Cloak and Dagger
Chapter: 10
(I own nothing)
"Talking"
'Thinking'
*Major Sounds*
Michael's Narrations
-X-
-Crunch- -Crunch- -Crunch- -Crunch-
Laying in the back of Sam's Cadillac in his suit, Harry felt his brow start to twitch as he listened to Fiona deliberately taking loud, small, nibbles of a single Pringle from the can while Sam was planting a bug in a black Razor cell phone like the one that Kent used.
"Can you hand me those little tweezers up on the dash there?" Sam requested while holding the phone in one hand and the bug in the other.
Fi just continued to do what she was doing, making Sam look at her with an annoyed glace.
"Never mind… I got them,"
Harry groaned and sat up, sliding over and leaning up into the front, "Why am I here again? I mean I know this is a job but why in the hell am I sitting in the back of this bloody car when I could be doing something more productive? Hell why are we bothering with this? I say bugger the bug and bloody hell shoot them."
"Agreed," Fiona muttered around her chip as Sam finished with the bug and glanced at them both.
"You both know that's not possible," Sam started only for Harry to snort.
"Maybe not for you," he started while taking out his pistol and aiming it towards Kent's home, "But you give me a clear shot and I'll drop the blighter like a rock,"
Grabbing the gun, Sam retched it away.
"Hey!"
"No, we are not shooting him, Harry,"
Huffing at that, Harry sat back and grumbled, "Fine then, ruin my fun,"
Fiona hummed, "You know, he has a point,"
"No Fi," Sam snapped, holding the pistol by the barrel and motioning with the grip, "It we kill them then their bosses will just send someone down and continue."
"Ok then," Harry began, "If you are going to go talk with Melissa to distract her and Fi is going to sneak in to swap the phones, then what the hell am I going here?"
"You get to watch the car," Fi smiled as Kent began his daily run before getting out of the car with Sam, leaving a gaping Harry in the back seat, "Don't worry, we'll leave the windows cracked,"
She shut the door and walked away, leaving Harry to groan and lay back down as the Miami sun began to turn the car into a hotbox. "Fuck this," he huffed before reaching to the handle, pulling it only to find it locked thanks to a child lock system.
"DAMN YOU FI!"
(A few minutes later)
"Well that was easy," Fi snipped as she and Sam made there way back to the car, only to find Harry shirtless as they opened the doors.
"You wankers!" he hissed out, "You leave me in this car without the key! Do you know how fast this car heats up?"
-X-
Later that night, Michael was sitting in his loft at the computer, listening to the bug in Kent's phone and eating yogurt. Kent was keeping their meeting a secret from his buyer/boss and was planning on going to the meeting tomorrow, after calling Sam and confirming it he was surprised when his door was thrown open by his mother.
-X-
The next morning, Harry leaned against the fourth story wall of a construction site with Sam, waiting for Mike to show up close to fifty to sixty yards away for his meeting with Kent.
"So… what's going on with you and Veronica?" Harry asked after a minute of waiting, crouching down next to a silver suitcase that he had brought with him while Sam sat down on a bucket that had been laying there. There was a thick concrete wall hiding them from view down below and they weren't worried about any workers coming around, the place had once been full of activity to build a hotel but with the economy being the way it was, money dried up quickly.
Sam chuckled a bit, "Well, she just can't get enough of me if you know what I mean, and when I'm on a job," he stopped and seemed giddy, "It turns her on,"
Harry shook his head with a small grin.
"What about you?" Sam asked after a moment, "You have your eyes set on someone?"
He shrugged, "Not really… but… wait, Mikes pulling up."
Both stood up and Sam grabbed the bolt-action hunting rifle he brought while Harry looked on.
-X-
Stepping out of the Charger, Michael had a little smirk on his face, selling the act to the man leaning against the side panel of his truck, "Ready to get rich?"
Kent uncrossed his arms, "Yeah… lets talk about that,"
-X-
"That's not good," Harry mused as Kent vanished behind a large pile of sand and rocks, while Michael was still in view.
Sam cursed under his breath and took aim, trying to find at least a small target to aim at if things went south.
-X-
"First we have to go over a few details," Kent told him as he followed.
"First shipment comes in next week, your cut is ten grand a shipment… how do you like those details?" Michael replied as Kent turned around, letting him get a good look at his pistol.
"I need to know who told you about me,"
Michael shrugged, "It doesn't really matter,"
"Yeah it does, the men I work for they'd kill me if they knew I was running product for someone else," the man said before pulling his gun, aiming it at Mikes forehead.
-X-
"Oh yeah, this defiantly isn't good," Harry muttered, turning around and kneeling down to his case.
Opening it, he quickly pulled out his Walther WA2000 sniper and pushed a clip into the stock where it went and took aim along with Sam.
Michael acted fast, grabbing the gun and pushing it aside while grabbing Kent's trigger finger and snapping it, making him yell in pain. But being the Ex-military he was, Kent managed to block it out and thrust his fist into Mike's side.
"Damn that'll hurt later," Harry winced, waiting for Mike to make a break for it. The gun had been dropped so he had a chance to reach the car if he hurried.
Michael sprinted towards the Charger as Kent retrieved his pistol and started chasing after him only to duck as Sam fired the first round that kicked up the dirt as the bullet impacted the ground.
Harry took aim at the truck and fired, the report echoing and piercing the hood. He wasn't firing the standard ammo, he was firing specially designed armor piercing rounds that turned the trucks engine into Swiss cheese, making the construction site sound like a war zone with all the shots he took at the truck.
Kent took cover behind the rock pile and shot at Michael's car, breaking the windshield once again before Mike managed to escape, dust and rocks flying everywhere as his tires spun in place at first.
-X-
"A few minutes after your meeting, Kent and Melissa were on the phone," Fiona started as they all met back at the loft with Gillian.
"Son of a bitch had back up, someone fucking put holes through my engine," Kent's voice said from the recorder followed by Melissa's.
"How much does he know?"
"Too fucking much, I need to shut this down,"
"No not yet there's another package in lockup"
"-Sigh- Have her get it out and I'll clean up this mess."
"Kent's running scared." Fi told them, "It makes our job a little more complicated…"
Gillian's eyes widened and began to water, "Was… he talking about me when he said 'clean up this mess'?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah well that was what our little dance at the construction site was all about, Mike was their first clean up project," He told her while motioning to Michael, who was standing across from them in the middle of his room with his arms crossed.
"I'm so sorry!" Gillian said while turning on her stool to look at him, "I-"
"It's ok," he interrupted, "Busted my windshield, I'll just repair it… again,"
Seeing the look he was giving him, Sam glanced away.
"Well the windshield is your only problem," Harry interjected from the green chair with a smirk, "With as many rounds as I put into Kent's engine block, that truck won't be running again until he replaces it."
"But he tried to kill him," Gillian pointed out, only for Mike to shrug.
"Happens all the time so don't worry about it, especially on the part time easy jobs."
Fiona messed with the recorder a bit, "The problem is that we don't have enough evidence to use against him." she said to get things back on track.
Gillian wrapped her arms around herself, "So what do I do?"
They all shared glances before looking to Mike.
"You could run… Kent might not find you but you'd have to stay on the move for five to ten years."
"Plus he still has all the blackmail material so he can still take you down, but if you have to help Melissa get that package out of SXG," Sam added.
"But he-"
"Look I know your scared but I'll be right outside to keep an eye out." The ex-seal interrupted, "Once Kent has that Heroine we can use it to break him down,"
-X-
Over the next day all four of them played the waiting game, Sam staked out the SXG parking lot were Gillian had parked her SUV, eating cracker jacks and trying to send text messages to Veronica, only to find out that SXG had cell blocking around their property. Michael was parked out at his meeting location and was bored out of his mind, but that was what this was all about, waiting. Besides it wasn't like he could leave, Philip Cowen was meeting him there but hadn't said a time so he had a long time to wait. Fiona laid on the couch up on the raise loft in Michaels loft, reading GUNS and AMMO while listening to the bug in Kent's cell phone. Harry spent his time between Modern Warfare and checking up on Madeline and Nate for Mike while making some calls of his own to find things out that could help. Usually this calls happened between levels and loading screens but it didn't bother him. He was looking for the names of some of Miami's biggest Heroin dealers, maybe this would help out some in the job if they knew who Kent was so afraid of.
-Beep- -Beep- -Beep-
Pausing the game, just a second before pulling the trigger to fire the large 50 cal sniper rifle at a Russian a little further than a mile away, he picked up his cell phone and checked the caller ID, it was UNLISTED and the number was just a line of small stars (Example: *****).
"Yes?"
"…"
"The number is 24, 42, 15, 67, 98, 01, 43, 75, Space, JP-LE" he listed off without missing a beat.
"…"
"Authorization code: ORYAN6-80, now transfer the damn call, I've jumped through enough hoops already and it's getting annoying."
"…"
"About bloody time,"
"…"
"Tonight, I want the information via Dead Drop,"
"…"
"Of course I know that. Standard payment will be transfer to the usual accounts."
"…"
"Of course… it's nice working with you again too-"
Harry heard the phone buzz and pulled it away from his ear, turning it around and frowning at the 'Signal lost,' message he got, "Blasted piece of rubbish, you'd think they'd give some decent signal coverage around here,"
Tossing the phone aside, he kicked back and threw his feet up on the coffee table before starting his game again.
-X-
The next morning Michael, Fi, and Sam were meeting at the loft with Gillian to tell her just how close she had came to dying the night before. Fiona had heard something over the bug and called Mike to tell him that something was up. Michael had been forced to leave the meeting area and miss Cowen as both Sam and Harry's phones weren't working.
When he arrived with Fiona, Sam knew something was up as Kent and Melissa were parked outside the fenced in area waiting for something. That's when it hit them that it was a car bomb.
Mike took one of the floor mats and had both Sam and Fi distract the security guard at the gate while he climbed over the fence, using the floor mat to push down the barbed wire and quickly ran over to Gillian's vehicle. There was two different areas where the bomb could've been, the first was attached to the gas tank, but it was unreliable, the second was attacking it near the battery which would set off the explosives. The tank was clear so he quickly spun around and started grasping at the area near the battery.
All the while, Gillian had been leaving the office and was approaching the SUV, clueless at to what was going on. Unlocking the door and climbing in, she cranked it and backed up, leaving Mike laying on the ground holding a wad of plastic explosives to his chest and ruining his shirt with the grease.
"They really tried to kill me?" she asked, her voice full of emotion and fright as Sam nodded, "With that, under my car?"
"Well yeah…" Michael snipped, not the least bothered by it, "it's a car bomb,"
"This might be hard to get your head around," Sam told her, "But this is a good thing, they are scared of you. That's why they put this little toy next to your engine block,"
The door to the loft opened and Harry walked in, "What's going on, I got three messages on my phone last night," he asked while they all turned to him.
"Harry where the hell were you last night?" Fiona demanded before Sam or Michael could, "Kent and Melissa tried to kill Gillian and we couldn't find you,"
Harry slid his phone from his pocket and waved it, "This little bastard wont pick up a signal like a woman looking for a man in a gay bar. It's acting up worse than a troubled child on crack."
Sam pressed his lips together, finding the jokes a little humorous while the others did only to a lesser extent.
"Well it's nice to see that you can still make up jokes." Michael said seriously, "I missed my meeting with Cowen while you were doing nothing,"
Harry's eyes narrowed on him, "Kiss my arse Mike, I was busy with trying to find out something about Kent's buyers and keeping tabs on your mother and brother… by the way, your Mum wants you over for supper… oh and she's still pissed for not telling her anything and giving your brother a gun… mine to be exact,"
"I'll make sure you get it back," Mike said, "But what about the buyers?"
"Ah yes," Harry muttered loudly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a couple pieces of paper stapled together and folded up. "It wasn't much, I got a list of the major distributors here in Miami and where they sell their drugs. I had to reach out to an old contact of mine and go through so many protocols that it reinforces my stance on staying burned…"
Fiona snorted lightly, "Unlike some people," she muttered, giving Michael a dirty look as Harry approached and handed the list to Sam.
Michael cut a look to Fiona who gave a small smile and a look that said 'Yeah, I said it, what are you going to do about it?'
"Who made this load of dung?" Harry's voice cut in breaking the looks and making them look over. He was closing the fridge with a beer in hand and started poking at the bomb with a pen that had been sitting on the table.
"Kent," Gillian mumbled, arms crossed.
Harry snorted, "What an amateur," he huffed while dropping the pen and pulling the wires, followed by the detonator off.
They watched as he picked up the clay-like blob and started rolling it around, pressing it, twisting it, and molding it before Gillian asked.
"Look, what do I do about this?"
"Take a vacation," Sam suggested, "By the time you come back we'll have your problems all sorted out… New Hampshire's nice this time of year," he said making Michael agree and suggest Vermont.
"Ok." she whispered after a moment, agreeing to leave and go on a vacation out of state. "But what will you do?"
Michael sat down on his chair, "Well, Kent and Melissa are going to have a little well documented transaction going on, a buy, we are going to take that evidence and go to Kent, make him shut things down and back off."
"You make it sound so easy,"
Blinking, Michael looked at her with a raised brow, "That sounded easy?"
She smiled softly, "Thank you… thank you for doing this for me,"
"Well we haven't done it yet," Sam informed her, "So why don't you go make your arrangements?"
Harry finished with the bomb, "I'll escort her to the airport, just in case," he told them while setting down the perfectly rounded baseball sized explosive, "You never know what might happen."
Sam nodded, "Yeah, me and Fi can handle the buy we just need pictures and sound so while we do that Mikey, you can go to your meeting,"
-X-
"Are you sure it's ok for me to just leave you here?" Gillian asked at the terminal where her plane was about to leave.
Harry nodded, "It's fine, I'll take a cab back home. You just get your rear on that plane and have a nice time."
She nodded, shouldering her bag and extending the handle of her rolling suitcase, "Thank you for everything," she whispered before kissing him on the cheek.
He smiled, "No problem,"
Standing there just long enough to make sure she got onto the plane, Harry walked to the nearest bathroom, made a portkey out of a rock he had picked up from the parking lot and checked the time, finding it to be 3:00 before he vanished.
-X-
Standing at St. Johns church at 3:16, Michael waited worriedly that his hidden note may have been missed. After Fi had called he had used a piece of sidewalk chalk to right John 316 on the sidewalk hoping that Cowen would get it.
The pay phone next to him rang, "No greeting card, I'm hurt," he said into the phone once he picked up.
"You made it,"
"Yeah something came up, sorry I missed our meeting,"
Cowen chuckled, "Saint John's at 3:16, clever boy. Are you ready to meet?"
"Are you here?"
The man snorted, "Well we'll meet on my turf thanks, I'm where you got my first message, come alone or I leave, come unarmed or I leave, be in ten minutes or I leave."
"But that's over a mile away,"
"Well you'd better run,"
Slamming the phone down onto the hook, Michael growled and took off down the road.
He ran, pacing himself while keeping a brisk pace until he reached the parking garage and ran up the ramps until he got to the top floor and checked his watch, just in time.
"Michael!"
Looking over he saw Philip Cowen on the other end of the building near a service exit, waving him over.
They walked towards each other and met in the middle, raising their coats to show that they were unarmed.
"I always find that my hand shakes after a run like that," Philip mused, "I'll take any advantage I can get,"
Michael was huffing and gasping for breath due to the run, "I'm not… here to… kill you,"
"Oh really? I slept with a gun under my pillow every night since I heard you were hunting for me, you say that now, it's almost disappointing," the man shrugged.
"I want to know why you burned me,"
Philip gave him a look and a huff, "You think I burned you?"
"I know you did,"
Cowen laughed, "Why, because you read it on a file? Wow you really unraveled that little mystery didn't you?" he said while Michael circled around him. "Do you really think this is about me? One man watched you, targeted you, burned you, froze your accounts, cut off your travel, one guy did all that and decided to come to Miami and explain himself."
"You tried to have me killed," Michael pointed out while raising a finger at him and making him shrug.
"Nothing personal… you'd do the same in my position. Michael you keep thinking that this is about me, banish that thought. You are on the edge of something much, much, bigger than us my friend, the people I work for, they have plans for you."
Michael walked closer to him, his eyes wide, "The people you work for?"
Cowen looked around nervously, "Powerful, dangerous people and man are they upset with me, I miss read you Michael. Didn't expect you to buck quite so much. Your making everyone nervous and the people in control of this are not happy with this. You were burned for a reason Michael, why? I don't know. Maybe they want you for a job, maybe they just want to watch you suffer, but what I do know it that the order for you to be burned came from someone high up on the ladder and-"
The echo of a rifle shot reached their ears just before Cowen's chest exploded, spraying blood all over the concrete behind him and even on to Mikes face and shirt.
Ducking down, he turned back and forth trying to find the shooter but saw nothing. He reached over and checked Philip's neck, nothing, the man was dead and police sirens were wailing.
Grabbing his phone, Mike called the first person he could and dialed Nate.
-X-
Sitting in his car, Harry cruised down the road and slowed down at a red light just as his phone beeped, "Hello?" he answered with a smile.
"Harry?" Fiona's voice called over the line, it sounded shaky like she had just run a marathon while being chased.
"Fi, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly while sitting up straight and losing his smile.
"Kent and Melissa's deal went bad!" she huffed, "Their boss is cleaning house, they were watching and killed them… they took Sam. I'm in the warehouse district, under the first street bridge, I need help, they're looking for me."
"Fi-"
"I got to go, I'm going to call Michael, please Harry hurry,"
"Fi wait don't-" he tried only for the line to go dead, "Shit!"
Slamming his foot down on the gas, Harry cursed the fact that he was quite a ways away from the place Fi told him to go.
By the time he got there, he saw the same red truck that Michael's brother drove parked a little ways away from the warehouses and pulled along side of them before sliding out the widow and siding on the door, "Michael?" he called while catching a glimpse of the man next to the driver.
Michael leaned forward as both him and his brother heard the voice, "Harry, what are you going here?" he asked, surprised that he was there.
"Fi called me, she needed help. But enough of this, what's the plan?"
Michael thought about it for a minute and looked at Nate, "I need to drive."
Harry's eyes widened, "Oh I get what your doing," he muttered, "Hold up just a second."
Sliding back into his car, he spun around and parked it on the side of the road and jumped out, opening his trunk on the way and grabbing a black backpack before jogging over and climbing into the back as Mike and Nate switched places.
Michael revved the motor and flew down the road, pulling into the warehouse lot and gunning it towards the warehouse where they saw Fi's signal, which was a small piece of red fabric that stuck out against the white wall under a window.
Harry reached into the bag and pulled out a P90 submachine gun as a couple of the men searching for Fiona saw them and started shooting. Holding the metal bars along the back of the truck, Harry's P90 open fired, peppering the ground with 5.7x28mm rounds and killing one, giving Mike enough time to keep in line with the wall beneath the windows of the warehouse.
He couldn't remember much of the impact, just that he ducked down just in time for the truck to bust through the wall and causing his head to impact against the back glass which shattered.
Harry groaned, holding the back of his head and feeling blood beneath his fingers as he moved over and leaned over the side, only to see Fiona jogging towards the door.
"FI!" he groused out while tossing the automatic to her, which she caught beautifully and continued towards the hole they made.
Michael and Nate got out as Fiona fired a few bursts at the approaching men, making them scramble for cover, "Holy shit!" Nate exclaimed at the site of the bloody dent in his back glass as Mike stopped next to the man.
"Harry, you alright?"
"Just dandy, go on and get to work, I'll be fine,"
He nodded and turned to Nate, "Nate, cover the entrance, don't let anyone in."
Harry groaned some more and rolled out of the truck bed and onto the floor with a 'oomph' and saw Nate taking pot shots at the guys outside.
"Guys! Can you hurry it up!" he yelled over to his brother and Fiona, "I can't hold them back forever."
Ignoring the pain in the back of his head, Harry got up and grabbed the bag where he had two more P90's waiting plus extra clips. Pulling them out, he slid the bag on and walked over to Nate before nudging him back.
"Watch out," he huffed while ignoring the wet sensation that dripped down his neck as he aimed one of the dual P90s.
Seven rounds hit the fuel tank to a forklift that two men where hiding behind, spraying gas all over them and making them cry out in shock. One moved out from behind his cover and got three more planted in his chest before Harry continued shooting at the others.
50 rounds later and he leaned back behind the wall and handed Nate the other one, "Here… you shoot, I'll reload," he hissed out as the pain in his head worsened. He knew something was fractured, hell he wouldn't be surprised if his brain was swelling or he had a concussion, the pain was blinding and he was finding it hard to shoot straight anymore.
Michael and Fiona made it back in a few minutes loading a bomb into the back of the truck before cranking it up.
Outside the shooting had stopped, the few that weren't injured saw the truck slowly backing out and they approached carefully. One reached the side and peered in, "RUN!" he screamed moments before the bomb exploded, tearing the truck bed apart and sending metal ball bearings flying.
"Oh my god!" Fiona gasped while catching sight of the blood soaking through the back of Harry's shirt, "Harry!"
She and Nate picked him up and followed Mike into the machine shop where they had made the bomb and pride the bars off of a window. Harry was able to move a bit but them helping was much quicker and he wasn't going to slow them down by being stubborn and refusing their help.
Harry's vision went in and out, fading to black every few moments as they escaped.
"Don't you pass out Harry!" Fi hissed at him as he missed a few steps, "You have to stay awake."
His ears were ringing as he blacked out, only to came to in the back of his car, which was screaming down the road while Fi was next to him, nearly yelling into his ear, "Harry you have to stay awake!"
Harry looked her in the eyes, "I'm…sorry… Fi," he whispered slowly before once again blacking out, falling into her lap limply.
To be continued…
-X-
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