Picking up the phone, he dialed an American cell phone number. As they suspected, he spoke in Korean.
“I’m in jail.”
“Where?” asked the altered voice.
“New Orleans. Three men said she’s already dead.”
“Then you’re not needed.”
“Get me out, and I can make sure the child is dead as well.”
“The child is insignificant,” said the voice. “Someone will adopt it and change its name.”
“And me?” asked the man.
“As I said. You’re no longer needed.”
The man screamed in agony, gripping his ears, tugging and pulling, as he banged his head against the table. Cowboy, Moose, Christopher, and Patrick ran into the room, only to find the man dead, blood oozing from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.
“What the fuck did we just see?” asked Moose.
“We just saw someone kill this man through the phone,” frowned Cowboy. “Tanner? Hiro? Did you get everything?”
“We got it. We’re running it through the system now. The voice was altered, but we might be able to peel away the layers and find out who it is.”
The sheriff ran into the room with two deputies, staring at the man now dead against his table.
“We had nothing to do with it,” said Moose.
“I know, I know,” he said, scratching his beard. “I saw it all on the cameras. What the hell happened?”
“We’re not sure, but our team is going to try and figure it out.” Patrick opened the phone, removed the recording device, and placed it in his pocket.
“Call the coroner,” said the sheriff. “We’ll see what he says as well.”
“We’ve still got one more man out there,” said Cowboy. “I find it hard to believe the person he called is his partner.”
“There damn sure didn’t seem to be any love lost between him and whoever that was on the phone. That was one cold conversation.”
“I’ll let you boys know what the coroner says. We’ll see if we can push this along.”
The four men left the sheriff’s office, the rain still pounding down around them. They briefly scanned the parking lot, hoping to catch a glimpse of their second man. No such luck. The sheets of rain were so thick they couldn’t see anything.
“He’s out there. His partner is out there and knows by now what happened,” said Moose.
“We know, brother. Let’s take the long way home and see if we can get a tail.” They stepped inside the truck, and Cowboy flipped the switch for comms. The alarm immediately went off. “We’ve got a tracker on the truck.”
“Hiro? You got us?” asked Moose.
“I got you. It’s behind the right rear wheel. Don’t touch the doors. I’m gonna give it a zap and fry it.” The men folded their arms onto their laps, not touching the doors at all. A few years ago, the team at G.R.I.P. developed a new alarm system that caused electrical currents to envelope the vehicle, thereby frying anyone who tried to touch it. In this case, he would be able to send a current to the exact location and destroy the tracker. A few seconds later, the alarm stopped, and they were safe to go.
“He was waiting for us,” said Moose. “He knew that we’d find him here, and he was going to follow us back.”
“But he didn’t,” said Christopher. “We made sure that he didn’t. Now, we’re going to track him. The sheriff’s office has cameras everywhere. We’ll see if we can get a good look at him and go from there.” Moose nodded.
“Moose? Brother, we got this. Nothing is going to happen to her.”
“I hope not. But if, for some un-Godly reason, something does happen, you better shoot me between the eyes because I’m going to kill every fucking person in North Korea.”