One Minute to Midnight (Black Ops: Automatik) Read Online Free PDF Page B

said some people were damn set in their ways? That’s Kit Daily, and the train yard is Kit’s business. Family business for a long time, if you know what I mean.” Eddie seemed desperate for someone to know what he meant. His wife, the mayor, probably didn’t take him too seriously. Mary didn’t blame her.
    “Well, that’s good to know.” Mary stood, digging her claws into the name Kit Daily and wanting to tear him open to see what his involvement was. “Let me look around town a bit, see the possibilities while you’re thinking about what it is Strathmore Development does.” She handed him her card. “We’ll meet back up and see what we can do.”
    He trapped her card against his palm with the fingers of his opposite hand. “Glad to have you looking into Morris Flats.” If he knew the real reason she was there, he wouldn’t be smiling. He might be reaching for that pistol she’d heard. Even this soft man had hard bullets close at hand. “But leave Kit and his train yard alone. It’s not the place for you. The guy’s a former Marine, a real hard-ass without a lot of marshmallows in his cocoa, if you know what I mean.”
    “Sounds like a dead end for me.” Kit and his train tracks were exactly where she wanted to be. She itched to pursue the new lead but knew this stage of the mission had to be a careful recon. The people were not to be trusted, and charging into their territory would set off too many alarms.
    “Good thinking.” Eddie came around his desk and opened the door for her. “Stick with Eddie, I’ll show you around.” The door closed again after she was midway through the main offices. The lights on the business phones remained unlit. He must be calling his wife on his cell.
    Before leaving, Mary got a couple of lunch recommendations from the two employees. She thanked them and stepped back into the cold. At least the weather was honest. Any warmth in Eddie’s office was manufactured.
    She got into the car and turned the engine on for the heater. The two employees still watched her as she sat in the idling car and texted on her phone. Just as any businessperson would.
    But her text to Ben read: I don’t trust anyone with money here .
    Hell no . His response came quickly, then faded out in the app. Rotten cream at the top .
    Hell yeah . She went on to text him the lunch recommendations.
    He acknowledged and told her his next destination. Police rec league now . Over and out .
    Menace hummed in Morris Flats like the overhead power lines. The more she and Ben searched for answers, the more deadly the current would run. The mayor now knew someone was looking around town. She’d reach out to the police. The same cops Ben had run against last night. And the same ones he was going to see just then. Everyone had to be counted as the enemy. Ben was her only safety. She was his only backup. And they both had to keep pressing into the danger.
    * * *
    Instinct twisted a knot in Ben’s stomach. This town wasn’t right. Mary’s text had reinforced what he’d already seen.
    He almost wished she was backing him up with her .50 as he walked across the chilly parking lot of the police rec league gym. Right onto the home turf of the officers he’d already tangled with. Every natural urge told him to turn around and find another lead to follow, but if illegal guns were being moved in through town, these cops would know all about it. The building was money. New construction without a single crack in the stucco of the high, imposing walls. The cars outside were just as fresh. None of them were more than two years old, and there wasn’t a base model in sight.
    The glass doors to the gym were clean. Ben approached them as he did any assault. Where were the blind spots? What was his quickest egress? The door was unlocked and he was grateful for the climate-controlled heat inside. Instead of an assault rifle, he held his soft briefcase full of sport bracelets, business cards and other swag. The mission was