Chapter 22 Twenty two

Chapter 22 Twenty two
Three days after Dutch's arrest, Kane's attorney filed a motion claiming the federal warrant had been obtained using compromised intelligence.

Rivera called me at seven in the morning to tell me, which meant it was significant enough to warrant an early call and not significant enough to warrant an emergency meeting, which told me most of what I needed to know before she finished her first sentence.

"The motion is based on Dutch's entrapment allegation," Rivera said. "Her attorney is arguing that Dax, as a federal asset, induced Kane into actions he would not otherwise have taken." A pause. "It's a standard defense tactic in cases built on insider cooperation. It won't succeed but it will take two weeks to formally dismiss, which means the timeline for the championship is now legally complicated."

"Complicated how," I said.

"The defense will argue that any evidence gathered at or around the championship final while the motion is pending is tainted by the same alleged entrapment framework." She paused again. "They want us to postpone the final."

"Can they force that?"

"No. The championship is a private sporting event outside federal jurisdiction. The MC council schedules it, not us." Her voice had the particular dryness of someone who had been practicing law long enough to appreciate irony. "What they can do is make the evidence gathered there harder to use if the motion creates any successful doubt."

"So we win the championship, collect the evidence, and let the motion fail," I said.

"That's essentially our position, yes." She sounded like she'd been hoping I'd arrive there without her having to map the route. "The motion failing is not in question the warrant was clean and the intelligence was corroborated by six independent sources. But the two weeks creates a window where Kane's team will be aggressive."

"Aggressive how."

"Witness intimidation is the primary concern." A beat. "Specifically, you."

I looked out the window of my room at the compound yard, where Reaper was doing his morning perimeter walk and Polk was crossing from the main house to the garage with a folder under his arm and everything looked exactly as ordinary as it ever did at seven in the morning.

"What's the recommendation," I said.

"Don't go anywhere alone. Don't follow unfamiliar vehicles. Don't accept meetings you haven't verified through me or Dax first." Rivera's voice was matter-of-fact. "Essentially what you've been doing for three weeks, just with the specific knowledge that Kane's legal team is now actively incentivized to create problems for our witnesses."

"Understood."

"One more thing. We've identified the ninth rider Colt as still being in Coldwater. He wasn't at the qualifier, he wasn't at the compound, and Kane's arrest didn't produce a direct contractual link to him that we can use to pull him in." A pause. "He's still out there and his contract, as far as we can determine, was for the championship final specifically."

I thought about a compact, forgettable man in a motel on the south highway with nothing to do for five weeks but wait and think about a job he'd been hired to do.

"Rivera," I said. "The qualifier win cleared Diesel from the final. What happens to the Death Dealers' racing entry?"

"They can field a replacement rider. The council's rules allow substitution up to seventy-two hours before the final." She anticipated my next question. "We don't know who the replacement will be. Kane's arrest has disrupted their organizational structure significantly but not completely they still have members, still have resources, still have people with racing credentials."

"And Colt."

"Could be registered as an independent entry by a sympathetic club or individual. We're monitoring the council's registration system." A pause. "The concern is that we don't know his racing background well enough to assess his speed. He's a problem-solver by trade. Whether he can actually ride at championship level is an open question."

"Find out," I said. "Whatever you can about his racing history. It matters."

Rivera said she would and ended the call, and I sat on the edge of the bed and thought about five weeks and a man in a motel room and a contract that Dutch's arrest hadn't cancelled.

Dax was in the garage when I came down.

She was at the workbench with a coffee and a printed document that had the dense formatting of legal correspondence, reading with the focused attention she brought to everything. She looked up when I came in.

"Rivera called you," she said.

"Seven AM."

"She called me at six-thirty." Dax set the document down. "The motion is Kane's attorney doing what Kane's attorney is paid to do. It changes nothing material."

"It changes the witness intimidation risk."

"It formalizes it. The risk existed before the motion." She picked up her coffee. "I've already spoken to Reaper about compound security. And Gravel is staying with Murphy indefinitely I called Murphy this morning and told him Gravel was going to be a permanent fixture for a while. Murphy told me he'd been trying to get Gravel to commit to a long-term bay rental for two years and he was delighted."

I almost smiled. "Murphy doesn't know."

"Murphy doesn't need to know. Gravel's presence is protection. Whether Murphy understands the mechanism is irrelevant." She put the document in a folder. "The championship preparation continues unchanged. We have five weeks and four bikes and a final to win. Kane's legal strategy doesn't alter any of that."

"Colt is still in the city," I said.

Dax was quiet for a moment. "I know."

"His contract was specifically for the final. Dutch's arrest didn't cancel it because it wasn't Dutch's contract it was Kane's, and Kane's organization is disrupted but functional."

"I know that too." She looked at me directly. "What are you proposing?"

"Rivera is monitoring the council registration. But if Colt is going to race in the final he needs practice time on the circuit. Track time leaves a record rental agreements, fuel purchases, equipment sourcing. He's been in Coldwater for at least two weeks and he's a professional. He'll be preparing."

Dax considered that. "You want to find him before the final."

"I want to know what we're actually racing against." I leaned against the Ducati's side. "Diesel was a known quantity. We planned for him and he did exactly what we expected. Colt is an unknown and unknowns are the thing that kills you on a track because you can't plan for behavior you haven't studied."

Dax was quiet for a moment, working through it in the way she worked through everything systematically, from the outside in.

"Reaper," she said finally. "He has contacts in the independent racing community. People who know who's been on which circuits in this region and when." She picked up her phone. "Give me forty-eight hours."

She was halfway to the door when it opened from the outside.

Cole stood in the doorway with the expression of someone who had been moving fast and had just arrived at the destination he'd been moving toward.

"Stone called," he said. "She needs to meet today. Both of you." He looked between us. "She said to tell you she found Colt."

Dax and I looked at each other.

"Where," Dax said.

"He's been using the Steel Riders' private circuit for the last ten days," Cole said. "Stone's been watching him." He paused. "She says he's fast. Really fast. And she says that's not actually the most important thing she found out."

The garage held its morning quiet around us.

"What is," I said.

Cole looked at me with the expression of someone delivering information they'd rather not be delivering.

"He's not just a hired contractor," Cole said. "He's Kane's son."