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“Trak. Nice to see you,” he grinned. “Wilson. Miller. Damn good to see you all as well. You sort of disappeared on us for a while.”
“We were sort of forced to,” frowned Miller. He shook his head, pushing a folder toward them. They each took pieces, reading what they had in the file, and then passed them to the next man.
Wilson read the file in front of him, frowning deeper and deeper as he did. When he reached the bottom, he went back to the top and read it again.
“You knew what Judge was doing? You knew that he’d already sacrificed one daughter and was willing to sacrifice another.”
“We knew about the first daughter. The second, we weren’t sure. She was able to avoid the most horrible parts of their little game. Then Castelloni found out that they were saving her for Garvin. Once he was out of the picture, we thought the girl might be safe.” He looked toward the two criminals, nodding.
“The father is, how you say, in deep debt with many men. Some for money. Some for drugs and women. Others for favors. He’s been trading his wife for favors for years, but now she is old. Still attractive. But old. He started to promise all of us that he could get G.R.I.P. inventions. Said he knew ways to do that.
“At first, we believed him. Then, we learned more. We knew who you were and knew he could not get them. We have agreement with FBI. We don’t sell our drugs here. They don’t kill us. We like this agreement.” Paul raised his brows, grinning at the men, and they shook their heads.
“So, you figure this is a good relationship?” asked Nine.
“It’s the best I can do, Nine. I can’t always be like you and win all the wars. Sometimes, I have to be content with winning a few minor battles. This is one of them.”
“What about the girls you buy and sell?” asked Trak.
“We don’t buy or sell girls. Never. I have prostitutes. I won’t lie about that, but only in my own country,” said Castelloni.
“Jesus, this is fucked up,” said Wilson. “So, the trade-off for getting to Morrison and Judge is befriending two international criminals of the highest order…”
“Thank you,” smiled Yergonov.
“It wasn’t a compliment,” frowned Wilson. “You befriend these two, getting information about Morrison and his plans. Then what? Do we just let them leave the states? Buy a house in the country? What? You’ll forgive me, Paul, but this shit doesn’t set well with us. We’re more than aware of what these two are capable of and who their friends are.”
“I don’t have all the details worked out, Wilson. I’m trying. But see this from my side. They’ve gotten more information about Morrison and Judge than ten of my best agents did in three years. There’s someone out there helping him, and we have to find out who that is. These two men can entice him with things I can’t. I need to know how he’s hacking into files.” Nine smiled at him.
“I think we can help you with that one.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Where are we on the case to block the weapons manufacturers from selling on their own?” asked Morrison. Judge shuffled a few files, then cleared his throat.
“It’s not as easy as you think, Seth. There is no precedent for the government taking over private industry unless it’s in financial distress, and it’s going to create a shitstorm. Think about this. How do you think the ‘right to carry’ generation in the deep south is going to react? Do you really think the good old boys in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, hell, anything south of Cincinnati is going to allow you to take those companies?”
“They won’t have a choice,” he said calmly. “We just show them what the manufacturers have been hiding and tell them we’ll offer it to them as a private citizen, if they help us.”
“Seth, you don’t understand this group of people at all. They’re proud of the fact that they’re buying American-made weapons. One whisper from anyone that you’re willing to sell those to Russia or China or anyone other than America, and you’ll be strung up in the town square.”
“I’ll handle it,” he said with a growl. “Where’s that fucking daughter of yours?”
“I don’t know,” said Spencer, placing the folders in his briefcase. “Maxine thinks she got help from one of them. She thought she recognized the man who helped her at Quinn’s last party. She could be anywhere by now. We won’t find her.”
“If we do, she’s mine,” he said, glaring at the other man. “We agreed. She would be mine after Garvin. Of course, you were trying to make other deals. Weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t trying to make other deals, Seth. For fuck’s sake, I’ve lost one daughter to all of this.”
“She was weak. Had she done what she was told, she’d be fine,” he smirked. “A little used, but she’d be fine.”
“How can you be so cold? What if they were your daughters?”
“That’s why I never had children. No loose strings. Or cannons, in your case. I’m going to need Maxine tonight. I’m feeling stressed.” Spencer stared at his old friend and just nodded. Using Maxine was supposed to be a one-time thing, but lately, they’d been together more and more. He wasn’t all that certain that Maxine wasn’t enjoying it.
“Just what is it you think you’re going to get out of controlling G.R.I.P., Seth? Even if this were to happen, you know that they’ll take everything with them. They own the patents, they own the new designs, and their engineers will leave before we ever even locate the damn building.”
“There are a million engineers out there that can pick up where they left off. I’m not worried about it.”
