“Yes, he is mine.”
“Where do I meet you?”
“Here. On the boat. I will be here.”
They agreed on a time, then Pike hung up and immediately called Kelly Walsh.
“It’s on.”
42
WALSH AND FOUR AGENTS from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms arrived at Cole’s house an hour later. Two stayed with their cars, but two male agents came in with Walsh-a tough-looking Latin guy named Paul Rodriguez and a tall lanky guy named Steve Hurwitz. Hurwitz was wearing an olive green Special Response Team jumpsuit. SRT was the ATF’s version of SWAT. They spread through Cole’s living room with an air of watchful suspicion, as if someone might jump out of a closet. Jon Stone had brought in a large box of his surveillance gear, and Cole was helping him set up. Cole was shirtless, but had strapped on a bullet-resistant vest. Pike couldn’t blame them for being wary, especially with the cash.
Seven hundred fifty thousand dollars in cash didn’t take up much room. It could be packed in four shoe boxes, and fit in a single grocery bag.
Walsh carried the money in a gym bag slung over her shoulder. The bag was smaller than Pike thought, but he could see the weight in her walk.
She hefted it onto Cole’s dining room table, and opened it, letting Pike see why the package was small. The bills were in vacu-packed bricks, bound in clear plastic wrap.
She said, “It isn’t all real. Half a million is funny money we took off a drug dealer.”
Cole said, “What if Jakovich checks?”
Hurwitz laughed.
“You’d better start running.”
Walsh placed a form on the table and handed a pen to Pike.
“You have to sign for it. If Darko delivers, don’t use it, but it’s the best I could do with this little time. C’mon, sign, and let’s figure this out. I have a lot of people to coordinate.”
Cole said, “Aren’t you going to let him count it?”
“Stop being stupid.”
Pike signed, and pushed back the form.
Walsh said, “Where’s the girl’s sister?”
Cole brought Rina from the guest room. She looked shrunken, and even more pale. Rodriguez placed her under arrest as Cole snipped off the plasti-cuffs. The agent immediately turned her around, and cuffed her again. Hurwitz repeated everything Rodriguez told her in Serbian.
Pike said, “For what it’s worth, at the end, she helped.”
“Goody for her. If she helps when it comes time to testify, it might do her some good.”
Rina looked at Pike as Rodriguez led her out, and said something in Serbian, but Pike didn’t know what she said.
Hurwitz looked at him.
“You speak it?”
“No.”
“She hopes you do it for Ana.”
Walsh looked irritated, as if they were wasting time.
“What about the kid? Where is he?”
“Someplace safe.”
She started to say something, but shook her head and changed course.
“Forget it. Okay, let’s go through this. What are we doing?”
Pike said, “Jon.”
Stone held up something that looked like the GPS locator he removed from Pike’s Jeep.
“Remember this?”
Walsh reddened as Stone went on.
“It’s not yours. We canned the one you put on his Jeep. This one’s mine. White-burst digital ceramic, no RF, will not show on airport scanners or wands. It’s better than yours.”
The SRT agent laughed.
“But my dick is bigger.”
Stone ignored him.
“One on Pike, one on Cole-they’re going together-and one on their vehicle, Pike’s Jeep. We link through a receiver that repeats on my laptop. I can email the software to you, and slave the repeater.”
Hurwitz went to the door, and called to the agents outside.
“Carlos. Get in here, dude. We’re into some technical stuff.”
Another agent trotted in on the bounce, and immediately got together with Stone. Pike went through the setup, and how he planned to bring Jakovich and Darko together with the guns. It would be up to Walsh and her people to follow in trail, and make their entrance when the guns were confirmed.
She said, “What about Darko?”
“Elvis and I will meet him in Venice. We picked a location close to the marina.”
Walsh looked at Cole.
“Both of you?”
Pike said, “He’s going to have people. It’ll look better if I have people, too.”
Cole pointed at himself.
“I’m his people.”
Pike went on with it.
“He thinks we’re meeting to pick up the money. The real reason is to give him this.”
Stone showed them a handheld GPS locator.
“He thinks he’s getting this to follow Joe and Elvis to the guns, but we’re going to use it to follow him. You’ll be able to track him, too, when you download the software.”
Carlos was grinning.
“I like it.”
Hurwitz said, “So Venice will be our start point?”
“Only to meet Darko. From Venice, we’re going to the marina. That’s the true start.”
Walsh said, “We don’t know the end point. Jakovich will be taking them to the guns.”
“If he takes them out on the boat, we’re screwed.”
Hurwitz wasn’t thrilled, but he shrugged.
“Okay. So we trail and set up on the roll. We’ve done it before.”
They spent the next hour going over their plan and setting up their equipment. Stone loaded his software onto Carlos’s laptop, then fit locators on Pike and Cole, one in Cole’s hair, and the other on the back of Pike’s belt buckle. Both Walsh and Hurwitz made multiple calls, coordinating the tactical SRT team and six additional Special Agents.
At twelve forty-five, the agents left, heading for Venice to rendezvous at their staging area. Walsh was the last agent to leave. She hung back until the others were gone, then pulled Pike aside.
She said, “Nobody likes what happened up at Lake View, buddy. Makes me wonder what you were trying to do.”
“I told you what happened.”
“Just remember-when the shit goes down, Michael Darko belongs to me.”
At exactly one o’clock, Pike and Cole climbed into Pike’s Jeep and drove down the hill. Stone had already gone. Cole made an exaggerated sigh.
“Finally. Some alone time for Dad and Dad.”
Pike didn’t answer. He was thinking about the kid. They had left the boy with Cole’s next-door neighbor, Grace Gonzalez, and Pike wondered how he was doing.
Michael Darko was waiting for them at the end of Market Street in Venice. Market was lined with diagonal parking spaces, and died at the Venice boardwalk, just around the corner from the Sidewalk Café. Cole suggested it because he liked the pizza, but Darko agreed because the location was busy with tourists, street performers, and locals.
Two black Beemer sedans and a black Escalade were hunkered together, taking up most of the spaces.
Cole said, “Don’t these guys know any color but black?”
Pike pulled up beside the Beemers, and got out. Cole stayed in the Jeep. As Pike got out, both Beemers opened, and Darko and three of his men emerged.
Darko stared at Cole.
“Who is this?”
“He’s going to help me check the rifles. Jakovich expects it.”
Pike gave him the handheld locator and showed him how it worked. It showed a circle of green light on a map.
“This is how you follow us. See the light? That’s us. Don’t follow too close because Jakovich might see you. Hang back. Use this to stay with us.”
Darko and two of his men had a conversation about the device, which Pike didn’t understand, and then Darko opened the Beemer’s back door. He took out a gym bag that was much larger than the one Walsh delivered.
“The money. Count it, you want.”
Banded packs of hundred-dollar bills filled the bag. Pike didn’t bother to count.
“Don’t need to count it. We take the guns, you’re getting it back.”
Darko smiled, then winked at his friends.
“You know, this works, maybe you and me, we will do business again.”