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  “You goin’ after Mancini?”

  “The less you know the better.”

  “Aight, it’s cool. How long will it take you think?”

  “Give me about four or five days. Then I’ll take care of Darnell’s problem,” Recker told him.

  “That’s fine.”

  “Can he hold out that long?”

  “Yeah. Thanks, Recker. It means a lot to me.”

  “That’s what friends are for, right? Like you said…I owed you one.”

  As soon as he hung up, Recker slumped down into the couch and stared at the wall. Now he had one more thing on his mind to think about. Jones wondered what his last conversation was about, but figured he’d wait a few minutes until Recker had come out of whatever trance he was in. He figured Recker probably wouldn’t hear him anyway. Recker sat there motionless for about five minutes, just staring straight ahead at the wall, running different scenarios through his mind. Once he’d exhausted his brain with all the options he had available to him, he broke from his stare and stood back up. Seeing how he was back on his feet, Jones felt it was safe to reengage him in conversation.

  “From the tone of your conversation with Mr. Gibson, I take it he needs your help with something?” Jones asked.

  “His little brother’s getting recruited by a local gang.”

  “I fail to see how that has a connection with you.”

  “Tyrell wants my help in stopping it.”

  “Why doesn’t he just do it himself?”

  “It’s not that simple. Tyrell has no gang affiliation and everyone knows it. There’s nothing stopping a hit on him. Don’t have to fear retaliation by another gang for taking out one of theirs. If he stands up to a gang on his own, they’ll take him out for sure.”

  “So how will it be any different for you?” Jones wondered.

  “I don’t live there,” Recker replied. “Besides, if it wasn’t for Tyrell, who knows if we would’ve found out about the Italians taking a hit out on me. I owe him for that.”

  Jones nodded, understanding his point. “How do you propose to manage all these tasks you’ve got on your plate these days?”

  “I’ll give Vincent two more days, then I’ll do it on my terms. After that, I’ll take care of Tyrell’s problem. Then after that, we’ll get back to work.”

  “What about the other problem?”

  “What other problem?” Recker asked, confused.

  “The Mia problem. We both know she’s falling for you.”

  Recker threw his hands up, not exactly sure. “I’ll just have to play it by ear I guess.”

  It was a relatively quiet day for the pair for the rest of the evening. No further phone calls or situations. Recker hoped the next day would be a little more lively for him. He was anxious to get back to work. Both Recker and Jones wound up sleeping in the office, taking separate couches. Recker woke up a little after eight, finding Jones to already be typing away at a keyboard. Recker walked over to the Keurig machine to make himself a cup of coffee as he got rid of the sleep from his eyes.

  “What time did you get up?” Recker wondered.

  “A little over an hour ago.”

  “Don’t you believe in sleeping late?”

  “Maybe if there weren’t so many people in need of assistance. I was telling you yesterday about the stack of papers of people who need help. The list has grown to eight now. With all these cases on my brain, I find it hard to sleep well,” Jones explained.

  “So what are you doing?”

  “Well, a couple of these are domestic related issues. I’ve sent anonymous emails to the police explaining the situations, under the disguise of a concerned friend. Hopefully that at least gets a cursory look. If nothing else, maybe it’ll help back off the perpetrators for a little while until we can get involved.”

  Recker let out a deep and loud sigh, easily heard by Jones.

  “What is it?” Jones asked.

  “People out there need help and here I am standing here drinking coffee,” Recker replied.

  “I think it’s manageable for another day or so,” the professor replied, hoping to ease his frustration.

  “The point is I need to be out there. I didn’t survive two gunshot wounds in the last six months just to stand here on the sidelines.”

  “Well, hopefully in the next few days you’ll be able to.”

  “There’s no hoping. I will be. One way or another.”

  Recker took a few more moments to feel sorry for himself, then shook it off and joined Jones at the desk to do some computer work.

  “How’s Agent Seventeen coming along?” Recker casually blurted out.

  Jones temporarily stopped typing to think of a response, though he didn’t take his eyes off his computer. He then turned to his friend to speak truthfully, hoping he didn’t get a death stare, or worse, in return. “Honestly, I haven’t been working on it.”

  “Why?”

  “With everything that’s been going on with you, and the cases are piling up, I haven’t had time to work on it. When all this is behind us, hopefully by the end of the week, I’ll be able to devote more time to it.”

  Jones waited for an angry response, and was mildly surprised when there was none coming. “Fair enough,” Recker nicely stated, understanding it wasn’t at the top of the priority list at the moment.

  Jones turned back to his computer and made a face, pleasantly surprised at how that turned out. Recker, though eager to find Agent Seventeen, completely understood that Jones was stretched thin at the moment with him not out there on the street. Jones was trying to take care of situations remotely, and keep an eye on things from a distance, not to mention trying to find Bellomi on his own, just in case Vincent came up empty or took too much time. So Recker knew he had a lot on his plate, and finding Agent Seventeen was not at the top of his list for the moment. He was good with that. At least for the time being. If he asked the question in another couple of weeks, and didn’t get the progress he was looking for, the response might not be as pleasant. A couple of quiet hours went by until the silence was interrupted by the sound of Recker’s phone. The look of hope on his face pretty much gave away who it was.

  “I hope you finally have something for me,” Recker stated.

  “I take it the four or five days you’ve been underground haven’t been so relaxing for you,” Vincent returned.

  “Pulling the trigger relaxes me. Sitting here for a week makes me go certifiable.”

  “Understood.”

  “So do you have something?”

  “It took a few days longer than I planned, but we’ve finally got him.”

  “Where?”

  “Bellomi is having a meeting with four or five other men, including his top two aides at a restaurant called Vicenzio’s,” Vincent said. “It’s downtown. A rather nice establishment.”

  “How’d you find out?”

  “I have sources.”

  “Where and when?” Recker eagerly asked.

  “One o’clock today. Three hours from now. Can you be there?”

  “Is that even a question?”

  “No, I suppose not.”

  “I understand the restaurant doesn’t open until three. So Bellomi and his cohorts will be the only ones in the place other than restaurant personnel.”

  “Who are the others with him?”

  “Lower level personnel. Probably has business to discuss with them.”

  “What about guards outside?” Recker wondered.

  “There will likely be some. How many I don’t know.”

  “I’ll have to deal with them as soon as they hear the shots.”

  “I’ll have that taken care of,” Vincent reassured.

  “How?”

  “Just suffice to say that they’ll be incapacitated in some manner. They’ll be out of the way.”

  “If I’m gonna do this and put my neck out there, I need to know everything. I need to know the entire plan that way I can make alterations if something goes aw
ry. If I don’t know the plan, I won’t know if something’s not going the way it should.”

  Vincent took a second to think but quickly agreed to the request. “Very well. It’s a reasonable question. You have until 1:15 to do the job. At 1:10 there will be a couple of police detectives that will be out front and take into custody whatever guards are stationed out there.”

  “Convenient.”

  “How am I getting in?”

  “The back door will be open for you.”

  “Bellomi is having a high level meeting at a closed restaurant and is going to just leave the back door open for anybody to saunter through?”

  “Not quite. There will be a guard or two,” Vincent answered. “Jimmy will have them taken care of by the time you get there.”

  “OK.”

  “I would suggest you take up the uniform of the staff to get closer, but that’s your business. You’re enough of a pro where I don’t need to tell you how to get it done. We’ll get you in, and make sure you have the time to do it. After that, you’re on your own.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “I didn’t think it would be. You have five minutes. After that, I can’t protect you.”

  “What about those detectives out front?” Recker asked, slightly concerned about them.

  “You don’t need to worry about them. They’re on my payroll.”

  “Do they know what’s going to happen?”

  “They’ve been informed. They know. But they don’t know who will pull the trigger and they don’t need to know who. Once they hear the shots, they’ll stay outside and call for backup. They will not attempt to go in alone. That will give you a couple of minutes to go back out through the back door.”

  “Sounds all right.”

  “Jimmy will be out back waiting for you in a car and will drive you to wherever you wish to go from there,” Vincent explained.

  “OK.”

  “Is there anything that you’re not comfortable with or wish to be explained further?”

  “No. It sounds fine. As long as everybody does what you say they will.”

  “They will. The detectives out front will do their part to make sure nobody enters that restaurant. Jimmy will have the back taken care of and will make sure there is no interference from any of the staff members that are there,” Vincent said. “I cannot guarantee what the members of Bellomi’s party will do once they are there. I would assume they’d all be sitting and eating, but I cannot say that with full certainty.”

  “OK.”

  “So as I said, I will make sure you get in. After you do what you came to do, I’ll make sure you have a safe passage out. The rest, what happens in between those two, well…that is up to you.”

  Chapter 6

  It didn’t take Recker long to get ready. As soon as he was done with Vincent, he explained the situation to Jones.

  “Are you sure you can trust him?” Jones asked. “What if he goes back on his word or something isn’t how he promises?”

  “Then I’ll deal with it.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I think Vincent’s a man of his word,” Recker said. “I think he’ll do what he says he will. Right now our interests are the same. He can be trusted on this. If his interests were conflicted, it might be different. He’ll gain from this. There won’t be any double cross here.”

  “I just hope it goes according to plan and the next time I see you isn’t from a jail cell or the morgue.”

  “Don’t be a worrywart. Besides, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know when something doesn’t feel right.”

  Recker immediately got everything he needed, guns and ammo, and started to make his way downtown. He wanted to make sure there was no holdups. He also wanted to make sure he wasn’t delayed by traffic and that he got there a little early so he could survey the building and surroundings. Recker drove downtown, parking about ten or twelve blocks away. He didn’t want to park too close and risk being seen. He also felt that walking would give him a better idea of what was near the restaurant in case he had to leave in more of a hurry than planned, or if Malloy wasn’t waiting like Vincent said he would.

  Recker wanted to have his own escape plan in the event he was left on his own. Though he still felt Vincent could be trusted and he wouldn’t double cross him, he always wanted to have a backup plan. With all his experience, he knew sometimes things just didn’t go the way they were drawn up. He always had a backup plan, a second escape route. In some instances, he had a third or fourth option. When he was with the CIA, he usually had at the very least, a day or two notice before he had an assignment. This was as short a notice as he’d ever gotten. He’d have to make the best of it as there was no way of knowing when a better opportunity would come up. Plus, he was eager to put it all behind him and move on to other things. He didn’t have long to remember everything. He only had a few minutes to make note of all the streets and buildings in the area in case he had to use them if he left the restaurant in a hurry. When he was with the CIA, Recker knew of some agents who preferred to work on short notice. When they had too much time on their hands before a mission, they tended to over think things. They got over anxious and they pressed, risking the integrity of the mission. Recker wasn’t one of those. He preferred having a little more time to size up every situation he got in before he was knee deep in it. He liked having all the angles covered, understanding everything that could possibly go wrong, and having a countermeasure for it.

  Once Recker found the restaurant, he walked past it, not wanting to stop and look too long at it, in case others were also staked out in the area. He walked a couple more blocks and then turned right, doubling back in order to go behind the restaurant. He looked at the time and still had over half an hour to go. He found a small alley between a couple of buildings to pass the time away while still having a pretty good look at the rear of the restaurant. He eagerly watched for signs of Vincent’s crew. He didn’t see them.

  Once thirty minutes ticked off the clock, Recker was starting to wonder if the mission was a dud. He didn’t see Malloy or Bellomi’s guard at the back of the restaurant. He’d give it a little more time before chalking it up as a failure. Only a minute later, Recker saw the first thing that looked promising. The back door to the restaurant opened up, a couple of menacing looking men stepping through. They stopped just outside the door on both sides of it and leaned up against the wall. It was 1:02. Recker kept watching, waiting for Malloy to show up. It didn’t look like he was coming. Suddenly, one of the men fluttered to the ground like he was shot. A few seconds later, the other guard flopped to the ground as well. Neither of them were getting up. Recker didn’t notice any signs of life from either of them. Recker looked up, knowing there was a sniper in the area somewhere, though he wasn’t leaving the confines of his position just yet in order to find out where it was.

  Recker looked back toward the restaurant and saw a man walking towards it. He focused in on the man, getting a better look at him. It was Malloy. Upon seeing him, Recker instantly left the alley and also walked toward the rear of the restaurant. Malloy saw someone approaching and stopped in his tracks before he realized it was Recker. Vincent’s right hand man then picked up his pace again, meeting Recker at the back door of the restaurant, both of whom reached it at the same time.

  “Is this your handy work?” Recker asked, pointing at the bodies on the ground.

  Malloy smiled. “Nah. Not really my style. I prefer up close and personal.”

  Recker looked a little uneasy and stared at the nearby buildings, knowing if Malloy didn’t do it, there was another person out there who could’ve had a gun set on him at that very second. Malloy picked up on his hesitation and momentarily looked back at the building across from them.

  “Don’t worry. You’re not on the list,” Malloy stated.

  “Good to know.”

  “Think we’d double cross you?”

  “There’s some who thought that might’ve been a possi
bility,” Recker said.

  “Don’t worry, you’re not being set up,” Malloy told him.

  “If I thought I was, I wouldn’t be here.”

  Malloy opened up his jacket, revealing a Glock pistol for Recker to use. Recker grinned, then pulled out a Glock of his own. “You didn’t really think I’d come empty handed, did you?” Recker asked.

  Malloy shrugged. “Just thought I’d offer.”

  “Thanks, but I only use my own.”

  Recker turned the handle of the door, but it was locked. He then turned to Malloy, who smiled and stepped in front of him.

  “We got this covered,” Malloy said.

  He knocked on the door two times, about a second apart from each other. Almost instantly, the door sprung open. Malloy took a step back and put both his arms out in front to usher Recker into the building.

  “Not coming?” Recker asked.

  “Our deal was to get you in. The rest is up to you.”

  Recker nodded his head.

  “Besides, you were told we’d get you out of here quickly, right? I’ll bring the car around and wait for you.”

  “Where will you be?”

  “Right there,” Malloy indicated, pointing to a spot three buildings down on the same side of the restaurant. “I’ll wait till 1:20. If you’re not here I’ll assume something happened to you.”

  “If I’m not here it’s because I’m dead.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “It won’t,” Recker told him. “Do you know how many’s in there?”

  “Five. Bellomi, his two aides, and two of his soldiers. There’s three staff workers in there. They’re all clean. Two in the kitchen and the manager.”

  “They know what’s going down?”

  “The manager is receiving a nice sum for his part in today’s festivities. Once he sees you he’ll head into the kitchen and make sure the kitchen workers are out of the way,” Malloy explained.

  “Sounds like you got it all covered.”

  “Almost. All except for the men with the guns.”