Page 62 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“Like your ass normal,” said Reno. “Yeah right.”
Mick looked at Nikki. “Put her in the guest house on the other side of the pool and stay with her,” he ordered her. “Don’t take her lightly, Nikki. She knows what she’s doing.”
“Yes sir,” said Nikki as she took Vera by the arm and escorted her out of the guest house.
That left Tommy and Grace, Reno and Sal, and Mick, Amelia, and Big Daddy in the room. All familiar faces. But it was Reno, as usual, who spoke up. “I knew that shit was too convenient,” he said.
“What are you yammering about now, Reno?” asked Sal.
“The fact that Hammer just so happen to be one of three people in this whole country with the ability to deactivate that implantation device they put in TJ was suspicious on its face. And before he even knew TJ was implanted he just so happen tobe willing to hop a plane to come all this way to Seattle rather than handling it from DC like he usually does.”
“Which could only mean,” said Mick, “that he already knew about that implantation.”
They all looked at Hammer. Stunned. “You knew?” asked Amelia.
“Did I know that TJ had been implanted? No,” said Hammer. “Did I have intelligence that the front end of the technology, the implantation device itself, had been compromised and that something like this could happen? Yes. Did I think in a million years it would happen to this family? No.”
“How was it compromised?” asked Mick.
“A rogue player from our government sold it to a party not affiliated with our government. A hostile party. We don’t which government has it yet, but that’s what we’re working on. They also have limited use. They can implant, which is a problem in and of itself, but they can’t deactivate. That technology isn’t stealable. But when that government, which shall remain nameless, sold the implantation device to an individual, we knew all bets were off.”
“Vera talked as if she knew who they sold it to,” said Tommy. “Does she?”
“She only knows what her boyfriend Ludwick Jelinski tells her. And all Luddie knows is that it was a government that sold that technology. But he don’t know which government. I don’t even know that yet. But he knew who they sold it to.”
“Who?” asked Amelia.
They all braced themselves for the answer. “Does The Hawk ring a bell?” asked Hammer.
Tommy and Reno were astounded. “The Hawk?” asked Reno. “Are you talking about Ingrid Hawken, the heiress?”
Hammer nodded. “That’s the one.”
Now Grace was astounded. “Isn’t she the woman you and Reno had a meeting with in Alberta, British Columbia when that school shooting took place?”
“That’s her,” said Tommy, nodding his head.
“Mind you, I just learned this stuff myself,” said Hammer. “My agencies are just piecing it together as we speak. But it looks as though it was all orchestrated.”
“But why?” asked Tommy.
“She’s being flown here to Seattle as we speak. You’ll may get answers after we place her in our undisclosed location and I interrogate her. Then we’ll see if you need to have at her too. But first you need to talk to Luddie. He’s her muscle on the ground. There would have been no implantation of TJ, or kidnapping of Destiny and the baby, without him.”
“Then why aren’t your guys interrogating him?”
“Because he doesn’t know shit about the sale. He just knows who it was ultimately sold to: Ingrid Hawken. Only Ingrid knows who sold it to her. She knows what government has it. And that’s the intel we’re after. I don’t mean to sound heartless, but nothing else concerns us. We have to know what government. We’ll give her total immunity if she gives up that name.”
“Total immunity?” asked Tommy. “Like hell you’ll immune her from prosecution if she’s responsible for what our children went through.”
“Where’s Luddie?” asked Big Daddy as Hammer’s phone buzzed.
“He’s at that nightclub on Beyan,” Hammer replied as he checked his text message. “We’ve got a tail on him, but we aren’t approaching him,” he continued talking. “We’ll leaving him up to you. And once your guys arrive, my guys are leaving. Chasing down some mobster isn’t what we do. Chasing down a woman who bought government secrets from another governmenthostile to the United States, and that has no business with those secrets, is what we do. I’ve got to go.” He began responding to the text and heading for the exit.
“Did they just tell you that Ingrid Hawken’s in town?” asked Tommy.
“I’m not answering that question,” said Hammer. “I’m already doing way too much for your asses as it is.”
“You gotta give us a piece of that lying bitch though, Hammer,” said Reno. “Pretending she wanted to make a deal. Wasting our time like that. And she was the one masterminding this shit the whole time? You gotta let us at least choke that bitch.”
