Between HeVan and Hell (16 page)

Frankly, he was surprised that they
had not already attacked. His size might have had something to do
with it. At seven foot two, he towered over them. Still, he was
outnumbered eight to one and was glad he’d activated his personal
body shield upon leaving the club.

“You are bullies and I'm not handing
over any valuables to you. I am leaving. If you try to hurt me, I
will defend myself. Also, I have recorded this entire conversation
to be admitted as evidence against you.”

With that, he started forward as if to
walk right through the group.

As they all rushed to attack, some
with clubs, he stopped suddenly. Reaching out with one long arm, he
grabbed one of the shorter attackers to his right and swung him
into the path of the four in front. Using the momentum of the
swing, he twirled around in time to grab the arm of another raising
a club to strike him. Jett used his other hand to make a precise
blow to the man’s head, knocking him unconscious. Then he struck
out with his leg, disabling the next attacker to the left. Dropping
the first one and seeing the second cursing over a broken leg, he
turned to a fourth, who was coming towards him with a knife. The
attacker with the broken leg fell in front of him and that gave
Jett time to lower his leg and then bring the other up to the kick
the fourth attacker in the temple, hard enough to knock him out, as
well. He landed on his writhing cohort.

Jett then turned back to the remaining
five; the four original attackers had now stopped or recovered from
him throwing the fifth at them. One had the sense to see what he’d
done and had taken the opportunity to run off. The other four moved
in en masse. Jett and his brothers were the top Fighting Cluster on
HeVan. His greater reach, strength, and overall skill allowed him
to make short work of the rest.

When it was over, he had a few bruises
and some damage to his clothes. Overall, he was fine—he couldn’t
say the same for the men lying on the ground in front of him. He
pulled out his cell phone and called the police.

A few minutes later, several squad
cars arrived and soon after, several ambulances.

Jett leaned against one of the squad
cars while he gave his statement to the officers on scene. He then
told them he had recorded the entire incident on his cell phone. He
pointed to his left front pocket. Just peeping over the edge was
the top of a cell phone with the camera lens showing. He played the
recording to the officer, who then immediately put out an APB with
the description of the attacker who had run away.

“Sir, how did you happen to record the
attack?” asked the officer.

“The record function is voice
activated. I only had to say one word for it to start recording,”
answered Jett.

“And the fact that it was positioned
just so?” asked the still skeptical officer.

“I’m an inventor and artist. I never
know when I’m going to see something that generates an idea. Most
of my clothing is especially sewn for such a purpose. Since I’m
also physically active, there is an elastic holder as well so it
won’t fall out. In this one instance, it worked in my favor. I have
several other recordings on here, if you care to look,” said Jett;
he’d made most of them that day.

“That’s alright, it won’t be
necessary. I will have to take the phone into evidence,
though.”

“That’s fine. I had assumed you would
need to do that. I’ve already e-mailed myself all my recordings so
I have my own copies, as well as backed up my contacts list. Do you
know how long you’ll need to have the phone in your possession?”
Jett asked.

He’d also carefully deleted the
HeVanian software he’d added. Now it was simply a cell phone
again.

Ten minutes later, Captain Udaka
arrived. The reference to the Kadyrovs over the radio was enough
for him to be alerted. He wasn’t very happy to see Jett, however.
He ordered the officer to move the questioning to the precinct
house. The seven attackers that had been caught would have police
escorts at the hospital until they awakened. Several were already
groaning as they started to wake up. There were four with broken
bones that would need to be set and put in casts.

It was nearly two-thirty in the
morning when Captain Udaka pulled Jett into his office. Jett could
tell the Captain wanted to assert his authority over Jett’s
interference in his operation. Jett quickly pulled out a slim black
case and held up one hand.

“You wanted to speak with me, Captain
Udaka?” he asked, as he extended a slim wand and pressed a few
places on the small screen. “We’re all clear, no listening devices.
Feel free to say what you’d like, though if you wish to yell, I
hope you don’t. We don’t know if anyone on the squad is in the pay
of the Kadyrovs. Wasn’t that one of the reasons you pulled in
Grace?”

Udaka sat down in his chair. “What are
you up to, Contadina? Is Interpol trying to horn in on this
case?”

Jett sat down in the visitor’s chair
and said, “The listening devices we planted are only good for five
to eight days. If we push them, then we have a better chance of
catching them on tape planning something.”

He then shrugged and added, “Also, I
admit to still being angry with his attack on Gilda Levin. I abhor
any kind of violence against women.”

Udaka gave Jett a searching look. He’d
been a cop for a long time; he knew when someone was holding
something back. “You’re not being entirely straight with me. If you
can’t do that, then I’m going to have to kick you off the
assignment; your brothers, too—if they are your
brothers.”

Jett had been checking out the Captain
at the same time the Captain was looking at him. Then he looked
around the office. Piles of files and documents on the desk
reflected how much the man had to do during the day. Plaques and
medals on the walls, not only for himself but the members of his
squad, told him that the man took pride in his achievements and
those who served with him.

“Anton Kadyrov is obsessed with Grace,
personally. That goes beyond finding out whether or not she is a
cop or a spy of some sort. He wants her. He’s not known for backing
off when told no. I still made the effort,” he said, showing the
Captain his shark’s grin.

“His file is filled with missing
women. He’s a predator, and I suspect a sadistic, serial rapist and
killer. Over and over again, he collects a girlfriend or shows
interest in a woman. They may even go out, though usually it’s
someone who has spurned his advances. The woman goes missing, and
weeks or months later, shows up as a tortured, mutilated
corpse."

“My brothers and I will not allow the
next victim to be Grace. He followed her all day yesterday. He went
into the jewelry store and upon learning of her engagement to my
brother, was so angry that he struck the jeweler, an old woman, to
the floor. He’s losing control.”

“What jeweler? Why don’t I know about
this? Are you speaking of this Gilda person you mentioned before?”
asked the Captain.

“Yes, Gilda Levin owns and operates a
small store in the Diamond District. She also thought of Grace’s
welfare. When she phoned us to warn us of the man, she said she was
filing a report with the police. She called us back when the
officers recognized Anton Kadyrov from a picture she drew of her
attacker. She was worried for the safety of her granddaughter.
We’ve moved them to a safe place. The two officers that took her
statement were immediately aware of the danger and acted in her
interest. I believe the officers were going to delay the report so
that any internal leaks wouldn’t reach the Kadyrovs until we had a
chance to get them to a safe place.

“She is willing to testify against
him. She’s a solid witness and full of courage, so there’s a good
chance the charges would stick. The question would be whether or
not it even made it to trial. Because in the meantime, the Kadyrovs
will be doing everything in their power to find her and shut her up
as an example to others.

“You and I both know, Captain, with
this attack on me, that the charges you can now bring against him
are stronger and more viable, and the City’s Attorney can add to
them. A little more pressure applied in the right places, and Anton
Kadyrov will break. Once you have the grandson, then the old man
will follow. He’d do anything for his grandson, even if it hurts
his own business. He’ll begin to make mistakes. Vasily Kadyrov is
ten times worse than his grandson because he’s sane. He is a cold,
vicious killer.”

Captain Udaka sat back in his chair
and went over all that Jett had said. Most of it was a reiteration
of what he knew to be the truth, proving it was the crux of the
matter. He had not had a chance to read over all of the files that
Interpol had on the Kadyrov family and their criminal enterprises.
What he had compiled from their actions here in the States was
plenty. He couldn’t understand why they’d even been allowed in this
country. While the Captain was thinking, Jett’s other phone began
to vibrate.

He pulled it from his pocket and saw
that Jalen was trying to reach him. For security’s sake, he
reverted to speaking HeVanian, “Hello, Jalen. I’m at the police
station with Captain Udaka.”

“Why are you there, Jett; what have
you done?” asked Jalen.

“I was still angry about the treatment
Gilda received from him, and you saw how that animal looked at
Grace. I could not allow her to be continually in harm’s way in
that place. I prodded him. He sent some men to kill me.”

“Are you unharmed? Grace is worried,”
Jalen answered.

“I’m fine. They were untrained; no
match for our kind. Plus, I had my body shield activated. Have you
heard from Justyn?”

“Yes, he’s on his way. Rune is driving
him in to the City. The others should arrive soon and Arjun
convinced him he didn’t have to wait. He, Kylan and Suzanna will
protect the household until the pod arrives. They expect the change
of personnel to go smoothly,” said Jalen.

“Good, I knew he couldn’t hold out for
long. I’m going to speak with the Captain about downloading the
data; if we decide to download tonight, we have to go to two
locations so it will take a couple of hours. Justyn may arrive
before me. My back is itching quite fiercely. Do you think it will
be alright for all three of us to be together?”

“We’ll be fine for three or
four days, then we should separate again until the
Joining
, just to be
safe,” said Jalen.

“I agree. I don’t wish to
use Addie’s method of choosing, though.” Jett heard Jalen laugh.
The three of them had gotten a kick out of watching Addie’s
Ankida
playing roshambo,
or rock-paper-scissors game, for making decisions. It was her way
of being fair.

“Alright, brother, we’ll
think of something else. With luck, we’ll be able to go somewhere
remote and perform the
Joining
Ceremony. In the meantime, I’ll make sure Grace
understands you’re okay and that you’ll be here as soon as you
can.”

They said their goodbyes and Jett hung
up the phone. He looked up at Captain Udaka, who was looking at him
strangely.

“What language is that?” the Captain
asked.

“Our father was a scholar of ancient
languages. He decided to teach us several dead languages when we
were children. As children do, we put them all together into a
language of our own. It’s a mixture of Ancient Sumerian,
Babylonian, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, with a few others added in
over the years. A professor of languages might be able to recognize
a word here and there, but he’d have trouble recognizing them all.
As we grew older, we made it more complex and added our own syntax
and grammar. We’re the only three people in the world who
understand it,” he lied smoothly.

“Now, it grows late. It’s time to
download the information from the devices we planted earlier, if
you still wish to get it nightly,” said Jett.

“Why wouldn’t we want it right away?
We may overhear plans being made for a robbery or exchange of drugs
or money. We’ll need time to coordinate things on our end,” Udaka
said.

“All true; be aware that downloading
the information will most likely give the subjects severe
headaches. They will grow suspicious if they have one every day for
a week or more,” said Jett.

“That worries me, their lawyers may
argue that this technology is damaging to their brains and sue us.
What kind of data can you provide that it doesn’t?” he
asked.

“If necessary, I can bring in medical
data that proves there is no harm done to the brain. You’ll have no
worries there, the research is very thorough,” he said.

“Alright then, let’s get tonight’s
data and see if you got anything we can use. But before we leave,
where did you stash this jeweler? The S.A. is going to want to
interview her,” said the Captain.

“She’s moving now and will be kept
moving for at least a week. Though she will be available by phone,
specific times have been set for her to call in. If given notice,
she’ll be ready to come back in when the trial date is set. Between
you and me, I hope you won’t need her testimony.”