Page 83 of Seal of Honor
Giancarelli said nothing.
Since he didn’t hang up, Gabe took that as agreement and continued, “You don’t believe paying the ransom will save Bryson’s life any more than I do.”
Giancarelli sighed. “What I believe doesn’t matter much around here.”
“It does on my end.”
“Yes,” the agent answered after a second’s pause. “I think Marcus is right. By sending that money to the HTs, we’re condemning Mr. Van Amee to death.”
“Give me whatever information you can about the HTs and the ransom, and I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Another pause. “Put Marcus back on.”
Gabe handed the phone to Marcus, who took it off speaker, raised it to his ear, and said, “Danny.” Then, “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” He glanced up at Gabe then said definitively, “Yes,” probably in answer to a question about Gabe’s legitimacy. He listened some more. “Well, funny story there. When I’m stateside I’ll buy you a beer and tell ya all about it.” After a moment, he nodded and handed the phone backto Gabe. “He’s willing to hear you out, boss.”
Giancarelli said, “What do you want from me?”
“We’re about ninety-five percent sure where Van Amee’s being held.” Gabe relaxed against the tilted head of the hospital bed. His stitches pulled as he reached for the notebook Harvard had brought him and flipped to a clean page. “We just don’t know what we’re dealing with as far as opposition and what our timetable looks like. You’ve been in contact with the hostage takers, correct? What can you tell me about them?”
“I’ve only talked to one,” Giancarelli began. “He has me call him Angel.”
Gabe wrote “Angel” in the notebook and circled it twice. As in, Angel Rivera, Jacinto’s brother. Was Jacinto just using his brother’s name, or was the FBI dealing with the man himself? If Angel was involved, things could get messy fast. Jesus Christ. “What’s his state-of-mind like?”
“He puts on a good front,” Giancarelli said, “but you ask me, he’s nervous. He doesn’t strike me as a professional.”
Which didn’t jibe with what they knew about Angel Rivera, who had at least ten kidnappings under his belt that Harvard had been able to dig up, and possibly more that hadn’t been attributed to him.
Gabe added a question mark next to Angel’s name even though he was now about ninety-eight percent sure that Jacinto was acting on his own, using his brother’s name. “What about accomplices?”
“Thing is, I’ve only heard one other voice in the background…”
“But,” Gabe prompted, because he heard it in the dot-dot-dot Giancarelli put at the end of that sentence.
“But nothing. I’ve heard only one other voice and it’s… high pitched. Like a woman’s or a boy’s. Probably more boy than woman because it has that squeaky adolescent sound to it, know what I mean? I’ve never been able to make out enough of what he says to translate.”
Gabe bet that squeaky adolescent voice in the background was Rorro. “When exactly is the ransom exchange supposed to go down?”
“I’ve managed to push it back until Tuesday. I’m going to try and talk them down another couple mil and get them to postpone again next time they call, but I don’t know how successful I’ll be.”
“Have they given specific instructions for the exchange yet?”
“Well,” Giancarelli said on a drawn out sigh, “it’s not a dead drop. As inexperienced as I think they are, the HTs were smart about that, at least. They want the money transferred to an offshore account.”
Where they probably had someone waiting to launder it till it shined, Gabe thought. Not a big stretch of the imagination if Rorro kept his racketeer father’s connections.
“Once they confirm the transfer,” Giancarelli continued, “they claim they’ll send Bryson in a taxi back to his apartment.”
“Yeah?” Gabe finished writing the information down, rippedout the sheet, passed it to Quinn, and made a motion that he circulate it throughout the room. “That’s putting a helluva lot of faith in the bad guys.”
“Yep. And I told Perry that, but he’s convinced we’re dealing with professionals. I don’t know how much you know aboutinternational hostage negotiation?—”
“Not a lot,” Gabe admitted. “I was a SEAL. I usually came in after negotiations failed.”
“All right. Quick and dirty lesson,” Giancarelli said. “If you have to get taken, you want it done by professionals, because you’re more likely to come out alive at the other end. It’s nothing more than a business transaction to them. Professionals don’t want to kill anyone. In fact, they go out of their way not to kill. It’ll hurt their reputation if they become known for not upholding their end of the bargain.
“The EPC,” Giancarelli continued, “has a reputation for returning hostages unharmed, and Frank Perry thinks we’re dealing with the EPC.”
“But not you.”
