Nobody’s Hero (Ben Koenig #2)

Chapter 9

‘Who’s coming?’ Detective Mallinson asked.

‘I’ll tell you in a minute,’ Koenig replied. ‘First, I’m going to let you in on a few secrets.’

‘You are? Why?’

‘Because soon you’ll have signed form SF-312.’

‘What the hell is that?’

‘Standard Form 312,’ Koenig said. ‘It’s a nondisclosure agreement. And that means I can tell you things I probably shouldn’t because I know you’ll never be able to repeat anything. Not even to your wives.’

Wagstaff and Mallinson shared a look. Wagstaff shrugged. ‘We’re listening,’ he said.

‘Despite what I look like now, I was in the Special Operations Group. I was one of its commanders. What do you know about them?’

‘Our lieutenant occasionally calls on them,’ Wagstaff said. ‘Mainly when there’s a high-value prisoner to move, or a fugitive to locate and apprehend.’

Koenig nodded. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘The SOG doesn’t get called in because they’re better or braver than you guys, they get called in because they’re extensively trained in tactics and weaponry. They have specialist equipment and intelligence networks and a whole bunch of other stuff that I won’t tell you about.’

‘Let’s say I believe you were SOG, which I don’t, what’s this got to do with what happened this afternoon?’

‘It’s context.’

‘Context?’

‘First, I need you to turn off your recording equipment,’ Koenig said.

‘Why the hell would we do that?’ Wagstaff said.

‘Because you don’t want what I’m about to tell you on tape. This is for your benefit, not mine. Every single person who hears this will be interviewed by the kind of people who don’t use last names. They’re going to have their lives turned upside down. Their families’ lives are going to be turned upside down. I imagine you want to avoid that.’

‘Turn off the tape,’ Wagstaff said to Mallinson.

‘But—’

‘Just do it, Mal.’

Mallinson left the room. A minute later the green lights turned red. He came back in and said, ‘Satisfied?’

‘Like I said, it’s for your benefit, not mine,’ Koenig said. ‘Soon every hard drive in this place is going to be seized. Now, where were—’

‘Wait!’ Mallinson cut in. He left the room again. Returned a minute later.

‘You accidentally forget to turn off one of your covert mics?’

Mallinson nodded. Wasn’t even embarrassed. Koenig didn’t blame him. He’d sat on the other side of the table more times than he could remember.

‘Can we start now?’ Wagstaff said.

Koenig nodded. ‘My name is Ben Koenig, and there are four things you need to know about me, Detective Wagstaff.’ He held up his index finger. ‘Seven years ago, the Solntsevskaya Bratva Russian crime syndicate put a five-million-dollar bounty on my head. I’d killed the son of a boss during a raid. I’ve been living off the grid ever since. I had to. They threatened my family.’ He put up another finger. ‘The second thing is that I have a condition that makes it impossible for me to feel fear. It’s called Urbach–Wiethe. My amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates the human fight-or-flight response, is compromised.’

Wagstaff leaned forwards. ‘You’re saying you always choose fight?’ he said.

‘No, I’m saying I never choose flight . It wouldn’t occur to me.’

‘That sounds way cooler than it probably is,’ Wagstaff said.

‘You have no idea.’

‘What’s the third thing?’

‘A few years ago, I was shot in the head. A ricochet got under my tactical helmet. The neurologist did scans to make sure I was OK. That’s when he spotted the Urbach–Wiethe.’

‘You got canned?’ Wagstaff said.

‘I didn’t get canned.’

‘Desk job then?’

‘The opposite. Instead of riding a desk, my director sent me on the most ridiculous programme you can imagine. For two years I trained with every crazy-ass unit you can think of and a load more you won’t even know about. Some don’t officially exist. I practised targeted killing techniques with the Israelis, which is a fancy way of saying assassination. I did LINE fighting with an ex-marine and CQB with Delta. I lived and worked with the British SAS. I trained with the Russians and Chinese. I became an expert in weapons and improvised weapons. A whole other bunch of stuff I’m embarrassed about.’

‘Might have been kinder to can you,’ Wagstaff said.

‘It would definitely have been kinder to can me.’

‘So why agree to it?’

‘Can I ask you a question?’ Koenig said. ‘You both seem like good cops. Dedicated. If you got injured in the line and you were offered the choice of retirement with full benefits or the chance to go on training to make you an even better cop, what would you choose?’

‘Fair point,’ Wagstaff said.

‘Retirement,’ Mallinson said.

Wagstaff punched him on the shoulder. ‘Asshole.’

‘If this is true,’ Mallinson said. ‘If you do have all this specialist training, why didn’t you put them on their asses? Wait for us to sort it out?’

Koenig explained how multiple assailants was a math problem, not a fighting problem. He said that one death out of four was a good result. He’d expected to kill them all. ‘They weren’t putting me in the trunk of that car,’ he said. ‘It makes me sleepy.’

‘It’s a nice story,’ Wagstaff said. ‘But at the end of the day, the DA has a dead cop, another in a coma, and two living ones who’ll spin whatever story they’ve rehearsed until it ain’t even funny. Cunningham is disfigured for life, and you can bet your ass the DA will put her on the stand. Let her cry crocodile tears. Ask her to show the jury what the nasty man did to her forehead. But you don’t seem worried. And you told us there were four things we needed to know about you. You’ve told us about the Russian bounty, the Urbach–Wiethe and your specialist training. I make that three. What’s the fourth?’

‘The fourth is why I keep asking you what time it is,’ Koenig said. ‘I wasn’t naive enough to think my training programme was altruism on behalf of my director, but I at least thought it was mutually beneficial. I got to return to work, and he got someone who’d walk through any door he pointed me towards.’

‘It was something else?’

Koenig nodded. ‘I believed it was my director who’d put together my training programme. I thought he’d called in all the favours he’d collected from thirty-odd years in law enforcement. And I thought that because that’s how it was sold to me.’

‘But?’

‘But in hindsight I should have realised that even the director of the US Marshals doesn’t have those kind of contacts. Like I said, some of these units don’t officially exist.’

‘Who does have contacts like that?’

‘The people behind everything. And those people didn’t see a marshal who needed a helping hand.’

‘What did they see?’

‘A guinea pig.’