‘I didn’t think you would be. You’re a shit. But you’re a shit that’s survived the toilet paper. But I also think you, and all you cruds and your chief crud, Scheafer, are businessmen and understand risk and reward, cost and benefits.’
‘You really thought you could come here, insult us, demand this nonexistent mole, and we would bend over?’
Broker smiled genuinely this time. ‘Nope. This is exactly the reaction I was expecting. My guys will be glad. They’re getting fat and lazy.’
He headed to the door and pulled it open and turned back. ‘You’re lucky. Bwana wanted to take you out today.’
Hamm stared at the door as he heard muffled voices from behind it. It swung open abruptly.
Bwana and Roger took a step inside silently and looked back at him.
Roger finally spoke. ‘We’ll save you for last.’
Chapter 21
‘What now?’ Chloe demanded as they reached the Rover. She had to shout to be heard over a power hammer and compressor.
All of them were wearing shades, the specially modified Ray-Ban Aviators Broker had outfitted with rear cameras. Broker turned on his shades and noticed the hoods bunched together watching their departure.
‘Any trouble?’ he asked Chloe in return.
‘Nope. They would be stupid to do anything in broad daylight,’ she replied impatiently.
‘Hey, no one said hoods were geniuses.’ He rolled outside the exit, and once they hit Nicholas Avenue, his eyes met Bwana’s in the mirror.
‘Let me know if you can spot them.’
Bwana nodded silently and went back to watching through the darkened rear window.
Broker glanced sideways over his shoulder at Bear and Chloe and answered her finally. ‘Now we sit tight for a couple of days and then hit one of their warehouses. We rinse and repeat. We remain on the move always.’
Bear broke his usual silence. ‘You know where they stash their drugs?’
Broker grinned. ‘I can find some of them. But let’s not go just after the drugs. They run a whole lot of operations, drugs, girls, porn video shops, you name it. Let’s distribute the pain.’
Roger looked at the rearview mirror on his door, and no vehicle stood out. ‘Why wait a couple of days? We’ve warned him already.’
Broker nodded as Chloe cut in, ‘Yep, but waiting will dull their alertness. That’s assuming they take us seriously.’
‘They will if they’ve got enough intel on us.’
Silence descended on them, a comfortable silence born out of working together, fitting perfectly, and knowing that each of their lives could, and had depended on the others.
‘Five o’clock, tan Toyota Camry. Been with us for a while now through the lights and traffic. I make two in the front. Driver and passenger. Can’t make their faces,’ Bwana said, looking at the tiny images on his shades, then looking out the back.
Roger removed his Aviators and adjusted the mirror on his side. ‘Got them.’
‘We lose them?’ he asked Broker.
Broker looked at the series of traffic lights strung out ahead of them in the distance and sped up a notch, keeping in the outer lane.
The Toyota followed and cut across the lanes lazily and positioned itself a couple of cars behind them.
Broker drove steadily, following the weight of the traffic, and as he approached the third light, he slowed down and then punched the gas as it turned red, cut across the lanes dangerously, and pulled a tight illegal U-turn, leaving rubber and furious honking behind.
The Toyota was stuck at the light, its driver burning holes through their glass as they headed in the opposite direction.
Broker punched a button on the wheel for a number.
‘Yeah?’ a laconic voice answered.
‘Tony, we’ll be there in twenty. Everything set?’
‘Yes, boss.’
Broker hung up and relaxed back.
‘We switching?’ Chloe asked.
‘Yup. Switching where we stay too. We’ll keep changing locations now.’
Broker drove to the financial district and into a basement parking lot of a towering office block. The lot was empty except for a black Ford Taurus in the far corner.
Tony, skinny and with thinning hair, jumped out of the Taurus and approached them when Broker parallel parked. He stroked his thinning hair. ‘I swung by your apartment and got all your kits packed in separate go bags.’
He blushed as he turned to Chloe. ‘Uhhh, ma’am, I put together some stuff for you too.’
Chloe smiled at him reassuringly. ‘We’ll do just fine, Tony. Thanks for your help.’
They transferred their weapons from the Rover to the Taurus, and Broker tossed its keys to Tony. ‘Get it back to the basement, Tony. I’ll be on my satellite phone; we all will be on ours, from now on. Hold the fort and run past my apartment every now and then. You know the drill.’
Tony nodded and gave them a salute as he drove the Rover away.
‘Good guy. He’s my number two. Don’t let his appearance fool you. Ex-Ranger. He’s ice cold under pressure and a master marksman who’s seen combat.’ Broker nodded in his direction. ‘All my guys are either ex-police or ex-military… cool heads when things hit the fan.’
He noticed Roger rummaging through his go bag. ‘Problem?’
Roger shook his head. ‘On the contrary. How the hell did he know my favorite stuff?’
Broker was incredulous. ‘I am in the intelligence business, Rog.’ He shook his head in despair as Roger disappeared behind the Taurus to change into a pair of jeans.
‘Why’re you changing?’
Bwana jumped in disgustedly, ‘Hell, he’s like that. Changes four or five times a day. Has to look as if he’s stepped out of GQ.’
Roger folded his discarded clothes, stuffed them in the bag, and approached them.
‘What?’ Bwana asked him, seeing the expression on his face.
Roger held out a phone. ‘I found this in my jeans. I was wearing them in the valley.’
Bwana frowned as he inspected the phone. ‘This must be from one of the bandits. We were searching them, and you must have slipped it in your pocket and then forgotten about it.’
He powered it on. ‘Nada. No juice.’
Broker took apart its battery and put it back again and powered it up. He shook his head. ‘Deader than that frog in my biology class in high school. This is a pretty basic phone. We’ll power it up later and see whether we can retrieve any numbers or messages off it.’
Roger looked at him doubtfully. ‘I think there was one number on it, but I don’t remember it.’ He looked at Bwana, who shook his head. ‘Shouldn’t we ship it to the Border Patrol?’
‘We will. After we have played around with it.’
He clapped Roger on the shoulder. ‘Good find, even if it was a late discovery. Now let’s hope it yields some dirt.’
Chloe had been inspecting her bag and looked up impatiently. ‘Can we get out of here now? Broker, I presume you’ve arranged digs for us?’
‘You presume right, Chloe. A seedy place — an hourly hotel, between Little Italy and Central Park, will be our palace for a few days. Not exactly the Mandarin Oriental.’
He drove out of the basement lot and merged into traffic, which was moving slowly, dragged down by the after-office commuters.
The hotel was as seedy as Broker had promised. A wad of cash flashed by Broker ensured that the desk clerk didn’t glance at them, hardly looking up from the lurid magazine he was thumbing through.
Broker pulled out his iPad once they had settled in and assembled in his room. ‘One of their stashes.’ He enlarged a section of the map of Harlem. ‘About half an hour drive from the garage, the other end of Harlem, near the river. The gang bought a dilapidated plot having a couple of semi-detached houses a few years back and converted it to a storage and distribution center. They deliberately let it run down on the outside and on the inside demolished the separating walls and made it one large warehouse.