Page 6 of The Perfect Stranger

Chapter Two

“Well, that was a fucking mess!”

The boss stroked his perfectly formed mustache in annoyance. We were one team member down, four others killed in total, including a woman and a child.

I remained seated, leaning back with one ankle hooked over my knee. Jase was the one doing all the talking.

“You know how they roll. They recruit anyone, anyhow.”

“That’s beside the fucking point,” the boss yelled, clearly still trying to get a handle on the situation.

“So what are you sayin’?” Jase rose to the challenge. “You don’t think we tried to keep it as simple as it could have been?”

“Well, it ended up being far from simple now, didn’t it?” The phone in the office rang causing us all to jump. “What?” he barked, spittle shooting from his mouth. Poor bastard on the other end. Jase and I both watched as Chief Hanson’s face redden. “I don’t know what to fucking say yet, do I? I’m only just hearing about it all now.”

There was a pause, and I idly drummed my fingers on the leather armrest.

“Just fucking sort it out! It can’t get any worse than it has already.” The receiver almost split in two when he slammed it back onto the cradle. Behind me, the door clicked open and quickly shut again. A balding man in a loose-fitting suit wandered in dropping a pile of paperwork on Hanson’s desk. He then took a seat opposite, keeping a close eye on the two of us.

“Gentleman,” the Chief breathed. “You’re very lucky that the only people who actually saw you are now dead. Otherwise—”

“Whoa!” It was my turn to take the floor. “We simply did the job that was given to us. We asked no questions, and perhaps we should have, but this was not organized by Jase and myself. That was your job. The fact that the area wasn’t cordoned off was a major reason as to why shit went down today.”

“If we had of cordoned off the area who knows who may have been alerted in the area. That neighborhood is crawling with those named on Government watch lists. There is such a thing as reprisal attacks Antonio, and Yusuf was not just a cell leader but an informant with webs everywhere.”

“Well then, it goes without saying that now his wife and child are dead, we can expect some form of retaliation.” I couldn’t hide the bitterness from my tone. The balding man remained an expressionless picture.

“Couldn’t you just have non-fatally shot the kid and woman?”

“Options are slim when one carried a Russian Kalashnikov rifle and shot Jase, while the other wore a suicide vest. Garner’s job was to stop the foot traffic until we made a clear and seamless exit. The fact that he died the way he did tells me we were dumped in a cesspool just waiting for the damn thing to erupt.”

“Watch it, Suárez,” the Chief warned.

“We’ve had smoother operations in Iraq than what that was. We should have had back up. Why didn’t Zero have enough sat use to see beyond the target building? Why did we not have snipers up in the windows watching for the ground floor threat? How was a child able to wander the building carrying a rifle? Answer me that, and then see who wears the blame.”

The Chief pursed his lips tightly together, eyes lost in contemplation. “You’re right,” he finally admitted. “This was not a case the government agency wanted to announce to the world. The last thing we needed was to have the public made aware of such a volatile threat living in the neighborhood. In hindsight, it could have been handled differently. We were lucky the rest of you came out alive.”

“So where do we go from here?” Jase asked, a little perplexed by the Chief’s about turn.

“I need you to check in your weapons and surrender your agency badges.”

“What?”

“Why?”

“You just destroyed a cell or at least set them back considerably. The explosives you found would be enough, if strategically planned, to wipe out a quarter of the city.”

“I’m not surrendering anything.” My refusal caused bald man to raise his eyebrows.

“You have no choice. As of now, you have a target on your head and I can’t have this being dragged back to us.”

“Why do I get the feeling we’re not hearing the whole story?” Jase asked, skeptical of what we were listening to.

“Because you’re not,” came the voice belonging to bald man. He eyed me the way he would dog shit on his shoe.

“And who are you exactly?”

“You can call me Delacroix. Head of Criminal Fraud.”

---