Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Read online

  Loose Ends

  (A Hammer Commission Novel)

  Published by John Van Stry

  Copyright 2016 John Van Stry

  Copyright John Van Stry 2016

  Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author.

  Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead, or other actual organizations, companies, establishments, places, or things, is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction created by the author and the author retains all rights to the material in this story.

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or copies given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Hammer Commission Series:

  The Hammer Commission

  The King of Las Vegas

  Wolf Killer

  Loose Ends

  Portals of Infinity Series:

  Portals of Infinity: Champion for Hire

  Portals of Infinity: The God Game

  Portals of Infinity: Of Temples and Trials

  Portals of Infinity: The Sea of Grass

  Portals of Infinity: Demigod and Deities

  Portals of Infinity: Reprisal

  Portals of Infinity: Kaiju

  I would like to thank the following people for their support:

  Sean Kennedy via Patreon

  Andrew Waters via Patreon

  Chad Glidden for his support with everything else

  1: Brookhaven, Long Island, New York

  2: Undisclosed Location

  3: Thomas's House, Brookhaven New York

  4: LevGen Labs, Brookhaven, New York

  5: Mom's House, Brookhaven, New York

  6: Portland International Airport, Oregon

  7: Somewhere west of St. Helens, Oregon

  8: NE Stark, Portland

  9: FBI Offices, Portland

  10: Outside Klamath Falls, Oregon

  11: Enroute to Klamath Falls, Oregon

  12: Pack Outfitters, Oregon

  13: Lake Steak House, Klamath Falls

  14: Fremont National Forest, Oregon

  15: Bly, Oregon

  16: Route 97, Oregon

  17: 20,000ft over Oregon

  18: Route Twenty-six, Government Camp, Oregon

  19: Route Twenty-six, West of Mount Hood, Oregon

  20: FBI Field Office, Portland,, Oregon

  21: Central Valley, Northern California.

  22: BioGenTek, Northern California

  23: San Benito, Guatemala

  24: Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  25: Guatemala City, Guatemala

  26: Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  27: Drug Processing Facility, Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  28: Drug Processing Facility, Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  29: Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  30: San Benito, Guatemala

  New York

  1: Brookhaven, Long Island, New York

  The phone rang and grumbling Mark opened his eyes and grabbed it off the nightstand.

  "Hello?" he said as Hope mumbled something in her sleep and snuggled up against him.

  "So, have you told your mother yet?"

  Mark yawned, "Judith, it's six in the morning, on a Saturday no less. Couldn't you have waited?"

  "Oops, sorry, Mark, I still get the time zone thing mixed up. But as long as I have you, have you told your mother yet?"

  "You know, it's not really any of your business," Mark sighed.

  "Yeah, but you know how I like to make things my business," Judith laughed on the other end of the phone. "So, what's it going to be, are you going to show up? Or do I have to make a phone call?"

  "You don't even have my mother's number," Mark said, "so I'm not worried."

  "This is your last warning, Mark!" Judith teased. "I have your mother's number right in my hand, and I'm more than willing to call her, this instant."

  "Yeah, good luck with that," Mark yawned and hung up on her.

  Sitting up, Mark stretched and put his hand on the receiver for the landline sitting on the nightstand. The instant he felt it shiver he picked it up and put the receiver to his ear.

  "Why, hello, Judith! How nice of you to call," he snickered.

  "You're at your mother's house, aren't you?" Judith laughed.

  "Yup."

  "Did you tell her?"

  Mark looked over at the bed, Hope, Faith, Charity, and Helena were all there, Helena had her eyes open and was looking at him curiously.

  "Tell her what?" Mark teased back.

  Judith sighed, "Well obviously she didn't take it too bad, if you're all staying at her house. Wait a second, she's not in the hospital, or dead, is she?"

  Mark laughed, "No, she was a little shocked at first, but she figured if the Church didn't fire me over it, it must be okay."

  "What did she say about the kids?"

  "We showed her some pictures, I didn't want to turn this into a mob scene," Mark confessed, waving at Helena to go back to sleep.

  Helena yawned, nodded and curled up against Charity.

  "Well, at least she knows about them. So, was she mad at you for not telling her?"

  "Yeah, a little. But well, she understood that I was just a little bit afraid of what she would think."

  "What did the rest of the family say about it?"

  "Eh, my sister isn't here, she's off working on some fashion shoot in Milan, but I think my brother might be just the tiniest bit jealous."

  "Isn't he the rich one with his own company?"

  "Yup, I think he's now working on his second hundred million dollars," Mark chuckled. "So, how are the new recruits working out?"

  "Pretty well, actually. You know, it's kind of funny to be considered an 'old hand' already. They even have me teaching a few classes."

  "Well, you helped me kill how many devils? Odds are they'll never meet anyone with that level of experience."

  "Until they meet you, of course."

  "And who knows when that will be? It's always best that they learn from someone who's been there. And you've been there.

  "Anyway, I'm going back to bed. Bye, Judith."

  "Bye, Mark!"

  "Aren't you glad you beat her to the punch," Hope mumbled and put an arm around Mark's waist. "Now come back to bed."

  "Eh, I'm not tired."

  "Neither am I," Hope purred.

  It was a couple of hours later when Mark padded into the kitchen, wearing only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Faith was cooking breakfast and his mother was sitting at the table talking to Helena.

  Mark smiled, it was nice to see his mother was taking well to the girls, he'd worried about this day for so many years, and now that it had come, well his mother was dealing with it a lot better than he had thought she would.

  "Morning, Mom," he said and bent over to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  "You look cold," she said to him.

  "Eh, I'm okay," Mark said sitting down and taking the plate Faith handed him.

  "Where's the other two? Hope and Charity?" she asked him.

  "Oh, they're in the shower still, they'll be here in a few minutes," he smiled and started eating.

  "Well obviously you're able to keep them all happy," his mother said,
causing him to choke on his food as Helena laughed.

  "Mother!" Mark complained getting his food back under control.

  "What, you think you invented sex?" she said with a smirk.

  "Well, no. Still, it's not exactly something I expect to hear from you!"

  "Eh, you're a married man now. I was a bit worried when you came home with four wives, but from the sounds of things this morning; you're definitely not having trouble pleasing them."

  "I'd have thought all the children he's given us would have proved that," Helena pointed out.

  "Don't encourage her," Mark sighed to Helena.

  "Well, you know what they say," Mark's mother said, smiling, "hearing is believing!"

  Faith started to snicker then as Hope and Charity came into the kitchen, dressed the same as Mark was.

  "What's funny?" Charity asked.

  "Apparently we were just a little bit noisy," Mark sighed.

  "I thought my daughter was a loud one when she came here with her husband," Mark's mom continued, "but you two put her to shame."

  "That's 'cause Mark's the best," Charity said without batting an eye and taking a plate of food from Faith and sitting down at the table.

  "Yup, you definitely should be proud of your son," Hope said taking a second plate and sitting down as well. "No way would a single woman, or even two, be able to handle a man like him!"

  Mark could feel his face burning and wondered if hiding under the table was an option as Helena looked at him and snickered loudly.

  "Hey, Mark! You ready to go?"

  Mark sighed as his brother Thomas came in the front door.

  "Saved by the bell," he smiled, then raised his voice, "Just a minute Thomas, let me get changed."

  Standing up he gave his mother a hug, then each of the girls a kiss.

  "I'd ask you all to stay out of trouble, but I suspect that's hopeless," Mark said shaking his head.

  "Try not to make your brother jealous," his mother told him.

  "How could I? He's richer than I'll ever be."

  "Don't be too sure about that," she said motioning to the girls, who all beamed rather happily at the compliment.

  Mark chuckled as he went to go change his clothes. She may have had a point at that.

  "So, what's it like working for the FBI?" Tomas asked as they drove to his office.

  "They definitely get a lot nicer toys than I get working for the Church, that's for sure," Mark chuckled.

  "I saw that press conference you did, that was pretty impressive. And that case you worked on? I had no idea you got involved in murder cases."

  Mark shrugged in his seat, looking out the window at the traffic as they went down the road. It was a lot more built up here than in Oregon, but a lot less than in DC.

  "Eh, I get sent all over the world on all sorts of things."

  "Still, you wouldn't believe the phone calls I got from all my old school friends from back in the neighborhood. Quite a few of my employees were also pretty impressed.

  "I mean really, how many people take down a serial killer?"

  "Well, it is a little different being in the public spotlight for a change," Mark admitted. This was probably the first time he'd ever seen his brother impressed by anything he'd done.

  "So, you how long are you going to be working for the FBI?"

  "I honestly don't know. Mostly I'm there for political reasons, but the truth is they do need my help. I suspect they'll hold onto me for as long as they can."

  "Really?" Tomas said and glanced at him, "I'm kind of surprised by that, I didn't think the work you had been doing before was all that important."

  Mark chuckled, "Yeah, but the folks at the FBI know better."

  "So, if they want you so much, why not go work for them, instead?"

  "Really want to tell your friends that your brother is a fed that badly?" Mark teased.

  Tomas laughed, "Well, it sure beats telling them that he recovers stolen goods for the Church. I'd think the pay and the retirement would be better too."

  "Well, the pay might be, not the retirement though," Mark replied. "And the death benefits are amazing," he joked.

  His brother looked at him a bit puzzled for a moment, then shrugged and continued on.

  "So, four wives? Four? How in the world did you manage that? And all sisters no less! Hell, when Christie sees them," Thomas snickered as he mentioned their older sister, "she's gonna freak!"

  "Hey, you got the money, she got the looks, I got the big family, it's all good!" Mark chuckled.

  "Yes, but they're all almost as good looking as she is and they don't even use makeup. I don't know if she'll try to kill them or hire them."

  "Hire them?" Mark asked surprised.

  "Yeah, she's started up her own modeling agency," Tomas turned into a parking lot for an impressive and rather large building.

  "So, here we are. Like it?"

  Mark was impressed, the building probably covered a good five acres and had grey metal walls that went up for probably two stories, but for all of that it looked rather nice instead of looking oppressive. Whoever the architect was, they'd done a good job.

  "So when did you move in here?" Mark asked, he'd been to the old location, three or four years ago. Or was it five?

  "Almost two years now. We got the last of the labs moved in eight months ago and the old building is being razed to build an office complex I think."

  "Impressive," Mark said, nodding as his brother pulled into a reserved parking space. The rest of the lot was mostly empty, but there were still a dozen or so cars there.

  "Come on in, let me give you the three dollar tour," Thomas said smiling.

  Mark smiled back and got out of the car with his brother and followed him into the building. He could see his brother wanted to show off for him, and honestly, Mark was perfectly happy to let him. He'd stolen a little bit of Thomas's thunder last night showing up with his wives and all the pictures of his kids. But Mark didn't begrudge his brother or even his sister their pride in their accomplishments. Both had worked hard for years to get where they were today, where he really had just sort of fallen into his life by chance.

  "No guards?" Mark asked, surprised as his brother led them into the building.

  "Not on the weekends, we don't get that many people in here then, and the security to get into the labs in the back is pretty tight. It's all facial recognition type stuff with man traps and we have an offsite security company that monitors the cameras there twenty-four-seven. If anything happens, they'll call the police."

  "Still, I'd think you'd want armed guards out here, or something."

  "Yeah, I wanted to for the labs, but the town got all bent out of shape at that though. They said it would only attract problems."

  Mark shook his head and sighed.

  "What did the police say?" Mark asked him.

  "That if I bought them some nice gear and sent their guys to training they'd guarantee me a short response time."

  "So, did you?"

  Thomas nodded, "It's the price of doing business out here, Mark. Everyone always has their hand out. Still, now when I get pulled over for speeding it's 'Why hello, Mr. Levin! Please drive slow, Mr. Levin! Have a nice day, Mr. Levin!'"

  Mark laughed, "So, no more speeding tickets?"

  "Nope, and if the kids get in trouble they get a ride home in the back of a squad car and Jeri hasn't had to call for triple-A in over a year. I'm very popular now with the chief of police."

  "Well, I hope that's a good thing," Mark said and followed his brother as he led them down into the guts of the building.

  "Here, let me get you scanned into the system, and I'll show you the labs."

  "You can do that?" Mark asked.

  "Easily, we're tied into law-enforcement and you're with the FBI now, so you'll be in the database. Just hold your ID up for the camera here."

  Mark nodded and did as he was told, and sure enough, five minutes later his brother was showing him each of the labs where th
ey were currently making medicines for a number of new treatment therapies. Some of which were for some fairly serious diseases and conditions.

  Mark was impressed.

  "I'd take you down to the research labs," Thomas told him as they went back to his office, "but the security on those is pretty heavy, due to the decontamination protocols."

  "Stuff back there is that dangerous?" Mark asked walking into his brother's office. It was a corner office of course, on the second floor, with a rather commanding view of the surrounding area.

  "Not dangerous, so much as sensitive. Four years ago we had an experiment corrupted by a visitor, and it took us six months to realize the damage and cost us over two million dollars in lost research and opportunities."

  "Wow, I had no idea. Was it espionage?"

  Thomas shook his head, "I don't think it was, but it still cost us a fortune. So we wrote up a bunch of new policies and there are no exceptions, not even for me."

  Mark watched out the window as a van pulled up in front of the entrance out front and five men in swat gear piled out of the back and charged the front door.

  "I think you have visitors," Mark said as one of the lead men pulled out a shotgun and then they disappeared beneath him out of sight.

  "What?" Thomas said coming over and looking out the window.

  Mark heard a couple of gunshots, followed by the sound of breaking glass.

  "What's going on?"

  Mark pulled out his cell phone and dialed the office in Washington. "I'd say you're being raided."

  "What!" His brother said and started to run for the door. Mark grabbed his arm and hauled him back.

  "Special Interstate Affairs Division, Agent O'Brien speaking."

  "Denise, Mark here. I gotta talk fast; I'm at my brother's office, LevGen Biotechnologies in Brookhaven, New York. We're being raided. I'll leave this line open, alert the locals, and mute the line.

  "You got it, Mark," Denise said and Mark set the phone on the desk, tossing a piece of paper over it.

  "We've got to do something!" Thomas said.

  "We, don't. I will," Mark said looking into his brother's eyes. "Now, hide under your desk, don't say a damn thing, and call my wives at home after they've left."