Robert Crais - The First Rule

“Well, Joseph, I think we have company.”

“What do you see?”

“Dark blue Navigator parked across the street and a silver BMW alongside a little taco stand they have here.”

Stone’s voice came in.

“I make two men in the Beemer, and at least two in the Nav.”

Pike said, “What about the station personnel?”

Cole again.

“One male at the counter, but he’s nothing like the last kids. This guy’s all sharp corners. I don’t think you get out of the car this time.”

“No?”

“These boys are ready. I don’t know if they’ll try to take you here or follow you out, but I say we don’t give them the chance. Come in. Let them see you. Then leave. Make them follow you. Don’t give them another choice.”

“Rog. I’m rolling.”

Pike slipped his.357 from its holster, and set it between his legs.

Pike approached the station slowly, seeing both the Navigator and the BMW in his peripheral vision without looking directly at them. They had to believe he did not suspect they were waiting.

Elvis said, “Looking good.”

Stone echoed him.

“All good.”

Pike eased into the station, but stopped short of the pumps. He counted to ten, then slowly turned back to the street and out into traffic. He didn’t speed away, didn’t punch it, and never once looked in his mirror.

Cole said, “Here we go. Nav’s pulling out.”

Pike glanced in his rearview and saw the dark blue Navigator swing through a hard one-eighty, looping into the gas station and out, jumping into traffic four or five cars behind him. The BMW followed the Navigator, cutting across oncoming traffic as the oncoming cars jammed their brakes and fired off their horns.

Stone said, “Groovy. This is gonna be like shooting fish, bro.”

Pike’s mouth twitched.

“Shoot them later. Right now, watch them.”

Pike didn’t want them to realize he knew they were behind him, so he didn’t speed up when he decided to lose them, he slowed down. Pike led them into a bottleneck where construction had forced three lanes of traffic into two. When Pike popped out the other side, they were trapped by the quicksand of congestion. Pike simply drove away, and waited at a nearby IHOP.

A few minutes later, Cole reported.

“The one dude jumped out and chased after you on foot. That didn’t work so well.”

“What are they doing?”

“They split up. I’m with the Navigator, northbound on Vine. Jon’s with the Beemer.”

Stone said, “Beemer’s north on Gower. We’re probably heading for the same place.”

Pike said, “I’ll catch up.”

This was what Pike wanted. The authority men had sent the enforcers, and now the enforcers had to explain how they blew it. They would lead Pike to an authority man, and might even lead him to Darko.

Pike caught sight of Stone’s Rover at the bottom of Laurel Canyon, just as it turned past a pair of pretentious Greek columns to enter the Mount Olympus planned development.

Cole, three cars ahead of Stone and already climbing the side of the canyon, called again to warn that their caravan would stand out in the residential neighborhood.

Cole said, “I’m approaching a construction site here on the right. Let’s dump two of these cars.”

“Rog.”

Pike sped up, trying to close the distance. He and Cole left their cars at the construction site and jumped into Stone’s Rover. Stone barreled away, hurrying to make up lost ground before they lost their targets.

Palatial homes of dubious architecture lined the steep streets, none of them worthy of the Greek gods the streets were named for. Mount Olympus led to Oceanus, then to Hercules and Achilles. They climbed hard, catching glimpses of the cars they followed higher on the mountain.

They reached the crest of the ridge, rounded a tight curve, and saw the Navigator and Beemer parked outside a dark gray home on the downhill side of the street. The cars were empty, suggesting the occupants were inside the house. Like every other home in Mount Olympus, the house was set on the curb with almost no setback. Low-slung and contemporary, the face of the house was a windowless, monolithic wall with a buffed-steel entry and a matching three-car garage. Gates and walls on either side of the house blocked any view to the rear.

Stone said, “Darko, baby. I can smell him.”

“Drive past, and drop me in front of the next house.”

Jon slowed enough for Pike to slide out. Pike glanced at the surrounding houses to see if anyone was watching, but all of the homes were still, and closed to the world.

Pike walked back to the gray house’s mailbox and found a thin stack of magazines and envelopes. He shuffled through, and saw that everything was addressed to someone named Emile Grebner.

Pike returned the mail, then set off after the Rover. It had turned around at the far intersection and was waiting at the curb.

As he walked, Pike phoned George Smith. George recognized the incoming number this time, and answered right away.

“My friends tell me you’re a one-man wrecking crew.”

“Your KGB friends?”

“Odessa is loving this. One of the brothers has a competing service station business with Mr. Darko’s operation.”

“I’m not doing this for Odessa.”

“It never hurts to be liked, my friend.”

“What does the KGB know about Emile Grebner?”

“Grebner-”

George thought for a moment.

“If this is the same Grebner, he works with Darko, yes. I do not recall his first name.”

“An authority man?”

George laughed.

“That’s what they call them. You’ll be speaking Serbian soon. Maybe Russian.”

“Meaning Grebner and Darko are tight?”

“Darko will have three or four like Grebner, each running three or four cells of their own down at the street level-the people who do the crime. Secrecy is everything with people from our part of the world, my man. They may not even know each other.”

The old KGB and Communist Party had been organized the same way as far back as Lenin, and Pike knew the earliest Soviet gangs had adopted the same system when the Party tried unsuccessfully to put them out of business. The Soviet gangs had outlasted the old Party members, and had spread their system throughout Eastern Europe and, now, America.

“A cell system.”

“Yes. Like these gas stations you hammered-they’re probably Grebner’s responsibility, so you’re his problem to handle. Is that how you know him? He sent people for you?”

“That’s how I know him.”

“Pity for them.”

Pike put away his phone as he reached the Rover.

Stone said, “Casa Darko?”

“Not Darko.”

Pike slipped into the Rover, and filled them in on what he had learned from George Smith. As he went through it, the front door opened and the two big men from the Navigator came out. They didn’t look happy, with the guy in front bitching out his friend, probably blaming him for their troubles. The Navigator squealed away in a wide, screaming U-turn.

Stone laughed.

“I guess those boys need their assholes stitched.”

Pike said, “How many were in the Beemer, Jon?”

“Two. Coupla pussies. I could tell by the way they drove.”

Stone said things like that.

Pike wondered if Darko was holed up with Grebner. Pike thought this unlikely, but knew it was possible. There might be only one or two men inside, but there could be a dozen, or a family with children.

Cole said, “So what are we going to do?”

“Take a look. Me and you. Jon, you’re outta here. Let us know if some one comes.”

As Cole and Pike slipped out, Stone said, “Want the M4? It’s ideal for urban assault.”