Gamma Blade - Tim Stevens Page 0,7

hadn’t yet been punished for failing to deliver the four grand on time. But he might play hardball - it was highly unlikely, but possible - and so Brull needed the boy alive as leverage.

“No,” he said. “Once we get the money, then you waste him.”

“Fuentes, too?” asked Pedro.

Brull stared at him, appalled.

“You nuts? No. Fuentes stays alive. He needs to suffer. And to spread the word, about what happens to guys who don’t pony up on time.” Brull shook his head. “Pedro, I swear, when the good Lord made you he got so carried away with all the muscles - and the dick, if what I’ve heard is true - that he ran short when it came to brains.”

“Sorry, EJ,” said Pedro. He didn’t sound sorry at all. None of Brull’s senior guys were grovelers. Brull didn’t care for fawning yes-men, and those who tried to suck up to him found themselves swiftly unemployed, or sometimes worse.

Brull checked his watch. It was a fine specimen, a Patek Philippe, and Brull had bought it for himself as a reward when he’d made his first ten-thousand-dollar deal. That had been three years ago. Now, ten grand was chickenfeed.

It was three fifteen in the afternoon.

“Take off, guys.” He nodded at Elon and Pedro. “Get some down time. Make sure you’re fresh for tonight.”

They acknowledged him with a bow of the head each, and left the office.

Brull sat alone, listening to the sounds of the city beyond the double-glazed windows. Tonight was going to need fresh men, that was for sure.

It wasn’t the biggest meeting Brull had ever attended. But it would be one of the most crucial. And the potential for double cross was great.

Yet, if it went according to plan, it would end up netting Brull and his organization the biggest haul in their short history.

Brull got up after a few minutes. He made sure his cell phone was switched off, and the phone on his desk was unplugged. He locked the door to the office.

Before his desk was a rug, worn threadbare from countless pairs of feet. And knees. Sometimes Brull thought it would be good to get that rug replaced, maybe with one of the fine handwoven Moroccan ones he had at his home. But the office was a front, of course, and any overt display of wealth or even good taste might attract suspicion.

Besides, he liked the existing rug. It was an emblem of his success. Blood had been spilled on that rug, and men had groveled there before him in supplication.

Now, he eased himself into the lotus position. He’d taken up yoga years ago, and was astonished and delighted by the way it relaxed him, helped him empty his mind of all worries and fears and concentrate simply on being.

His eyes closed, Ernesto Justice Brull allowed peace to soak him in its soothing balm.

Chapter 4

Beth’s face appeared beside Venn’s in the mirror. He was stooping a little, to allow himself to examine his reflection, and it put him on a level with her.

“My,” she murmured. “Lieutenant Joe Venn. You do look dapper.”

Venn tried on a playful scowl. But he had to admit, she was right.

He did look sharp.

Venn had never been a fashion hound, and would be the first to admit it. He couldn’t understand the obsession most people seemed to have with clothes. To him, clothes were something that protected you from the elements, or, in the case of uniforms, identified your job easily for people. Wearing them to make a statement, or to feel good about yourself, had always seemed to him to be narcissistic in the extreme. So all he needed was a pair of jeans or chinos, a plain shirt, and one of his trusty leather jackets. Nothing more.

Tonight, though, he’d gone the full nine yards. He was wearing a navy Brooks Brothers suit which Beth had gotten for him last Christmas and which he’d worn exactly once before - when he’d tried it on for size - as well as a cream-colored shirt from Calvin Klein, also provided by Beth, topped off with a red silk necktie. His shoes, which he hadn’t yet put on, were brown Italian loafers, quite unlike the boots he was used to.

Venn felt awkward, and acutely self-conscious.

But he thought it all hung together okay.

Beth hadn’t asked him to dress up, but he’d decided to do so spontaneously, and he could see from her expression that she was both surprised and delighted. She was attending the keynote address