Authors: Elizabeth Lapthorne
“I
am
a
well-connected man,” Jarred replied. “But no, I’m not a Fed. I’m just one of
those people who are usually given a problem others have failed at and told to
fix it no matter what. Having back entrances to the more common sites and
databases I need is almost a part of my job description.”
The two witches had
joined them by this time. Regardless of the fact that Flame still wore her
sunglasses, Blade could tell from the other indicators on her face that she was
looking at their new contact with respect and a hefty dose of curiosity.
“If you’re ever looking
for a new employer…” she offered.
Blade grinned, his own
thoughts having run along similar lines. He and Flame—as well as the
others—trusted Will implicitly. Will had worked with Jarred and trusted him
enough to send them to him when the need arose. Add to that that he’d fitted
into their team nearly perfectly and the offer became a no-brainer.
Jarred merely shook his
head and lowered it back to his laptop. “I’m not sure I want to know, but I’ll
certainly keep it in mind. Few things are solid and reliable in my line of
work. Who knows when I’ll decide I’ve had enough and want to jump ship?”
Flame left it at that,
though Blade could tell they had piqued
Jarred’s
curiosity.
A tech man who also enjoys wet work would be perfect addition to
the team,
he mused.
The pager in one of the
many pockets of Blade’s camouflage pants vibrated against his leg.
“That’ll probably be Sage
with some information,” he said. Unzipping the pocket, he withdrew the small
black gizmo and looked at the reading. “7243” was the only thing showing, which
spelled SAGE.
“Jarred,” Blade said,
“can I borrow your cell? I just want to call Sage for a second, see what she
has for us.”
Jarred dipped a hand into
his pocket and tossed his cell over to the wizard without moving his eyes from
the laptop’s screen. “Should have something for you in a minute or two,” he
said,
his mind clearly on the work he was doing. “Ten bucks
says it’s Martine’s mother or sister, though. In this day and age, where the
phone companies monitor everything, no one is stupid enough to do anything on a
land line. Pre-paid, throw-away cells are the only way to go for the real
professional.”
Privately Blade felt
confident they would nail Martine on something, though he didn’t contradict
Jarred. Over the years Blade had known a number of colleagues who always
insisted the worst would happen until success literally stared them in the
face. As a defensive mechanism against defeat it worked well for some. Blade
preferred to remain positive.
Walking away from the
group for some privacy, Blade pressed the numbers for Sage’s work line. She
picked up on the second ring.
“You know the name
Malone?” she asked without any greeting. Blade frowned in thought, the name
ringing a bell somewhere in the depths of his brain.
“
Gimme
a sec.
That’s setting off a bell but I just can’t place it. Wait.
Yeah.
Blue folder.
I remember Flame writing that name.
He’s one of our potential suspects.”
Blade looked back over to
where the group huddled around the slim laptop and watched Flame searching
inside her satchel. He was almost certain she had overheard his words and was
looking for one of their folders.
“Malone is linked to
Martine?” Blade confirmed.
“Oh yeah,” Sage answered.
“Malone’s wife is Martine’s cousin.”
“Her
cousin?
You mean
Malone is related to her?”
“Through marriage,” Sage
confirmed. “Yes.”
Shannon Malone had been
loosely linked with most levels and forms of crime. The Mages had never made
any charges stick to him. He knew full well the varied scope of the laws, his
father having practiced on the bar for decades and being possessed
himself
of a sharp intellect.
An accountant by trade,
Malone had risen swiftly through the ranks and quickly grown in power and
fortune. His bank balance, however, had grown faster than could readily be
explained by legitimate means.
There being a fine line
between “savvy investments” and dipping into illegal pursuits, the Enforcers
had been suspicious to say the very least. Nothing had ever stuck to Malone,
though. While many Enforcers remained convinced the wizard had a finger in
almost every available pie, without solid proof their hands were figuratively
tied.
“Captain Will has gone to
the commissioner’s office,” Sage continued as she broke into Blade’s thoughts.
“He’s giving our supposed final wrap-up reports. I’m about to send Matthias and
Julian off to tag Malone.”
“Do you think we could
get a tap?” Blade asked eagerly. Many a much greater Enforcement Agent had
attempted to bring down Malone and failed. But if they had enough to get a tap
on his system then they were likely already halfway through the war.
“It’s in the works,” Sage
assured him. “Even if we are a few minutes out on either side, I’m sure we can
massage the times just a little if something really big happens.”
“Absolutely,” Blade
agreed. He glanced over to where their little group stood and recalled Elias
and Isobel. “Oh! We had a bit of a kerfuffle in the park.”
Briefly Blade went
through and explained what had happened between himself and Flame, and Elias
and Isobel. Sage snickered at the story and Blade managed to roll his eyes
without letting anything in his tone change.
“Before you burst a lung
laughing,” he said, “this means we can’t use Martine ourselves as anything but
a link in the chain.”
“What?” Sage replied.
Blade smirked. Trust that to get her full attention.
“Isobel and Elias are
insisting theirs is the greater claim, that she is instrumental in them making
their case against this Shane person and in extending his time in a cage.
Without her there will be fewer charges to bring against him. They need her,
whereas we only need affidavits explaining and swearing to Martine’s
involvement. Between
Sarke
and Malone we’ll have
plenty to go on with, and the drug ring will still be shut down.”
“Humph,” Sage grumped,
though she didn’t argue any further. “This means, I suppose, that it’s
important we all work together. If either one of them slips through the cracks,
we’re screwed.”
“Yes,” Blade agreed.
“Jarred is also pretty involved now too. I have a feeling he will want to see
this through. We’re collecting quite the team of professionals, aren’t we?”
“Jarred is an old buddy
of Will’s,” Sage replied. “I’d be astonished if Will had an issue with us
bringing him in, especially since it was he who sent you both to him in the
first place.”
“I concur. You might just
want to mention it to Will, though, when he gets back from that meeting with
the commissioner,” Blade suggested. “He is our fearless leader and I’d hate to
bring Jarred along to something and discover Will had some issue with it.”
“Sounds
good.”
Blade let his gaze once
again drift over to the small group, his eyes instantly drawn to Flame and the
long, slender column of her neck. She bent over, digging in her satchel. His
attention ensnared, he realized she had just pulled out a blue folder, and as
he watched she opened it.
Flame, contrary to his
earlier thought, was exchanging quick sentences with Jarred, who was pointing
at something on his screen. Smirking, Blade realized that really Jarred was
very good at what he did. Blade distinctly recalled Flame writing the name
“Malone” on the blue folder before he had piled in the large number of pages he
had printed out.
From Blade’s memory,
Malone’s link to
Sarke
was only tenuous. The wizards
shared a similar interest in fine wines and Malone had a few other links to the
Chicago
college
Sarke
had
used to help manufacture and push the drugs.
However, Flame and Blade
had been looking at business and financial connections and had overlooked the
family link that existed, however loosely, between Martine and Malone.
Obviously some phone records joined Martine and Malone, however, if Flame and
Jarred were looking at that file. Four heads bent over the blue file. They
passed the papers amongst themselves. Isobel in particular looked envious but
still very excited.
“Is there any word on
Sarke
out there?” Sage asked.
Blade shook his head,
forgetting for a minute that Sage couldn’t see him.
“No, not
yet.
We were only just getting started, though, but it looks like Jarred
might have helped find another solid link between Malone and Martine—Flame’s
pulled the file we printed on him. But either Martine or Malone will roll on
Sarke
if we don’t manage to catch him, and his world has to
be crumbling around him. The man will have nothing and no one to turn to once
we collect everyone else. We’ll get him.”
“Oh yeah, and if you’re
still going through Martine’s communications likely there will be something
there to tie in with
Sarke
,” Sage agreed. “We won’t
let him slither away this time.”
Blade huffed out a barely
suppressed laugh. “We had our hands full with a drug lab and explosives last
time,” he reminded her. “We didn’t exactly let him escape because we were
scratching our asses.”
“I know,” Sage replied,
though her tone seemed downcast. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to let something
like that happen again.”
Blade called her on the
self-blame he could hear in her tone. “Oh, please. You know full well if you
had the choice between abandoning the team and leaving them to an unknown
explosive device or chasing after the bad guy, you’d stay with your crew every
time. You can’t bullshit me, Sage. I’ve known you too long.”
Sage grumbled but seemed
to let it go.
“Oh, and Flame and I will
need to swing by my place to get our kits,” Blade warned her. “We’re on her
bike, so it won’t take us long. Just make sure there’s enough room left in any
timetable we come up with for that, okay?”
“That should be fine,”
she agreed. “With luck it won’t be until later tonight we want to move,
anyway.”
“Well if we’re still here
with Martine, or back at headquarters with Jarred, you can contact us on this
cell number—it’s
Jarred’s
personal phone. Otherwise
leave a message on my home line. I can only see us being here with Jarred or en
route to my place. We can collect any messages from there. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Be safe,” Blade said
with feeling, the words as much a benediction and instruction as a well-used
farewell between operatives.
“You
too.
Be safe.”
Blade closed the cell
phone with a deep breath and a silent, quick prayer that they would all get
through this in one piece.
Sarke
, Malone…none of the
group they were chasing pulled their punches. Blade was just grateful they had
escaped with only minor scrapes to date.
Pushing the thoughts of
what he could not control out of his mind, he headed back over to the group to
catch them up on what Sage had told him. Since it appeared Jarred had also had
some success, he was eager to see what they had unearthed as well.
“Sage said Malone is
married to Martine’s cousin,” Blade announced as he came abreast of the group.
They gave him varying looks of surprise and Blade had the strong, satisfying
feeling that Sage’s nugget of information would be the final link they needed.
Isobel nodded her head
curtly. “With Malone swimming in your pond, you absolutely don’t need first
rights on Martine,” she stated.
Blade shrugged, not quite
willing to give up their link just yet but also not wanting to make too big a
deal of it. He had no real desire to press their luck and strain the growing
camaraderie between them unless it became strictly necessary.
“Told you she’d be
talking to family,” Jarred interjected. “Just so happens this time her family
apparently
is
the target we’re seeking.
Which is a
bonus.
It makes the dots easier for management to connect.”
Jarred pulled out his
small memory stick and plugged it into his laptop.
“I’m going to save all
these,” he commented to the group. “We can go over them in more detail later.
My laptop’s already running sluggishly, which shouldn’t be a surprise. I don’t
want to risk losing all this data.”
“Elias and I can go over
it all,” Isobel said forcefully. Jarred looked at her for a moment,
then
shook his head.
“No, I’ll keep it. I’ll
make sure you get copies of it all, but I’m not just handing over my data.
Sorry.”
For a moment it looked as
if Isobel might argue, but she pressed her lips together and ended up keeping
her own counsel. Blade and Flame exchanged looks, though hers was by far the
more inscrutable behind her glasses. Subtly Blade nodded to the stack of papers
Flame held in her hand.