Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3) (24 page)

Dix eyed him and watched as he controlled the room with his presence alone. He’d never seen cops act like that before. It reminded him more of military barracks than a police station. The man with salt and pepper hair appeared fit based on his uniform fitting properly. Dix noticed he walked with determination.
Sergeant Kunkel, I presume.

The man stretched out his hand, “Dix, David Kunkel.” He looked over his men. “I apologize for them. Most of them have been trained by me and can handle themselves; they just like to show off sometimes.”

Dix raised an eyebrow. “No worries. I’ll get the brief done and we can hit the ranch.” He patted Kunkel on the back.

He gave the agents the abridged version of the case—who the players were, and who he suspected was using the phone he and Pierre were monitoring. As he shared the story, he noticed the men became focused and took notes. This made him feel a whole lot better about reaching out to them for help.

A man in the front row raised his hand. “So we got a ‘Billy Badass’ at that ranch, near as you can tell, are there any other people that could be with him?”

Dix shook his head. “Everyone who we’ve associated to Blass is dead. However, he did make numerous calls to Canada. I’m thinking he was looking for a way back, but if he’s anything like his old man, I’d say he called for reinforcements.” Dix considered what he knew of Blass and the unlimited resources he had. He estimated the timeline of the attack on the federal building and now. It was conceivable if he did call for backup, they could be landing anytime now.

Another man spoke. “If he had that assassin, the Mantis, working for him, it’s safe to say he’d have more hired shooters available. And with the elevated position of the ranch, we’re gonna have our hands full.” He pointed to the projection screen.

Several of the men nodded while Kunkel looked at some briefing notes and up at the screen.

Dix opened his mouth to speak when Kunkel held up his hand. “We need to assume the house is occupied by numerous armed and dangerous suspects. I’ll try to get a helo up for over watch support, but I’m guessing the airport and wind are gonna cause a problem.” He looked at Dix. “You roll with me and feed us updates regarding the target phone location.”

Dix nodded and his eyes opened wide.
This is the crap I can’t leave,
not now.

Kunkel addressed the men. “Get geared up and we deploy in forty-five minutes. I’m not gonna lie to you, fellas, this is gonna be a difficult battle, and we’re gonna be fired upon. Throw your trauma plates in your ballistic vests, grab your Kevlar helmets, and bring as much ammo as you can find.”

The men rose in unison and headed to their lockers to prepare for war.

 Dix and Kunkel remained in the briefing room. Kunkel clearly wanted to talk further, but he waited until all of his men had cleared the room.

“Dix, most of my guys are military veterans. They’ve been in live combat and can handle anything.”

Dix smiled. “That’s great. Good to see veterans get decent jobs and have the opportunity to further serve their country. I’m sure they’ll do fine.” He noticed Kunkel wore a skeptical expression.

“I’m not worried about them,” he looked unapprovingly at Dix, “I’m worried about you.”

Dix continued to smile. “Well, I guess that’s a fair concern since you don’t know shit about me.” He raised his right shirtsleeve up, exposing a tattoo only worn by Navy Seals. “But I’ve seen a few battles in my time as well. I’m pretty sure I can handle this one.”

Upon seeing the tattoo, Kunkel smiled and looked a little red in the face. He slid up his shirtsleeve and revealed the same tattoo. “Sorry man. I totally made an egregious assumption.” He patted Dix on the back and ushered him toward the locker room. “Let’s get a fellow brother outfitted and tapped and racked for combat.”

They shared a few stories on the way to the locker room.
For a little shit, he’s all right,
Dix thought laughingly.

Chapter 43:

Pierre sipped on his third quad-shot latte. His eyes felt heavy and he struggled to keep them open, but he didn’t want to lose track of the phone for Dix. At the same time, he typed away on his laptop trying to finish a term paper. He noticed the target phone on the laptop screen would send data, then stop, and then turn back on occasionally.
Maybe they don’t want to be detected
.
Why else would someone do that?

He stared at the computer screen for the pen register. There were no incoming or outgoing calls or texts messages. He looked at his laptop and the cursor blinking at the end of a single sentence for his term paper.
Screw this, I’ll do it later
. He finished his coffee and started surfing the internet. After awhile, that too got boring, and he shook the mouse to the computer running the pen register to stop the screen saver. The target phone had received calls again—one right after another, from numbers with Canadian area codes.
Oh crap.

Pierre wondered what it meant. He texted Dix and told him the phone received a series of calls from phones with Canadian area codes. He began working on a search warrant for the incoming call phone numbers so he could try to figure out where the phones were based on cell tower data. The search warrant took less than ten minutes to write and he had one of the local cops bring it straight to a judge.

Thirty minutes later he had the signed search warrant and sent it via email to the phone companies.
Now, I just sit and wait
, he thought
. Or, I could do my term paper…no way!
He texted Dix again advising him that he was close to getting data for the numbers that called the target phone. He refreshed the screen and could see the target phone was communicating with the same cell tower from earlier, suggesting it was in the same location. Then he noticed the calls seemed to be going to voicemail and the phone made no outgoing calls.
That’s weird
, he thought.

Dix finally texted him back. He thanked him and told him to keep feeding him updates. He advised that they were close to moving on the target phone’s location.

Pierre pumped his fist and displayed a smile from ear to ear. He wished he could be with them when they stormed the house.
Stupid assholes. I could’ve been a kick ass cop.
He was miffed a little, but shook it off as Dix called him.

“Hey, buddy. You da man! Let me know as soon as the phone companies start sending information about those new phones. I’m thinking Blass called for reinforcements. What do you think?” Dix asked him.

He was stoked that Dix actually included him in the planning and valued his opinion.
No one else did around here,
he thought. “Well bro, he did make a ton of calls to Canadian numbers and now he’s hunkered down at that property. I’d bet he’s waiting for dudes to show up and save his ass.”

Dix chuckled. “I think you’re right. You think like a cop, you ever consider wearing a badge?”

“I tried. My eyes suck, so they kicked me from the program.”

Dix sighed. “You can’t get corrective surgery or wear contacts?” He was amazed how picky police departments were when it came to vision.

“Nope. My eyes are jacked up and I’ve moved on. I’m hoping to become a federal analyst at some point and assist dudes like you to grab all these bad guys.” He realized he’d become friends with Dix during this case. The other officers only used him and were nice when they wanted something, but Dix, he seemed genuine. A sense of pride swelled in his chest as Dix treated him with kindness, and as an equal.

“So the phone is on and receiving calls left and right, but it looks like they’re going straight to voicemail,” said Pierre.

Dix rubbed his eyes trying to figure out what that meant. “That’s weird, I wonder what’s going on at that ranch.” He paused for a moment. “Is he making any outgoing calls or texts?”

“Nope. I’ll text you as soon as it happens though.”

“Okay, sounds good. We’re rolling out to try to locate that phone and grab whoever has it. Let’s hope it’s Blass and he goes quietly.” Dix suspected, based on everything that had happened so far, there was no way Blass would go down without a serious fight. It didn’t matter though. He was confident he was the mastermind and someone needed to be held to answer for all the senseless and brutal killings over the last few days.

“Will do, over and out.” Pierre chuckled as he hung up, hearing Dix laugh at his old-school cop lingo.

*******

Dix rejoined the apprehension team and provided them with the latest information on the target phone. He finished putting on his tactical gear as the teams began filing into their tactical SUVs. Kunkel motioned for Dix to go in one of the SUVs while he got in the other. They’d already designated Dix as the Team Two leader prior to rolling out, based on his understanding of the case and previous military and law enforcement experience. Kunkel had also requested, and obtained, a helicopter for the mission. He alerted the pilots that the teams were moving out.

Along the way to Blass’s ranch, Dix spent a little time getting to know the men on his team. Their stories were similar to his. Most of them had served in the military, saw front-line combat, and would die to keep their country free and safe.
I couldn’t have picked a better team myself,
he thought.

They had about forty-five minutes before they made it to the dirt road to the ranch. Dix used the time to assign guys tasks. He relayed them to Kunkel. The plan was to hit the house with two teams, one taking the north side and one taking the south side. They’d use lethal force if fired upon, but hoped less-than-lethal would be sufficient. The helicopter, weather and air space permitting, would flank the ranch from the east and hopefully Blass would realize he was completely over matched and would give up.
Somehow, I don’t see that happening
, he thought.

It dawned on him that he was going into a real battle without his sidekick and buddy Petersen. He couldn’t recall being without him on a mission since he had come on the force twenty years ago. Dix reflected on all the crazy times they’d had together and how he'd almost lost him because of Blass. He recalled the officers dying on the Las Vegas strip, at the hospital, having to shoot Frazier, and Marie dying trying to get back to Blass. All of the madness surrounded one man, Blass. Dix suddenly realized in all the planning, they hadn’t set up a point car.

Dix called Kunkel.

“Hey, you got two guys who can speed ahead and set up the best they can to get eyes on the ranch or roadway to the ranch?”

Kunkel nodded. “Shit, didn’t think of setting up a point car. Yeah, I’ll get some guys over there ASAP to get eyes on it. Good call.” Dix didn’t need the atta-boy and Kunkel wasn’t handing one out. It was a problem that needed to be solved ASAP.

Dix wondered what Blass was doing at that moment. It was something he did on all his major cases. He tried to think like the suspect, get a sense of what their move would be so he could anticipate it. He knew Blass had to assume someone identified him at the federal building, but he’d probably feel very safe at his ranch because people would be looking for Robert Laurin and the person with that identity had absolutely no ties to the ranch. Dix also assumed Blass would have no idea law enforcement knew he was also Robert Laurin.
And there’s no way in hell he knows we’re up on his phone,
he speculated
.

As the caravan motored along, Dix began to pray. He wasn’t highly religious, but it seemed to be something he found himself doing whenever he felt scared and running straight into a battle where he could lose his life.

Chapter 44:

Eight men deplaned from a private jet at the north end of the runway at the Las Vegas International Airport. Landing in a private jet afforded them the ability to skip entering the airport, which meant no one would screen them. One of the men backed a large SUV up to the plane, while the remaining five loaded duffle bags of tactical gear and weapons into the SUV. The driver, also the senior guy of the group, retrieved his cell phone and called his boss, Robert Laurin.

The phone rang once and went straight to voicemail. He shook his head and looked at the men loading the SUV. “We need to step this up, boys. Boss man ain’t answering his phone and the local news has a full-blown manhunt looking for him.”

The men quickly loaded their gear and drove to a nearby private hangar. Once inside, they donned their tactical gear and prepared for Blass’s extraction. One of the men retrieved satellite imagery of Blass’s ranch house and placed it on a table. They used the map to prepare a plan to extract their boss. None of them had fear in their eyes, which made them particularly dangerous and a serious threat to anyone who happened to run across their path.

The leader looked at his team. “Listen, eh, this ain’t gonna be a walk in the park, as these idiot Americans say.”

The men laughed while loading rounds in their assault rifles.

He continued with conviction. “We shouldn’t see any cops, but if we do, we will take them out—our primary mission is to extract Laurin.”

The men nodded and grinned. They’d worked for Laurin for almost ten years. He’d found them living on the streets, got them back on their feet, treated them right, and paid them well. He was like the father they never had. Each of them owed their lives to him, and although it was never mentioned, they all knew they’d give their lives to him. Each member of the team had served time in prison and had killed before. Fate had forced them together and the choices they’d made caused what little family they had to disown them. Now, they were the only family each of them had.

After final preparations, the team headed to Pahrump. Their SUV came equipped with a scanner for police radar and was outfitted with local police radio frequencies. This allowed them to speed to the ranch without too much worry about getting pulled over. In less than an hour, the driver of the SUV slowed to check out the dirt road leading to Laurin’s ranch hideout.