Chapter 3

Between the time spent serving in Desert Storm, and his years on the street, Sal had witnessed a lot of gruesome sights; but he had to admit the sight he'd just witnessed had left him shaken simply by the sheer brutality of the act. He wondered who had gotten the drop of Carlos. As Sal headed towards the door, he suddenly stopped and fished one of the throw-away cell phones from his pocket. After he punched in a bunch of numbers he stood and listened while the call was completed. The voice on the other end of the phone was familiar. "Lieutenant Howard here,"

"Do not say my name, but do you know who this is?" Sal asked.

"Of course." The answer quickly was returned.

"I just found the rest of your missing body."

There was a sight pause before Sal heard Josh's voice whisper, "Oh shit! Where?"

"I thought I had a safe house to run to, but when I got here, I found his head on the coffee table." Sal waited for a moment listening to Josh's deep breathing. "What do you want me to do?"

"Where are you?" Sal gave Josh the address. "Will you be there when I get there?" The detective asked.

"I doubt it. My plans have obviously fallen apart. People I thought I could trust appeared to have changed sides. I'll contact you later."

"Wait!" The detective shouted into the phone. "Don't hang up. Are you still there?"

"Yeah. What?"

"You know you can trust me. Let me help." Josh implored.

"Thanks, I know that; but I can't. There are things I am not allowed to share with you; things that are happening as we speak. Anyway, you've done way too much already." Sal paused and chuckled, "Besides, you already warned me that if push comes to shove, you have to protect yourself."

The line was quiet for a moment and then Howard let out a long sigh. "Yeah ... well, that was my mouth making noise. I'm sorry; you know you'll always come first."

Sal paused and then warmly responded, "Thanks babe. I wish I could tell you everything that's going on, but I can't. This is out of my hands and some day you will understand." Sal paused again, but found there was nothing else to add, "I need to get going."

Josh replied, "I'll get a crew out to your apartment and get it cleaned up."

"Sounds good." Sal started to turn off the phone when he heard Josh calling out to him again. "Stop! Are you still there?

"Yeah,"

"Please be careful. I may not tell you often enough, but you are like the brother I never had. I love you and I don't want to lose you."

"Thanks." Sal paused, "That means a lot. I'll be in touch."

Turning off the phone, Sal headed to his car parked in the garage. For a moment he sat in the car and thought about his next move. He knew the safest move at this time was to get out of the apartment; it was obvious it was no longer safe. However, out of the several options he had, what was he to do?

Once he had pulled out on the street, Sal watched carefully behind himself to see if anybody was following. He entered the freeway and moved over to the far left lane, pushing the car to a good 20 miles an hour over the speed limit. He held that speed for several minutes and then suddenly without warning, quickly pulled over to the far right lane and slowed down to 5 miles an hour under the limit. For several minutes he watched the rear view mirror and saw nothing that would indicate he was being followed.

Finding Carlo's head at the apartment had rattled Sal. The apartment had been a place he had set up years ago as a safe house; now to discover the apartment building had been so easily found was unsettling. As much as Sal hated to admit it, he felt there must be a spy inside of his organization. Because so few people knew about the apartment building, the list of possible spies was fairly short. But as Sal thought over each of his staff, he was finding it difficult to believe any of them were the spy. Thinking it through, Zampiceni realized he needed to go outside of his organization; even going to his old friend Detective Howard wasn't safe. The more he thought about what was going on, Sal decided to check in with the people at Washington DC. He knew he was only supposed to do contact the agency when everything else had failed. Sal felt finding Carlos' head was unsettling enough that he could justify calling DC.

With the new plan in mind, Sal drove to the nearest airport. Before he got to the airport, he stopped at a Radio Shack and purchased 2 brand new throw away cell phone. Even though he had several in his glove box, Sal felt the decision to make a clean break with any of his old contacts was the best way to go; there was no way to know how much the rest of his carefully laid plans had been compromised...

Once he was back in his car, Sal placed a call on his new phone. The phone rang twice and then a male voice answered, "Code now." Sal punched in several numbers, and when he finished the voice said, "Processing." Sal waited. Finally he heard sounds in his ear signaling his call was being handled. A mechanical voice without any preamble started a voice menu and when it asked for a extension number Sal keyed in a new number. The phone rang until a female voice answered. "Admiral Thomas' office. How may I help you?"

"I need to speak to Admiral Thomas."

"Who may I say is calling?" The female voice asked.

"Tell Admiral Thomas it si As Salman."

There was a brief silence before she spoke again, "Excuse me. Please say that again."

"Just tell him As Salman. He'll know who I am and what this is all about."

"As Salman, yes sir. Just a minute sir." The phone went dead in Sal's ear for a brief moment and then a deep booming voice came onto the phone.

"Zampiceni, is this really you?"

"Yes Jack."

"As Salman was a long time ago, how did you know I'd remember?"

"Because I saved your sorry ass on that ugly, hot, hot day."

Sal listened to the voice on the other end chuckle, "Yes you did, and I thank you every morning when I wake up." The Admiral paused for a moment and then asked, "What's the problem? Why did you call?"

Sal also wasted no time and when straight to his current situation, "I seem to be in trouble and I would like to see you. Like now."

There was a moment of silence. The deep voice asked, "I take it you're on the run?"