Kill on Command (30 page)

XVI

Remorse

Boston – Same Night

The fire department quickly determined that it was a false alarm and Sean retur
ned to his room.  He assumed Cristen would call him back or would show up later.  She did neither. 

He took out the pill bottle from the bag and placed it on the table.  His appetite had really taken off since he got to Boston.  He picked up the room service menu and placed an order.  This time, he ordered a large Cajun pasta dish with shrimp, sausage and chicken.  It came with an order of bread.  To wash it down, he had them deliver a carafe of iced tea. 

After he got off the phone with room service, he dropped down and started doing more push-ups.  He continued until the food arrived.

Sandy got back to her room and called Waters.

“The nurse intended to blow the whole operation.   She threatened to go to the
Globe
,” she said, as she changed clothes again. 

“Jesus!  The papers?  How did you handle it?” he said anxiously, leaning forward in his chair.  He was still in the office in Boston.  There were several other men that were under going the procedure and he was basically living in the office until this phase was completed.

“She is no longer a security threat.  That’s all you need to know,” Sandy said calmly.

“Good.  Good.  I will discuss this with the doctor,” he said and hung up. He knew what Sandy meant.  He was furious with McFarland - the nurse was one of his people.

Sandy stripped down to her panties and sat on the bed, running her fingers through her hair.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sean working out via the monitor. 

“The nurse was just as guilty as the others,” she said to herself, trying to justify her actions.  She turned on the hot water in the shower.  Her feet were still tender.  She left the door open so she could see the monitor and stepped into the shower, hoping to wash more than just the sweat off her body.

XV

Beer & A Ballgame

Pittsburgh – Late May −
2011

Waters was tempted to purge McFarland’s entire team, but the doctor won out and satisfied him with a second round of background checks and personality profile reviews.  He assured Waters the nurse was an anomaly.

Waters eventually let it go, as he had more pressing matters to attend to - the operational end of the program.

McFarland insisted on waiting ten days to ensure the serum had been full metabolized by Sean’s system.  Waters was anxious to send him out into the field, but he finally relented and decided to wait.  They sent Sean back to Pittsburgh with a phony assignment he could do from his house. 

Sandy traveled to Pittsburgh as well and was able to secure a rental property directly across from Sean’s house.  Waters tech team set up the home to monitor everything across the street.  Posing as techs from the cable company, they were able to get a good number of cameras into Sean’s house.  They purposely went to the house when Sean was there and Brian had left for work.  As a cop, Brian would have been more suspicious.  Sean didn’t care.  When the techs arrived, Sean took Bailey outside and drank a beer on the deck, which meant they could install cameras all through the house, but couldn’t install anything on the deck or in the garage due to the dog. 

Sandy got set up and kept up the surveillance on Sean.  She didn’t notice a change in his OCD, but wished she had.  He ran every morning and at night.  Sean’s dog, Bailey, made staying close to him very difficult.  The dog seemed to sense she was following Sean and would stare in her direction if she accidently fell into the dog’s sightline.  She tried to keep her distance.  Sean also joined a gym on Walnut Street, which meant that Sandy did too.  He was spending a good three hours there everyday.  Surveillance proved to be a difficult task at the gym given the length of time he was there.  Eventually, she rotated Bill and Bob in to keep tabs on Sean.  When she was not in the gym, she sat in a coffee shop across the street watching. 

She could already tell a difference in her fitness level and she could see a difference in Sean.  She estimated that he had lost ten or more pounds.  She knew it was going to come back on in the form of muscle, given his routine in the gym.

In Boston, Waters’ team discovered reliable intelligence that one of the men on his kill list was going to be in London in the next ten days.  And, if the target was true to form, Waters was going to be able to predict where he was going to be and therefore, would be able to set up additional surveillance to pinpoint the ideal timing for a hit. 

Waters’ team sent Sean his London travel arrangements and phony research assignment. Sean reviewed them and had a couple days left in Pittsburgh before boarding a plane for London.

He was enjoying working from home.  The training and background information his boss sent him was mindless and he flew through the material, opening up time to take in more important things, like a Pirate’s day game at the league’s best ballpark, PNC Park.  

Sean put on an old, faded gold Pirate’s t-shirt and a pair of khaki pants and walked up St James to Fifth to catch a PAT Transit bus downtown.   He walked over the Roberto Clemente Bridge to PNC Park where he met his friend, Tom Ryan, at will call.  One of Sean’s buddies in radio sales at WDVE had hooked him up with a pair of great seats.   The only thing better than afternoon baseball, is
free
afternoon baseball.  The park is situated on the banks of the Allegheny River and the outfield opens up to the Pittsburgh skyline.  In Sean’s estimation, the design rivals great parks such as Wrigley and Forbes Field. 

Sandy followed the bus with Bill and Bob.  They dropped her off on the downtown side of the Roberto Clemente Bridge and she followed Sean across.

“You got the seats?”  Tom asked impatiently.  Part of him believed Sean might have the date wrong.  Tom had left work early and still had on a suit, minus the tie.

“Yeah.  Yeah.  They are at will call.  Hold your horses,” Sean said, smacking him on the arm, brushing past and heading up to the window.  He handed his driver’s license to the lady behind the glass.  She quickly produced their comped seats.  Sean handed the envelope to Tom, who tore it open.

“Behind home plate!  Not too shabby!”  Tom announced, with a broad smile. 

Sandy was not as lucky with her ticket and ended up dropping $30 on an upper deck seat, not that she was going to be sitting in it.  She would spend the game standing near Sean’s section.

Sean and Tom walked into the park’s home plate entrance and headed over to the main concourse.  The PA announcer was welcoming fans to the park and promoting the games for the rest of the week.  Above the buzz of people coming into the park, the organ was clearly audible, setting the mood for the day.

“First beer is on me,” Tom said, walking over to one of the many beer carts.

“And the second and the third,” Sean replied.

“Come on!  These beers are eight bucks each!”  Tom said, pulling out his wallet.

“I got the tickets.  You buy the beer.  That’s always been the arrangement.”

“All you did is made a call to some girl at DVE that you may or may not have slept with.”

“I did not sleep with her and maybe next time you get the tickets - keep that wallet handy, it’s going to be a long game,” Sean answered, with a laugh.

“OK.  I guess I should not be so ungrateful,” Tom said, passing the beer to Sean.

“Thank you sir!”  Sean said, taking a long sip that drained a third of the beer.  It was more like a gulp.

“Slow down chief.  The game has not even started,” Tom said to Sean.

“I’m just thirsty.”

“Then drink water.”

“Thanks buzz kill,” Sean said, gesturing towards their section.

They were indeed great seats, directly behind home plate and at the end of the row to boot.  Sandy stood at the top of the section with a bottle of water in her hand, half watching the game and half watching Sean. 

“So tell me about the new job.” 

“Pretty sweet gig.  I work primarily in Europe and conduct research – really just review restaurants.  They fly me back and forth and I get to eat well and stay in some pretty sweet hotels.”

“Sounds too good to be true.”

“Well, I did hit a bit of a speed bump when I was in training up in Boston.  I ended up in the hospital,” Sean said, between bites of a hotdog.

“No shit,” Tom said, his mouth full of popcorn.

“I had some sort of food poisoning, plus dehydration.  I passed out and smacked my head.  I woke up in the hospital.  Met a hot nurse in the process.”

“I assume you struck out.”

“Yeah, we were having drinks and she said she was going to the restroom but never came back,” Sean said, his eyes forward, watching the game.

“Classic!  She’s obviously is a great judge of character!”  Tom said, laughing.

Sean looked at him and waved his empty beer cup.

“I’m empty, smart guy,” Sean said.

Tom grimaced, and walked back up the stairs to the main concourse for a second round.

“There’s an ATM up there if you need it!”  Sean yelled at Tom as he climbed the stairs.

Sandy watched Tom climb the stairs.  She managed to take a picture of him with her phone and forwarded the image to an analyst in Boston.  She quickly received all the information she wanted on Tom Ryan.  Besides getting Sean drunk, he was harmless.

Tom and Sean stayed through the seventh inning, which was enough time to get a solid sunburn.   They left the park and headed over to one of the bars that bordered PNC.  Sandy, of course, was not far behind, but maintained her distance.  Tom and Sean ordered more beer and a couple of burgers. 

Sean was a very different and difficult target to follow.  She never knew what he was going to do or where he was going to go.  There were no established patterns so far.  Riding the bus was a new one on her.  In addition, he seemed hell-bent on having a good time wherever he was. 

“At least someone is having fun,” she said to herself.

Sean and Tom did not close down the bar, but stayed until nearly 11 P.M.  Sean walked back across the Roberto Clemente Bridge and into downtown, where he got on another bus and headed back home.  This time Sandy jumped on the bus but sat six rows behind him. She watched him get off near St. James Street.  She let the bus go thirty feet past where Sean got off and she pulled the emergency stop cord.  The bus stopped, she jumped out and followed him all the way back to his house.  She walked around the back of the house she was renting and went inside. From her laptop, she could track all of his movement inside his house. 

Sandy flopped down on the sofa in the living room.  The day had been a long one.  The bus.  The ballgame.  The bar and then the bus again.  She looked at the camera display on her laptop, which was open on the coffee table and realized that her day was not yet over.  Sean was in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water and had Bailey’s leash in his hand.  He had changed into a t-shirt and his lacrosse shorts.  He was clearly going running. 

“Damn OCD,” Sandy said, as she stripped off her clothes and threw on something she could run in.  She pulled on her new shoes, which were already showing some wear, strapped on her pack containing her gun and phone and headed out the door.  When she came around the corner of the house Sean, was half way down the block.  Mercifully, Sean ran for only a little over thirty minutes.  He returned to the house, made a sandwich and sat down in front of the TV with the dog.

Sandy took the opportunity to get a quick shower in and grab a yogurt.  She sat back down and stretched her long legs across the coffee table.  She doubted she would get any rest before Sean headed to London, which was to be his first assignment and possibly his last.  She just wanted to make sure she didn’t end up as collateral damage.