The Rescue(92)

“I’d be happy to volunteer,” said Decker.

“You against an army?”

“I keep beating the odds. No reason to bet against me yet,” said Decker. “Do you know how to find Bernstein?”

“I’ve very carefully kept in touch with a few of our most trusted, unadvertised contacts.”

“Good. Let’s reach out to him in the morning. Check on his availability.”

“There’s only one problem,” said Pierce.

“What?”

“Bernie doesn’t take IOUs.”

“Not a problem,” said Decker. “I have some money stashed in banks outside the US.”

“I figured the FBI didn’t find all of it.”

“They didn’t find half of it,” said Decker. “International wire transfers aren’t a problem. ATM withdrawals are another story. We can pay Bernie and whoever else we need to pull this off.”

“And here you had me thinking you were poor.”

“I am poor,” said Decker. “In the United States.”





CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Supervisory Special Agent Reeves scrolled through his backlog of emails, figuring he’d better start tackling them. The power vacuum left by Viktor Penkin’s kidnapping and murder had attracted a few contenders, who would undoubtedly start littering the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area with bodies. Reeves had witnessed this cycle before and knew that there was little for his division to do until the new power structure emerged and the situation settled, but he’d focused the bulk of his crew’s resources on Decker for close to a week. It was time to let Decker go.

There was little chance he remained in the LA area, and the Bureau of Prisons still hadn’t declared him an escaped prisoner. He remained a person of interest connected to Penkin’s murder, but Reeves had no evidence linking him to the scene. The same applied to Mackenzie, who had done a masterful job disappearing within the city, if she hadn’t already left. He was starting to have serious doubts whether either of them had stuck around.

Senator Steele wouldn’t be happy, but Reeves wasn’t a miracle worker, and he certainly didn’t have the authority to expand the scope of his interest in Decker beyond Los Angeles. He’d stretched the Russian connection as thin as possible without drawing attention from his superiors, who would not be happy to learn that he had diverted resources from the Russian organized crime division during one of the biggest events to transpire on his watch. With that thought in mind, he picked up the phone to call Special Agent Kincaid and pull the rest of the surveillance off Harlow Mackenzie’s associates.

He didn’t want to give up on finding Decker altogether, but the trail had disappeared and what little momentum they had managed to generate had stalled. Someone else could worry about Decker and the odd links to Aegis. He’d package what he’d collected on Decker, Gunther Ross, and Rich Hyde and pass it up the chain of command within the criminal investigative division, where it would most likely get deep-sixed.

He dialed Kincaid’s number, hearing the phone ring a few offices down, when his cell phone chimed a text alert. While the office phone rang, he checked the text alert, nearly hanging up when he read the message.

“Special Agent Matt Kincaid,” he heard before the receiver hit the phone cradle.

Reeves put the phone back to his ear. “Matt. We have a hit on Kathleen Murphy, a.k.a. Katie Murphy, one of Mackenzie’s primary business partners. I’m pulling up the details right now.”

He found the corresponding email, which had arrived at the same time as the text, and clicked the attached link. A few seconds later, he was logged in to a JRIC facial-recognition activity register customized with his search requests. He clicked on the only facial-recognition hit registered to his targets.

“She was tagged less than a minute ago by a camera across from the Natural Foods on Sepulveda in Sherman Oaks. Distance and direction puts her in the parking lot,” said Reeves. “There’s a note in the register indicating that the camera was moved less than a week ago from the 405/101 on-ramp sign to the traffic signal on Sepulveda, right next to the Natural Foods. I think she got nailed by a camera she didn’t expect.”

“LAPD is always moving the cameras around and adding new ones to screw with the zone-mapping apps,” said Kincaid.

“She won’t have any idea she’s been made. She could lead us right back to Mackenzie.”

“I thought we were throttling back on this one.”

“We were,” said Reeves. “But if Mackenzie’s still in town, Decker might be around, too.”

Reeves knew he should let this go, but the opportunity was too tempting. He could wrap this up in under an hour, delivering Decker’s location to CID and the federal marshals. A quick call to Senator Steele, and Decker was gone for good.

“What’s our move?” said Kincaid.

“I want every agent we have in the valley on this. I’ll review the camera footage on the way so we can identify her car. The first agents to arrive will plant a GPS tracker and observe from a distance.”

“You might want to consider aerial surveillance. Mackenzie’s crew is pretty adept at ditching us on the ground.”

“I’ll call Tori in CID to see if they have a bird airborne,” said Reeves, standing up. “And if they’re willing to let us borrow it.”