Cargo: A Leine Basso Thriller (25 page)

“Lou, it’s Leine,” she said when he answered. “We found Kylie. She’s fine. I’m sitting here with your old buddy, Naasir.”

“It’s good to hear your voice, Leine,” Lou said. “I can book you both on a flight home tomorrow, if you’re ready.”

“Book a flight for Kylie back to LA,” Leine said, her tone sharper than she intended.
Fuck it. He knows I’m pissed.
“I’m going to Riyadh.”

“Leine, calm down. Everything’s okay. We found April.”

“You—what?” Leine shoulders dropped in relief as she let out a sigh. April was safe. She allowed the exhaustion she’d been keeping at bay to sweep through her now that she didn’t have to hold on, didn’t have to keep going for her daughter. Tears pricked her eyelids, but she kept her emotions in check. No sense breaking down now. If she waited long enough, her feelings wouldn’t be as strong, wouldn’t sideline her, like they did when April was being held by that lunatic, Azazel.

“I said, April’s—”

“—she’s fine, I know. I got that.” Leine took a deep breath. “Thank you, Lou.”

“She’s on her way back from Riyadh. Should be home this time tomorrow.” Lou paused for a moment. “I’m sorry things went sideways, Leine. Somehow, someone tipped off Wang. I don’t know who.”

Leine closed her eyes. “I do.”

“Need any help?”

“Nope. I’ve got it handled.” She’d postpone
that
call until she found a burner phone, something she could pitch afterward.

“Okay then. When you get back, I’m giving you some time off. Maybe paint the living room like you’ve been threatening to do.”

“Yeah. I just may take you up on that.”

One week later

Kavi stood across
from the shop where his contact said to meet him. Traffic sped past, agile motor bikes and smoke-belching
tuk tuks
by far the most prevalent.  No one had gone into or out of the rare goods store in several minutes, which told him Abraham had closed for the meeting. With one last glance to each side, Kavi crossed the street and tried the door, surprised when it swung open. The bell jingled as he entered the cool, dark interior, expecting to see his old friend behind the counter.

At first glance, there didn’t appear to be anyone in the store—only shelf after shelf of ivory Buddhas and trinkets. Most, Kavi knew, were made of illegal ivory with falsified papers. The people who came to this store didn’t care.

Curious that Abraham didn’t come out to greet him, Kavi skirted the glass shelves, headed for the back room. His eyes took their time adjusting to the dim light, and he stumbled over something next to the counter. He turned to see what his friend had left lying in the middle of the floor and froze. Abraham lay face-down, the back of his head a bloody, tangled mess. His prized lion-tooth necklace had broken, the teeth scattered around him.

His heart racing, Kavi stared in horror at his dead friend. He backed up until his hand hit the counter and then turned and started for the door. A man dressed in black holding a gun fitted with a suppressor stood not ten feet away. His head was shaved except for a long ponytail that fell below his shoulders. On his neck was the triad’s familiar tattoo.

“Where did you come from?” Kavi asked, his heart racing. Perspiration beaded on his neck and slid between his shoulder blades. He hadn’t heard the man enter the store.

“My boss is not happy, Kavi. You used his resources for your own personal vendetta.” He advanced toward him. “Not only that, but now we will have to find another pipeline. Victor Wang was much more valuable than you could ever hope to be.” The man’s expression remained implacable.

“I can explain…” Eyes riveted to the gun in the other man’s hand, Kavi inched toward the back room and the rest of his life.

“I’m waiting,” the man said, tracking his progress.

“She would have disrupted Wang’s supply chain if I hadn’t warned him.”

The man in black smiled. “And yet, instead of killing her, which would have been the prudent course of action, you told Victor to sell her at auction—that there were many who would pay to exact their revenge.” He raised the gun. “You preyed on Wang’s greed only to satisfy your need for vengeance.”

Kavi’s mouth ran dry as his mind raced for a way to bargain for his life. But then he stopped. Phan was going to be very upset when he didn’t bring home the vegetables she’d asked for.

“How did you know?” Kavi asked, the air escaping his lungs as though the man had stuck a needle through his chest.

“It appears you underestimated your enemy,” the man replied. He fired two rounds, one to the chest, one to the head.

The gunman picked up the two spent casings on the floor before he unscrewed the suppressor. Then he walked over to the body, leaned down, and pressed his fingers against Kavi’s carotid to search for a pulse.

He didn’t find one.

***

Leine put the last stroke of paint on the wall and stepped back, admiring her work. The calming shade of green was exactly what the apartment needed, what Leine needed. Especially after Africa.

Her phone rang, and she dropped the roller into the paint tray. She wiped her hands on her jeans before she answered.

“Hi, Mom,” April sang out cheerily.

Leine smiled. Ever since her daughter had helped bring down the traffickers in Riyadh, she’d acquired a new self-confidence, something Leine both appreciated and dreaded. Relieved that April’s first undercover assignment for SHEN had turned out so well—her actions helped save seventeen women and children from a brutal life—Leine was also leery of that same confidence and hoped that her daughter would temper her newfound ability with prudence.

“Hi, sweetie. What’s up?”

“I just sent you a link to a video. You have to see this.”

Leine walked into the kitchen for her tablet, opened her daughter’s text message and clicked on the link. The video began with a screen giving the date, location, and three names. Leine leaned forward in her chair at the first name: Victor Wang. The other two, Bobbi Jo Schneider and Sapphire, meant little to her.

The picture quality was good but jumpy, zooming in and out, and picked up the sound of the videographer’s footsteps as well as his breathing. The woman captured in the video looked like one of the guests who had been staying at Wang’s camp. Leine enlarged the picture for a better view.

The video showed the woman carrying a hunting rifle and creeping through the dark, giving the impression she was tracking prey. She stopped and the picture zoomed out, showing a dark silhouette in the distance. She raised her rifle, sighted through the scope, and fired. The dark shape dropped, the bullet obviously finding its mark. The next scene panned in for a closeup, the woman staring down at her kill, clearly shocked. A second later the video zoomed out to capture not only the hunter, but also the prey—a pretty young Asian woman, obviously dead. Leine stopped the video.

“It’s all over the Internet,” April said. “Isn’t Victor Wang the guy you went after in Tanzania?”

“Yes. Do you know who uploaded the file?”

“Someone calling themselves Justice K19. Heard of them?”

“No, but I have an idea.” It had to be Kylie. She’d told Naasir to check Wang’s computer for a video file showing the murder of a woman who’d been trafficked the same time as she was. Leine hadn’t heard anything about the video after that and assumed someone had wiped Wang’s hard drive before it could be searched. But if Kylie had a copy, why hadn’t she given it to Naasir?

“It says in the article that the woman with the gun was brought in for questioning. She claims it was all faked. That it was a bad marketing ploy to get people to go to their company’s website,” Kylie said. “She and her husband own one of those wildlife ranches where you can pay to hunt exotic animals.”

“Has anyone reported the other woman in the video missing?”

“The article doesn’t say, but the way the video’s taking off, I wouldn’t be surprised if either she steps forward to prove she isn’t dead, or a family member does.”

Leine made a mental note to check in with Kylie, ask her some questions. After making plans to see April for dinner, Leine ended the call and read the article. She’d gotten through to the last paragraph when Santa walked in the door, carrying a large bouquet of flowers and a shipping envelope.

“You shouldn’t have,” Leine said, smiling. She kissed him and took the flowers into the kitchen to find a vase.

“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.” Santa set the oversized envelope on the counter. “That’s for you, too. Looks like Derek sent you something.”

Leine finished arranging the flowers in the vase and wiped her hands before opening the package from Kenya. She turned it over and shook out the contents: a handwritten letter folded into thirds, and a shallow box.  She opened the letter and read:

Dear Claire/Leine,

Please accept this gift in the nature intended. Our adventure in Tanzania and the resulting conversations we shared had a profound effect on me and I now find myself working part time with the Rafiki Conservation Center. It’s helped me to put my past behind me as did something you said while on the ship. “It’s not what you did, it’s what you do.” I’ve changed my ways and am on the path to a new and better life. You check?

I’ve decided to take your advice to heart and have decided to rectify the damage I’ve done to this mysterious continent I call home. Your work with SHEN has inspired me to take action. The nature of my specific skillset has made it a bit tough to decide on the right path, but I now believe I’ve found exactly what I am meant to do. The necklace is my gift to you as well as to Tanzania. I hope my efforts will help in some small way.

Take care of yourself, and if you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Yours Sincerely,

Derek van der Haar

Leine put the letter down and picked up the box. Inside was a beautifully beaded necklace, evoking the fine work of the Maasai. She lifted it out and only then realized its significance. The focus of the piece glinted in the sunlight.

Nestled in a cluster of gleaming sapphires was a diamond embedded in a gold tooth.

THE END

About the Author:

DV Berkom
is a slave to the voices in her head. As the bestselling author of two award-winning thriller series
(Leine Basso
and
Kate Jones
), her love of creating resilient, kick-ass women characters stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.

Raised in the Midwest, she earned a BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several cross-country moves later, she now lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with the love of her life, Mark, a chef-turned-contractor, and several imaginary characters who like to tell her what to do. Her most recent books include
Cargo, The Body Market, Bad Traffick, A One Way Ticket to Dead,
and
Yucatán Dead.

Note from D.V.
:

Thank you for reading CARGO. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a
short review on Amazon
and tell your friends about the book. Your sincere feedback means so much to me and I greatly appreciate it.

As I detail in the book, ivory and rhino horn poaching has increased to unsustainable levels in Africa. Sadly, the scene depicting the aftermath of elephants slaughtered by automatic weapons is based in fact. In Tanzania alone, 10,000-23,000 elephants are killed for their ivory each year—between 27 and 63
per day
. Experts estimate that if populations continue to decline at the present rate elephants may well become extinct
in our lifetime
. If you’d like to learn more about what’s being done in the fight against poaching and trafficking illegal ivory, begin here:
www.worldwildlife.org
.

If you would like to learn more about Leine Basso or my other thrillers, or just want to connect online, click on the links below.

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DvBerkomAuthor

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/dvberkom

Website:
http://www.dvberkom.com

Blog:
http://www.dvberkom.wordpress.com

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http://pinterest.com/dvberkom/

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http://bit.ly/googldvb

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Amazon Author Page:

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http://amzn.to/oMUb1Z

UK:
http://amzn.to/pBwClD

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Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank the following people for their help and support in writing
Cargo
: first reader and confidence man, Mark Lindstrom; super-stupendous editor, Laurie Boris; intrepid adventurer and chief hot air balloon pilot Mike Carnevale for fact-checking my Tanzanian/Maasai references and providing the framework to write about life in East Africa; Kathryn McNeil for initial input regarding Bangkok; my writing group: Ali Mosa, Jenni Conner, Darlene Panzera, and Sharon Kleve; Mistress of Mayhem and Prodigious Plugger of Plot Holes, Ruth M. Ross-Saucier; and early readers Michelle and Brian Yelland, and Bev and Larry Van Berkom. Special thanks to TSODA134 (a.k.a. Special Forces Dude)—your detailed input and PowerPoints on weapons, recon, sniper protocol, comms, SE Asia, et al, add an element of realism to my novels that I wouldn’t be able to achieve without your help.

Writing is never a solitary endeavor.

Other books by D.V. Berkom:

Leine Basso Crime Thriller Series:

Serial Date
(Leine Basso #1)—
http://bit.ly/serialdate

When a former assassin's daughter is abducted, she's drawn into the twisted game of a serial killer who may be a grisly remnant from her past.

Bad Traffick
(Leine Basso #2)—
http://bit.ly/badtraffick

Dangerous obsessions take center stage when a former assassin and a homicide detective race against the clock to find a missing girl

The Body Market
(Leine Basso #3)
http://bit.ly/bodymkt

Former assassin Leine Basso is called in when a celebration south of the border turns into a nightmare.

Leine Basso #5 – coming soon!

Kate Jones Adventure Thriller Series:

Kate Jones Thriller Series Vol. 1
http://bit.ly/boxset1

The first 4 novellas in the bestselling Kate Jones Thriller Series: Bad Spirits, Dead of Winter, Death Rites, and Touring for Death.

Cruising for Death (Kate Jones #5)
http://bit.ly/cruisingfordeath

Kate and Cole are on a luxury cruise in the Caribbean when a passenger dies of an apparent heart attack and the ship is boarded by modern-day pirates. Along with two other passengers, Kate is kidnapped by a long-lost enemy who wants to settle an old score.

Yucatán Dead (Kate Jones #6)
http://bit.ly/yucatandead
 

Hunted by a ruthless cartel boss, Kate Jones finds herself deep in the Yucatán determined to turn and fight the evil that pursues her. 

A One Way Ticket to Dead, (Kate Jones #7)
http://bit.ly/tickettodead
 

Digging up the past can be deadly
…

After years of running from her ex, and his subsequent death, Kate Jones is ready to bury the past and try to piece together a new normal. But first there’s a loose end to tie and it involves digging up old ghosts that are best left alone.

Kate Jones Thriller Series, Volume 2 (Cruising for Death, Yucatán Dead, A One Way Ticket to Dead)
Find it on Amazon:
http://bit.ly/KJboxset2