Page 29 of Shadow of Fear

“Get out here,” Gold yelled and Gavin was afraid he’d located Rachel. Instead, Pritchard and a woman walked out of the other office, Pritchard looking sick.

"I told you I didn't want to be identified." Pritchard stood behind the woman. Middle-aged and slightly dumpy, she looked vaguely familiar, but Gavin couldn't place her.

“It won’t matter. He’ll be in no shape to identify anyone in a few minutes. We need to find the woman and Mitchell.” Gold said and waggled his head, resembling one of those dolls you bought as a souvenir. “Get it out of him,” he gestured toward the guard and turned to walk away.

He went down first, screaming as his knees buckled. When the woman started to run, she got a shot in the rear, and Pritchard, who'd fallen to the floor with his hands over his head at the first shot, ended up beneath her. The guard, taken by surprise, was easy enough to disarm. Getting him unconscious, however, took a bit of time, though Gavin enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Senator made it inside within seconds, the confiscated pistol in one hand. He stopped at the sight of Pritchard whining for the woman to get off, Gold screaming at the top of his lungs and clutching his knee, and Rachel climbing down from the metal shelving. "Everything under control?"

“Pretty much,” Gavin said, his breath coming in heaves as he tried to straighten. That last punch had been a doozy. His stomach had met his backbone.

Rachel leaned over Gold. “Shut up. Give me your phone.”

When he glared and cursed, she took the rifle and pointed it at him. “Really?”

She accepted his phone and handed it to the Senator who was staring at them all. He accepted it and called his house. With a few words, he had the assurance all the appropriate agencies would be contacted.

Rachel approached Gavin. “Can you stand?”

He was still working on straightening up and nodded when he finally made it upright. “You scared me for a minute there.”

“What?”

“When you disappeared.”

“Oh,” she looked around the warehouse. “I wasn’t sure we’d be able to surprise them together, so I found a hiding place.”

“And took care of all three people. Good shooting.”

She blushed then looked down. “I was aiming higher.”

Gold indeed wasa high-ranking member of the drug distribution ring, and his name wasn’t Gold. When the DEA got involved, they found him to be a past lackey of a European drug cartel, an American who’d traveled extensively as a younger man. While there wasn’t any proof yet, Rachel figured he’d started out as a mule and graduated.

The woman was one of the spokespersons for an anti-drug group, it turned out. But she was also Gold's lover and how that had happened, no one wanted to figure out. Pritchard turned out to be exactly what they thought he was, a paid flunky, but one who knew names. He was the true Washington schemer. He heard things.

He cut a deal with the DEA, one that would result in several years in jail but not nearly enough, Rachel figured. And the names started flowing.

She leaned back in her chair at the kitchen table. Bear, Dallas, and Vince had left that morning, the need for extra security gone. Gavin and the Senator sat at the table as well, with Gavin's laptop open in the center. The video conference with Hank, Agent Fanning, and Kane was finally up and running after some technical issues.

“So, he’s made a deal,” the Senator’s resigned tone echoed the feelings of all of them.

“Yes, but it will benefit us.” Agent Fanning leaned in to emphasize her point. “I know Pritchard is a pig, but he knows things. We’re getting names, gentlemen. And we’ll get the other ring leaders.”

“I still can’t believe Gold was a leader of this whole thing.” Rachel shook her head.

"He was in a perfect spot. He had access to a lot of information the normal drug dealer wouldn't. "Fanning said and then explained when silence met her comment. "We have drug dealers from all over, doctors, pharmacists, professionals, and blue-collar alike. But they have one thing in common. They hook up with the familiar. Their background, their workplace, environment, all play a part in where they deal, who they choose to sell to, and so on. When Gold was able to get into the government realm, he gained access to information about interdiction efforts, opening and closing of supply depots, military deployments."

"In other words, he had free access to customer movements," Gavin said. "Smart."

“Very. And the other leaders of this group are equally bright. But we’ll have names so we can get them,” Fanning finished with a smile.

“Good,” Senator Mitchell said. “I want to be kept up to date on that, Agent.”

“As much as I can, sir.” She replied. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

"Two broken ribs and contusions," Rachel said and ignored his frown.