THE TANNER SERIES
BOOKS 10-12
MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN – BOOK 10
TANNER TIMES TWO – BOOK 11
OCCUPATION: DEATH – BOOK 12
BY
REMINGTON KANE
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE TANNER SERIES - BOOKS 10 -12
First edition. January 30, 2016.
Copyright © 2016 Remington Kane.
Written by Remington Kane.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN | By | REMINGTON KANE
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 – Surprise!
CHAPTER 2 – Job openings
CHAPTER 3 – Inevitable
CHAPTER 4 – Closing in
CHAPTER 5 – Rag doll
CHAPTER 6 – Survival
CHAPTER 7 – A guarantee
CHAPTER 8 – The Four Horsemen of the ridiculous
CHAPTER 9 – He has his pride
CHAPTER 10 – Spenser Hawke
CHAPTER 11 – Huh, now will you look at that
CHAPTER 12 - Gutless
CHAPTER 13 – Contact!
CHAPTER 14 – Alone at last
CHAPTER 15 – Wounds, new and old
CHAPTER 16 – Kindred souls
CHAPTER 17 – Truth and consequences
CHAPTER 18 – Friend or foe?
CHAPTER 19 – Essential items
CHAPTER 20 – Respect for the dead
CHAPTER 21 – With friends like yours...
CHAPTER 22 – Take a message
CHAPTER 23 – Goodbye kiss
CHAPTER 24 – That’s easy
CHAPTER 25 – Help wanted – Must be willing to kill
CHAPTER 26 – Meter reader
CHAPTER 27 – Spilled blood
CHAPTER 28 – Chess moves
CHAPTER 29 – I see you
CHAPTER 30 - Trust
CHAPTER 31 – It’s a blast
CHAPTER 32 – Tanner, my Tanner
CHAPTER 33 - Two
CHAPTER 34 – What thing?
CHAPTER 35 – 3 plus 1 equals 4
CHAPTER 36 – One Tanner, two Tanni?
TANNER TIMES TWO | By | REMINGTON KANE
PART ONE | ALLIES & ENEMIES
CHAPTER 1 – Good
CHAPTER 2 – Seeds of betrayal
CHAPTER 3 – Break-in
CHAPTER 4 – Turn around
CHAPTER 5 – Making plans
CHAPTER 6 – Atrocity
CHAPTER 7 – Cheat sheet
CHAPTER 8 – A Tanner never fails
CHAPTER 9 – The book of Tanner
CHAPTER 10 – Bang bang
CHAPTER 11 – Wounded heart
CHAPTER 12 – Once a spy, always a spy
CHAPTER 13 – Off to slay
CHAPTER 14 – You can almost feel it
CHAPTER 15 – Welcome to Mexico
PART TWO | THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION
CHAPTER 16 – Machinations
CHAPTER 17 – Hurry up and wait
CHAPTER 18 – Midnight rendezvous
CHAPTER 19 – Chop chop!
CHAPTER 20 – Tanner?
CHAPTER 21 – Time is running out
CHAPTER 22 – Beauty to die for
CHAPTER 23 – Truckin’
CHAPTER 24 – Burn baby, burn
CHAPTER 25 - Trapped
CHAPTER 26 – A game of catch
CHAPTER 27 - Reunion
PART THREE | SLEIGHT OF HAND
CHAPTER 28 – Love lost, money gained
CHAPTER 29 – Special delivery
CHAPTER 30 – So far, so good
CHAPTER 31 – Turning tables
CHAPTER 32 – Let the right ones in
CHAPTER 33 – The end of the beginning
CHAPTER 34 – A new day
AFTERMATH
CHAPTER 35 – Tanner
OCCUPATION: DEATH | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 – It’s time to go to work
CHAPTER 2 – Normal
CHAPTER 3 – Solo assassin
CHAPTER 4 – There’s no such thing as nothing
CHAPTER 5 – Paint ain’t cool
CHAPTER 6 – No joke
CHAPTER 7 – A fresh start
CHAPTER 8 – A smile is worth a thousand words
CHAPTER 9 – Ask a stupid question...
CHAPTER 10 – Disgusting
CHAPTER 11 – Food for thought
CHAPTER 12 – Suicide trumps murder
CHAPTER 13 – Round one
CHAPTER 14 – Round two
CHAPTER 15 – He ain’t no ho
CHAPTER 16 – Done!
CHAPTER 17 – Lazarus
CHAPTER 18 – Far enough
CHAPTER 19 – Ship ahoy!
CHAPTER 20 – Smiles and frowns
CHAPTER 21 – The lies we tell ourselves
CHAPTER 22 – Preparations
CHAPTER 23 – Captured as bait
CHAPTER 24 – Turnabout is foul play
CHAPTER 25 – A promise is a promise
CHAPTER 26 – It’s just a matter of time
CHAPTER 27 – It’s a go!
CHAPTER 28 – Blast it all
CHAPTER 29 – Mission accomplished
CHAPTER 30 – An offer to stay
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Further Reading: Hell For Hire
About the Author
MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN
By
REMINGTON KANE
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM
REMINGTON KANE
http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact
CHAPTER 1 – Surprise!
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
Tanner realized he was being followed after he left the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant.
One of the cars in line behind him pulled out without getting their food, and the unusual behavior caught Tanner’s attention.
Whoever was driving wasn’t a complete idiot, because he allowed several cars to come between them, so that he wasn’t driving directly behind Tanner.
There were two men in the car, and from the brief glimpse Tanner got of them as they passed beneath a street light, they appeared to be about his age.
They were likely just two more punks looking to cash in on the million-dollar bounty that Alonso Alvarado had placed on his head.
Tanner drove in a pattern that left no doubt he was being followed, and then he headed straight for his motel. When he got there, he parked in front of his room, Room 4, and entered just as the two men parked several spaces away.
He made certain to look in their direction, so that they could get a good look at him.
If they thought they had made a mistake and followed the wrong man they might leave, and Tanner didn’t want them to leave, because he needed information.
***
The two men following Tanner were named Derrick and Bobby. They were locals, and Bobby had spotted Tanner while stopped at a traffic light.
Derrick was the more aggressive of the two and a former boxer. His nose and ears spoke of his losses in the ring, but he retained the good looks he was born with.
Bobby was a follower, skinny as a reed, and had thinning blond hair. He had been a fair basketball player in high school, but when
he failed to get a college scholarship, he joined the army, and that’s where he and Derrick met.
After parking in the motel lot, Derrick took another look at the drawing of Tanner’s face.
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure until he looked this way, but there can’t be two guys with eyes like his.”
Bobby checked to see if his gun was loaded for the third time since spotting Tanner, and while he did that, Derrick pumped a shell into his shotgun and told Bobby how they would do it.
“You go around back and make sure he doesn’t sneak out, I think the bathrooms here have a small window in them.”
“You’ve stayed here?”
Derrick smiled as he cut off the car’s engine.
“That waitress at Elmo’s Bar, you know the one with the long legs? I nailed her here about a year ago.”
“Get out of here! You slept with Mindy?”
“Yeah, but just once, she said it was her way of paying her husband back for something or other.”
“Damn Derrick, that girl’s hot.”
“Yeah, but she sucked in bed. But nevermind that, you go head around back, wait a full minute, and then you’ll hear me kick the door in. If this Tanner dude tries to leave through the bathroom window, he’s yours, and if he don’t, he’s mine.”
“All right,” Bobby said, and then he took in several deep breaths. “I haven’t killed anyone since we were in the army, you know? But that was in wartime and it didn’t count.”
“What do you mean killing in a war don’t count?”
Bobby raised his eyes skyward.
“I’m talking about God, Derrick. Killing is wrong.”
“Hell, Bobby, the price on the dude’s head is a million bucks, that’s worth a little sin.”
“Right, okay, I’ll head around back.”
Bobby left the car with his gun tucked against his leg, and ran right, to head around to the rear of the L-shaped building. After gathering his courage, Derrick left the car and went over to stand outside Tanner’s door.
When what felt like a minute had passed, Derrick was readying himself to kick in the door, but then he caught sight of Bobby, who was running back towards him.
When Bobby reached him, Derrick pulled him aside and whispered.
“Why aren’t you watching the window?”
Bobby grinned before he whispered back at Derrick.
“I don’t need to watch it. There’s a window in the bathroom, yeah, but it’s up high and a single piece of glass, stained glass too. There’s no way he can get out of there quickly, and if he tries, we’ll just shoot him.”
“All right, good, good, I feel better about both of us going in anyway. Now, I’ll kick the door in on three, one, two, three!”
Derrick laid a work boot hard against the doorjamb and the cheap motel room lock broke free, causing the door to fly open and bounce off the wall to the side of it.
They saw no one.
Derrick leaned down with the shotgun at the ready and looked under the bed. While he was doing that, Bobby checked the room’s only closet and found it empty of all but a few clothes hangers.
When they were certain that there were no other places to hide, Derrick pointed at the bathroom door, which was sitting ajar and showed a dark room beyond.
“We know you’re in there, dude,” Derrick called out, but there was no answer.
The two men crept towards the bathroom with their guns at the ready, as both sets of eyes were locked on the slight opening between the bathroom door and the jamb, searching for any movement.
Derrick whispered to Bobby while never taking his eyes from the door.
“I’m gonna push the door open, when I do, reach around inside and hit the light switch.”
Bobby whispered back at him. “It sounds good, but be ready.”
Derrick stood to the left side of the door, as Bobby moved over to the right.
After silently counting down from three, Derrick shoved the bathroom door open with the end of his shotgun, while at the same time, Bobby reached inside and flicked the light on.
When nothing happened other than the light coming on, Derrick moved into the bathroom while keeping his finger ready on the shotgun’s trigger.
The bathroom was empty.
Derrick and Bobby looked at the empty shower stall, and then up at the intact stain glass window above the toilet. There was no other way out of the room, and yet, Tanner wasn’t there.
When Tanner cleared his throat, it caused both men to jerk their heads around.
Tanner was holding a pair of Tasers. He fired them simultaneously, striking both Derrick and Bobby in the face with the electrified prongs. He then watched them fall to the bathroom’s tiled floor and twitch from the shock they each received.
Within minutes, he had them gagged and bound and was backing their vehicle up to the motel room door.
After throwing a blanket over Derrick, he carried him outside and dumped the man into the trunk of his own car, he then repeated the procedure with Bobby, got behind the wheel of Derrick’s car, and went looking for a secluded spot.
Tanner needed information, and before they died, Derrick and Bobby would tell him what he needed to know.
CHAPTER 2 – Job openings
Inside the remains of a burnt hulk that was once a home, Tanner removed Derrick’s gag.
Derrick worked his mouth a little, wet his lips, and then asked a question that had been driving him crazy.
“Where the hell were you hiding in that room?”
Tanner ignored him while he removed Bobby’s gag.
“How did you two find me?”
“We just spotted you,” Bobby said. “And it surprised me; they say that you’re supposed to be in Texas or Mexico.”
“Who else knows I’m here?”
“Just us,” Bobby said.
“You said that they think I’m in Texas or Mexico, who’s ‘they?’”
“Don’t answer him, Bobby. Don’t tell him shit,” Derrick said.
Tanner reached back, grabbed the shotgun, and then pointed it at Derrick.
“Interrupt again and I’ll kill you.”
“It was on the website! Don’t shoot! It was on the website,” Derrick said.
“What website?”
“At Chemzonic,” Bobby said, “It’s where we work. It’s a chemical plant, and there was an alert for you in the secure area of the website.”
“My picture was on an official company website?”
“It’s a special website that we’re not supposed to know about, but the head of security does. I saw him punch in the code once, and so I go on there to take a look every now and then. It didn’t do me any good; most of what’s on there is encoded. But they had that drawing of you and a one followed by six zeros, so I didn’t need to decode what that meant.”
“Was it all encoded?”
“Mostly, but under your picture it said something like, se busca vivo o muerto. Consuela in the cafeteria told me that it translated into, ‘wanted dead or alive’ and that it mentioned a reward, so we figured you were worth a million dollars.”
Tanner went quiet as he thought things over.
The company where Derrick and Bobby worked, Chemzonic, must be linked to the Alvarado Cartel somehow, and in fact, it made perfect sense. The Alvarado Cartel was one of the biggest suppliers of meth. Meth needs precursor chemicals to be manufactured, and what could be better than owning your own chemical plant?
Tanner reached behind him and grabbed an iPad from a duffle bag.
After signing on, he asked Derrick how to access the area he was talking about. It was a website that seemed unconnected to the Chemzonic Chemical Company.
“Which link do I hit?”
“Where it says, Members Only,” Bobby said.
Tanner hit the link, and a sign-in window came up.
“What’s the sign-in?”
Bobby gave it to him and Tanner saw the drawing with his face on it. The figure $1,000,000.00 was written below it, a
long with the words, EXTREMLY DANGEROUS!, which was written in several languages. The rest of the page was a gobbledygook of scrambled text that made no sense.
“What’s the name of the head of security?”
Derrick answered.
“He’s Jack Rockford, a real pretty-boy prick too.”
“They wouldn’t be hiring on, would they?”
“Maybe,” Derrick said. “But Tanner, that’s your name right, Tanner?”
“That’s my name.”
“Seriously man, where were you hiding in that room?”
“I wasn’t in the room. I left it right after I entered. I cut out the window in the bathroom when I rented the room and then glued it in place with cheap paste. It pops right out and fits right back in.”
“Shit, we should have thought of that.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why would you think of that?”
“You did.”
“Yeah, but it’s my business to stay alive and that will no longer be a problem you’ll face.”
Tanner fired the shotgun twice, and there were two new openings at the Chemzonic Chemical plant.
CHAPTER 3 – Inevitable
In Mexico, Alonso Alvarado put down his phone after getting updates from the men he had stationed at every border crossing between The United States and Mexico.
He would call the men he placed at the airports next, but he didn’t expect Tanner to board an airplane, at least not a commercial jet.
He had thrown over a hundred of his best men at Tanner in New York City, and now those men were dead and Tanner had vowed to travel to Mexico to kill him.
Juan, his only son, had died, and if Tanner made it behind the walls of his compound, Alvarado knew that he would join him in death.
Cody Parker, that was Tanner’s true name. However, it did Alvarado little good to know it, because Cody Parker had no one left in the world that Alvarado could threaten to use against him. He had already killed the man’s loved ones when he thought he had also murdered him.
Tanner was coming to kill him, to avenge the woman he lost in New York and for the family he lost years ago. Tanner was coming and Alvarado didn’t doubt it for a second.
He had put the word out about the million-dollar reward for Tanner. The man would be hunted by hundreds of lowlifes, dreamers, and even a few genuinely competent killers.