Outlaws by Matt Rogers (phonics books TXT) 📕

King pulled out his phone and called Violetta.

‘Hey,’ she grumbled.

‘Are you going to sleep soon?’

‘I’ll try. But I’m stressed about Will.’

‘Let’s run through this,’ he said. ‘Just to be sure I have all the details. Pull me up if I’m wrong about anything.’

‘Go for it.’

He started flicking through the dossier, narrating as he went.

‘I’m a civilian. Liam Kingsley. Alonzo’s planted surface-level evidence that I was involved in several outlaw motorcycle gangs up and down the East Coast. I’m tech-savvy from dealing small arms and drugs in New York over the dark web, which is how I found the ad in the first place. It lined up with a trip I wanted to take to California, and I conveniently meet every requirement. Alonzo submitted all of this to the posters of the ad, who are suspected to be a collection of low-profile gangsters who live in a giant condo in Emerald Bay.

‘You and your team believe the ringleader is—’ King flicked a page ‘—Ryan Duke, a successful entrepreneur in Laguna Beach who intelligence agencies have long suspected of leading a life of crime. He’s meticulous, so you’ve never been able to pin anything on him, but it’s believed that he operates in human trafficking and other illicit activities in and around the Port of Los Angeles. You suspect he launders his money through his legitimate companies, which he does with the help of financial gurus and a few morally bankrupt accountants.

‘As for the container in question, what you have to work with is—’ another page flick ‘—an informal list of shipping logs left behind on Donati’s personal computer in the wake of his death. You used the NSA’s services to take a peek at its contents before his helpers could destroy any trace of the hidden files. You didn’t do this before, because … well, you didn’t know where to look. You found evidence of a shipment due to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles late tomorrow night. It aroused suspicion because it’s only one container buried in an entire ship’s worth of goods, but for some reason Donati had its arrival time noted down on his personal computer. The serial number of the TEU in question is redacted, but you’re certain that Ryan Duke and his merry band of degenerates will lead you to it. You believe that Donati Group has hired Duke because he’s meticulous, and he can be trusted to handle delivery. He knows the port, and he’s been conducting his own business in and around it for years.’

Violetta said, ‘So answer this — why is Duke posting an ad for manual labour on the dark web?’

‘Because he was looking for someone like me,’ King said. ‘Liam Kingsley, that is. This is a new age, and you don’t need to source local help anymore. You can put the feelers out across the country to find the right man for the job, no matter how seemingly insignificant it is. Duke is meticulous, so that’s what he does. He wanted someone with something to lose, and he found it. He knows he can trust me to keep this silent, because Alonzo planted several pieces of compromising information on me that Duke now has in his possession. He’ll threaten to ruin my life if I talk about what I’m handling at the port. Now that’s leverage.’

‘Good,’ Violetta said. ‘You have it all covered.’

‘So,’ King said. ‘I show up, I meet Ryan Duke and his boys, I stay with them for a night, and then tomorrow we go to the port and they lead me straight to the container in question. Seems fairly straightforward.’

‘You’ve got it.’

‘Why don’t you just tail Duke and then send in an army of SWAT as soon as he leads you to the container?’

‘I don’t think you understand the definition of “meticulous” in this case. There’s a reason he hasn’t been caught yet. He’d smell something fishy, and he’d disappear. It’s easy to vanish these days if you know what you’re doing.’

Something twitched faintly in King’s subconscious.

Easy to vanish if you know what you’re doing.

Slater knows what he’s doing.

He said, ‘But he won’t catch a whiff of the same scent on me? How good is Alonzo’s cover story?’

‘The absolute best,’ Violetta said. ‘You’ve seen Alonzo in action before. Without him, New York might still be dark. He can find information, and he can plant it, too. It helps that he has unlimited resources to work with.’

King sifted through the dossier one final time, scanning the pages, giving them a once-over.

He said, ‘I think that’s it. Over to me?’

‘Over to you.’

‘What do you think it might be?’ he said. ‘In the container.’

‘I don’t know,’ Violetta said. ‘But I’m sure it’s not the first. It seems like an established pipeline. If you hadn’t taken Coombs’ gig, they would have got away with it scot-free.’

‘They still might.’

‘Do your thing,’ she said. ‘And then get back here. Slater needs you.’

King went quiet.

He knew she was making the call from one of the temporary black-ops HQs. Which meant it was being recorded — noted and filed for future reference if it was necessary. It’d make sense for her employers to discreetly keep track of all official conversation passing between handlers and operatives. But it also meant they both had to pretend like they didn’t know Slater was going to run. Neither had discussed it with the other — not even in private.

They both just knew.

He said, ‘Slater will be fine.’

He hung up.

Clenched the phone tight and glared out the window, unblinking.

42

Slater had his own alarm set for five, too.

He used a burner phone — untraceable, unconnected to his work — to call Alexis and run through a handful of details. He spoke slow and quiet, making sure she understood what the next few days were going to entail. She didn’t ask questions. She didn’t protest. She listened. At the end of the call, he asked her if she was still willing to do this. If