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“Abundantly,” Tank sneered.
“Why is he being so quiet and not looking anyone in the eye?” Jack asked.
“It’s a special technique they teach them in their field training for hostage situations,” Hickory answered. “They think looking us in the eye will be perceived as an act of aggression, so they teach them to avoid it. They’re also taught to say as little as possible. His limited verbalizations are meant to give us less to get angry about.”
Darkness stepped aside, giving the man an out. “Go, before I change my mind.”
The man rolled to his feet and made a run for it. As they watched him jump on his bike and head for the gate, Ven spoke. “I’m not sure letting him go was such a fine idea.”
“We sure the hell ain’t gonna give him a damned dirt nap in front of a bunch of college kids,” Darkness said. “Him disappearing is a good way to get ATF to drop down on top of us when we need it the least. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a situation on our hands.”
Hickory agreed. “They were wasting their time here anyway. We call what we do running guns because back in the day, that’s how it was done. The fact is, our operation may be different but our terminology isn’t. Now, we have a wholesale license and nobody cares what we sell to who, so long as we keep up with the paperwork. Tank probably thought we were running illegal guns because we do the paperwork on the front end when we get payment. He’s only ever seen the back end, which is the delivery. The stupid fuckers could hang out with us all damn year and still be hard-pressed to figure that shit out.”
“It’s damned hard for career criminals to make a decent living these days, ain’t it?” Jack quipped.
Darkness turned on him. “Who the fuck are you and who gave you permission to speak?”
Jack held up both hands in surrender. “I’m just kind of here, hoping not to get shot by the crazy serial killers dumping bodies all over the place.” Darkness glared at him. “I’ll just shut up now, ‘cause I can tell you’re thinking about givingmea dirt nap. I love that phrase by the way. It sounds menacing and so goddamn final.”
“Make yourself useful, prospect, and get me a beer.”
Jack hopped off the table and ambled over to a huge keg-shaped ice cooler and pulled out an amber bottle. Closing the distance between them, he tossed it to Darkness.
After twisting off the cap and taking a long pull, Darkness looked around. “Peb, where are we on this Ace thing?”
When Peb walked forward, Ace honestly felt bad for the kid. He was all of about sixteen or seventeen and being asked to perform tasks well above his pay grade as a prospect. His brother, Cork, had only just been patched, and the pair of them were all alone in the world. The sickly, small gothic kid was really stepping up his game as their IT expert. If he were being honest, Ace would admit the kid was miles more competent than the company their club used before Peb wandered into their midst.
Forcing himself to stand up straight, Peb answered in a forced voice, “My facial recognition is still running, and I can’t do much until we figure out who these people are.”
“Maybe the crime lab has identified them already,” Ace mused.
“No, sir, they haven’t. I hacked their system, and it looks like it’s gonna take weeks for them to figure this shit out. I lifted some of their information and found a partial print. I enhanced it and drew connecting lines by hand. The lab techs aren’t allowed to do things like that ‘cause it’s tampering, but I’m thinking we don’t give a big shit about stuff like that, if it gets us the information we’re after.”
“That’s damned smart, Peb.” Darkness rarely gave out a compliment, but when he did, it was pretty amazing.
Peb shot a look to his older brother, Cork. The smile on his brother’s face was infectious, making the younger man stand a little taller.
“If I could hack into the federal crime database, I might be able to get a match on that partial print.”
“I do not want you hacking into any federal databases, Peb,” Darkness said, his tone final. “You’re too valuable to risk for a low-grade fingerprint match that we don’t even know will yield results. I don’t mind bending the rules, but I won’t get you messed up in seriously illegal shit that could get you real time.”
“Yes, sir.” Peb went back to scrolling on his cell phone, his long fingers pecking away at the speed of light. The proud little smile on his face gave Ace a momentary lift.
Hickory suggested, “Why don’t you shoot the print to our attorneys, Peb. Ed has a pretty good relationship with the local sheriff’s office. Maybe he can get them to do him a solid.”
Without looking up, Peb murmured, “Will do, Hickory.”
Darkness asked, “Do we know of any gangs working out of that area?”
Ven pulled a tiny flip notebook out of his back pocket. The man was nothing if not old school. Standing in neat black jeans, button-up cotton shirt, and Harley boots, he began reading information he’d scribbled inside. “I asked around and discovered there are three criminal enterprises operating out of the badlands. One is native and housed on a local reservation. They sell rebuilt ammo and turn a tidy little profit each month. I don’t think they have any beef with local gangs.
“The other two enterprises are the Seven-six and Outlanders MC. The Seven-six, as you all know, is a prolific gang operating throughout the badlands. They’re heavy into drugs and the skin trade. Since their primary moneymakers are lucrative, I imagine they’re constantly defending their connections and turf.
“The Outlanders MC is a one-percent club that pretty much takes ex-military and law enforcement types. I believe they focus on what you might typically think of as victimless crimes. They act as go-betweens in arms sales, own and operate a string of topless bars, and occasionally do some low-key, white-collar jobs. They’re all about family and the local town they live in.”
“I’d put my money on the Seven-six, except two of their guys were among the bodies,” Ace said gruffly.
Darkness threw in his two-cents worth. “Well, it sure as hell ain’t the natives. They’d tuck the bodies away on their vast private lands, where no law enforcement is welcome to come. They have certain protections and operate like individual nations, in a lot of regards.”
