OUTCAST Ops: Red Ice

CHAPTER NINE

Tanner groaned and pushed himself off the floor. His ears were ringing and he felt like the entire Giants Baseball team had used him for batting practice. Next to him, Vessler coughed and rolled away from him, using the wall to help her sit up. Tanner glanced in the other direction and saw Naomi push herself off the floor, shaking her head slowly. All three were smothered in dust and debris. The air was thick with dust and smoke.

Tanner coughed. “Are you two all right?”

“Still breathing.” Naomi flexed her right arm at the elbow. “I don’t think anything’s broken, but I feel like I’ve been on a three-day bender without any of the fun parts.”

“Vessler?”

“I’m fine. What the hell happened?” the DEA agent demanded.

Tanner rolled into a sitting position. “The room was wired for both sound and explosives,” he said, his own voice sounding distant.

“What?”

“I found a listening device on the lamp. Nay found a bomb.”

“A block of C-4 in the bureau drawer,” Naomi confirmed. “With a command detonator.”

“Shit!” Vessler hissed. “Who the hell did this?”

Tanner got to his feet slowly. He could see the room they had been in was obliterated, along with any possible evidence. “We won’t be able to prove it, but I have an idea.”

“Rhee?” Naomi asked.

“Yes. Can you walk?”

Naomi got to her feet. “Yeah. Vess?”

Vessler nodded and rose to her feet. The three of them made their way along the hall and down the stairs. By the time they reached the lobby, the first responders — a pair of cops and a quartet of firefighters in full gear — were there. No sign of Cordo and the others who had been in the lobby.

“Damn,” Liam said as the Suburban travelled northwest on Columbus Avenue. They could see the smoke rising from two blocks away.

Dante nodded. “Looks like Tanner and Nay had as much fun as we did after all.”

Tanner’s phone call requesting a meeting had come when Liam’s team was a couple of blocks from the DEA office.

Despite being only a mile and a half, it took Choi fifteen minutes to drive the distance, using the SUV’s sirens judiciously. The entire intersection by the hotel was blocked off, forcing the team to park half a block away and walk. After identifying themselves to the police guarding the perimeter, they walked into the crime scene and stared at the building. Smoke still poured from the five-story edifice and they could see a hole in the hotel’s side large enough to drive a truck through.

“Over here!”

The four turned and saw Tanner, covered in a fine layer of dust, standing in front of a cafe a couple of stores away from where they were standing.

“I take it Alec didn’t talk?” Liam asked as the group walked toward Tanner.

“You could say that. Nay and Vessler are inside.”

Naomi spotted the group as they walked into the cafe and waved them over to a large booth in the back. Except for a couple of employees and a customer near the front entrance, the cafe was empty. As soon as they were seated, a waitress appeared and they ordered coffee, except for Stephen, who opted for tea. Both Naomi and Vessler looked the same as Tanner, covered in dust, though they had managed to wipe their faces clean.

Tanner excused himself and returned a few minutes later with wet hair and a clean face. He related what happened to them in the hotel, and then Liam recounted events at the pier. The waitress appeared with their drinks, and after each had a chance to take a couple of sips, Vessler put her cup down and eyed Tanner with a scowl. “We have to stop the bastards!”

“No argument there,” Tanner replied. “Rhee and his goons have us playing defense. We need to change that.”

“How?” Vessler demanded. “You don’t know where Rhee or his people are.”

Tanner took a sip of coffee. “Rhee needs the Black Dao because of their contacts for the manufacturing and distribution of Red Ice. We intend on making the Triad reconsider their arrangement with Rhee.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Hit the Triad right in the wallet.” Tanner’s smart phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket and pressed the accept button. “Go ahead.”

“I have a list,” Danielle reported.

“Good. I’m putting you on speaker.” He tapped the screen and placed the device in the middle of the table. “Let’s hear it.”

“I went through the city records and associated data,” Danielle led off. “I have a dozen locations that I can say with ninety percent certainty are owned by the Black Dao. One of these fits the profile of a drug lab where Dr. Mori might be.”

“Excellent,” Tanner said. He glanced at his watch. “Time to get some planning done.”

Vessler looked at Tanner in suspicion. “What are you going to do?”

“Go on the offensive.”

Vessler’s eyes widened, but before she could say anything, Choi said, “Let it lie, Vess.”

“I can’t!”

“We’re going to need you and Danny to do your jobs,” Tanner said. “We’ll go in first, try and locate Mori. Danielle will give you the evidence to get a signed warrant from a judge. You come in the front door; we go out the back with Mori, if she’s there. As far as everyone’s concerned, it’s a DEA raid.”

“Sounds good to me,” Choi said.

“But—”

Naomi placed a hand on Vessler’s arm. “Let us do this,” she said softly. “We’ve done it before, and against tougher opponents than Triad hitters. We’ll leave you the evidence. We just want to rescue Dr. Mori.”

Vessler leaned back and folded her arms. “All right. We’ll play it your way. I’ll call in a few favors and get some guys from the Oakland DEA office for the raid team. Just make sure you leave the suspects alive and the evidence untainted.”

Tanner smiled, his mismatched eyes showing some warmth. “You bet.”