OUTCAST Ops: The Poseidon Initiative

NINETEEN

Tanner punched Amir in the face, a forceful, closed-fisted shot. He didn’t enjoy violent behavior but time was short and he needed to get it across to this terrorist that he meant business. Blood erupted from the Hofstad agent’s nose, staining the bedding as he keeled over. Danielle kept her pistol trained on him.

“What did you do that for?” He spat blood out onto the covers. “I said I would get you the money.”

“That’s just to keep you from getting too comfortable. Just a little preview of what’s to come if I don’t have that ten grand in the next hour.”

“The next hour?” Amir struggled until he was able to right himself, sitting once more on the now bloody bed.

Tanner raised his fist as if he was about to strike a hammer blow. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

Amir seemed to shrink into the bed. “One hour, okay. I can do it.”

Tanner wondered if Amir personally had ten thousand he could access from an account of his own, which would mean there would be nothing to trace to Hofstad. He hoped not. But regardless, it was worth a try.

“Where is it?”

“It is in one of my accounts. I can wire it to your account or I can withdraw it in the morning from any major bank.”

“I said one hour.”

“Then provide me with an account number and I will transfer it immediately from my phone.”

In his line of work, Tanner had learned long ago to be prepared for this eventuality. He had an account setup for use by OUTCAST — an account that was well-funded and easily accessible online, yet that was also setup under the alias he was currently using.

Tanner glared at Amir, channeling some of the genuine hatred he felt for this terrorist who, if not directly responsible for killing those people in Miami, at least supported the organization that did. Tomorrow would most likely bring more devastation if OUTCAST was unable to do anything.

“I can give you an account number. But we use my computer.” Tanner reached under the bed and retrieved his briefcase from where he’d been hiding.

“You could be recording my keystrokes,” Amir stated.

Tanner backhanded him across the mouth, bloodying his lip. “I could be killing you, too. Would you prefer that?”

Amir said nothing.

“If I wanted more than ten thousand don’t you think I would have asked for more? We use my machine and you transfer the ten thousand or else I will kill you right here in this room.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

Tanner handed the notebook computer to Danielle, who was familiar with the OUTCAST account. She took it to the room desk to boot it up while Tanner aimed his firearm at Amir’s head.

“To expedite things, I’m going to untie you so that you can use the computer. You will have two weapons trained on you the entire time and everything you are doing online will be closely watched. Do not try anything funny. Is that clear?’

“Yes.”

“It’s ready,” Danielle said, pointing to the open computer, a web browser sitting at the ready.

Tanner made a show of opening his folding knife in front of Amir’s face. Then he walked slowly around the bed until he was behind the prisoner.

“I’m going to cut your arms free now. Do not move until I say and you will not be hurt.”

“Okay.”

Danielle moved over to the bed, standing in front of Amir with her pistol aimed at his chest while Tanner sliced through the lamp cord and stepped back.

“Stand up slowly.”

Danielle backed up to the wall to give him plenty of room as he put his hands on the bed and pushed himself up to a standing position.

“Now walk slowly to the desk and sit down in the chair.”

Amir did so, eyes fixed on the computer as he walked.

“I must warn you about something,” Amir said, taking a seat in front of the computer.

In response Tanner cocked his PM9.

“I am not positive — this is the truth — but transferring this much money from my account, which is company linked — my own personal accounts cannot be accessed in this manner — may trigger an investigation.”

Tanner smirked. “We’ll be long gone by then. Let us worry about that.”

Amir turned his head away from the screen to look at Tanner. “No, you don’t understand. I’m just trying to avoid surprises here since I don’t want to get shot. But the company I work for has its own security measures, some of which are rather extraordinary, and they—not the bank — may come after us to see if the transaction is legitimate.”

Inside, Tanner was grinning hard. But outside, he kept up his impassive stare. Amir mistook his silence for anger.

“There is nothing I can do about that. It may work without incident. It may not. Usually when I transfer this much money my superiors know about it in advance. That’s all I’m saying. If we can wait until morning I can go into a bank in person and withdraw the entire sum from one of my personal accounts. Not that I relish the thought of spending the night like this,” he said, looking over at Danielle’s pistol pointed at his face, “but if it means life rather than death then of course I will do it.”

Tanner moved close enough to read the screen. “Do the transfer.”

Amir nodded and put his hands on the computer. He typed in a dot-com web address. Tanner didn’t recognize it, and it didn’t suggest any connection to Hofstad.

Tanner watched closely as Amir used familiar looking online banking controls to transfer ten thousand U.S. dollars to another account. Tanner noted that he had to set the currency into dollars from Euros, strongly suggesting a European-based system.

Amir looked over his shoulder at Tanner. “Your account number?”

Tanner removed a piece of paper from his briefcase while Danielle guarded Amir. He read off the numbers, which Amir entered into the online system. He clicked enter and the site gave a confirmation that the transfer was processing.

“It is done.” Amir turned around to look Tanner in the eye.

Tanner waved his weapon toward the bed. “Go have a seat while I confirm the transfer.” He didn’t really care about the money. He was just buying time. He hoped that someone in Hofstad would notice that ten thousand dollars had been transferred from one of their accounts immediately after one of their lab techs had declared the antidote samples to be ineffective and probably outright junk, and come running. But checking to see that Amir had actually initiated a transfer and not some kind of coded alert would be worth doing also, he thought, as he faced the laptop’s screen away from Amir’s view.

Tanner logged into the OUTCAST financial account and checked the recent activity. Indeed, there it was: a pending deposit for $10,000.

“Lucky for you it worked, Amir.”

“Can I go now?”

Suddenly Tanner’s radio squawked on his belt. Liam’s voice. Tanner picked up the unit and lowered the volume, holding it up to his ear as he took it into the bathroom. No need for Amir to hear Liam. Especially when he sounded so frantic, as he did now.

“Activity at the front entrance. Four guys just got dropped out of an SUV that I was watching. They’re headed into the lobby now.”