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“I’m not laughing...”
He stayed where he was, watching with Lawrence, as one of the young women marched the unwounded thug to the end of the dock, and then back. Minutes later, Sovern’s boat slipped away into the night. They could see the running lights for a while, and then they, too, disappeared.
And as that was happening, they heard the first of the sirens.
“Now you see what’s funny?” Lawrence asked.
“Yeah. The shooters aren’t running.”
“No. They’re waiting,” Lawrence said.
“They don’t look like cops.”
“No, they don’t. We need to call Tom and we need to figure out who those women are. And the fat guy.”
“If they’re not on a boat, they’ve probably got a car at the motel,” Martin said.
“Let’s see how they deal with the cops...”
An hour and a half later,Tom Boyadjian called Step, who picked up on the first ring and said, “Da.”
“There’s going to be a... what would you call it... a mandatory combat zone bonus in addition to the three thousand a day. I gotta cover my boys.” He said “boys,” even though one of his boys was a woman, because that’s the way they all talked.
“Tell me,” Step said. “Wait, I want to put it on speaker.”
Victoria came over and stood next to him, as Boyadjian relayed the details of the clash at the motel. “If those were your men, you got one shot and maybe bad, and one arrested. They took the shot guy to St. John’s Medical Center. There was a call from an EMT to the hospital and they used the name Artyom for the victim, no last name. Don’t know his condition. The other one is at Oxnard police headquarters...”
“You say there were two women and a fat man?” Victoria asked.
“Hi, Vickie. Yes. My researchers say one of the women did the shooting, but both women had guns and looked competent. They went with the cops to police headquarters. They were driving a Toyota truck, a Tundra,” Boyadjian said. “The cops let them drive separately. My people think they knew they were being watched, because some Oxnard cops came snooping around the waterfront, looking for anyone who might be watching. The fat guy and the girls took the truck into a fenced lot behind the Oxnard police headquarters, so we can’t get at it, at least not yet.”
“If they leave the lot, can you track them?” Step asked.
“Maybe, if we’re in some traffic,” Boyadjian said.
“Do that. Whatever it costs,” Step said.
“Hang on a minute, I’ve got a call coming in from my people...”
After a full minute of silence, Boyadjian came back on the line: “Okay, this isn’t good. The FBI has arrived at police headquarters. We’re thinking it’s possible that the two women are undercover FBIagents. You’re a good friend, but I’m not going to deal with that. Not on a shooting.”
“I have reasons to think that they’renotFBI,” Step said. “I don’t know who they are, but I don’t think they’re feds.”
“Then who?” Boyadjian asked.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, what we’d likeyouto figure out.”
“We can watch from a distance, but I’ll tell my people to break away if there’s any risk at all,” Boyadjian said. “Your garage over on Ventura Boulevard got hit by an FBI SWAT team and we don’t know how they were located so quickly. We knowyouwere clean, last time we looked, but apparently, they weren’t. Anyway, I can’t afford to get in the middle of a war. I don’t want to be on anybody’s side.”
“I understand,” Step said, and he did. “You have your business to protect. Watch what you can. Don’t take chances, but any information will be appreciated. I mean, big-bonus appreciated.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Boyadjian said.
When Step hung up,Victoria said, “Those are the two women who took out the security guard at the warehouse and stole the Intel chips. Now they’re cooperating with the cops—they didn’t even try to run after they shot Artyom. What are they? Not FBI...”
“Maybe FBI counterintel?” Step suggested. “Maybe they took the chips just to see what they were?”
“Doesn’t feel like the FBI to me. Two women on their own, with a fat man? Who were talking to Sovern and they let him sneak away, when they obviously know who he is?”
