Page 77 of Double Shot
That they were able to find my phone number was the first surprise. The second was that were able to slip it in through even my basic phone screening techniques. The last surprise was the voice on the other end of the phone: Guillamele GeneraleChauvignon.
“Good morning, Conan Roan,” he said, his voice was that of a very tired old man.
“Aye, and morning to you too, General,” I said. I brought out my laptop and started recording the call, and sending a tracer to find where he was.
“Your call trace will end at the French Embassy in Washington DC, so I will save you a little time,” he said. “But I would like to make an accord with you and yours.”
“An accord?” I repeated, watching the trace program run.
“Oui, an accord. A truce.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked. I gestured for silence and put the phone on speaker. Lach looked surprised, Sadie confused as to what I was doing. I mouthed the wordgeneralat both of them.
“A complete cessation of hostilities between our two interests. You have no stock in the heroin trade, and surely you have better things to do with your time and wealth…” he paused.
“What terms are you offering?” I asked.
“Complete pardons, all around.”
“That’s an interesting start, doesn’t do much for my blown-up house or the six months I spent as one of your people’s prisoner. That wasn’t square with Geneva if you understand me.”
“Oui, I understand you. You blew your own house up, and that is most unfortunately on you. The mistake I made was one of hubris, and as hubris drew the ire of the Gods, mine has drawn the ire of the world. I have made a number of mistakes, with the first being calling professionals into a family spat. That should never have happened, and everything that came after was none but by own wounded pride, my ego. My brother is dead, more men than I can count have died because we could not reconcile our opinions, and the Escadrille is a shadow of what it once was, I am certain that several billion euros in losses is more than adequate recompense for your house.” His voice was scathing at that point.
“Gwendolyn Kaijin?” I asked.
“Has been relocated, reprimanded, and if she fucks up again, I will have her tied like a suckling pig and delivered to your front door with a parsnip corked up her bottom, but so long as she behaves herself, she should never cross paths with you again.” He was irritated with her, and that was readily obvious.
“And if we don’t accept?”
“Then I do what I must, send what men and agents I can hire with the funds remaining to me to that lovely house on Phoenician Boulevard and try again to finish what was started last year,” he said, calm and icy. “I would prefer to keep as we have been for the last few months, our paths not crossing, our interests not conflicting.”
“How do you know what we’ve been doing for the last few months?” Lach asked.
“Kyle Lachlan, I was wondering if you would be present for this. It would be arrogance to boast that I know everything, but transparency might be more prudent. You’ve been watched for some time. I know where you are, and generally what you are doing. I know you’ve been preparing for something with the guests you’ve had. It was time to make the call.”
Lach was standing, then he was gone. Window to window, he was scanning outside to see if he could spot the watchers. He would start turning the house over, top to bottom, looking for surveillance equipment, the hidden cameras and microphones. If he found any, I would see what sort of malware I could feed back through them, see how much more damage we could do that way.
“Do you accept my terms, is this enough, or do you require more blood and death?”
“You’ll forgive my lack of trust,” I said.
“Completely warranted, but you and your partner have proven to be men of your words. If you say this is done, then this is done.”
“Then, as much as it pains me to do so, I accept,” I said.
“Monsieur Lachlan, do you accept?” Chauvignon asked.
“I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you, but yes. I accept.” His hands were fists.
“Lastly,Mademoiselle Brooks, I assume you are there, do you accept?” She looked startled, to have been called out by name. It was chilling. He might have been offering peace, but it wasn’t surrender, he knew our real names, and our address, and even had my phone number. I would have to find out how he did that and make sure it couldn’t happen again.
“You can go fuck yourself, but we accept your terms,” Sadie spat.
“Excellent, I would say your reputations are sterling, but to be honest, silver doesn’t make a proper comparison. Best of fortunes to all of you, and I hope that we never cross paths again.” He sounded relieved.
“You still going to have us followed?” Sadie almost growled.
“Non, of course not. We are all men of our words,” he said, almost sounding surprised. “The word of a soldier is non-negotiable.Monsieur’s, it has been an honor to have seen such fine work, I would appreciate it much more highly if I were not the target of it.”
