Blood Line (A Tom Rollins Thriller Book 1) by Paul Heatley (book recommendations based on other books .txt) 📗

up online search histories. The servers used had been scrambled, but they’d narrowed it down to a town called Harrow. Whoever it was, they were looking up how to build a bomb. Searching through pages and pages of stuff on the dark web. Querying in message boards.

Ben checked for active groups in Harrow. There was one. The Right Arm Of The Republic.

Then Anthony got himself arrested. In Harrow.

“He was dealing drugs,” Ben says. “Chances were some of them were their drugs. To my mind, he could’ve known some of them already. He maybe already had an in.”

“And did he?” Tom says.

“No,” Ben says. “But that didn’t stop him from quickly ingratiating himself. He worked fast. I was impressed.”

“He had a prison sentence breathing down the back of his neck,” Tom says. “You really so surprised?”

“I didn’t have time to wait around. Whatever they were planning, I needed to know about it. I needed to know as soon as possible. They had to be stopped. I didn’t have time to do things the right way. I still don’t.”

“And did Anthony find out what you needed to know?”

Ben shakes his head. “Not unless he heard anything on his final night. I haven’t spoken to him since then. I doubt it, though.”

“And have you heard anything more about the Right Arm Of The Republic? Any more leads?”

Ben thinks that Tom looks curious. His interest has gotten the better of him. He was in the army – perhaps his patriotism is coming to the fore. “One thing,” Ben says. “It’s recent. Whatever they’re going to do, it seems the ball is moving on it now. Couple of days ago, there was a robbery of a warehouse. You know what was stolen? A whole hell of a lot of fertilizer. The men who raided the place were all wearing masks, so we didn’t get any positive IDs, but one of them was in short sleeves. The security camera picked out a swastika tattoo.”

“You think it’s them?”

“They’re the only lead I’ve got.”

“What does the rest of your department think?”

“They don’t know about the Right Arm.”

Tom cocks his head.

“Do you know your brother wasn’t the only person attacked that night?”

“I’ve heard about it. I’ve looked into things recently.”

“I’m not surprised. You strike me as thorough. I reckon you’re probably smart enough to guess now why I haven’t told them yet.”

“There’s a mole.”

“There’s a potential mole,” Ben says. “There’s a leak, or there’s a hacker. I’m not sure. But I can’t take a risk on what I know getting out. Not unless it can stop them, and I don’t believe spooking either the mole or the Right Arm at this point will stop them in their tracks – if anything, it’s more likely to speed them up, to rush things forward. They do that, there’s a chance more people are going to get hurt.”

Tom thinks about this. His next question is unrelated. “Did you get the phone to my father?”

Ben nods.

“How’d you manage that? The commune is off-grid.”

Ben smirks. “You really think we don’t know where they all are?”

Tom returns the smirk. “You really don’t. There are more than you can imagine.”

Ben doesn’t know what to say to this, so he doesn’t respond.

Tom lowers the gun.

Ben raises an eyebrow. “This mean you trust me?”

“I don’t trust you,” Tom says. “I think you’re a piece of shit. But I think we can be mutually beneficial to one another.”

Ben had been considering the same thing.

“I’m going to Harrow,” Tom says.

“I’d figured as much. Riding off to avenge your brother, huh?”

“It’s not just for him.”

Ben thinks of Alejandra.

“How much do you know about the Right Arm?”

“I don’t know who was directly responsible,” Ben says.

“That doesn’t matter. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all responsible.”

“If I had to take a guess, I’d say it was the council. The guys who run the thing.”

“I want the names. All the names you have.”

“And you can have them. But I want something in return.”

Tom looks at him.

“I want any information you can find. If there’s a mole, I want to know who it is. I’m sure that’s information you’d like to know, too.”

“Fine,” Tom says.

“Then okay,” Ben says. “It sounds like we have a deal.”

The two men look at each other in silence, each waiting for the other to either say something more or to make a move.

Ben is first. “What’re you going to do when you reach Harrow, when you find them?” He already has a suspicion.

“I’m going to kill them all.”

Ben mulls this over. The deaths of the Right Arm are no skin off his nose. The more of them Tom kills, the less likely they are to carry out whatever it is they have planned. It’s not an ideal way of doing things, and again, it’s not the right way of doing things, but that has never stopped Ben before.

Right now, his priority is stopping them from carrying out their attack, by any means necessary.

And finding the mole.

And right now, his best chance of doing either of those things seems to be Tom Rollins.

Ben doesn’t say any of this aloud. He just nods his head, a silent blessing.

25

Tom drives through the night, straight to Harrow. He knows the way. It’s not his first time.

In his bag, stuffed into the passenger footwell, is all the information Ben gave him. The names of the Right Arm. Where they live. Where they meet. Their haunts. This information, Tom knows, would have been gathered by Anthony.

He wonders how much Alejandra knew, in the end. Was she aware Anthony was undercover, or did she meet her end in confusion, unaware of what he had been getting up to, the trouble he had gotten them in?

It’s better not to think about such things.

It’s still dark by the time Tom arrives. He goes straight to a motel, checks in. The girl on the desk looks like she’s been here all night. She looks tired, but she forces a smile. Her auburn hair is tied back, and she wears