“Understood.”
“If you move a case to ALPHA,youdecide if the team will arrest, make a partial arrest partial elimination, or do a total elimination.” Z leaned back. “A kill mission should never be taken lightly.” He clicked on his computer and a case appeared on one of the screens. “Here’s a closed case. The Midnight Raper was a kill mission. A serial rapist who preyed on his victims for decades while continuing to outrun and outsmart law enforcement. When we got confirmation we found him, I executed the order.”
“Tell me about the kill missions.”
“Those are handled by a select few whose names will never appear on any report. How’s your memory?”
“Good.”
“You’ll have to retain information that can’t be written down.”
Carrera nodded. “Who took out The Midnight Raper?”
“Dakota took the job, and brought Sin and Stryker,” Z replied. “They found a woman being held captive, then the rapist came home with a second vic. We had no indication there would be prisoners.”
“How’d they handle that?”
“They took out the rapist, called 911 for the women, and got the hell out of town.”
“Why no BLACK OPS?” Carrera asked.
“We didn’t have BLACK OPS back then and the hostage situation was unexpected.” Z typed a few keystrokes, and a photo of Luciano on his yacht appeared on the screen.
Here we go.
“How much do you know about your cousin?” Z asked.
Carrera leaned back, crossed his leg. “What do you mean?”
“While I have no proof, I have reason to believe there’s more to him than his company.”
“Like what?” Carrera asked.
“Syndicated crime.”
Carrera chuckled. “My cousin runs Santini International. He’s not a crime boss.”
“Luciano and Sin have become close friends.”
“You’ve got tails on them?”
“I’ve had tails on all three of you,” Z disclosed. “I had my watcher watching you.”
What the hell?
“Your watcher?”
“Do you understand the power of this position?” Z asked.
“How am I supposed to do this job if you keep secrets from me, and who the hell is your watcher?”
Z studied him for several seconds. “How do I know you’re not keeping secrets from me?”
This question-for-a-question tactic felt like a cat chasing its damn tail. Carrera wasn’t intimidated and he wasn’t concerned. Luciano’s real business was well hidden and beyond the scope of anything Z could imagine.
Silence.
Carrera refused to speak first. As the two men eyed each other, the air swirled with angry energy.
