Chapter 13 #3
Joe sat and took off his right shoe. Dane drank down half his mug of steaming black coffee then sat and took off his boot.
He pushed up the bottom of his dress pants—a concession to their official meeting in a campaign office—to expose the thick black plastic cuff.
A small red dot blinked about every four seconds.
He’d timed it. Oscar said they’d have one blink to get it off him and close it, then another blink to get it on Joe and latch it again.
It would be tricky, a precision operation like defusing a bomb, but he’d done trickier things in his life.
Elena paced around the room.
“You have anything else on this Peal chick besides the bribery thing? In case she has some plausible out for that?”
“No. If she’s no sufficiently intimidated by that, we’ll need to resort to Dane’s tricks.”
Elena raised a brow and turned to him.
“Threat of immediate physical violence,” he said.
Elena laughed. He felt his jaw muscle tick.
“It’s not something I enjoy,” he said.
“Well then I’ll enjoy the show enough for both of us.” She lost her grin as she finally took in his lack of humor. “Should it come to that.”
“Acer, you stick with Joe. Watch his back. Oscar—when he finally gets here—can hang back and watch the home front, be the hub if anything goes wrong.”
“Wrong? This is a simple matter of conducting two interviews, isn’t it?” Elena said.
He nodded. “You never know.” He paused and considered the I dare you look on her face, then he dared. “Especially with you involved.”
She shook her head, looked away and resumed pacing. Dane thought of a second cup of coffee, but Rick stopped him when he rose to check the surveillance screen.
“It’s him. He’s in the front driveway. I’ll go let him in.” Rick left the room, closing them in again.
“I thought I’d enjoy working with you more, Dane. After so long, after leaving so much unfinished business behind us.” She stopped and watched him, waiting for a response. Joe cleared his throat. Acer poured himself another cup of coffee.
Dane looked up at her, but he had no answer.
As far as he was concerned, the only unfinished business had been her defiance of his orders that had supposedly got her killed.
Now he had no frame of reference for their past, only small moments between them that he remembered here and there, nothing he could grab hold of and own.
But that was just as well. Because he owned Shana and he didn’t need anything or anyone complicating that.
Oscar, always larger than life contrary to CIA norms, walked into the library like a circus elephant, loud and large and impossible to ignore. He went straight for Dane to grip him in his legendary bear hug.
“Belated condolences on the loss of your home. I trust Shana the beautiful is faring better than the beach shack?” he stepped back and Dane met his true blue-eyes.
“Everything’s good. How the hell are you?”
“Getting old and fat, but not letting it slow me down.” He paused, let his over-sized smile slip.
“I owe you one for this,” Dane said. He didn’t need to. No one was keeping score, but it meant a lot to him, so he admitted to it.
“You kidding? I’m still indebted to you and Shana for the Brazilian fiasco. Saved my skin in a place that was a lot less friendly than Boston.”
After Oscar greeted Peter, Acer and Joe with similar largesse, he stood before Elena and waited for the introduction.
“This is Elena Roland, my old partner from Chicago PD back from the dead.” Dane watched Oscar take her in, nod, watched Elena nod back. There was no bear hug, not even a handshake.
“I’ve heard about you,” Oscar said.
“Likewise,” Elena said. Before the cool vibes chilled the room, Dane corralled Oscar to do what he came here to do. He took what looked like a black box from his duffel bag.
“It’s digital. New age stuff. I’m not supposed to have it, but you know me. It was a leftover from when I was in witness protection in Florida.”
“Who was your handler with the US Marshall’s office?” Elena said.
“Guy named Remy Aguire. He was young then. Starting out.”
Dane exchanged a glance with Elena and then the others. He’d need to re-visit this coincidence later. For now he stayed silent about it and the others followed suit. Until Oscar spoke up.
“I knew,” Oscar said.
“You knew? About Elena?” Dane said. “And you never mentioned it.” Rage flooded him at the waste combined with the sense of betrayal running over all common sense and rational thought.
Oscar put both hands up and backed down a step, letting Dane know his face looked as murderous as his emotions felt.
“I knew Remy, kept in touch, but didn’t find out he that he was running Elena, that she was your Elena, until later.”
“Until when?” Dane calmed himself, getting a grip as Rick stood waiting and watching.
Too much shock. Too much at stake. He hadn’t felt this kind of turmoil since the night Shana left him, or tried to, a couple of Christmases back.
A blizzard had intervened that night—along with an old padre sent by Oscar, he reminded himself—teaching both Dane and Shana how much they had to lose.
He took a deep shuddering breath and closed his eyes, stepping back, away from Oscar.
Elena watched him, looking like she wasn’t breathing she was so still.
“Until last week if you want to know the truth.” Oscar said.
Elena spoke, quiet, almost harsh clipped words. “Remy, my partner, told me about Oscar, about his connection to you.”
“You weren’t going to let on that you knew Oscar.” It wasn’t a question. She felt like poison to him now. Even knowing it was unfair, he welcomed the sensation.
“Let’s get on with this,” Joe said. “Get the ankle bracelet off him before I change my mind.”
“You can’t back out now,” Elena said. “We’re counting on you. Besides you know Dane will go through with it even with the ankle bracelet on. End up in jail.”
Joe grunted. “Maybe a good stint in jail is what he needs to get his head on straight.” Joe muttered as he unlaced his boot and ripped it off his foot, preparing to take Dane’s place.
Even if he chafed at Joe’s indictment that he should have a stay in prison, Dane knew he deserved the scold.
Schooling himself to calm down, not expecting Joe to understand how he felt or why—because no one else could—except maybe Shana—he sat down and did the same, ripping the boot from his foot without bothering to unlace it.
“Let’s give it a go.” Dane sat next to Joe, leg outstretched showing the ankle bracelet locked in place.
“I unlock it by neutralizing the electric pulse. You have four seconds to slip it off and close it. I start it up again. Then when Joe is ready, I stop the pulse again, he opens it and slips it on and locks it down. I start the pulse up again within the four second window. When you two get back from your assignments, we reverse the operation.”
“Four seconds?” Elena said. Oscar nodded.
“Piece of cake if you’re lightening quick and good under pressure, the very definition of Dane Blaise in action.
” Oscar was back to sporting his wide grin.
Squatting in front of Dane, he positioned the box next to the locked side of the ankle bracelet, finger poised above the silver control button. “Ready?”
“Go,” Dane said.
Oscar depressed the silver button, the device beeped, the bracelet clicked, the light stopped pulsing and at the same time Dane pulled the bracelet open and off his ankle, then clicked it shut again. Oscar depressed the silver button again and the red blinking light started up its regular pulsing.
“Damn,” Acer said, watching the operation. “You did that in 2.7 seconds. Let’s see if joe can beat that.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Rick said.
“We’re not here to play games,” Elena said. “Let’s get on with it.”
“She’s right.” Dane didn’t want to waste any time in case they ran into any snags. The clock was ticking on his time off island.
Oscar and Joe repeated the on—off operation with the ankle bracelet and the digital device. Joe managed in less than four seconds.
“Four seconds is a surprisingly long time when you get in the countdown mode,” Oscar said as he stood and slipped the box back in his bag. He grinned. “What’s my assignment while you two are playing switcheroo?”
“You hold down the fort.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that. What kind of fun am I missing?”
“A trip to a state prison,” Joe said.
“In that case I don’t feel so bad about staying behind.”
Dane slipped into his sports jacket and made quick work of tying his tie.
“And what are you up to, Dane, in that get up?”
“An interrogation.”
“Damn. That sounds like fun. I won’t ask for details.”
“Good.” Dane turned to Acer. “You and Joe take the governor’s limo. Me and Elena will go with Rick in his car.”
“We won’t need a car,” Rick said. “We’re walking. It’s six blocks from here toward downtown.”
“Let’s drive anyway. I don’t think we should be out on the street. Someone might be watching.”
“Need someone to run interference?” Oscar offered. Dane smiled.
“I’ll let you know.”
They all left the library then, by the back door.
*****
Tracy Peal was a tough customer as Rick had warned him she would be, but Dane had interrogated Haitian vigilantes hardened by floods and revolutions, so he could handle her. The problem was, he couldn’t use the same techniques of persuasion. There could be no blood.
After they sat in her office, Dane, Elena and Rick, for forty-five minutes, Dane shifted the conversation past the edge of polite conventions.
“Ms. Peal, I need a copy of your donor files for the prison and securities PAC.”
Eyes flashing wide for a brief moment, she laughed. “Sure—not. That’s a ridiculous request.”
“Then you admit that you have a file on the prison and securities PAC.”
“I never admitted a thing.” She stood. “It’s time for you to leave.” She put her hands on her hip. That was Elena’s signal to go. She stood. Then she reached out and pushed Tracy Peal back into her seat.