Chapter 21

 

I couldn’t sleep. I was too wired. Being ex-SAS, Brad was used to sleeping in stressful conditions, but even then, he was still alert to the slightest sound. I tried to slip out of bed quietly so as not to wake him, but as soon as I shifted my weight, his eyes were open.

‘Morning, soon-to-be Mrs Beckett.’

I leaned over him and kissed his lips, wanting to stay in bed with him forever and just forget about everything that had happened—and everything that might happen later if Agent Dansinger didn’t get back to us. ‘Morning. I’m going to grab a shower. Then we can round up the troops and meet up for breakfast before we go to the storage place.’

Half an hour later, I banged on Suzy’s door while Brad knocked on Mum and Dad’s farther up the corridor.

She opened it, hair mussed up, a sheet wrapped around her. ‘What time is it?’ She blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the light.

‘It’s eight-thirty. We’re meeting up for brekkie. There have been some developments.’

Elvis appeared from behind her, a towel wrapped around his body—his very naked body.

I raised an eyebrow. ‘Were you doing some research into that sex-and-grief phenomenon? I bet you could write a medical paper on it, now, eh?’

‘What’s happened?’ Elvis asked.

‘We’re heading off to the diner just down the road,’ I said. ‘Meet us there when you get dressed, and we’ll fill you in.’

I roused Hacker and Tia next, then Brad and I walked off towards the café, past a mixed group of party revellers just coming back home from a crazy night out. We found a booth at the back corner of the restaurant that was fairly private. Our waitress came over and handed us some menus to peruse while we waited for our drinks: green tea for Brad and a mocha for me.

Twenty minutes later, the others walked in. I waved them over and waited until they’d got menus and ordered drinks before giving them an update.

‘Wowzer!’ Tia said, her jaw dropping open. ‘This is about rhino horn and ivory?’

‘Yep,’ I said.

‘What?’ Elvis sat back, stunned.

‘And how much of the stuff is in the warehouse?’ Dad asked.

‘Fifteen tons, apparently,’ Brad said. ‘Worth around thirty million dollars.’

‘Those poor rhinos and elephants,’ Tia said, her eyes tearing up. ‘Think of all the animals that must’ve been murdered for it.’

‘It’s sickening,’ Mum said. ‘Why are they destroying it? Wouldn’t it be better to sell it to fund conservation or protection for the animals left?’

‘From what we read, it seems they can’t sell illegally confiscated horn or ivory because of CITES regulations,’ I said. ‘And keeping the confiscated stash is a security headache because there’ve been a lot of thefts of stockpiles all over the world, which puts a strain on finances and resources that are there to protect them.’

‘A lot of countries also believe that any future legal sales of ivory or rhino horn would result in more poaching,’ Brad said. ‘Any governments buying it can manipulate the selling price, which happened before in China in 2008. Instead of keeping the price down to undercut the illegal market and reduce poaching, the sudden influx of legal and more expensive ivory meant there was a higher demand for the cheaper poached ivory.’

‘And there’s no way to make sure any funds raised from the legal sales would ever go towards conservation and actually helping the animals left,’ I said.

‘I suppose keeping stockpiles sends a mixed message,’ Dad said. ‘Which only undermines any demand to reduce the trade and probably actually promotes ivory and rhino horn as something incredibly valuable instead. Plus, if it’s destroyed, there’s no way it can make its way back onto the black market.’

‘It’s heartbreaking,’ I said. ‘In satisfying their own selfish desires, humans have forgotten to be human. We’re supposed to be the most evolved species on the planet, and yet we’re the most inhumane.’

‘You’re right,’ Mum said. ‘We call ourselves “mankind”, but there’s nothing kind about what we do to other species or the planet.’

‘I just can’t get my head round this.’ Elvis rubbed at his forehead. ‘Dana was killed because some sickoes think that an elephant tooth or piece of keratin can be used as a cure-all medicine?’

‘It looks that way,’ I said.

Suzy put a hand on his arm and squeezed it. ‘It’s deplorable.’

‘Any word from Dansinger?’ Brad asked Dad.

‘No. I’ll try him again now.’ Dad pulled out his mobile phone and pressed Redial.

The waitress bought their drinks over and left us to read the menu.

‘Hello, Jerry?’ Dad stood up and scooched out of the booth to take the call outside, where it was quieter.

‘Good,’ Mum said. ‘At least he’s got hold of Jerry now. How long would it take for him to get here from New York?’

‘Um…’ Tia, our expert on all things American, tilted her head, thinking. ‘About five hours.’

‘That’s plenty of time, then, supposing he can get a flight out here soon,’ Hacker said.

‘Brad, Hacker, Dad, and I will go to the storage facility after breakfast and scope it out while Jerry hopefully gets on a flight out here.’

‘I want to come tonight on the raid,’ Mum said. ‘I want to bust a cap in their ass!’

‘What?’ I asked, wondering if I’d heard her wrong.

Mum shrugged. ‘I’ve always wanted to say that.’

‘Yeah, me too,’ Tia said. ‘I want to help.’

‘I don’t want either of you anywhere near that place,’ I said. ‘Or you,’ I said to Suzy, even though I wouldn’t have minded shooting her myself on a very frequent basis. ‘I couldn’t live with myself if things went wrong, and one of you ended up dead or injured.’

‘Too right,’ Suzy said. ‘I’m not going!’

‘I want to be there, too,’ Elvis said. ‘You’re not going without me. I’m doing this for Dana.’

‘Well, hopefully none of us will need to be there at all,’ I said. ‘Jerry and his colleagues should be able to handle it all from here.’

Dad walked in, and the waitress reappeared.

‘Are you all ready?’ she flashed us a smile.

‘I’ll have the mushroom bacon burger,’ I said.

She went around the table, and I jigged my knee up and down impatiently. I was dying to hear what Dad had to say about his conversation with Jerry. When it was Suzy’s turn to order, she faffed around, as usual.

‘I’ll have the spicy breakfast burrito with no jalapenos, and I want the bacon and mushrooms on the side,’ Suzy said.

The waitress frowned. ‘You want the spicy burrito with no spices?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you want the filling on the side?’

‘Only the bacon and mushrooms. I’ll have the egg and cheese inside the tortilla.’

‘Hmmm.’ The waitress scratched her head and scribbled something down.

I rolled my eyes and sent her silent hurry up messages, which she didn’t receive because our frequencies were obviously tuned into opposite wavelengths.

‘Actually, I’ll have the tortilla on the side, too,’ Suzy added.

‘So you want the burrito but no filling in it? You want the tortilla served separately, and the bacon, egg, mushrooms, and cheese on another plate?’

‘Yes.’

Finally, she was finished, and the waitress left with a confused look on her face, staring at her pad.

‘What did Jerry say?’ Mum leaned in to Dad.

‘He said his mobile number changed years ago, and he’s only just got back from annual leave, which is why he hadn’t returned the message I left on his office voicemail until now. But…’ He leaned forward and spoke quietly. ‘He said the FBI has been running their own undercover investigation into bent police officers in the Vegas Police Department, and they’re already well aware of Paul Winger, but they need something concrete to bring him down. He said there’s been a history of corruption in the police department here.’

‘I suppose with all the money, girls, and drugs flying around Sin City, it might be too much temptation for a lot of law enforcement,’ Brad said. ‘No wonder corruption is rife.’

‘Did they approach Dana to be an informer?’ I asked.

Dad shook his head. ‘No. They weren’t yet aware of Winger’s activities at Polesque. It seems like Dana was acting off her own back when she took that video evidence.

‘Jerry said that because the Las Vegas FBI agents’ investigation into Winger hasn’t been progressing as planned, he suspects they also have a rogue agent who’s working for Winger. So Jerry and his team are going to bypass their Vegas field office and handle it from here to make sure no one gets tipped off from their end. They’re going to book the next flight out here, which leaves at two p.m.’

‘Fabadoodledoo,’ Tia said.

‘They should arrive at seven, then,’ Hacker said.

‘When they land, they’re going to meet us at Hell so we can talk more before they head off to stake out the warehouse,’ Dad said. ‘I told them we’re going to do a reconnaissance soon so we can fill them in on the layout of the place for their stakeout when they get here.’

‘Well, at least you won’t all have to go tonight, then, if the FBI are taking over,’ Suzy said.

‘I want to go,’ Elvis said. ‘I still want to shoot the motherfuckers.’

‘Is that the title of an Elvis song, too?’ Mum asked. ‘I don’t remember that one.’

Suzy put a hand on his arm. ‘Violence isn’t the answer.’

He shot her a look that said he totally disagreed with her.

Half an hour later, suitably refuelled, I pushed my plate away and stood up. ‘OK, are you ready to “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”?’

‘That’s my line!’ Elvis said.