friends. They had all welcomed him as family. More so than anyone else ever had.
Two days later, Reese had bid Finn farewell but had a new outlook on life. He had a brother, some family he actually cared about and who gave a shit about him in return. In the five years since that night he and Finn had stayed in constant touch. Victims of the young conman assumed that he only cared about one thing: himself. But that wasn’t true. He’d do anything for his big brother.
Which is exactly what he’d done tonight.
Reese had been in New Jersey for the past three months, his meagre savings dwindling fast as he rented a motel room over in Elizabeth. He was working on a girl he’d met at a bar in Midtown who had a husband fighting the Taliban and who was bored and lonely. He’d put in some solid groundwork, eventually winning her over, but it had been a lot of effort.
Then a week ago he’d received a call from Finn.
He was coming to New York. Reese was surprised and delighted. He’d asked him why, but Finn wouldn’t reveal anything over the phone. He said he’d tell him in person.
And he had. Earlier today he’d asked Reese to meet him at a lab complex in New Jersey. He’d ridden a taxi over there, then taken a few moments to shake hands with Finn’s crew, Wicks and Drexler, two of the people he’d hung out with that night in Roller when he’d first met his big brother. Finn had then explained about the virus and what he and Bobby were planning to do with it.
However, he said there was a problem, which is why Reese was there.
Finn was due to meet with a so-called buyer later that night but had a feeling it was a set up. However, he wasn’t going to pass up the chance of getting his hands on $2 million. The plan was to stake the bar out, watching for any pigs who might be undercover. Finn would set up with a rifle nearby. If the bar was kosher, he had Drexler in the club. She’d approach the man, tell him to transfer the $2 mil via wire transfer then once payment was confirmed, pass over a fake vial. The guy would never know it wasn’t the virus; he couldn’t exactly open it and test it in the club. And if it was a trap, Finn would kill him. But given that he had eyes and ears on him everywhere, Finn needed a solid alibi. And that was where Reese came in.
Finn had asked him to go to a Starbucks at 10pm on the nose, buy a drink, make himself visible on camera, hang about for a few moments and then leave. Reese couldn’t have been more willing to help. Anything that was a con or put one over the cops was his bread and butter. What about our clothes? Reese had asked. Finn said they’d stop at a retail store on the way to Manhattan and buy a matching set.
Once he was done at the coffee shop, Reese was told to go to some lab on 66 and Amsterdam. Apparently there was one last vial of the virus that had been missed which they didn’t need anymore and a bitch doctor who needed to be got rid of. Drexler had offered to find her and take her out but Finn said she’d have cops guarding her. They couldn’t waste time looking for her either. They’d been assured that the woman would be the next person to go inside the main lab, so Reese had entered the building and the lab using a key card Finn gave him. He’d headed upstairs and rigged up the virus with a bug and timer as instructed which would be activated once anyone entered the correct code into the keypad. It would kill the bitch and get rid of the last sample of the virus.
He’d taken the bio suits, dumping them in the trash, and left.
Now in the apartment, he checked his watch, then swept the contents of the girl’s jewellery box into his bag. Finally, he checked around, making sure he had everything worth taking.
‘What?’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Archer said, shaking his head, leaning back. ‘How the hell did we miss this? We had the guy in handcuffs and we let him go.’
‘Miss what?’ Shepherd said.
‘There are two Sways. They’re brothers. That’s their cover. That’s how Finn Sway said he couldn’t have planted