Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (40 page)

“Then
who’s the threat?” I asked.

“Who
the hell do you think? The guy who was sitting somewhere nearby, pressing
the button on a radio transmitter like a trained monkey, waiting for a treat
that never came.” He paused. “Your good friend and mine, John Joseph
Brenner.”

Chapter
Twenty-Four

I
lifted the phone and called Takeda.

“Welles,”
I said when she answered. “Where’s Brenner?”

“I
have no current information,” she said. “When I saw him this morning before
sunrise, he gave no indication of his plans. He is, as you are aware, not
under my command.” She paused. “Why do you ask?”

“Bain
told you about Shuster?”

“Yes,”
she said. “It appears that Mr. Shuster is on the side of the
angels.”

“Yeah,
and we’ve been chasing the wrong devil. Brenner is working for the other
side.”

“I
see,” she said. “I suspected that when General Bain briefed me. Have you
checked Brenner’s safehouse?”

“Could
Brenner be at the safehouse we know about?” I asked Shuster.

He
shook his head. “Unlikely. Once a location is burned, you pack up and get
the hell out.”

“Shuster
doesn’t think he’ll be there, but it’s probably worth checking,” I said.
“Hold on.” I put the phone down. “Bristow!” I yelled.

The
door opened and he stepped inside, a trooper, rifle at the ready, behind
him. I don’t know what he expected to see, but he took Shuster’s missing
restraints in stride.

“Sir?”

“Get
two squads over to Brenner’s safehouse on Grand,” I said. “Have them enter
the apartment. If Brenner or anyone else is inside, take ‘em into custody or
take ‘em down.“

”It
would be helpful to take Brenner alive if possible,” Shuster murmured. “Make
it easier to backtrack and find out who’s pulling his strings.”

“Your
men are to attempt to take Brenner into custody if he’s there,” I said to
Bristow. “But no needless casualties. If he surrenders, fine. If he doesn’t,
do what you have to.” I glanced at Shuster. “You can’t wing Vees,” I said.
“Only way to neutralize them is to kill them.”

“You
have a point,” Shuster said.

“Mr.
Shuster is the good guy,” I said, looking back at Bristow. “Brenner is the
bad guy. Get those men over there now.”

“Yes,
sir,” Bristow said with a salute. He left, closing the door behind
him.

I
put the phone on speaker. “Sorry.”

“I
heard,” Takeda said. “If Brenner is not at the safehouse, what
next?”

“I’m
working on it,” I said. “It’s a big city.”

“It
was Brenner’s man that took a shot at Heymann,” Shuster said. “So he’s
putting his team back together. Are they all here yet?”

I
grinned. “As long as he thinks we don’t know about him, he’s gonna figure
it’s business as usual, and bring his people in through normal channels. In
the open. He told me he’d have his team together by tonight.”

“I’ll
see what I can find out,” Takeda said. “Expect me at your location in thirty
minutes, hopefully with answers.”

I
hung up the phone. “So what’s your story, Shuster?”

“When
the Governor General heard that there were people in his own command
structure that wanted to scuttle this, he developed...” Shuster smiled.
“Trust issues. And because he didn’t know who he could trust, he sent me and
my people in under the radar, to see what we could find out, see if we could
identify the opposition.”

“He
didn’t trust Bain?”

“No,
he trusted Bain. Just not necessarily all the people under him.” He paused.
“Area Three is kind of unique. When Bain was sent here, he brought in a lot
of his own people, people he knew and trusted from his former military
assignment. But running a multi-state area is different from running an air
force base. He has his people and he has others he’s chosen or who have been
chosen for him. Their loyalties and agenda were open to
question.”

He
smiled. “In terms of protecting Heymann, this area is also unique. The chain
of command is very simple, not like some other areas where you have multiple
security entities in play. Here it’s Bain to Takeda. And you. So that’s
where I focused.”

“You
didn’t trust Takeda?”

Shuster
laughed. “No, Miss Tiffany Takeda is well known throughout area government.
She’s smart, loyal, ruthless and directly connected to Phillip Bain’s right
shoulder. She’s not Bain’s bloodchild, but she might as well be. If Bain was
trustworthy, so was she.” He shook his head. “No, old buddy, you were the
weak link. I told you, I knew more than a week ago that Bain wanted you to
play a major role in the security detail. Brenner’s people knew that too. If
they pitched it the right way, you might have signed up with
them.”

“So
that lunch meeting, the little midnight visit, that was what? Feeling me
out?”

“See,
you
are
a detective,” he said with a smile. “I told you the truth
last night. I really didn’t have the time to meet with you Wednesday, but I
wanted to touch base, float a few things, see how you responded. Leaving the
credit card behind was my mistake, but it would have been a dead end if Bain
hadn’t assigned Brenner to your office.” He paused. “And the fact that less
than twelve hours after I left the card, the wires were humming between
Brenner and area government..” He stared at me, hard. “Well, as you might
imagine, it only increased my suspicions about you. And I couldn’t have a
follow-up meeting the way I’d planned. Brenner said I was the enemy, and
everybody believed him. So I had to do something else.”

“Shine
a light in my face and put a gun on me.”

“Bingo,”
he said. “I’d already taken out Brenner’s team, but at a cost I didn’t
expect. I thought we’d be going up against a couple of humans, or a human
and a vamp. We got double that, and paid the price. Which made it even more
important that I find out where your loyalties were, and either give you a
dose of reality or take you out of play. And I might have been able to do
that last night, if Sgt. Martinez hadn’t interrupted me.”

“Why
didn’t you just come out and tell me what the hell was going on?”

“Would
you have believed me?” he asked. “I don’t think so. I deliberately kept what
I was telling you pretty vague. Let you fill in the blanks. If you were
already involved with Brenner, you might let me know that we were on the
same side. Then I could put a bullet in your head and be on my way.” He
looked at Martinez. “Sadly, I never quite got where I was going.”

He
laughed. “It’s the story of my life. Set up an elaborate gag, only to be
interrupted before the punch line.”

“So
what was the point of burying the bomb trigger? That seems like
grandstanding.”

Shuster
laughed again. “That was great, wasn’t it? And all for you, a little test to
see what you’d do. Would you stay here, knowing that the bomb was under the
trailer. And knowing that it might not be Brenner’s finger on the button” He
paused. “Or would you hop in your Jeep and head back to your office to pick
up something you conveniently forgot this morning? Or go to midtown for an
emergency meeting with your buddy Chief Northport?” He paused again. “I know
you, Charlie. If you were committed to Heymann’s safety, you wouldn’t bug
out and leave him to die. You’d stay close.”

“Seems
like a risky move on your part.”

“You
probably had my picture, but it didn’t look like it had been distributed
yet. So I was relatively safe, as long as I kept away from the command
trailer and people who might have already seen it. In time, somebody would
remember me, and somebody would put two and two together and find the
trigger. Then show time, and you were the only one on stage.” He paused
again. “Of course, I didn’t expect Heymann to come back so soon. But he was
never in any danger. At least not from the bomb.”

“If
the bomb was there since the trailer arrived, why didn’t Brenner set it off
earlier, or at least try,” I asked.

“No
idea,” Shuster said. “Maybe he felt like he had plenty of time. The bomb
wasn’t going anywhere. Heymann wasn’t going anywhere. He could press the
trigger whenever he wanted. Also factor in that we took out his demo man,
Bobby Reynolds, last night. That might have thrown a wrench in his plans.”
He paused. “We’ll have to ask him when we find him.”

I
checked my watch. It was getting toward nine. “Takeda will be here soon,” I
said. “Let’s take a walk.”

He
stood and followed me out of the office. I heard Martinez fall in behind
him.

Bristow
stood next to a console, a headset to his ear. When he saw me, he lowered
it. “A squad made entry into Brenner's safehouse three minutes ago,” he said. “Second squad is
providing cover outside. They haven’t completed their sweep, but it looks
like nobody’s home. And it’s been completely cleaned out.”

“He’d
take his gear when he left,” Shuster said.

“I’ll
be outside if you get more information,” I said. “And you might as well move
Heymann back to his trailer. Keep him fully shielded when he’s in the open.
Without the bomb, Brenner is apt to try something else.”

Bristow
nodded and put the headset back to his ear.

When
we reached the foot of the steps, Shuster said, “I love sunsets. If I was
ever changed, I think that’s what I’d miss most.”

“The
sky looks like it’s bleeding,” Martinez muttered. “It’s all red. What’s
there to like?”

Shuster
sighed. “You have good aim but no soul, sergeant.”

We
stood in silence, watching the red sky darken. Five minutes later, Takeda’s
Hummer rolled to a stop on the street. As she marched across the square
toward us, I could see she had something in her hand.

“Burlong,”
she said. “Flying in tonight.”

Shuster
smiled. “Good ol’ Roger Burlong. Area Two. Laughs a lot, but he’s one cold
son-of-a-bitch. Saw him rip out a Resistance commander’s throat with his
teeth once. Fucking San Diego was a crazy job.”

Takeda
handed me the piece of paper in her hand. It was a picture of a bald,
moon-faced man with a cheery smile. Shuster glanced at it and nodded. “Yeah,
that’s Roger.”

“He
looks unusually pleasant,” I said.

“Looks
are deceiving,” Shuster said. He looked up at Takeda. “You have any idea of
who the third man on the team is? The shooter from this
afternoon?”

“Not
yet,” Takeda said. “If he came in on commercial transport, either we missed
him or he’s not on our watchlist.”

“He
might have been in place already,” Shuster said. “Brenner had plenty of time
to plan this.”

“When
does the jolly-looking gentleman arrive?” I asked Takeda.

“Twenty-three-oh-three,”
she said. “American Airlines Flight 627 from Los Angeles.”

“Okay,
that gives us a couple of hours to get ready,” I said.

“Ready
for what?” she asked.

“Ready
to be there when he flies in,” I said. “And if we’re really lucky, Brenner
will show up at the airport to get him, and we’ll be able to take them both
down right there. If we’re not so lucky, we’ll have to follow him to the new
safehouse. Either way, he’s going to give us Brenner.”

Takeda
had requisitioned me a car, though it didn’t seem to be part of the area
government fleet. An old Buick. It smelled like the inside of an ashtray,
but it was nondescript and that’s what I needed. Brenner knew my Jeep. If he
saw it, he’d know he was blown.

I’d
brought Martinez along with me. She had a good eye and it was always better
have two instead of one on a surveillance job. If Burlong was watching and
we ended up behind him, he’d just see an old car with a man and a woman
inside.

Of
course, it would be ideal if he wasn’t watching at all. That depended
on if Brenner knew we were on to him. I checked my watch. Just after
eleven. If the plane was on time, Burlong’s flight had just touched
down.

I’d
parked the Buick between a couple of cars in the airport parking lot, near
the exit gates. Metro police had people inside the terminal to spot Burlong.
Once they had him, they’d stick to him, discretely, and see what he did. If
he was picked up, we’d take the car down just outside the parking lot. If he
took a cab, I’d follow.

“Whiskey
Three,” I heard from the portable radio lying on the floor. I leaned down
and turned it up. “We’ve got him, coming down Concourse 2B. Has a carry-on
bag. Jeans, pink shirt, black tie. Wearing a hat.”

“Tango
One, roger, I’m on him.”

I
picked up the radio. “This is Welles,” I said. “Give him plenty of
room.”

“Tango
One, understand. He’s not going to the baggage claim, so the carry-on is all
he’s got.”

“Has
he made contact with anyone?”

“Negative,”
he replied. “Just strolling along like he hasn’t got a care in the
world.”