Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) (30 page)

They parked a few blocks away in a shopping plaza.  Everyone
sat quietly, not sure what their next move was.

Michael turned to Jessica.  “There's no way you learned to
drive like that from a video game.”

“Well, that answer might have been a little deceiving.  It
wasn't the first time I've driven like that.  I played a lot of racing games
when I was a teen and did a lot of crazy things once I started driving.  I've
always been a bit fearless behind the wheel.”

“No kidding,” Gomez replied sarcastically.

Michael just stared at her. 

They could still hear sirens in the distance and the sky was
filled with news and police helicopters now.  There would be an all-out manhunt
for them.  They had to get out of the area fast.

Michael directed Gomez and Jessica to a toy store in the
plaza.  “Go in and start shopping.  Try to look natural.  I'm going to see if I
can get a phone and call Josh and Martin to come get us.  I'll find you when I
do.  If you see cops, don't panic, just try to stay out of sight.”  He glanced
at Eddie clutching his father, looking traumatized.  He looked back at Gomez. 
“You're shopping for him.  I'm buying, so get whatever he wants within reason.”

Gomez nodded.

MARTIN WAS
expecting Josh to call for more info as
they'd been in almost constant contact.  He was surprised, but relieved to hear
Michael's voice instead.

“Michael, where are you?  There was a report of a shootout
and a car chase on the news.  We thought it was you!”

“It was.  I need you to pick us up ASAP.”

“Josh is already in your area.  He took off as soon as we
saw the broadcast.  Where are you?”

Michael gave him a description of where they were.

“I'll call Josh right now and let him know where you are. 
Hang tight.”

“Will do.”  Michael hung up and headed for the toy store
Jessica and Gomez were shopping in.

After a brief search, he found them in one of the aisles. 
Eddie was sitting in their shopping cart clutching a teddy bear almost as big
as himself.

“Josh is coming to get us.  He's not far.  Should be here in
a few minutes.  Let's pay for this stuff and be ready to leave.”  He looked
down at Eddie.  “How's he doing?”

“Better,” Gomez replied.  “He wants his mom though.”

“Well, let's get going.”  Michael led the way to the cash
registers.

Eddied barely let go of the teddy bear long enough for the
cashier to scan the tag.  Josh pulled up in front while they were checking out.

“What happened?”  Josh asked once they were all inside.

“I'll explain, just get going.  We need to get out of
here.”  Michael turned around to Gomez.  “Where is your wife?”

“Our friends have a cabin by a lake.  They gave us a key, we
can go any time.  I told her to go there and not to tell anyone where she was
headed.”

“Okay, good.  We'll go get her.  Any place that's known to
your friends or family isn't going to be safe once they start broadening their
search.  We'll have to find you another place to stay.”

“Is anyone going to tell me what happened?”  Josh
interrupted.

“The Russians showed up to take out Alonso while I was
there,” Michael answered.

“How do you know they were Russian?” Gomez asked.

“I heard them talking to each other when they entered the
house.  They thought you killed their friend at the door and couldn't wait to
get revenge.”

“Oh, that's just great.”

“Don't worry.  I'm sure they realize by now it was me.”  He
looked back at Gomez and grinned.  “Oh, and by the way.”  He turned to Josh. 
“Next time we're involved in a car chase for any reason,  Jessica drives.”

Josh gave Michael a funny look.  “Yeah, because we usually
plan those.”

“I'd prefer not to be in the car for the next one,” Gomez
interjected.

“Hey, you're alive, aren't you?” Jessica pointed out.

“Yeah, I'm not sure who I have to thank for that.  I was
praying to all the gods, just in case,” Gomez teased.

Jessica smirked and rolled her eyes and the guys chuckled.

They arrived back at the motel and after loading the weapons
and ammo back into the truck, Martin squeezed in the backseat with Jessica,
Gomez, and Eddie.  Eddie sat on Gomez's lap but it was still crowded.  It would
get even more crowded when they picked up Gomez's wife.

Michael grabbed a couple clips of ammo from the back before
taking his place in front next to Josh.  He loaded a fresh clip into his gun as
they drove out of the motel parking lot and slid the other in his side pocket.

“I'd like to make one stop before we leave town,” Michael
announced.

“Where to?” Josh asked.

“I want to pay our friend Rick another visit.  Someone told
the Russians where Alonso lived.  I want to see what he has to say about that. 
You can drop me off.”

“You think he told them?” Martin asked.

“Yeah I do.”

“You don't mean Rick Hamilton, do you?”  Gomez sounded
alarmed.

Michael turned to him.  “You know him, I take it?”

“I worked with him.” Gomez was stunned.

“He's the witness I was talking about.”

“He was always so nice to me.”  His voice trailed off as he
stared out the window in a daze.  He wasn't surprised to learn Edward Morgan
was dirty, but he was surprised Rick was involved.  He wondered who else might
be mixed up in this.

Morgan sat in his office signing forms and looking over
reports.  He hadn't heard from Milovich in a few days and at first was happy
about it, but now it started to worry him.  The trail on Michael had grown cold
and Milovich should have been breathing down his neck for results.

Suddenly his door burst open and he was confronted by a very
excited coworker.  “Did you hear?” he asked  frantically.

“Hear what?”  Morgan was immediately tense.

“Alonso Gomez's house got shot to bits and he ended up in a
car chase and shootout.  He managed to get away and evade the police.  We think
he's gone into hiding.  A task force was formed to find him and figure out
what's going on.”

“When did this happen?”  Morgan shot up from his seat.

“A couple hours ago.  I just got word of it.”

As he was speaking, Morgan's phone rang.

“Morgan,” he answered.  “Yes, I just heard ... I'll be
there.”  He hung up the phone and turned to the man in his doorway.  “There's a
meeting in ten minutes, they want me there.  I have to get ready.”

The man nodded and disappeared down the hall.  Morgan ran
his hand over his head. 
Would Milovich be this stupid?

Rick was on his knees sorting through the papers scattered
on the floor when his door flung open.  Morgan stared down at the mess in
astonishment.  “What the hell happened?”

“Uhh.  I tripped.”  Rick didn't sound too confident.  It was
obvious he was lying.  The place was trashed.

“Someone tried to kill Alonso Gomez.”  He waited to see Rick's
reaction.

Rick tried to act surprised.  “Oh my God.  Do they know
who?  Wait, tried?”

Morgan glared at him.  Rick seemed more surprised that they
failed than they tried.  Morgan stepped in his office and quietly closed the
door.

“Did you know about this?”  His tone was tempered, but the
anger he was restraining was just under the surface.

“No,” Rick replied quickly, shaking his head.  His body
language betrayed him.

Morgan gritted his teeth.  “What have you done?”

Rick hung his head, but didn't reply.

Morgan entered the conference room where the meeting about
Gomez was about to begin.  A long mahogany conference table surrounded by cushy
leather office chairs took up the majority of the room.  A laptop was set up at
one end of the table with a projector attached and a screen pulled down in
front of it.  He took a seat as one of his colleagues took the floor.  Tall
with a well-toned frame and salt and pepper hair, he was wearing a blue striped
dress shirt and black pants, but no jacket.

“Alright, I need everyone's attention please.  Have a seat. 
I'm Special Agent Tim Gatti.  I'm heading up the task force to bring Alonso
Gomez in.  This is high priority.  I've asked you all here because you knew
Gomez.  We don't know why someone would want him dead.  And while he no longer
works here, we can't dismiss what happened.  It's possible he may have gotten
involved in something he shouldn't have.  But we can't ignore the possibility
that it's retaliation for his work here.  Our main objective is to find him and
get him into protective custody.

Here's what we know so far.  At approximately 9:45 a.m., a
shootout occurred at Gomez's residence.  One of the shooters died on his
doorstep.  Gomez fled in his car with his son and two other people, who we can
only assume were with him at the time.  They were pursued by the shooters in a
van; the chase ended up attracting local police.  The occupants of the van were
apprehended while Gomez managed to slip through a police roadblock and evade
capture.”  He glanced around at everyone in the room.  “Now.”  He pecked a few
keys on the laptop.  “With that said, this incident has collided with another
case we are working.”  Instantly, a picture of Michael appeared on the screen
in front of everyone.

Morgan fidgeted in his seat.  Everyone else listened
intently while studying Michael's picture.

“This is Sergeant Major Michael Cailen.  He's been AWOL for
the past four years.  His commanding officers insisted he wasn't the type to
shirk his responsibilities and enlisted our help to find out what happened to
him.”  He pressed another key on the laptop and the picture changed to a police
photo of Gomez's beat up-car left under the highway.  “This is Gomez's car.  It
was found abandoned under an overpass after he evaded a police roadblock. 
Fingerprint analysis show Gomez was in the back seat likely with his
two-year-old son next to him in the car seat.  We still haven't identified who
was driving but police say it was a young caucasian woman with dark hair.  Not
much to go on.  The front passenger however, was Michael Cailen.”

 He looked back at the agents sitting at the table.   “His
prints have turned up at a few other crime scenes recently in the Boston area. 
We are now taking over those cases.  What I need from all of you is any insight
you might have on what is going on and where Gomez could be.  We'd like to find
him alive so the answers don't die with him.  The clock is ticking.”

“Has anyone tried reaching his wife?” a woman sitting in the
back asked, grabbing everyone's attention.

“She left work abruptly and didn't tell anyone where she was
going.”

“Could she be involved?” a man on the other side of the
table asked.

“We don't believe so.  Her coworkers report that she seemed
fine up until mid-morning when she received a phone call from Gomez, after
which she appeared upset and left abruptly without saying anything.  Also, the
fact that her son was home when it happened makes it seem unlikely she would
have put him in jeopardy like that.”   He paused and looked around the room. 
“Any more questions?”  There were none. 

“To wrap up, we need to find Alonso Gomez.  If you know
anything that might help accomplish that, it is your duty to come forward. 
Thank you.  You all may go.”

Wanting to press Rick for information, Morgan was in a hurry
to leave.   He resisted the urge to start shoving people out of his way as they
slowly filed out.

“Morgan,” Gatti called out to him.

Morgan reluctantly turned around. “Yes?”

“Can I have a word with you?”

He didn't know what Gatti wanted to speak to him about, but
he was sure he didn't want to talk about it.  “What is it?”

“You had Gomez fired.  You want to elaborate on that?”

Morgan looked confused.  “Everything is in his file. 
Haven't you read it?”

“I read what's in his file.  I want to know what was left
out.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Did he act strange or suspicious? Did you have concerns
about his integrity?  Anything like that?”

Morgan pursed his lips and shook his head.

“Off the record,”  Gatti offered.

Morgan sighed.  “Gomez was a stubborn son of a gun who
didn't know when to quit.  Aside from that, I don't really know if he was
involved in anything shady.  I certainly would've reported it if I had thought
that.”

Gatti looked down at the floor and nodded.  “He filed a
lawsuit claiming wrongful termination.”  He looked back up at Morgan.  “Any
grounds to that?”

Morgan became defensive at his question and tone of voice. 
“He repeatedly disobeyed direct orders in spite of written warnings.  I'm
pretty sure the record speaks for itself,”  Morgan replied indignantly then
turned to leave.  Gatti watched as he left the room, intrigued by the nerve he had
apparently struck in him.

Morgan rushed back to Rick's office only to find it empty. 
He cursed to himself.  He decided perhaps it was time to call Milovich.

He made his way to the park where he used to meet Evan.  He
pulled a cell phone from his glove box, pressed the power button and waited for
it to start up.  He dialed the only number that the phone had ever called. 
Milovich's bodyguard answered.

“I need to speak with him.”

“He's busy.”

“It's urgent.  I need to speak with him now.”  His fingers
nervously tapped the steering wheel.

Several seconds passed before he heard Milovich on the other
end.  “What is it?”

“I thought I made it clear that Gomez was not to be
touched!”  Morgan tried to restrain his anger, but he wasn't very successful.

“I take orders from no one!”  Milovich angrily shot back. 
“Who do you think you are, presuming to tell me what to do?!”

“You have no idea what you've just done.”  A smug smile
crossed Morgan's lips as he shook his head. “The agency is on the war path
now.  Your men, the ones apprehended by the police.  You'll never see or hear
from them again.  Doubt there will even be any record of their arrest.  You
stuck your hand in the hornet's nest.   I hope you're prepared to get stung.” 
A strange calm came over him.  It would all be over soon, he thought to
himself.  Part of him welcomed the end.

Fuming, Milovich didn't say a word.  He knew Morgan was
right.  He made a foolish decision to take out Gomez, especially in such a
brazen way.  But he would never admit that to anyone.  He pulled the phone from
his ear and looked down at it as he terminated the call.