Above Ground (13 page)

Jack pulled over and parked the van a short distance away from the gate to Damien's house. He put his balaclava back on and removed the tape from Silent Sam.

“I left a walkie-talkie with your two buddies back at the locker. It's short range so the cops can't pick it up. Tell Damien to go and get the walkie-talkie. When he does, he'll receive a personal message. He'll also be told how to defuse the bombs. If he doesn't show up in exactly ninety minutes, your two friends become hamburger.”

Silent Sam hurried toward Damien's house as Jack drove away.

Danny's earphone crackled a few minutes later and he whispered a reply. “Yeah, Curly and Moe are still sweating it out. Both look like they took a dip in my pool. You deliver Larry?”

“It's done. Wish I was a fly on a wall when he explains this.”

Jack parked the van in a prearranged spot and quickly got in his own car, drove back, and parked a few blocks away from the storage lockers. He walked the remaining distance.

Danny smiled and gave Jack the thumbs-up sign when he quietly entered their unit.

Damien used the full ninety-minute allotment before he showed. When he did, he had Lance, Rellik, and Silent Sam with him.

“Damn it, our friend is with them,” whispered Danny.

“I was afraid he might show up,” replied Jack. “Try and disguise your voice, but if it doesn't work, we'll have to come clean with him later.”

Rellik was first to gingerly open the side door and peek inside. “Jesus fuck! I don't believe it!” He pushed the door all the way open and gestured to the rest of the group that it was okay to enter.

Jack suppressed a snicker when he saw Damien look at the tire tracks leading to the empty place the van had been parked, then at his two men sitting on plastic pails.

Damien shook his head in disgust as he walked over to Dragon's pail. The holes holding the sticks were large enough that Damien was able to peer inside and see that the springs were tied to the sticks with pieces of wire.

“Who's there?” Dragon nervously asked.

“I'll tell you who's here!” roared Damien, grabbing Dragon by the front of his shirt and jerking him off the pail.

Jack looked at Danny and whispered, “Get ready.”

Danny quietly got in the car and picked up the walkie-talkie while a din could still be heard coming from the unit next door.

Jack watched as Lance peeled the tape off Pan-Head, who held his jaw and moaned. Dragon was freed next as Damien picked up the walkie-talkie, then paced back and forth, angrily stating that he could not believe this.

Danny waited for Jack's signal. He wished Jack would use the walkie-talkie but agreed that Damien might recognize his voice. He saw Jack wave to him and squeezed the transmit button and said, “Damien, are you there? Anyone copy?”

“Yeah, this is Damien! Who am I talking to?”

“One of the people who relieved you of something heavy.”

“You think you can get away with this?”

“Please don't interrupt. It's not as bad as you think. We're willing to sell it back to you if you are interested.”

Damien lowered the walkie-talkie and looked at his men. “Whoever ripped us wants to sell it back to us! Our own fucking coke!”

His walkie-talkie spoke again: “As a gesture of good faith, I've left a kilo under each pail. You can check to see that I am sincere and honest.”

“Honest!” yelled Damien, gripping the transmit button. He took a couple of deep breaths, then said, “Just a minute,” and released the button. Seconds later, Damien picked up one of the kilos of cocaine.

“So,” crackled the voice that Damien so badly wanted to identify, “I'll give you a sale price — $10 million. I'll be in touch soon.”

“How? When will you contact me?” asked Damien. There was no response.

Damien's face was menacing as he gripped the kilo in one hand and looked at Rellik and said, “Whoever
did this is dead! These fucking guys think they can rip us off and then sell it back to us! They are fucking dead!”

He looked at Lance and said, “Who fucked us? Who knew about the stash?”

Lance swallowed, then said, “Just me and Silent Sam. Dragon and Pan-Head weren't supposed to know until tonight.”

Silence descended as Damien looked around the room — as did everyone else.

“Who fucked us?” said Damien. “Who is responsible?”

“They wore masks,” said Dragon. “We couldn't see who it was. Then they duct-taped us all.”

“That's right,” said Silent Sam. “We didn't have time to grab our pieces. Once we were taped we were screwed.”

Damien stared back at his men. One face revealed the guilty party. He turned to Rellik and gave a subtle nod of his head to indicate who was responsible.

Rellik looked at Silent Sam. At first he was confused by what Damien meant. Then he glanced at Pan-Head's and Dragon's red-speckled faces. The answer to who was behind this was as plain as the nose on Silent Sam's face.

Silent Sam subconsciously put his hand up to his face. It dawned on him why his tape had not felt sticky.

Danny stepped up to the viewer with Jack just in time to see Silent Sam make a dash for the door.

The blast from Rellik's pistol echoed like a cannon inside the room.

Silent Sam would remain forever silent. “Damn it, Rellik!” said Damien. “You shouldn't have killed him until we found out who he was working for. Couldn't you have just capped one in his ass?”

“Sorry, boss. Thought that's what you meant,” replied Rellik, looking embarrassed.

“Clean it up!” Damien looked at Lance and said, “Come on. We're out of here.”

Jack heard Danny's breath coming in pants and saw that his mouth was opened wide, while his eyes stared at the cement wall in front of him.

“What is it?” whispered Jack. “You okay?”

Danny blinked his eyes a couple of times, then said, “We committed murder.”

“What did you think was going to happen? That he'd be asked to leave the club?”

“Jack ... his brains are oozing out onto the floor.” He gave Jack a glazed look and added, “Doesn't this bother you?”

“Not really. I'm glad this worked. Don't look at it as killing him. Look at it as saving our friend.”

Danny shook his head and said, “I don't think I can handle any more of this shit.”

“You've handled it before.”

“As I said, I'm still having nightmares. This won't help.”

“Danny, I'm sorry. I didn't realize this would bother you that much.”

“Well it sure as hell does!”

“Keep your voice down,” said Jack, glancing quickly at the monitor. He looked at Danny and said, “I couldn't figure out any other way to pull this off, but I'm done now. Tomorrow I'll look after the dope. On Thursday I'll show Damien the evidence. If I hadn't owed him, he'd be looking at spending the rest of his life in jail for this. The deal between him and me is over.”

“You think Damien will see it that way after what we did?”

“Why not? We seized the dope and have proof of his involvement. It might be considered a little dirty, but...”

“A little dirty?”

“This business is. If I hadn't owed him, I would have done the same thing, except he would be in cuffs right now.”

“And Silent Sam? How would that have looked in court?”

“If you fly with the crows, expect to get shot at.”

“That's what you would tell a judge — or a homicide investigator?”

“Guess it would be better if I said ‘Gosh, I just thought they would ask him to resign.'”

It was five in the morning when Jack stopped watching the monitor and went to nudge Danny, who was sitting in the car.

“Wake up,” he whispered.

“I was never asleep,” replied Danny.

“That's right. You weren't snoring. The janitorial service is packing up next door. We'll give them a few minutes' head start, then skedaddle before the owner arrives and sees his busted padlock and comes snooping.”

“The sooner the better.” Danny saw Jack check his BlackBerry and added, “Now what?”

“It's from our friend. Wants to meet us. Says it's urgent.”

“Gee, I wonder what he has to tell us,” said Danny sarcastically.

“We better meet him. Could be interesting to hear what Damien had to say.”

“You still want me to follow you out to the farm and give you a ride back after you drop the van off?”

“You bet. It won't take long. Ben took his loader out yesterday and dug a pit. He already had some brush to burn so it won't take long to layer it in. Speaking of which, I wonder what I owe him for a barrel of gas?”

“You could just give him a kilo or two as payment.”

Jack ignored the comment and added, “I don't want to arrive until after Marcie has gone to school. Ben doesn't want Liz to know either. We may as well meet our friend while we're waiting.”

“I suppose the notion of having any sleep just never occurs to you.”

“You're the one complaining about nightmares. Don't sleep and you won't have them.”

“I have them when I'm awake too,” replied Danny somewhat sullenly.

Minutes later, Jack had only driven a few blocks away from the storage locker when his BlackBerry alerted him to another message. Jack continued driving but handed his BlackBerry to Danny and said, “That'll be our friend. Bet he wants to change the meet.”

Danny read the message and smirked.

“What is it?” asked Jack.

“If it's from our friend, he has pretty strong feelings for you ... but he sure has you pegged right!”

Jack grabbed his BlackBerry back and read the message:
Love you, Turkey!

Lance took one look at Jack and Danny and said, “Holy fuck! I can't believe you did that!”

“Did what?” asked Jack.

“Don't hand me the bull! I was close enough to Damien to recognize Danny's voice. I couldn't believe it!

I was afraid you'd reneged on our deal and were gonna come bustin' in and arrest us when Damien picked up that key.”

“I don't renege. Hadn't expected you to be there. Otherwise we would have had Damien.”

“Fuck, if I'd known what was goin' on, maybe I wouldn't have. I was at Damien's tellin' him that the deal was done and went without a hitch. All of a sudden we hear Silent Sam screamin' into the intercom.”

“Any heat in your direction?” asked Danny.

Lance gave Jack a glance and said, “No, you took care of that with Silent Sam. Rellik put one through his head-bone.”

“Yeah, we saw,” said Jack.

“You had it videoed?”

“Of course.”

“Fuckin' Damien and a murder on film and you let 'im off all because of me! I never would have believed it!”

Danny gave Jack a sideways glance as Jack looked at Lance and said, “A deal is a deal. I was just fulfilling what I promised.”

“Man! If I ever had a doubt about trustin' ya, it's gone now.” Lance paused for a moment, then added, “Just remind me to never get on your bad side. I don't want to end up like Silent Sam.”

“We just have to catch Damien again. Next time without you being so close to the action.”

“I'd tell ya that it's impossible to nail him, but I said that before and was wrong.”

“What did Damien have to say about it later?” asked Danny.

“He's hot. I've never seen his face that red. The pulse in his temple was just a-jumpin'. I only got about three blocks away from the locker when he told me to
pull over so we could go for a walk and talk. He was really pissed at me for havin' a striker that screwed us.”

“How pissed?” asked Jack.

“Well ... not bad, cuz it wasn't me who sponsored him into the club. It was Petro. As far as the stash being ripped, Damien is more pissed off at himself. It was his idea to have things go the way they did.” Lance looked at Jack and added, “Well, not the way they did, but the way they were supposed to. You know, with puttin' the stash in a locker and then splittin' it an' sendin' it out the next day.”

“So now what?” asked Jack. “What about the next ship?”

“That's already left Colombia and should arrive in about ten days. I expect things will be done a little different then.”

“Damien won't be stashing it all in the same spot,” suggested Danny.

“I'm not so sure Damien will even be involved. He's worried. He knows he fucked up bad.”

“How so?” asked Jack.

“This was the biggest single deal the club has ever done. Usually we try and keep stuff like this separated, you know, so not everyone can be connected. But this was so fuckin' big that every chapter in Canada had to chip in. There are gonna be a lot of pissed off people. Damien figures he might lose his position over this. Maybe even get the boot altogether.”

“Who do you think would replace him?” asked Jack.

“A guy from Quebec we call The Toad. He's been here often in the last few weeks meeting with Damien.”

“Ugly?” asked Danny.

Lance chuckled, then said, “That too, but the name came from his younger days, before he joined the club.
From his not-so-secret ingredient in makin' the special brand of acid that he was selling.”

“You figure he could replace Damien?” asked Jack.

“He was runner-up last year.”

“I think I saw him that day,” said Jack. “Ugly, with a heavy French accent. Short and scrawny. Not what you expect for a biker.”

“That's him. But he has other assets. He's intellectual, sneaky, vicious, not much of a conscience. Sometimes makes for a wicked combination.”

When the meeting was over, Danny waited until Lance had left before turning to Jack and saying, “Looks like you just replaced Damien with a sociopath to run the biggest organized crime family in Canada. Is this what you call progress?”