1

THE SILVER CESSNA glided down from the clouds and landed without a hitch at the private J. T. Hodges Airport in West Co- vina. Only seconds after it rolled to a stop, the side door slid open, portable steps dropped to the ground, and the blond female flight attendant stood by the top step and said good-bye to the muscular Arab, Kafi , dressed in his black silk tracksuit. The wiry bodyguard’s head swiveled left and right as he traced the airport for signs of danger. When he was certain the coast was clear, he turned and nodded to a figure who waited just inside the plane’s exit door. A few seconds later, stocky, burr-headed South African Karl Steinbach, whose parents had moved the family from Germany, dressed impeccably in his $10,000 silk Prada suit and his $5,000 bespoke Lobb shoes, walked down the silver steps. Just behind him was the second bodyguard, the apelike Welshman, Colin Draper. Like Kafi , Draper scoured the horizon for signs . . . a metallic glimmer, any evidence of an FBI agent hidden behind the eucalyptus trees to the north.

He saw nothing, no one.

Still, the two bodyguards didn’t rest easy until they’d crossed the steaming tarmac and deposited their charge, Steinbach, into the black Cadillac Escalade which waited just about twenty yards away from the silver plane. Within five seconds, both of them had joined Steinbach in the backseat and shut the doors. The uniformed chauffeur locked the doors from his control panel, turned up the AC, and the elegant limo pulled away. Inside, Karl Steinbach clicked on his favorite movie, House of Games. He’d seen the David Mamet written and directed movie six times but never tired of it. The low elegance of the machine-gun dialogue and the endless twists of the plot pleased him in a way that no mere action thriller ever could.

But today he couldn’t lose himself in it. Indeed, the things on his mind were of such a serious nature that he had trouble watching at all. This deal — and its myriad complications — had to work. It had to, and it would . . .

(But what if it didn’t? What if something went wrong?)

Nonsense. He wouldn’t allow himself to think about that. Every thing was under control, and it was going to work just the way he’d set it up.

He watched as Lindsay Crouse shot Joe Mantegna at LAX. Usually that was the high point of the picture for him . . . but now he glowered out at the window, feeling a roiling in his belly, a tension in his neck.

He squeezed the leather armrest with his right hand.

Relax. Chill.

The flight in, the landing, and the subsequent drive-away were a total success. It was all running like proverbial clockwork. It was all going to work out. It had to and it would.

But in any human endeavor, there are plans and plans.

Take FBI Agent Michael Perry. As Steinbach and his little crew headed into Silver Lake, Perry was sitting on an old and battered projectionist’s chair on the roof of the white stucco snack bar in an abandoned drive-in called The Floodlight. The dusty parking lot was covered with blowing newspapers and ancient popcorn boxes. It was all very American Gothic, but Perry wasn’t concerned with the atmospherics of the place. Perry had been watching the Steinbach landing through his high-powered Canon 10 × 30 binoculars. He had seen the whole efficient event: the plane coming in, the landing, and the drive-away. And as soon as Stein- bach’s car had left the runway and headed into town, Perry took a bite of his cold burrito and hit the speed dial on his cell phone.

The phone had barely rung once before a voice on the other end answered. The man receiving the call was Oscar Hidalgo, a Mexican FBI agent who was thirty-four years old. He sat across the seat from his partner, Agent Jack Harper, thirty-five. The two men were diametrically opposite. Hidalgo was five foot six inches tall and weighed nearly 200 pounds. He was the strongest man at FBI Headquarters in Westwood, California. On a good day, he could dead-lift 359 pounds. Harper was thin and looked almost brittle, belying the fact that he was the champion boxer and karate man in the unit. Harper had also been an all- American college lacrosse player at the University of Maryland, where he’d been known as the quickest and toughest midfielder in the United States. He could run all day, and seemed impervious to hits from hulking defensemen. His lacrosse nickname was Scary.

Now Hidalgo spoke:

“Chef H. Here. What’s happening, baby?”

“The enchilada is on the fire,” Perry said.

“How high’s the flame?”

“Smoking, man,” Perry said. “So if you don’t want supper to burn, you guys should get a move on.”

“We’re rolling, baby,” Hidalgo said. “’Cause we’re some hungry dudes. How about Moyer and Rosenberg?”

“They’re inside the diner and ready to eat,” Perry said.

“Good,” Hidalgo said.

There was a small silence from Perry. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it but Hidalgo had worked with Perry before and knew that if the voluminous talker hesitated there must be a reason for it.

“What’s up?” Hidalgo said.

“I’m afraid we have two dinner cancellations,” Perry said.

“Snyder and Bond?” Hidalgo used two other agents’ code names.

“’Fraid so. Seems they’re dining with other people.”

“Who?” Hidalgo looked over at Harper, who was frowning as he weaved seamlessly in and out of traffic.

“They’re out with the new clients in town. They’re all going to Disneyland to see the fireworks.”

“I see,” Hidalgo said in a controlled way, which belied the sudden bolt of anger he felt inside.

He put the phone on hold and looked over at Jack.

“Snyder and Bond aren’t going to be there. They got called away by Homeland Defense. There’s an orange alert at Disneyland.”

Harper punched the steering wheel.

“Oh that’s nice,” he said. “They got you and me walking into a warehouse full of villains, and our backups are down in Ana- fuckingheim saving Goofy.”

“We could abort if you think it’s too risky, Jackie.”

“And let the Kraut run all the way back to his castle somewhere in the Black Forest? No fucking way! We finally got him here, and we’re not letting him go.”

“Then we’re going in?”

“What the fuck else?” Jack said. “When it’s time for dinner, a man’s gotta eat.”

Hidalgo clicked back on the phone.

“Mikie?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to go get us our dinner now.”

Perry started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Hidalgo demanded.

“Like there was ever any question. You guys like it better this way? Makes for a bigger rush.”

“Like my old grandmother said, ‘El futuro es una nube que uno no puede ver. Osea que el sabio hijo de puta dispara hoy y no se acompleja como una nena cuando lo hace.’”

“Which means?”

“That, my friend,” Hidalgo said, “is an old dicho. A saying filled with wisdom. It means: ‘The future is a cloud that no one can see. So the wise mutherfucker takes his shot today. And doesn’t whine like a pussy when he does it, either.’”

“Some mouth on your grandmother,” Perry laughed. Then he clicked off the phone.

The limo maneuvered down the 101 Freeway, turned off at the Echo Park exit, and drove north to Sunset Boulevard. Steinbach worked over the plan once again in his head, missing the street action, the blondes, redheads, and stunning Latina women of Silver Lake. He hated Los Angeles with a passion anyway, the cars, the loudmouth entertainment people . . . they reminded him of hyenas in suits. He didn’t like doing business here either, but circumstances dictated that he do so from time to time.

Like now . . . He felt a tightening of his chest muscles, and casually wondered to himself if he might be suffering the beginnings of a stroke.

Ridiculous, of course, but the tension was thick inside of him, like congealed grease in his aorta.

A few seconds later, Steinbach’s Escalade turned left into a potholed parking lot behind a gray stucco building, Ace Billiards and Pool Supplies. The driver stopped at the back door, and the three men got out. Kafitold the driver to wait across the street at Jed’s Big Star Diner.

The driver nodded and pulled away, and Kafiwalked past the other two and unlocked the padlock on the warehouse’s back door.

A few minutes later, Harper turned down a narrow alley and took a quick right into the same warehouse parking lot. Oscar checked to make sure his Glock .22 was fully chambered and took a deep breath.

“Here we go, Jackie,” he said.

Harper smiled and reached in the backseat for the briefcase. “It’s time to play that nifty game, Fuck the Scum,” he said.

Hidalgo laughed, but it came out more like a gag.

“Stomach’s acting up,” he said.

“You eat your breakfast this morning?” Harper said.

“Yeah, I ate it . . . a little. Two eggs, refritos, and a corn tortilla.”

They were out of the car now and walking toward the warehouse door.

“Yeah, well, that’s real healthy,” Jack said. “You should add lard and maybe cement in there, too. Plus, did you chew? You gotta chew.”

“I chewed,” Oscar said. “Trust me, I fucking chewed.”

“I doubt you did.” Harper smiled. “You’re a weak chewer, thus Hoovering indigestible bullshit down into your sensitive Latino stomach.”

“Fuck you, Jack,” Oscar said. “I don’t fucking Hoove.”

“He who hooves shall heave. Or so it is writ,” Jack said.

A lame joke, Jack thought. Just chattering away to ward off the fear he felt every time he walked into a room full of animals with high-powered weapons.

They came to the back door, but before Jack could ring the bell, the buzzer rang them in.

“Isn’t that nice,” Jack said. “They’re eager to see us. They love us, they really do.”

They walked inside. Oscar felt his stomach turn, and suddenly couldn’t remember if he’d chewed or not. All that he knew was that his stomach felt as if someone had turned up a welding torch inside his lower bowel. Maybe he had another fucking ulcer. Sweat trickled down his forehead. He took another deep breath. And the air seemed to whistle through the imagined hole in his gut.

Next life, maybe he’d be a teacher or something. But given the L.A. school system, maybe that would be worse.

He looked over at Jack who seemed as cool as a pitcher of sangria. The fucking guy . . . when it came to danger, affable Jackie seemed to disappear, and something blank and icy took over his body. He knew nothing of the way his partner actually felt. Neither of them ever talked about their fears.

They walked through a narrow hallway with a calendar of a topless Asian girl wearing a short plaid miniskirt and riding a Harley in front of a neon-lit bowling alley called jay’s spotlight lanes. From there they went through two more doors, then walked into a large, dimly lit warehouse, which was stacked with boxes inside which were pool tables.

Waiting for them in the middle of the room were not only Kafi , Draper, and Karl Steinbach, but two more goons, a blond boy with a birthmark on his jaw and a freckle-faced goof with a twisted mouth and a shaved head. Huckleberry Finn on crack. All of them were fully armed. Steinbach nodded to Jack, picked up a pool cue, and cleanly knocked in a bank shot.

“My friends,” he said. “I trust you had a good trip.”

“Right as rain,” Harper said, setting the briefcase down on the edge of the table.

“That’s good to know,” Steinbach said. He lined up another shot, and then in quick succession knocked in the five, six, and seven balls. His hand didn’t shake, and the worries, which had obsessed him only a few minutes ago, were dissolved in the small ecstasies of performance. Karl loved the game and had often wished he could be filmed.

“You look like you know what you’re doing,” Oscar said.

“Yes, in my wasted youth, I spent a lot of time in pool halls. They say it’s a relaxing game, but that’s untrue. Pool takes intense discipline and concentration. Like any game you play to win.”

Harper smiled and picked up the second cue, which was leaning against the table.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think it just takes a modicum of talent and a little luck.”

Jack turned around backward, whipped the cue behind his back, and lined up the cue ball.

“Eight ball in the far left pocket,” he said.

He hit the cue with a high topspin, which sent it around the three ball, and hit the eight, right into the far left pocket.

“Bravo, Jackie,” Steinbach said. “But that took a lot of practice and a lot of skill.”

“Nah, Karl, just luck,” Jack said. “But then I’ve always been a lucky guy.”

“Maybe so,” Steinbach laughed. “Look how lucky you got when you met me.”

Jack smiled and put down the cue.

“Speaking of which . . . though your charming company is all anyone could hope for, my friend Luis and I have a plane to catch, so maybe we should get down to business.”

“Of course,” Steinbach said.

He looked at Kafiwho handed him a black felt box, about as big as Jack’s palm.

“More pool balls?” Hidalgo said.

“Yes, but these are special.”

Steinbach snapped open the box and showed the balls to Jack.

“Hand carved, Jack. Each ball made to exact specifications and real ivory. The finest in the world.”

Steinbach handed the ball to Jack.

“Push the number, Jackie.”

Jack pushed it with his thumb; there was a slight click and the ball slid open.

“Just like an Easter egg,” Oscar said. “You got chocolate bunnies in there?”

“Something far more delicious than that,” Steinbach said.

Jack reached inside the pool ball and found a small perfect diamond surrounded by crushed velvet to keep it from rattling around. Next to it was a second diamond. Within seconds, he’d discovered a third and a fourth.

“Hey, now, this is a game I could start to like,” Jack said.

“Every one of these balls is filled with prizes, my friend. Directly from Sierra Leone. Now, perhaps, I could see the briefcase?”

“Of course.” Oscar handed the case to the big German. Stein- bach swept the pool balls into their pockets, sat the case on the green felt, and snapped it open. It was filled with banded packets of hundred-dollar bills.

“Beautiful!” Steinbach snapped shut the case.

Jack smiled. “You don’t want to count it, Karl?”

“No, Jack,” Steinbach said. “I trust you implicitly.”

Jack smiled wider and reached into his coat.

“That’s your misfortune, Karl, ’cause you’re under arrest. FBI.”

He pulled his .38 out of his holster, as did Oscar.

“Drop your weapons, pendejos,” Oscar said.

There was a brief second as Steinbach’s face registered the shock of Jack’s betrayal. Jack had seen this before. In any human interchange, trust is the glue that holds things together. Now, Jack thought, Karl was not only mad that he was going to jail but had hurt feelings.

Tough luck, Jack thought. The only feeling he had for Karl Steinbach was contempt.

Steinbach looked around the room, his face a panicky pale white. Behind the piles of stacked pool tables to his left, two more Feds appeared: Agents Zac Blakely and Ron Hughes, both carrying submachine guns. Both had been there, in place, well in advance of Steinbach’s arrival.

“Drop your guns now, assholes!” Blakely said.

“Fuck you,” the Arab said, turning on Blakely, letting go with a blast from his gun. The bullets sprayed the pool tables next to Blakely, who dove to the floor for cover.

Steinbach quickly pulled his own .45 from his shoulder holster and aimed it at Oscar Hidalgo. He was about to pull the trigger when Jack threw the diamond-filled pool ball into his face. Steinbach yelled and fell backward, holding his bleeding nose.

Jack turned quickly and saw the big Welshman, Draper, raise his gun to shoot Oscar. He picked up the pool cue and smacked him in the mouth, knocking three bloodied teeth to the floor.

One of the other goons aimed at Blakely, but Oscar cut him in half with two bullets from his pistol.

Jack watched as Kafidove behind a cardboard box. Jack aimed dead center at the slogan have fun with pool and fired. The bullet tore through the box and hit Kafiin the throat. The Arab fell to the floor, flopping like a dying fish.

Jack watched as Hughes shot Draper in the back of the leg. The Welshman fell to one knee, dropped his gun, and threw up his hands.

The bald-headed goon was caught between the crossfire and he went down in a hail of bullets. The freckle-faced boy dropped his gun and held up his arms. “No more, man,” he said. “No más.” Hughes quickly cuff ed him. Now Jack turned to arrest the German, but Steinbach was already half across the warehouse floor, headed for the far exit door.

Jack took off after him, firing as he ran, but missed and watched Steinbach disappear from the warehouse into the bright sunlight of Sunset Boulevard.

They ran down the teeming street past shoppers who were lined up for the new iPod sales from Best Buy. Jack slammed into a blonde with a pierced tongue who screamed as she fell to the pavement. Ahead of him, Steinbach turned and aimed his gun.

“Down!” Jack screamed. “FBI!”

The people on the street fell to the hot pavement as Stein- bach fired at Jack. The bullet veered off to the right and smashed into a Porsche Boxster’s windshield. It shattered into a thousand pieces. The car alarm went off , screaming through the smogged- out air.

Jack aimed and fired back at Steinbach, but missed as the bullet hit a patio chair outside a furniture store, spinning it around.

Steinbach ran on, turned left, heading for the lake at Echo Park. He disappeared behind a little stand of palm trees. Jack dodged around a Mister Softee truck, moved toward the lake, keeping low, behind parked cars.

Then it happened. Steinbach made a move toward the muddy beach right near the pedal-boat rental pier. Jack fired and hit him in the right leg. Steinbach fell to his knee but turned around firing, and Jack felt the bullet whistle by his right ear.

He crouched and fired again, and saw Steinbach fall backward into the muddy lake.

He splashed around, flailing like a beached walrus. Jack heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Oscar and Ron Hughes just behind him, their guns drawn.

“The mutherfucker looks like Shamu,” Oscar said.

Jack ran forward, holding his gun on Steinbach who was up now, throwing his gun onto the beach, holding his hands above his drenched, muddy head.

“Come on outta there now,” Jack said. “And don’t try anything original or you’re gonna look like a paper target at a rifle range.”

Though wet and bleeding, Steinbach wasn’t cowed.

“That’s what you’d like, hey, Jack? Blow me up, say it was self- defense. But I’m not going to play your game. No, my friend, you’re going to play mine.”

Steinbach walked forward, hands still in the air, and a smile on his fat face.

“I love games, Karl. What’s the rules?”

“Simple. You . . . him, and the other two cops are never going to testify against me. Because, my friends, you are all going to die.”

Jack looked at his partner and laughed.

“You hear that, Oscar? We’re all dead men walking.”

“Yeah,” Oscar said. “Scary.”

But Ron Hughes wasn’t laughing. He looked at the German with contempt.

“Hey, fuck you, fatboy. You scare nobody.”

“You’ll see,” Steinbach said. “You’re all going to find out. My reach is longer than any prison cell you assholes can throw me in.”

“Creepy,” Jack said. “Now shut the fuck up, turn around, and put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest for smuggling, and anything else you’re dumb enough to say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

Before Jack could cuff him, Hughes stepped forward, knee deep in water.

“Jack, you got his name wrong. It’s not Karl, it’s Fuckface.” He punched the German in the head and watched as he fell back in the filthy water. Then he waded out a little farther, raising his right fist to give him another little shot.

But Jack grabbed Hughes from behind and pushed him back toward the beach.

“Take it easy, Ronnie.”

“That was for my old partner, Terry Masters, who this germ shot over in Munich. We got your ass now, Karl. You’re never gonna get out.”

Jack clicked the cuffs on Steinbach and pulled him out of the water. Behind the three cops, Zac Blakely came with the remaining two live smugglers, both of them cuff ed from behind. In the distance they could hear sirens, and a paddy wagon was rolling in at the corner.

Jack pushed Steinbach down the street as a crowd gathered, mumbling and chattering.

“You guys will all pay with your lives,” Steinbach said. “All of you are going to fucking die. I promise you.”

“You’re repeating yourself, Karl,” Jack said. “Sign of an inferior mind.”

“I’ll take him from here,” Blakely said, as the wagon pulled up.

Jack pushed the smuggler toward Blakely as the paddy-wagon door opened.

Steinbach turned and looked at Jack with intense hatred.

“Remember what I said, Jackie,” he said, then turned again and stepped inside the wagon.

“He’s not a very good sport, is he?” Jack said to Oscar.

“Very bad loser,” Oscar said. “But that’s how the Germans are. My grandfather used to say, ‘Los mama huevos son en sus rodillas o tu garganta.’ Which means, ‘The cocksuckers are either at your knees or at your throat.’”

Jack laughed.

“I hope to meet your grandfather when I die,” Jack said.

“I’ll see to it,” Oscar said. “But don’t make it anytime soon, okay?”

Jack laughed.

“You kidding? And give up all this? What say we stop into Charlie’s and get us a couple of nice cold drinks on the way home? We speed a little, we can hit there just around the end of happy hour.”

“Excellent suggestion,” Oscar said. “You’re buying, of course.” “Well, of course.”

The two men turned to break through the little crowd, when

both of them simultaneously saw an old Mexican Indian woman, dressed in a bright orange-and-black dress. She wore a scarf with orange parrots painted on it. She looked at them and shook her head mournfully.

“Qué pasa, señora?” Jack said.

The old woman stared intently at both of them, then turned and looked at the now-receding paddy wagon.

“Nada bueno,” she said. “El es malo. Señor give you the evil eye, mister. El se ve muy malo.”

“Yeah, right,” Jack said. He was going to tell her that he wasn’t afraid of such superstitious crap, but somehow the words got caught in his throat.

He looked at Oscar, who sighed.

“You go home now, señora,” Oscar said. “And thanks for the warning.”

She turned and shook her head in a concerned way.

“No es bueno, señores, es malo. Es muy malo.”

She pointed ominously to her own eye, then turned and limped away.

“Crazy old lady,” Ron Hughes said.

“Yeah,” Jack said. “A whack job.”

But as they headed back to the warehouse to gather evidence, Jack felt something like an icy finger travel up his spine.