Then I remembered what happened.
Someone had hit me with what I could only imagine was a metal bar. I remembered the force of the impact. It was like being hit with a baseball bat but harder.
Someone hit me.
Who?
Who the fuck was it?
And… my hands were bound behind me. Not with rope but metal. Handcuffs?
I moved them and saw I was right. Handcuffs signaled cops.
How had the cops found me?
A door creaked open and footsteps sounded on the concrete floor.
I rolled my head to the side.
Who I saw coming toward me made my blood drain from my body and I stilled against the chair.
Ethan Ranger. My old captain.
How the hell had he found me? And, after so many years.
I straightened and he simply stared back. Stared at me through his good eye. He wore a black patch over the other. It made it difficult to assess his expression.
“How did you find me?” I asked. I knew I hadn’t slipped up. There was no way. I’d been too careful.
“I expected a better greeting, Agent Cage,” he answered.
“That’s not me anymore. How did you find me? It’s been five years.”
Five years…Jesus.
It sounded so weird saying it. I couldn’t believe so much time had passed.
“Yes it has been five years and I would have believed you were dead if I hadn’t reconnoitered a call between you and Bernard Perabo.”
Reconnoitered… so he spied.
Yes, that would do the trick and fucking find me.
When I was listed as living, I used to be a part of the SMF— Special Missions Force. They were a secret intelligence agency who answered to the CIA.
They were one of those sectors who existed to get shit done when it hit the fan. The kind of shit the government would deny if you were caught.
Ethan had been the captain of my unit and was one of the senior leaders of the agency. Looked like he still was from the authoritative vibe he was exuding.
“Don’t worry, Bernard got his chip and the money is already in your account. I didn’t screw with that part,” Ethan spoke, cutting into my thoughts. “Xander, I need you for a black op mission. That is why I’m here.”
I started laughing, not because what he’d said was funny. I laughed without humor and with a crude edge because I couldn’t believe he’d had to come seek me out. A dead man.
“You need me? What? Nobody else qualified in the SMF?” I balked. This was a man I’d respected and I didn’t mean to be so abrasive. It was just that I didn’t have time for anything that would deviate from my plans.
“Xander, the short answer is no. There is no one else qualified to do the job I need. I’ve believed for a long time that you were alive and I’ve been looking for you. Your body was never found. There was whispers of Bernard working with The Shadow on the underground and I hoped it was you. Something has happened and you are possibly our only hope to contain the situation before it gets out of hand. It’s not just a national threat. It’s global.”
I may have been out of the game for years, but hearing something was a global threat sent a shiver down my spine.
Still… I was sure someone else could help him.
“I’m on my own personal mission,” I answered.
“Balthazar Kane?” He offered and I tensed at the name, biting down hard on my back teeth.
That name…
Balthazar Kane.
He was the reason for the way I’d lived my life for the last five years.
Hearing his name made me think of them.
My team.
And most of all I thought of her…
Claire McLaren.
She was always in my mind. Always there.
Balthazar killed her right in front of me. A bullet to her head… gone just like that.
The woman I loved.
She was the reason why I’d lived the last five years of my life seeking vengeance. Seeking to kill that mad man who took her from me.
I first encountered Balthazar Kane when Ethan put my team on a mission to kill him on sight.
He was no mere criminal.
Being part of the global terrorist group called the Ra, Balthazar got him his own sweet section on the world’s most wanted list. Worse than belonging to the Ra was the fact that he was the leader of the Spades, a faction of the group. Anarchists, terrorists extremists, assassins. Think of the worst thing and they were it. They were the people who put plots in motion to exact national and global devastation.
On that nightmare day when Claire was taken from me we went against mission protocol to rescue Paul Jenkins, an agent in our team. Ethan agreed it even though it was against everything we stood for. It meant complete disavowment if we got caught and no help would come if we needed it. He agreed it though because our team were like a little family. Close and the kind that would have done anything for each other. Going in for Paul wasn’t up for discussion whether Ethan agreed it or not.
That was the last time I had any correspondence with Ethan and the damn mission more than went to hell. When we got there it looked like Paul had been dead for at least a week. Except, we’d spoken to him that morning.
It was a trap. A fucking trap.
Balthazar killed Claire and a bomb took me and the rest of the team out seconds later.
It was a bomb that would have killed me if I was as close as they were.
I survived and I’d been on a personal crusade to find that motherfucker ever since.
For the last five years I’d been looking for him. That was why I’d enlisted myself in all these crazy jobs. Looking for a man like that took money.
Every time I had some lead on him I’d had to throw down serious cash to pay various people and most importantly stay hidden. Stay listed as dead. Balthazar had never been easy to locate even when I had the best resources at my fingertips.
“Balthazar Kane… funny how my last conversation with you was about him. How’d you know I was still looking for him?” I had to ask.
“Whispers on the underground.” Ethan nodded. It was enough of an answer.
Maybe I did slip up and hadn’t realized. Then again, speak to the right people and offer them the right price and you could get dirt on anybody.
“Xander… if you help me, I will help you,” Ethan added. I intensified my gaze on him. “Balthazar fell off grid at the same time you did, probably because your team were the only people who could get close to him. In all my years of searching for that son of a bitch your team were the only people to get close to him and I think that was why he found a way to stop you. He knew you would go in and try to rescue one of your own. That was the fucking trap. Believe me when I say we want him stopped. But the reason I’m here today is a priority. If you help me, I have word from the leadership that we will reform a team specifically to take down Balthazar.”
Now he got my attention.
He got my attention real good.
Maybe because I was tired of trying and failing. Every time I got close, or what I thought was close, I got nothing. It was shit. A croc of bull shit that cost money I risked my life making.
I’d tracked Balthazar to all corners of the globe, looking for him everywhere, but just like the fucking past he was always one step ahead of me.
Maybe this was the answer.
The way I’d find him.
I didn’t think I could live another five years like this.
I’d been hiding out in South America, bouncing around from one country to the next, never staying too long. Just long enough to hide after I’d emerged to investigate then move on. It was no way to live.
“A team?” I asked, my mind warming to the idea.
Ethan nodded. “A team Xander. That’s just one thing. The offer for this job is eight hundred thousand.”
“It’s not about the money. There’s more. I want that bastard dead.”
“Me too, and I know
it’s not about the money. I want him dead too. Remember you and I were once friends and I don’t know why you didn’t find some kind of way to reach me. For help.”
He wasn’t the only person I didn’t reach out to and should have. In my head it was better if everyone believed I died. I thought it would be easier to find Balthazar. He couldn’t run if he didn’t know I was the one who was looking for him.
“I thought it was better.”
“No. How?” He lifted his shoulders into a shrug. “You guys were as close as anybody ever got. We haven’t been able to get close since. No sightings.”
At least I’d had more than that, but that was because I’d worked with the underground. People who wouldn’t have associated with any kind of government. They were the kind of criminals who rose above money. No money on earth would be worth it to them to be linked with government.
“Xander… I need you on this. I really do. It’s the kind of thing where we want to keep it under wraps as much as possible and you’re the man for the job. We get what we want and potentially save millions of people and you get what you want. I don’t mean to be an ass but… I think she would want you to say yes.”
Claire.
Oh yes she would. She was my team leader after all. She would have definitely said yes.
His reference to her pulled on my heart. She was the only woman who could reach me. Right from way back when.
She would have said yes and she would have wanted me to agree to something that could save millions.
I looked back to Ethan and frowned.
“You hit me over my head, nearly fucking killing me, then you bind me to a chair to ask for my help.”
“Sorry about that man. I couldn’t exactly see you agreeing to meet over a cup of tea.”
“Well I’m not much help to you like this… am I?” I raised my shoulders and sighed. “What do I have to do?”
Ethan smiled.
Chapter Four
Xander
Wes glanced at me as Ethan came into the room.
We were sitting opposite each other around a large table in a meeting room at a military base in Nevada. It looked more like an interrogation room for the lack of windows.
Two agents followed after Ethan and took their seats at the furthest end of the table.
This was the first time in six months that we’d come this side of the border.
We’d been in Brazil for the last fourteen months, but went to Florida briefly when we got a lead on Balthazar that came to nothing.
Wes rested his elbow on the edge of the table, ran a hand through his dark blond mane and tensed his jaw. The uneasiness on his face told me he wasn’t sure about this mission, and he wasn’t sure about Ethan either.
Wes didn’t like any kind of authority figure. He didn’t trust any of them, probably because he never worked with them.
While I understood where he was coming from, and respected his opinion, for me it was a little different. In the past I’d seen dirty cops and people who were supposed to be good getting involved with all kinds of shit. I had good examples to follow though. Ethan was one of them.
I had to admit that Ethan was definitely one of the good guys and more than that, he was the kind of guy you could be real with. So that was what I was going on.
It didn’t matter to Wes, but as my best friend he was the kind of guy who would be on board despite his reservations.
He was the only good thing about the last five years. Wes was what I considered to be a modern day Robin Hood. We’d met while he was robbing some rich guys to give money to a village of destitute people. We became friends quickly and he’d been the only person I’d trusted this whole time with my secrets.
That meant I wasn’t doing this— whatever scheme Ethan needed me for — without Wes. To sweeten the deal I gave him all the money I got for our stint with Bernard. It just seemed right, even though I practically had to force it on him. Wes didn’t have to be here.
“Thank you both for coming,” Ethan stated with a pleasant smile, looking from me to Wes. He then moved over to the overhead projector and switched it on.
“This is our guy.” Ethan pointed to the large computer screen and the image of a man I knew as a renowned mobster came up.
“Giovanni Marchesi?” I filled in, before he could say it.
Ethan didn’t look surprised. The other agents did though. Wes narrowed his eyes at me. He knew that if I had a name it was someone to beware of. I only remembered those who we needed to be mindful of in the sense that we should stay away from them.
“What do you know about him?” Ethan asked.
“Vegas King, Mafia Boss, owns Las Vegas, we should stay the fuck away. Far, far away,” I replied.
“That sums him up and we would stay the fuck away except he just got bumped up on our list of threats.”
I smirked, unable to imagine what the guy had done. “Mobsters are greedy. They just want money, they’re low flying criminals in comparison to who you people normally deal with.” I raised my shoulders.
When last I checked, the SMF were more concerned with terrorists, anarchists, rogue government officials, and people associated with them. Not mobsters. Interfering with people like mobsters was like poking at an ant’s nest. You see it and you leave it if it doesn’t bother you. Poke at it and the ants would be all over your ass.
The next slide Ethan showed me shut me right the fuck up.
It was of a guy I’d seen many times before, years ago when I was an agent. We only knew him as The Chameleon. No other name, just called that for his ability to blend in and disappear in the blink of an eye.
He was a Russian illegal arms dealer who’d supplied all manner of people with all types of weapons to carry out whatever scheme they’d planned in order to bring down destruction.
“I don’t have to ask if you know him,” Ethan stated. “Or, him.” He flicked the slide to Diego Sanchez, a notorious member of the Cuban Cartel.
“Fucking hell, Ethan, what the fuck happened?” I scuffed.
“All three are working together, big time. Giovanni of course is the little guy, but the man with the money. There’s always an investor in the equation. Always. It so happens that as this investor is what we call ‘resourceful’, he was able to pull off a heist we never saw coming. It’s the reason why we’ve been called in.” He pulled in a ragged breath and lowered his dark brows. “Two weeks ago the blueprints for a hybrid uranium and plutonium nuclear warhead were stolen while in transit to our base in Arizona. They were created by a scientist at N.A.S.A. Nothing like it exists.”
The blood left my cheeks. “What the hell are you saying to me?”
“It was Giovanni’s guys. They took them. It was very clever. They managed to get to a guy working with the team carrying the prints. Then they managed to switch trucks. There was an ambush but that was just a diversion. We managed to get a guy ID’ed through facial recognition. Only barely. Seriously, it was literally by a stroke of luck and that was how we managed to trace everything back to Giovanni and find out what he’s been up to.”
“And what is that?” I asked. Stealing things like that pointed to some element of terrorism but Ethan hadn’t mentioned anyone like that yet. Just The Chameleon.
Ethan held up his hands. “So far we only know of The Chameleon and Diego’s involvement in the scheme. It’s enough to establish that they have to be working for someone higher than them. We don’t know that part yet but anybody who wants blueprints like that and commissions a man like The Chameleon for a job can’t be anybody good. Xander, they have the designs to create something all-powerful that could obliterate anywhere they want. Hence this being classed as a global threat. This is serious and we need to get the prints back. That’s where you come in.”
Here it was. My part.
The job.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” With names like The Chameleon and Diego in the mix that called for much more than me.
“Intel suggests that G
iovanni still has the prints in his possession. We just don’t know where he’s keeping them. We need you to find them and steal them back.”
I held up my hands and shook my head. Something didn’t make sense.
“What do you mean intel suggests? How the hell do you know he still has them? This thing went down two weeks ago. The Chameleon must have them off shore by now.” That was more his style. He wouldn’t leave things like that in the hands of a mobster.
“No. Intel says Giovanni still has them. Listen to this recording. We were able to listen in on a conversation an hour after the prints were stolen.”
He tapped a button on the computer and the screen filled with two vertical lines that jumped and spiked as the conversation began.
Giovanni : We got the blueprints, everything is secured and I’m taking them somewhere safe. How long until I hand them over?
The Chameleon spoke next in his thick Russian accent.
The Chameleon: We’re still planning. You have the means to keep them secured. I’ll arrange a meeting in a few weeks to relieve you of them and hand you, your payment.
Giovanni: Fantastic, Pleasure doing business with you.
The line disconnected and went dead after that.
Hearing their voices brought it all to life. Actual shit happening.
“We’ve had serious eyes on Giovanni since then,” Ethan said. “We haven’t seen any kind of meetings set up with The Chameleon or movement to suggest that the blueprints have been handed over. Giovanni is keeping them safe while whatever plan for them unfolds. They must still be in the planning stages but we don’t know what the plans are. There’s a team working on finding that part out. For us we are just focusing on getting the prints back. I don’t have to stress that our involvement means the government want to keep things quiet and resolve the matter while the prints are right here in this city. It means we can contain the problem. The minute The Chameleon takes them, that’s it. If we don’t know what the fuck’s happening outside of what we know, we for sure won’t know then. And you know that once he gets his hands on something that’s it. We won’t see him again. All there will be is destruction. The outcome.”
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 3