Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,54
New York for this weekend. A new business opportunity had arisen, one that could make us all wealthier than we’d ever dreamed. He said it was for a huge meth deal but I could tell that was bullshit. I knew it was something else. And afterwards, I overheard him talking with Sway outside the clubhouse. They were speaking quiet, but there was one word they repeated several times.’
‘Which was?’
‘Virus.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Positive. Plus these boys never go farther north than Carolina. To come all this way something major really must have been on the cards.’
He paused.
‘Then I caught the news earlier and saw there was some kind of bomb threat at Macy’s. And a ‘chemical pipe accident’ by the Seaport. And two neo-Nazis were shot dead at a house off Ditmars Boulevard. All this is one day? There has to be a connection.’
‘Hold up,’ Archer said. ‘This doesn’t make sense. You’re saying Rourke and Sway want to make money from this virus?’
‘That’s right.’
‘But it’s already been released. They’re pissing away all their potential profit.’
Peterson shook his head. ‘That’s the thing. Rourke told me that the club was going to make a fortune. I don’t think he knew about or signed off on what those boys were doing this morning.’
He paused.
‘I think someone screwed them over.’
TWENTY SIX
There was a pause. The room absorbed everything Peterson and Faison had just said.
‘What can you tell us about this virus?’ Faison asked.
‘It’s Type-3 Pneumonic,’ Shepherd said. ‘If you inhale it all the blood cells in your lungs rupture. You break your own back and drown in your own blood.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘Five vials of it have gone missing from a lab complex in Manhattan. They were stolen by a man called Paul Bleeker. He’s a Stuttgart Soldier too, from the New York Chapter. Have you heard of him?’
Peterson shook his head. ‘Afraid not.’
‘He was working with three other members from the New York group. Each of them had a bomb with a vial of the virus. We found one in Macy’s. The other went off at the Seaport, killing all those people. We recovered the third and fourth vials at a house raid, killing Bleeker and one of his men.’
‘What about the fifth vial?’
‘Still unaccounted for. But the bomber who had the vial was found in the bathroom of a Bryant Park café. His neck had been broken. And the vial was missing.’
‘Shit.’
‘Exactly.’
Peterson looked up at Faison. ‘That sounds like Wicks and Drexler’s work.’
‘Who are Wicks and Drexler?’
‘Sway and Rourke’s hit-team. Members of the club. I’d bet everything I own that they did it.’
‘We can’t find anything on CCTV that could confirm it.’
‘It fits though,’ Peterson said. ‘Think about it. If Rourke and Sway found out Bleeker stole the virus, they’d want it back fast. They didn’t come all this way for a meth deal.’
Shepherd thought for a moment.
‘How would they know one of his men would be at Bryant Park at that time?’
‘Gunnar said the fourth member of Bleeker’s group was missing, sir,’ Archer said. ‘Maybe they got to him and made him talk?’
Shepherd, Faison and Peterson all nodded.
‘This is starting to make sense,’ Shepherd said.
‘Where’s the Chapter holed up?’ Archer asked Peterson.
‘We’ve set up camp on an empty industrial estate in New Jersey. The whole crew’s there. They’re treating it as a weekend-long party.’
‘Including Rourke and Sway?’ Shepherd asked.
‘Haven’t seen either of them since we arrived. Or Wicks and Drexler for that matter. But they’ll be back at some point. The vehicles they rode up in are still there.’
Shepherd turned to Faison.
‘Do you have any men on the camp-site?’ he asked.
He shook his head. ‘Just Peterson right now. He’s my eyes and ears. Our whole operation was set for this coming weekend so my team is still down in Texas. I’m the only agent who came up here to follow. But that was when we thought this was a straight arms deal, before we knew about this virus threat. I can call in back-up from the New York or Newark office at a moment’s notice.’
Shepherd nodded, and turned to Josh, who was standing behind him.
‘I want eyes on the camp-site. Find Sergeant Hendricks and tell him I need to speak with him.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Josh said, pulling open the door and leaving the room. Shepherd turned back to the two ATF agents.
‘I don’t want to encroach on your operation gentlemen, but I’m sure you understand that the NYPD now has a major interest in Bobby Rourke and Finn Sway.’
‘We all want the same thing here,’ Faison said.