The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Read online

  She also found it to be sexy as hell.

  CHAPTER 4 – Grave references

  Before the details of the contract could be discussed, Burke’s CFO, Sloane Lennox entered the conference room in the company of another man.

  The other man was Sloane Lennox’s new bodyguard, Jake Vincento. He was Brad Grant’s replacement. Unlike Grant, Jake Vincento hadn’t risen from the ranks of the Burke Corporation’s security force. Prior to coming to Burke, Vincento had served in the army and seen combat.

  Vincento was in his thirties, good looking in a rough-hewn way, with raven-black hair and dark brown eyes. Vincento was Tanner’s height, but carried more muscle. He was also toting a gun, a fact Tanner observed as he noticed the bulge of the holster on the man’s left hip.

  Vincento eyed Tanner carefully as he and Sloane Lennox approached the hit man.

  To Tanner’s surprise, Lennox offered to shake hands.

  “I should have done this sooner, Tanner. I want both you and Miss Blake to know how upset I was by Brad Grant’s actions, and I assure you that I had no part in what he did.”

  “Fine,” Tanner said, and as he looked at Lennox, he thought that the man seemed to be sincere.

  “I won’t be staying for the meeting; Conrad will handle that. I just wanted you to know that I abhorred Grant’s actions.”

  Tanner sent Lennox a nod, and then Lennox left with Jake Vincento.

  ***

  Once they were alone outside the conference room, Lennox asked Vincento his opinion of Tanner.

  “What do you think?”

  “He doesn’t impress me,” Vincento said.

  “Nor I, except for his impressive lack of tact. We’ll bide our time, and when the opportunity arises... well, you know what to do.”

  Vincento smiled as his hand went to his weapon.

  “Don’t worry, once I make my move, Tanner will be history.”

  ***

  Back inside the conference room, Colonel Vann began the briefing. He had voiced concern over Alexa and Deke’s attendance, but was overridden by Burke.

  “Tanner wants them here, and I see no harm in it. Also, they both played a part in taking down Julien Adams.”

  Lawson agreed that they could stay, and the colonel began.

  They had activated the large video monitor, and the aerial view of a house by a lake appeared on the screen. Beside that was a photo of a short man in his forties with dark blonde hair, a goatee, and ice blue eyes. The man was not only short, but also had a small frame and a thin face.

  “That property belongs to the man in the photo. He’s a Ukrainian mobster named Kyril Yatsenko. Yatsenko is responsible for countless cases of identity thief, but recently he’s branched out into cyber blackmail. Perhaps you’re aware of the trouble suffered by the Tokyo Stock Exchange last month, Tanner. That cyber attack cost the Japanese untold millions, and the government secretly paid Yatsenko to not attack them again.”

  “He doesn’t possess those skills himself, does he?” Tanner asked.

  “No son, he does not, and we have a bead on the people he’s using. They’re a bunch of college punks in Philly who will soon learn a very valuable lesson and be in deeper legal trouble than they ever dreamed was possible. Yatsenko will be taught a different lesson, and that’s where you come in.”

  “You want me to kill him, fine, and I take it that you expect him to be at that house in western Pennsylvania?”

  “Yes, but he won’t be alone, and the security will be high. We estimate that he’ll be guarded by as many as twelve men.”

  “What type of security, electronic?” Alexa asked.

  The colonel answered her in detail, and Alexa was impressed.

  “That’s an excellent system, Tanner. Even my papa would have a tough time getting past it if the goal was to remain undetected.”

  “Your papa knows security systems?” Sara asked.

  “Yes,” Alexa said. “He is a retired world-class thief.”

  Sara grinned at her.

  “You just get more and more interesting.”

  Tanner stood, walked over to the monitor, and looked carefully at the landscape surrounding the lake house. After a few seconds of staring, he tapped the screen.

  “I’ll need topographical charts of the area, particularly these hills here in the north.”

  “You’ll have them, but why?” the colonel asked.

  “I’m going to kill Yatsenko with a sniper rifle.”

  The colonel shook his head and used a finger to point out the map legend at the bottom right hand corner of the image on the screen.

  “Look at the scale, son. Those hills are over a mile away from Yatsenko’s home, plus, there’s a body of water between them. I know only two men who could make a shot at that distance.”

  “You now know three men who can do it,” Tanner said.

  The colonel huffed in disagreement and looked over at Lawson.

  “I’m telling you sir, that shot is exceptionally difficult. If he fails to make it, Yatsenko will go underground and we’ll miss our chance.”

  Lawson looked over at Tanner.

  “Will you accept the contract?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I trust you to fulfill it; how you’ll do it is your concern.”

  “Exactly,” Tanner said, as he found himself liking Thomas Lawson.

  “When does the contract need to be fulfilled?” Sara asked.

  “Yatsenko will be at the lake house on Saturday, that’s five days away,” the colonel said.

  Tanner nodded.

  “I’ll be ready.”

  “What weapons do you need?” Deke asked Tanner.

  “Get me two McMillan Tac-50 rifles, with .50 BMG, a thousand rounds should do it.”

  “I’ll have it by tonight,” Deke said. “I’ll make the majority of it plain ball ammo, but I’ll mix in some armor piercing and incendiary ammo as well. You never know what you might need when the time comes.”

  “Good thinking, Deke,” Tanner said, and once more he was pleased to have the man around. Deke was a big help.

  “The McMillan is a good choice of weapon, son,” the colonel said. “Maybe you do have a clue after all.”

  “Colonel, I could give you the names of a dozen men who could assure you that I know how to kill with a sniper rifle, unfortunately, they’re all dead.”

  The colonel took Tanner’s meaning, and smiled grimly.

  CHAPTER 5 – Scout sniper

  Tanner remained stoic as another shot failed to hit the steel target he was aiming at, which was nearly two miles away. His latest shot had missed by sailing a foot over the target. He put down the scoped rifle, looked through the laser rangefinder, and made an adjustment.

  Seated on the grass to his left was Sara, who watched Tanner with fascination flashing in her blue eyes.

  They were on the acreage in Connecticut that was owned by Conrad Burke. Tanner had risen just after sunrise and drove to the land where he was to practice his long-range shooting. Sara had met him there, arriving shortly after he did, and after setting up, Tanner went to work on practicing his shooting. He was naturally gifted as a shooter, but a shot of the magnitude he was planning to make took more than talent, it took work, along with experience, training, and a strong knowledge of physics.

  Other than the old shack they had revitalized, there were no buildings on Burke’s land. There was a lake, and its size was comparable to the lake on the property in Pennsylvania where Tanner would be making a hit on the Ukrainian mobster, Kyril Yatsenko.

  Yatsenko was responsible for international cyber blackmail and terrorism, and would be vacationing at his lake house in Pennsylvania three days hence, along with a dozen of his men. The men would all be armed, and that meant that Yatsenko would be guarded by heavy security.

  Tanner’s job was to kill Yatsenko. To accomplish the act, Tanner would have to make an accurate shot over the surface of a lake. The shot needed to hit a target that was over a mile away and it had
to be fatal. Simply wounding the man was not an option.

  The longest shot in official records was currently listed as being 2,707 yards.

  Tanner had once hit the subject of a contract at 2,814 yards, although he could hardly brag about it, since the shot was taken during the act of contract murder. It had also taken three attempts to hit his man.

  This shot, if made, wouldn’t be a record, but it would be an exceptional display of marksmanship.

  “What adjustment are you making now?” Sara asked. She was shouting so that Tanner could understand her, as he was wearing hearing protection. Tanner removed the ear plugs and spoke to her, from where he lay atop the grass on his stomach, in front of a rifle which was supported on a tripod.

  “I have to factor in more height to compensate for The Coriolis Effect. Do you know what that is?”

  “No,” Sara admitted.

  “When you’re firing a round this far, it takes several seconds for the projectile to reach the target. While it’s traveling that distance, the earth continues along its rotation, spinning west to east. Meanwhile, the round I fired will have left the earth’s surface, and so I have to compensate for the drift, or The Coriolis Effect of the earth’s rotation. That last shot was high because I didn’t factor in enough height for the easterly drift of the earth.”

  Sara said nothing, and when Tanner looked over at her, he saw that she was staring at him with a stunned expression on her face.

  “What’s wrong, Blake?”

  “I was just remembering the days when I thought you were just another punk with a gun. The more I learn about you, Tanner, the more I’m impressed.”

  Tanner cocked an eyebrow.

  “Why is it that every time you compliment me it makes me suspicious?”

  “It’s because you don’t trust me, but you will in time.”

  “And do you trust me, Blake?”

  “Yes Tanner, I do. I trust you to make this shot. It’s why I backed your decision to use a sniper rifle.”

  Tanner looked past Sara to where there was movement among the trees. Someone was coming along the trail that led down to the lake.

  “We’ve got company,” Tanner said, and he and Sara both rose up from the grass.

  As the forms came into view, Tanner saw that it was Conrad Burke. Burke wasn’t alone. Accompanying him were Thomas Lawson and Colonel Vann.

  Vann was busy eyeing Tanner’s rifle and other equipment, including the assortment of .50 BMG rounds he was using. Once he had taken that in, he studied Tanner with a scrutinizing gaze, and then his eyes moved on to admire Sara.

  “Is Miss Blake to act as your spotter, Tanner?”

  “I won’t have a spotter, Colonel, I work alone.”

  “That just makes me more certain that you’ll fail. Sniping is a team effort and a good spotter is worth their weight in gold. It would also make you less conspicuous if you were wandering around in those woods as part of a couple.”

  Tanner didn’t try to argue with the man, because the colonel was right. However, there was no one trained as a sniper/spotter that Tanner trusted to watch his back, and so he would have to infiltrate and make the kill while alone.

  “Why are you and Colonel Vann here, Mr. Lawson?” Tanner asked.

  The colonel had turned his attention to Sara, who he found very pleasant to look at. He tore his eyes away from her and placed them on Tanner.

  “I’m here to see if you even have a clue as to what you’re doing. Son, there are damn few men who can make the shot you’re planning to make. Even the best sniper in the world would find it to be difficult. I know that for a fact because I trained the best sniper in the world, and that Marine is on overseas duty.”

  “I’ll make the shot when the time comes, Colonel,” Tanner said, and said it with such assuredness, such matter-of-factness that it made Sara grin.

  Tanner’s confidence didn’t make the colonel smile. It made him angry. He pointed across the lake.

  “I take it there’s a target over there on the other side of the lake?”

  “There’s a steel target. It’s man-shaped and placed at a spot that would correlate to the distance of the front door of Yatsenko’s lake home. The elevation will be different of course, but I’ll have to account for that when the hit goes down.”

  “Have you hit the target?”

  “Not yet, I’m still ranging it,” Tanner said.

  Sara stepped forward to give more context to Tanner’s answer.

  “He just began practicing a short time ago, and so far he’s come close every time.”

  The colonel made a sound of derision.

  “Close is no good, Miss Blake. Tanner has to hit that bastard Yatsenko and kill him dead, otherwise, the son of a bitch might flee the area and go into hiding.”

  “Tanner will make the shot, Colonel. He doesn’t fail. It’s why he was picked by Burke to be our assassin.”

  “Talk is cheap,” the colonel said. “Let’s see him shoot.”

  “We’ll just be observing,” Lawson said, as he attempted to calm things down.

  Things were calm. Tanner was neither flustered nor impressed by his guests. He was in the middle of training for a hit, and he just wanted to get on with it. Not for the first time he wondered if taking contracts for the government was a good idea.

  One of the reasons he decided to work second-hand for the government through Burke was because he knew that it would provide him with targets that were challenging. That had been the case so far, but the bureaucracy and second guessing were things he could do without.

  As if she sensed his thoughts, Sara moved closer to Tanner and whispered.

  “You handle the killing and I’ll take care of the critics, deal?”

  Tanner sent her a half smile, along with a nod.

  After putting on eye and ear protection, Tanner lay back down behind the rifle while Sara sat nearby. She had a notebook handy, and it was her job to mark down the changes and adjustments Tanner made between each shot.

  There was a spare set of binoculars near Sara. Colonel Vann grabbed them and focused in on the steel target Tanner was aiming at.

  “How far away is that target?” the colonel asked.

  “It’s a little over 2,600 yards,” Tanner said.

  Tanner was using a military grade laser rangefinder and a powerful scope. After using the rangefinder, he aimed his shot slightly lower and a fraction to the right, in an effort to compensate for the earth’s rotation. By eye, a quick look at the flags around the lake told him that the wind speed had remained the same, and when he checked his handheld weather meter, he saw that it was true. He then readied himself to shoot.

  The fired round was loud and drove the rifle back hard into Tanner’s shoulder.

  Several seconds passed before the round struck. It just barely hit the top right corner of the man-shape steel target. The sound of the impact went unheard, as they were too far away for it to carry back to them.

  Without a telescope or binoculars, Burke and Lawson had no way of knowing whether Tanner had made the shot, and so they were staring at the colonel to gauge his reaction.

  Colonel Vann lowered the binoculars and stared down at Tanner with a confused look on his face.

  “Who the hell taught you to shoot that well, son?”

  “My grandfather taught me when I was six,” Tanner said.

  “I don’t mean who taught you to shoot a damn .22 squirrel rifle. I want to know who taught you how to hit a target at what was nearly a record distance. It must have been a military man.”

  Tanner stood and faced the colonel.

  “I was taught by my mentor, who was taught by his mentor, and now that you’ve seen me shoot, why don’t you go away?”

  The colonel got in Tanner’s face.

  “You don’t tell me what to do, boy. Do you understand me?”

  Tanner ignored the colonel and looked over at Burke. Burke took the gaze for what it was, a wordless warning.

  “Colonel,” Burk
e said. “It’s time to go. You wanted to see Tanner shoot and you have.”

  “I don’t like his attitude,” the colonel said, as he tried to stare Tanner down. He might as well have been trying to stare down a statue.

  “Colonel Vann, we are leaving,” said Lawson.

  The colonel turned his head to look at Lawson, then walked over to stand by him.

  Seeing that, Tanner knew that whoever Lawson was, he wielded power.

  “Tanner,” Lawson said. “It was a pleasure to watch you train, and I wish you the best of luck.” After saying that, Lawson sent Sara a smile and turned to walk away with the colonel.

  Burke followed behind them, but not before giving Sara a message.

  “Miss Blake, I expect success.”

  “Of course, sir,” Sara said.

  Burke sent Tanner a nod and then walked away.

  Once the men were out of sight, Sara turned to Tanner.

  “More practice?”

  “Much more,” Tanner said, and lowered himself before the rifle again.

  “What Colonel Vann said about a spotter, would that be helpful to you?” Sara asked.

  “It would be, and would allow me to train better, but they would have to know what they’re doing.”

  “If you’re willing to teach me, I’m willing to learn,” Sara said.

  “It’s complicated, and most spotters are also snipers in their own right... still, I could teach you to work the equipment, such as the rangefinder and the anemometer.”

  “Why don’t we do that then?”

  Tanner nibbled at his bottom lip as he thought it over, and then pointed back towards the shack, where he kept the spare guns and ammo.

  “You’ll use the other rifle to train. But tomorrow, I plan to drive to Pennsylvania and do recon on Yatsenko’s property, but when we come back here in two days, I’ll set up the spare rifle and let you fire it. If you know what it’s like to fire the rifle, you’ll have a better sense of what I have to do.”

  “All right. I’ve fired rifles before, but nothing this powerful.”

  Tanner headed off towards the shack.

  “I brought more water with me, but I left it inside the shed,” Tanner said. “I’ll bring back enough for both of us.”