Tarnished Steel Read Online Free PDF Page A

Knight asked, pulling up a digital photo of the plane — a twin engine cargo design.
     
    “Two to three hundred kilos.”
     
    Knight’s jaw dropped a little as he quickly did the math. “That’s a little over eight million, Hank.”
     
    “Like I said,” Hank assured him, “total reprisal.”
     
    Knight nodded. “Alright. Let’s delve into the details.”
     
    For the next two hours, Hank told his elder everything: all the places things might go wrong and what he had in place to deal with those possibilities.
     
    Afterward, Knight sat back from the keyboard. He leaned back in his chair, looking at the white painted slats and exposed beams of his roof. “This really is far more than I expected from your operation, Hank, far more. And as you suggested, it’s well within the bounds I gave you. From this point, until we have a hand-picked crew for the pickup, you are a ghost in this matter. If even a breath of this is whispered into Orlin’s ear, the whole club could be in trouble and war could be imminent.”
     
    “I was thinking the same thing, especially since I am going to be required to maintain my position and standing with Orlin before vanishing completely out of his world,” Hank agreed.
     
    “You have an exit plan?” Knight asked.
     
    “Yes, a good one, and a backup,” Hank said. “I’ll need a half-mil from the proceeds, after. Is that agreeable?”
     
    “No,” Knight told him, sitting up to his desk again and putting his forearms down on the surface, “but a full mil would be.”
     
    “That seems a bit much,” Hank mumbled.
     
    “It’s not,” Knight told him, “and both Howey and Margaret would agree with me. This is going to hurt him and cripple his confidence in his staff and procedures. This will likely put an end to several of his enforcers as he searches for the hole in his security. You are going to need to exit cleanly. A mil is going to come in very handy once Orlin gets to searching his hacienda for mice.”
     
    “Alright,” Hank agreed. “What I don’t use I can always bring back.”
     
    Knight nodded at the large man’s doubt regarding his own worth in this matter and smiled. “So, the lower the profile you cast around here for a while, the better. Maybe you can talk that little red filly into a ride with you up the coast and some one-on-one time away from club politics. She’s a good one, by the way. Probably a keeper, just so you know up front. You haven’t been looking to be tied down in the past, so consider yourself fairly warned.”
     
    “Think she’s casting a loop then, do ya?” Hank grinned.
     
    “Nope,” Knight told him. “I think you will be, once you’ve spent some time with her. How are you with cash?”
     
    “Drug running pays pretty well. I’ve got quite a wad in my pocket, and more in hidden stashes for just-in-case emergencies,” Hank assured him. “Rent is paid up for a year, gas and electric has a nice budget of pre-paid monies. I think I’m ready for either hibernation or clean getaway riding, whichever is required.”
     
    “No temptations of keeping the lifestyle? No qualms about the plan?” Knight asked.
     
    “Hell no,” Hank told him, clenching his fist. “In fact, it’s taken quite a bit of restraint not to cross your boundaries and put a large hole in Orlin’s head — him and that fucking Ernando. But, this isn’t about me; it’s about Howey and Margaret. So, I’ve kept to the objective and the boundaries. The sooner we’re done though, the better.”
     
    Knight studied him. “Your cool thinking under highly emotional situations is the reason I asked you to do this and not one of the others. Anything else?”
     
    “Not really. Like I said, I’ve got some notes in there you can read as you like. Basically, they are mental debates and theories regarding my exit plan, the drop hijacking, and the rest of our goals.”
     
    “Then, welcome back, and we’ll start moving this forward. Good job. Very good