Welcome to book fifteen in the Operation Quickline series. Christmas may be Lisa Wycherly’s favorite time of the year, but then Sid’s shocking encounter with an old friend gets them embroiled in one messy case. With Lisa’s nephew spiraling out of control, it’s looking like a not-so-merry holiday. You can read the latest chapter here, and follow the whole series here.
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Sid’s Voice
Tom and Angelique were just coming home from Christmas with her brother and his family, when Tom dropped her off in front of their apartment building and went to park the car, their carport being quite a way off from the apartment itself. She wasn’t in the apartment when he got there. He looked over the balcony and saw a gunman forcing her into a car with her hands cuffed behind her back. Tom thought the gunman looked like Cobb.
Why he called Louis first, I don’t know. He mumbled something about since it was, essentially, a cop that had kidnapped her, it didn’t seem likely the cops would be of much help. Anyway, Louis agreed that the cops shouldn’t be involved and said he’d be right over. I agreed to get there as fast as I could, too.
I had to go upstairs and change first. I was still wearing sweatpants and that long-sleeved t-shirt. Lisa followed me up.
“I’ll call the rest of the team and put them on alert,” she said. “What do you think we’ll need?”
“I have no idea. Could be a simple extraction, could be we’ll need sniper fire.” I stopped and looked at her. “Can you be ready for anything?”
“Of course.” She bit her lip and frowned. “I’m not sure when Esther and Frank are leaving for Chicago.”
Esther and Frank generally spend Christmas Day here in Los Angeles because of Frank’s choir directing duties, and Esther’s family is here. But they often leave Christmas night or the day after to go visit Frank’s family in the Chicago area.
“They’re leaving tomorrow,” I said. “The bigger problem will be Kathy and Jesse if they can’t get Estelle to sit with Keshon at the last second.”
I got into a pair of jeans and a dress shirt, then slid on my shoulder holster, and grabbed the .45 automatic out of the locked dresser drawer. The good thing about unstructured jackets was that the gun didn’t show as badly as it did in my Italian cut suits. I got a khaki jacket on and kissed Lisa. She handed me a box of ammo.
“You never know,” she said.
“Thanks, Lover.” I kissed her again and held her, then hurried out to the garage.
Tom was way past thinking clearly when I got there. He paced relentlessly in the living room while Louis peeked through the front window curtains.
“Damn,” Louis said. “He probably saw you come in here.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Cobb.” Louis left the window. “He’s sitting in a car across the street watching this place.”
“Shit!” Tom yelped. He turned on me. “So, what are you going to do about this?”
“Me?” I stepped back. “I can’t do anything.”
“Then why do you have a gun on?”
I smiled weakly to buy a moment. “I’ve been carrying since we got shot at that first time. I’ve carried since I got back from ‘Nam, until a few years ago.”
“Bullshit!” Tom went back to pacing. “Ange works with agents on top-secret projects, all kinds of undercover people. I know god-damned well you’re one of them!”
“What?” Louis asked, looking at me, then Tom.
I blinked. “What the hell are you talking about? Ange and I are friends. I’m friends with her former boss. We’ve been friends since before I knew Lisa.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not one of Ange’s undercover guys.” Tom glared at me.
“Fuck,” said Louis. “Now, it makes sense.”
“Huh?” At that point, I was genuinely bewildered and not just faking it to keep my cover.
“I don’t know, Sid.” Louis’ grin was almost evil. “Does the name Colonel Niles Landry mean anything to you?”
Of course, it did. Landry was the alias that Dale O’Connor was using when he first blackmailed me into intelligence work, and then, after the war, to suck me back in again.
“You mean I was right?” Tom stopped pacing and gulped.
“Of course, you were right.” Louis smiled. “I went to Landry a couple months ago because I needed help nailing Cobb and friends. I’ve been doing favors for Landry for years. He told me that one of my old high school buddies could help me.” Louis frowned. “Landry is the kind of prick who would withhold a bit of critical information like exactly who, but it was almost like he couldn’t remember the name. I thought it was you, Tom.”
“Me?” Tom’s face went white. “Why?”
“Girlfriend with the FBI? And you were the one guy who was willing to help.” Louis jerked a thumb at me. “Not like this asshole, who had to be dragged along kicking and screaming. Not knowing who it was, I had to guess. So, that’s why I got the four of you together. I’d already checked out Stan and knew damned well he wasn’t the guy I needed.”
I looked at him. “And now you’re so sure I’m your guy.”
“Yeah, Sid.” Louis walked right up to me. “You’re the only one who got drafted and the one who most likely had contact with Landry. Not to mention Bob’s pot problem and Wallace being a weenie. There’s also a scar on your ass that you don’t want to talk about. And then there’s your wife.”
I’d seen Louis looking at Lisa here and there and wondering.
Louis laughed. “She only looks harmless, Sid.”
I couldn’t help it. I choked and laughed because I’d been saying the same thing about Lisa for years. But there was my cover. Looking at Tom, I realized that was blown and then some. I shrugged. Lisa is kind of my weak spot.
“She could kick your ass three times over, Louis.” I looked at Tom. “This can’t get out, you know. The only reason my family and I are safe is because no one knows about us.”
“Except Colonel Landry,” said Louis.
“That cocksucking bastard.” I shut my eyes. “The next time I see that fuck, I am going to take him out.”
“I’ll help,” said Louis.
“When did you run into him?” I asked.
“He showed up shortly after I pulled my tag switch. He helped me get away with it.”
“I don’t care about trips down Memory Lane right now!” Tom went back to pacing. “What are we going to do? Call the cops? Call the FBI? Come on. Ange is one of them.”
I looked at Louis. “You seem to know a lot about Cobb. Come clean this time. What’s his game?”
“The same as you’ve heard.” Louis took a deep breath. “He has a dirt file. Names, dates, all sorts of stuff. A few years ago, I ran across some information that could have made a certain politician, well, uncomfortable. It was deeply buried and well worth burying. So, I blackmailed him. But see, the thing is, the way blackmailers get caught is that they get greedy, always wanting more from their victims. My dad told me that. I hit the politician once, made a genuinely nice score on it, and left it. So, suddenly, this guy gets a lot closer to the Oval Office than anybody would have expected, and last year, he’s sweating a little. He contacts me and says he’s got some guys who will mess me up unless I do him a favor. He also points out that I know one of his pals, Niles Landry. Well, Landry’s been on my ass ever since the war. Yeah, I owed him, but the fuck is still collecting. Still not sure how this politician and him knew each other. Landry wants me to steal Cobb’s dirt file and take him and the other two out, which, by the way, I was more than happy to do. Cobb knew I hadn’t died.”
I looked at him. “How did he know that?”
Louis winced. “Not sure. I’ve got a bad feeling it was that asshole Landry. Could have been something else. Anyway, I’d been doing odd jobs for Cobb, as well, for obvious reasons, and not liking it. So, I stole the dirt file. But see, here’s the problem. Cobb is one mean son of a bitch, but he’s not an idiot. He had a couple more copies. He may have more, but I got one more, and I think I know where a third one is.”
“But why would he take Angelique?” Tom said. “And where’s he keeping her? In that car outside?”
Louis went back to the window and peeked out. “He’s still there, but I don’t think he’s got her with him. He’d have stashed her.” He turned. “As for why, he needs a bargaining chip but bad. I’m not sure how, but all his assets and his friends’ assets, including the foreign ones, are frozen. Even if he skips town, he has no money. His Fed pals aren’t going to want it to get out that they’ve got a bad apple, nor that he got the drop on one of their own, even if she’s technically a civilian.”
“Any guesses as to where he stashed her?” I asked.
“Well, the Feds know about his warehouse, so I doubt he put her there.” Louis shrugged. “Most likely spot is his house. It’s in Encino.”
I looked at him. “Do you have an address?”
“Yeah. But he’s keeping an eye on this place. How are we going to leave without him spotting us?”
I grinned. “You have forgotten. I have my wife, and as you said, Lisa only looks harmless.”
Lisa’s Voice –
Sid called me at close to ten-thirty. We needed an extraction and search. That was no problem, but we didn’t know how much time we had. I called Kathy and Esther. They were both ready to go. In fact, Kathy was already over at Esther’s place. I gave them the address, and they got to Encino before I did. Well, I probably shouldn’t have taken Coldwater Canyon, but that’s usually the fastest way to get to the San Fernando Valley. It was, however, Christmas night, and the 405 freeway was clear for a change.
I saw Esther’s car as I pulled past the target house.
“Hey, Little Red,” Kathy’s voice rang in my ear. “We have eyes on you.”
“Eyes on you, Red Sky and Red Gate. Meet you at the driveway.”
I parked half a block down from the house. It was a ranch-style, probably built in the Sixties, with an automated gate across the driveway. There were lights on over most of the doors in the neighborhood, not to mention the yards. But the windows in the houses all around were dark. Some folks still had their Christmas lights on, even at that hour. The colored lights on one house winked out as the three of us crossed the street, our black, hooded sweatshirts open. Once we’d slipped into the shadows next to the gate, we zipped up and put on gloves and black, all-over ski masks.
Esther chuckled as she looked at the gate. “Piece of cake.”
I’m not sure what she used to disable it, but she had it cracked open within seconds. We slid along the side yard to the house. Esther spotted something, again, I’m not sure what, but gestured that we should go around to the back. On the side of the house, she found something else she liked, fiddled with a metal box for a second, then laughed softly.
“That was too easy,” she muttered happily. “If he weren’t a bad guy, I’d be making a client call.”
I heard Kathy’s sigh, but we slid around to the back of the house. Kathy picked the lock on the back door, and we slid inside. I sent them to the front of the house to begin their search for the extra dirt files and went to the back to see if I could find Angelique. Ange was my target because she knew about me. She didn’t know about Esther and Kathy. At least, I don’t think she did, and I didn’t want her to if she didn’t. Ange was in the front side bedroom, blindfolded and handcuffed, sitting on the bed in there. I slid back into the hall.
“I have the extraction subject,” I whispered. “Will remove ASAP. You stay on search.”
“Copy,” said Kathy’s voice softly.
I slid back into the bedroom and hissed. Ange started.
“I’m here to get you to safety,” I whispered.
“Who…?”
“Never mind.”
I sat down next to her on the bed and got a lock pick out of one of the pockets on my break-in pants. I first slid the blindfold off her, then popped the cuffs relatively quickly. I nodded at her, and we slid out the back door and around the side of the house. I was able to crack the driveway gate open just enough for each of us to slide through, then pushed it back. I led Ange to my car. She gasped as she recognized it, but opened the passenger door and got in.
I slid behind the wheel and pulled off my mask and gloves.
“How…?”
“Come on, Ange. You know better than to ask.”
She cursed.
“Little Red, we have paper and two floppies,” said Esther.
I felt my pager buzz and looked at the readout. Sid had sent the signal.
“That will do. Perp is in motion. Evacuate now.”
Another minute or so, I saw the two dark forms opening the driveway gate. I didn’t wait but started my car and took off.
I parked out front of the apartment building in Culver City and walked Ange up to hers and Tom’s place. Sid and Louis were there in the front room. Ange ran to Tom’s arms, and I pulled the other two guys out of there pretty quickly.
“Got her out, huh?” Louis chuckled.
“It wasn’t that hard,” I snarled.
“Yeah, but he’s got high-level security on his place.”
I shrugged. “If you know what you’re doing, it’s no big deal.”
“Oh, come on!” Louis laughed.
My left hand whipped out and yanked his face next to mine. “If you know what you’re doing, it’s no big deal.”
Sid laughed loudly. “Like you said, Louis. She only looks harmless.”
I shoved Louis into the wall of another apartment. “By the way, I’m right-handed.”
“I’ll, uh, remember that,” Louis said softly.
Sid and I went down the stairs to the street.
“See you at home?” he asked, smiling.
“Yeah.” I smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss before heading to my car. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Thank you for reading. For more information about the Operation Quickline series, click here.
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