d be with my family on a beach in the Caribbean.”

“I think you’d get bored with that pretty quickly. Anyway, Jake isn’t the kind of guy to sit around doing nothing. I stayed in his apartment while Devlin’s goons and the police were hunting me. I’ve seen his private gym, his armory, the indoor shooting range – you name it. You wouldn’t believe the place if you saw it. And as I’ve told you before, he’s been training in martial arts hours a day since he was a kid. Weird stuff, like Filipino stick-fighting, Indonesian Silat, Chinese Chin Na, and others I can’t remember. The guy’s a killing machine, with or without weapons.”

Foxx shook his head. “Hey, I like to keep fit as much as anyone, but that sounds like way too much work for me, especially with work and family commitments.”

“True, but typical of elite military personnel, Jake was a single man. Work had been his life until he met Equilibrium in person. Despite their online relationship, Jake had no idea he’d been dealing with a woman the whole time – not until the Devlin conspiracy. While she was helping us with the case, Devlin’s technical team discovered her location, and he sent his henchmen to her base of operations. She would’ve been killed if she hadn’t called Jake and locked herself in a concrete panic room – it gave Jake enough time to mount a rescue. That’s when they met in person for the first time. He brought her to his place for her protection, and that’s when Tik and I met her, too. Straightaway, it was obvious there was more between Jake and this beautiful hacker than just an intellectual connection. They’ve been a rather unconventional couple ever since.”

“Unconventional?”

“She’s a genius, and he’s, well – he’s Jake Riley, the soldier, AKA, the Surgeon.” Beach cocked his head to one side. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very smart guy. You can’t get where he’s gotten without a pretty serious smarts, but he’s not in her intellectual stratosphere. I guess opposites really do attract.”

Foxx chuckled. “Yeah, just look at you and Holly.”

“You got me there.”

Foxx handed Beach his laptop. “Okay, it’s fired up and connected. It’s a public wireless network, so it won’t be secure.”

Beach scoffed. “It will be once Equilibrium does her thing. I can’t see why anyone would be spying on us, but without her permission, the only thing they’ll see is a scrambled mess of binary code.”

He typed a URL into the browser’s address bar, and a coded table of color choices appeared. Beach selected “Protocol Orange” from the grid, and the screen rolled into a mode Foxx had never seen before. Strange characters flickered in a row along the top of the screen, above a blank page with an eerie, green tinge. Alan typed on the keyboard, and his message appeared midscreen, floating in a slow, random pattern of movement. “Thanks for helping.”