Chapter 238
779 Words
“That we were working on a certain time line – all the information we got from the guy negotiating his plea bargain said that a baby buy takes about four months, from beginning to end. But yesterday, Knox got word that he and his wife are to show up at the middle man’s office in seven days with a suitcase of cash.”
“And?”
“And Valentine and Knox are out of the country on assignment.”
“Yank them off.”
“Impossible. Trust me.”
“Ask someone else.”
“Also impossible. Every one of my ten team members are eyeball-deep in undercover work.”
Dallas sighed. “You’ve got no warm bodies on hand.”
“You got it. So I thought of you and your people.”
Dallas stared at him, stunned. “Wait. You want me to take this whole op away from you?”
“Yeah. I want you to send in someone to take these assholes down for good. Bust the whole thing wide open. Kick asses and f*****g take names, Foreman.”
“Hang on a second.” Dallas shook his head again. “We don’t really do this kind of undercover thing. You know we specialize in bodyguard stuff, stalkers, personal security, surveillance.”
“But you have done undercover ops.”
“Sure we have… but nothing this deep or serious. These are big f*****g fish.”
King shrugged. “Your people are all ex-military, so I know they can handle themselves.”
“Yeah. Yeah, they can. But…”
“Look, let me just cut to the chase, OK? We have a small window of opportunity here. We’ve literally set everything up for you: we set up the fake identities and the fake lives, we made contact, we arranged the meet. All you guys have to do is walk in, hand over the money, get access to the places where they have the kids. Once you have eyes and hands on the kids, the feds will take it from there.”
“Why don’t they send someone in to pose as the married couple?”
“They don’t want to commit fully on the word of a baby kidnapper and show an agent’s face.”
“Goddammit.”
“So you see the problem, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Dallas stared at his hands for a few seconds. “f**k, Matt… you know I can’t say no, don’t you?”
“I know, man. And if it were you asking me, you know I’d do it. Anything to get those kids home to their families, to get them someplace safe.”
Dallas exhaled. “Yeah. I know you would. Just like you knew I’d say yes before you even set foot in this office.”
“I did, yeah.”
The two men stared at each other grimly.
“OK.” Dallas stood up and paced a bit. “What do I need to know right up-front?”
“I’ve got the file right here, but there’s one thing you should know before you choose your team: Knox presented them as a mixed-race couple looking for a mixed-race baby.”
“Any photos exchanged?”
“No. Not yet. At this point, everything’s been sock puppet e-mail accounts and burner phones and fake names. The next step is real names so that the kidnappers can check out the couple before meeting them for the payment.”
“Money upfront, then they get to see the kids?”
“Yep.”
“Careful bastards.”
“Maybe not. Like I said, we anticipated this whole thing to go on for another three months. The fact that they’re jumping the gun and pushing it so damn fast makes me wonder why.”
“Cash flow issues? Greed? Overconfidence? New management?”
“Any one or all of those things is possible,” King said. “But the result is that we’re backed into a corner and need to get a real, live, mixed-race couple over to Kansas in seven days for that meeting.”
“Alright.” Dallas thought for a second. “I’ll send Selena and Griff.”
“Yeah, that’s who I thought of too.”
“OK, King.” Dallas sighed, hating every single f*****g thing about this whole op already. “We’ll take it. We’ll get those kids out.”
“Thank you,” King said softly. “You need anything, you ask me.”
“You know it.” Dallas extended his hand and the men shook hands again, holding eye contact. “We’ll be in touch.”
- Writer
