“Do you know him, Muerto,” Gus asked.
“I know of him. He’s amongst my Rogue’s Gallery of guys to watch out for. I saw him in Cairo nearly three years ago. My old boss Frank Richert wanted him tracked for possible sanction. Frank had an address for him in Cairo and knew who his target was. I found his target first - an official with the Saudi government visiting Egypt on official business. Then I found Fenric casing his target. Frank aborted the sanction. I have plenty of pictures of Fenric from that time. Carone’s becoming a real problem. He wants the Monterey area under his thumb; but why? I can understand sending in a group like Jay’s crew to do some exploring for opportunities in the Central Coastal Area. It makes no sense to start assassinating local cops.”
Nick turned again to a terrified Biff. “You can still earn a quiet, painless passing. Why the hell would your boss send a damn professional to kill a local cop?”
“Fernando figured to establish a presence with gang contacts as a screen… you know… to give the locals something to bitch about. We did it in the Southern California area, but Homeland Security tightened operations down there because of the ports. We…we had sweet Panga boat ports in all the small coastal cities.”
“Keep going,” Nick said. “I want to hear everything concerning this floating operation.”
“Like Fernando says… we need a key cop in the area we establish a presence in, along with a gang like Jay’s under our control. We can use the gang to distract from any kind of port activity we have going on. The drugs are only part of it… but I guess you know that. Fernando could move anything: weapons, women, drugs, even explosives.”
“You’re beginning to bore me.” Nick moved on Biff with the scalpel when he paused.
“Wait! Give me a minute! I…I have to get this straight. With one or two key cops in our control, we can own an area, moving anything we want in and out of the port. The gang causes just enough of a problem with small shit on big transfer days to allow our cop contacts to recommend big police attention away from what we’re doing. The best is it never ties back to us. It…it’s worked so far… until now.”
“That’s a steep step to get from small time chaos to killing cops,” Nick replied.
“Not if a pro does it random like,” Biff explained, seeing the scalpel in Nick’s hands begin to rise from his side. “Think about it… a pro like Ballesteros breaks in, kills the family, takes shit like a burglar, and gets out without leaving a trace. The cops go on a useless manhunt, looking for someone with a grudge against Dickerson. Fenric is long gone before they even discover the scene.”
Nick’s mouth tightened into a thin slash. “You left the part out about Dickerson’s family being murdered too.”
“C’mon… sorry… I figured you would know Fenric would have to kill the whole family… random… bloody… and violent.” Biff began to hyperventilate watching Nick. “Please… for God’s sake… don’t cut me! I told you everything! I’ll make this right! The Tempest isn’t at sea all the way down near San Luis Obispo or the Channel Islands. We’re anchored five miles west of Point Lobos. That’s good info, right? The coordinates are on my tablet in a note file marked Point Lobos.”
Nick backed away with iron control, thinking about Neil and his family. He gestured at Gus. Without another word, Gus gave both the comatose Ray and the relieved Biff hotshots into eternity. Cala sized the two bodies with cold calculating purpose before turning toward Nick.
“Helicopter, Muerto? We have freezer room if you want to store them for now.”
“Let’s store them, Cala. This really brings Neil into our business bigtime.”
“It saved his life, Nick,” Gus stated. “Did… you know… ever kill a family to cover a sanction?”
Nick grinned, knowing it would be stupid to act outraged at the suggestion. “No. I would have figured a way to take Neil out in some other form, probably like I did in Senator Ambrose. I’d use ether on anyone in the house who might waken. Then I’d simply stick him with a heart attack shot or cut off his breathing. It leaves the coroner looking for clues about a guy dying in the midst of his family without any sign of break in.”
“That was a great tip to get the exact coordinates for The Tempest. Nice catch, Cala,” Gus said. “What do you have in mind for stopping Fenric, Muerto?”
“We’ll need to recon Neil’s area, making sure Fenric’s not keeping lookout on the house at this time,” Nick replied. “We won’t be looking for him. That would be a waste of time. We’ll concentrate on the target. He’ll come to us and I will stop him somehow. If he’s not casing the area around Neil’s home, we’ll slip the Dickerson family out. I’ll take their place.”
“What if he is watching Neil’s house,” Johnny asked.