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Parks gripped his cane tightly and turned in his chair when the man flung open the hospital door. Henry grabbed the man by the lapels of his jacket. The man attempted to head-butt Henry but missed.
In return, Henry smashed his forehead into the man’s mouth, cracking teeth and busting his lips.
“Viktor!” Grayson said. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I come for de two hundred thousand.”
Parks used the cane to force himself to his feet. He pointed at Viktor and glanced back to Grayson. “You know this man?”
Grayson nodded.
Memories started resurfacing for Parks. “He’s the bastard that set me up.”
Henry’s huge hands clamped around Viktor’s elbows so tightly the man winced.
“Set you up?” Viktor said in a near whine. “What are you talking about?”
Parks hobbled, steadying himself with the cane, and approached Viktor. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. I went with you to meet the men who had information about the cargo the Chinese sent to Mars. Those two men and two Russians were both killed. I was knocked unconscious and someone tampered with the evidence to frame me so that it looked like I killed them.”
“De kid, he’s crazy. He’s lying,” Viktor said.
“Am I? Why were you the only one that left unscathed?”
Grayson marched across the office and stopped inches from Viktor. “I warned you that if you had a hand in Parks’ incapacitation, you’d pay severely.”
“What you going to do, eh?” Viktor asked.
Grayson grabbed the man’s shirt collar and lifted Viktor six inches off the floor. “Henry, check his pockets for weapons.”
Henry patted Viktor’s pockets and brought out a MP-446 Viking 9mm.
“What’s that for?” Grayson asked.
“Protection,” Viktor replied.
Henry studied the gun and shook his head. “How’d you get this into the states?”
Viktor shrugged. “As with most other things, well concealed.”
“And my metal detectors?”
“Secret I wish not to reveal.”
Grayson lowered Viktor to the floor and brought a swift hard jab to the man’s gut with his left fist. Viktor crumbled forward with a deep intake of air and fell to his knees. “The gun’s not going to help you now.”
Gasping, he said, “I bring it all the time. Never been problem before.”
“That was when I considered you a friend and comrade.”
Clutching his gut with both hands, Viktor looked up with a mixture of pain and sorrow in his eyes. “No more?”
Grayson shook his head. “Never again.”
Grayson pulled back the trigger and aimed at Viktor’s head.
“You’re going to kill me? Here? Come Grayson, have heart, eh? I give da information for free.”
“And where’s this team of yours that you needed the funding ahead of time to do the job?” Grayson asked.
Parks said, “My guess is they’re the dead Russians he left at the crime scene with me.”
Grayson frowned. “There never was a team, was there?”
The Russian’s hardened exterior crumbled. “No team.”
“Then why the charades? For money?” Grayson asked.
Parks glared at Viktor. “He has a team.”
“I do not,” Viktor replied in a firm whisper.
“Sid Davis,” Parks said.
The name made Viktor flinch. He took a sharp breath and swallowed hard.
Grayson looked from Viktor to Parks. “Who’s Sid Davis?”
“NSA agent. Damn bastard came to my hospital room and tried to blackmail me.”
“How?”
Parks grinned. “He wanted me to turn the tables on you.”
“I see. Apparently he doesn’t know where your true loyalties lie,” Grayson replied.
Parks smiled. “He seemed jealous of our alignment and my retainer fees.”
Grayson grabbed Viktor’s tie and yanked the man to his feet. “Is what Parks said, true? You’re working with the NSA?”
Viktor shook his head slightly. “No. Not NSA. Just dis Davis guy.”
“What’s he after?”
“Da money that you paid me.”
Parks frowned. “The million dollars.”
Viktor nodded but held his gaze toward the floor.
“The nerve of that asshole,” Parks said, gritting his teeth. “Accusing me of taking bribes and working as a hitman for large sums of money and he’s behind this?”
Grayson shrugged. “It still doesn’t get me the answers I need.”
“Which are?” Parks asked.
“How to stop those programmed Chinese robots from killing my people on Mars?”
Viktor cleared his throat and nervously glanced into Grayson’s eyes. “There is no kill switch for dem. No deactivation codes.”
Grayson looped Viktor’s tie around his hand again and tightened his grip. He placed the gun’s barrel to Viktor’s forehead. “You knew this and tried to extort four millions dollars from me?”
“No, no. Don’t kill me.”
Grayson laughed. “Give me a good reason not to.”
“I help you.”
“No,” Grayson replied, shaking his head. “You’ve helped yourself to more than your fair share.”
“No, Grayson, I did not get one penny of da million dollars.”
“Sid took it all?” Parks asked.
Viktor nodded. “Yes. He wanted me to get him more money. Otherwise, he deport me to some . . . unsavory enemies I have. That’s why he have me arrange deal with you for codes.”
“When there are no codes?”
“Right.”
“So we really don’t need to keep you around anymore. We dispose of you and go find Sid Davis,” Grayson said.
“No, please, you don’t understand,” Viktor said.
“And what am I not understanding?”
“You have powerful enemies in high places of US.”
Grayson nodded and shrugged. “Most wealthy people do.”
“Not like you think.” Viktor shook his head. “Sid Davis hired me. It is who hired him that should make you worry.”
“Who is that?” Grayson asked.
Viktor’s eyes crossed as he looked up toward the gun barrel pressed to his forehead. “Put gun away. I tell you. Kill me and you might never know.”