A Blued Steel Wolfe

by Erickston, Michael

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a shrug. “He gets to steal Blackfire for a week, and I have to run this place by myself.”

  “You have me, sweetie,” she retorted with a sweet smile that belied her Amazonian stature and features.

  “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re the muscle here,” he said. Then he grimaced as he realized what he’d just said.

  “No offense taken, Raymond,” she said graciously.

  “It’s actually Raylan,” he corrected her with a chuckle. “Not even my parents would be cruel enough to name me Raymond Hammond.”

  “That’s a good thing, and I’m sorry for mispronouncing your name, Raylan. I like that name.” She smiled. He’s cute for a white boy, she thought.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he replied, matching her smile with one of his own. I would let her do whatever she wanted to do to me, he thought to himself as he stared at her pretty face and athletic body. Then he returned his attention to the monitor with the blue Italian sports car on it.

  Ray Hammond was a former FBI agent, Cybercrimes Division. When one of his cases went bad, he took the heat for it even though it was his supervisor’s fault. While on suspension, he took the law into his own hands and made the black hat hacker’s computer explode. The child murderer and snuff pornographer died as his custom steel mouse carried a deadly current up and delivered it into his body. Just before the fatal blow, the following message appeared onscreen: “The voltage isn’t what kills you. It’s the amps, you sick son of a bitch!”

  His bosses couldn’t prove that he did it, but that didn’t help. With his suspension already hanging over his head, they relieved him permanently of his duties. He was forced to resign that same day. He turned in his gun and badge, and flipped his supervisor the bird as he left the office.

  No sooner had he resigned, but he received a mysterious text on his cellphone. Out of curiosity, he followed the directions and met with Mr. Anthony Wolfe himself at a local café.

  Mr. Wolfe hired him that same day as his IT man and computer security expert. He promised Ray five times what he’d made with the FBI, and he delivered on his promise.

  Thinking back on it now, he knew that getting fired from the FBI was a blessing in disguise. He was now well-off, whereas he barely managed to scrape by on the federal salary before. He also got to meet one of his old nemeses in the cyber world, Tamara Jenkins, AKA black_fire. They became friends after Royce and Justin rescued her from Prescott and his thugs.

  “Hey, Trina,” Ray said. “Come take a look at this guy, please. Does he look familiar to you, at all?”

  Trina climbed the three steps easily and leaned down to look over Ray’s shoulder. She cocked her head to the side and squinted as she concentrated on the face of the man with the camera.

  “Who, sweetie?” she asked, stopping by his right shoulder.

  “Who does that guy look like, to you?” Ray asked, pointing at the man in question. Trina leaned forward to get a better look.

  “He looks like he could be related to Mr. Wolfe,” she said, then pointed at his features. “Look at the similar bone structure in his face, and his nose is the same. He has the same eyes too.”

  “I need to call him, then,” Ray said, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket. “He needs to know that some dude that could be a relative is watching his place.”

  “Not yet, Raylan,” said Trina, laying a gentle hand on his arm. “We’ll tell him when he returns. He’s at the breakfast meeting with the housing developer and his wife right now.”

  “You’re right,” Ray sighed. “I don’t like this, though. Something seems off about that guy.”

  “You’re still a cop at heart, sweetie,” Trina said with a smile. “So am I.”

  “No, I’m still a hacker, but I’m good at spotting assholes,” he retorted wryly, making her laugh.

  “Well, stop worrying about it for now,” she said, her tone turning sterner. “Some of his security men are Marines, and they won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “How long were you in the Corps?” Ray asked, more to make conversation than anything else.

  “Twenty years, sweetie,” she replied, surprising him somewhat. She didn’t look that old. “I retired as a Gunnery Sergeant.”

  He looked at her, and the look of surprise on his face made her laugh. “What’s that look for, Raylan?”

  “You aren’t that old!” he blurted out.

  “I’m actually thirty-eight, honey,” she smiled. “I joined up, the day after I turned eighteen, and I’ve only been out for six months. It’s sweet of you to say, though.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Ray retorted, still in a state of disbelief. “You cannot be older than I am!”

  “Why? How old are you?” Trina asked, raising one eyebrow.

  “I’m thirty-one,” he admitted. “You look like maybe twenty-three! I bet you still get carded when buying alcohol.”

  Trina laughed musically at his assumption. She knew he was sincere, not just flirting with her.

  “So, should I call you ‘Gunny Cooper’, then?” Ray asked, smirking again as he referred to her last name. “I still can’t believe you’re that old!”

  “Only if you’re sweet about it,” she said with a wink. “Black don’t crack Raylan. I’m thirty-eight, but I do like younger men.” Why am I flirting with him? I know why. It’s been too long since I had a man! I could do worse, though. He is very cute!

  Ray gulped. “Good to know, Trina.”

  Then he remembered something, which allowed him to change the subject. “Well, Ms. Cooper, I should at least call Justin and let him know about the asshole that was sitting outside.”

  “I can agree with that, Mr. Hammond,” Trina replied professionally.

  ***** ***** *****

  Justin sat in his new office, looking over the latest security reports. He flipped through Royce’s latest evaluation and smiled at his friend’s assessment. For someone with no formal training in security, the kid knew his shit.

  As the new Head of Security, it was Justin’s responsibility to train all new Security Team members. Formerly known as the Enforcers under the late and unlamented Darnell’s leadership, they now had more legitimacy under Justin’s stable hand. He was glad to have the former Rangers, Marines, and even Special Forces working for him. Trina was a good one especially, and the perfect complement to Tam and Ray in the command center. He knew he could trust her to protect them, there.

  His phone rang, and he saw that it was Ray calling. “What’s up, Ray?” he asked when he put the phone to his ear.

  “Hey, Boss Man,” Ray replied. “I need you to look at his pic that I snapped from the security footage this morning. The guy was watching the house and taking pictures. He also looks familiar, like he might be related to you and Mr. Wolfe. I just sent it to your BlackBerry.”

  “One sec, Ray,” Justin said as he opened the browser on his cellphone and logged into his email account. He opened the email from Ray and downloaded the picture attachment. When the picture popped up onscreen, he studied the mystery man’s features. Ray was right. While the man wasn’t the spitting image of his father, he bore enough of a resemblance to merit some questions when the elder Wolfe returned from the business breakfast With Mr. John Redding of Redding Realty and his wife, Margaret.

  “Thank you, Ray,” Justin said as he finished studying the photograph. “I’ll let my father know, as soon as he returns from the meeting.”

  “No problem, Boss,” Ray said.

  “Oh, Ray. One more thing,” Justin said, a thought popping into his head. “Do you still have access to the FBI’s facial recognition software?”

  “Access to it?” Ray scoffed. “You should know me better than that by now, Boss. I got it on my system here. I kind of borrowed it from the FBI on my way out the door when they fired me. Oh, and you don’t even have to ask. I’ll run it through now.”

  “Thank you, Ray,” Justin chuckled. “Now I understand why my
father hired you.”

  “No worries, Boss. It could take a while, though. Depends on how much the FBI knows about the guy,” Ray replied.

  “Of course, Ray. Let me know what you find.” With that, Justin hung up and stared at the photo again. Something about the man seemed off. The eyes. The man’s eyes are… insane.

  They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. The man’s eyes were the same as his father’s, but crueler. The bone structure in his face, while not identical, still showed familial lines. Could he be an uncle? Maybe a cousin? Justin thought, trying to unravel the mystery. Whoever the man was, he definitely had an interest in the Wolfe family.

  ***** ***** *****

  “Raylan, who is that?” Trina asked as she returned with their coffee cups. She handed one to him and he took a swig before he replied.

  “That is Salvatore Lupo, former Capo in the Lupo-O’Hara crime syndicate in Lower Manhattan, NYC,” Ray explained. Trina looked on in amazement. The formerly clean-cut Mafioso looked very different from the scraggly, long-haired man that they’d seen taking pictures from his Maserati. The formerly short, jet black and slicked back hair was now streaked with grey, changing his appearance even further.

  “Are you sure it’s the same man?” she asked, marveling at the two pictures side by side.

  “Yeah. There’s a small snag, though,” he said gravely. “The FBI lists him as Deceased, along with every other member of the Lupo Family.”

  That was when Trina made the same connection as Ray. “I heard about that when I worked with an FBI team during a joint operation with our MP unit. The Russian Bratva somehow got their hooks into a Marine captain, and it was the same Russian Mob that took over lower Manhattan after the Lupo-O’Hara alliance fell.”

  “Look at this one,” Ray said, bringing up another pic. Then he brought up Anthony Wolfe’s portrait for comparison. “Trina, meet our boss, Antonio Lupo.”

  “Then there were survivors after all,” Trina said, shaking her head in wonder.

  “Yep, including our boss’s lovely wife,” Ray said. He then brought up another pic, this one of a young and fiery haired Linda O’Hara.

  “That’s Linda Wolfe,” Trina gasped. “She was also presumed dead when the police and FBI found the collapsed tunnel under the O’Hara mansion!”

  “Yep!” Ray exclaimed. “Oh, and look at this.”

  He brought up all of the records on Anthony and Linda Wolfe, and showed them all onscreen at the same time.

  “What am I looking at, sweetie?” she asked as she leaned over him, confused at first.

  “Perfectly forged documents,” Ray said, nodding with respect. “Whoever made these did a hell of a job. I’d like to shake the hand of the man or woman who crafted these masterpieces. No government agency would be able to crack these. Everything is, quite literally perfect.”

  “There has to be something,” she said, shaking her head. “Nobody can forge perfect documents!”

  “Whoever made these did,” Ray said. Then he explained. “Everything on these is perfect. I ran them through a program used by the Secret Service to detect forgeries in currency and documentation.” He pointed to the Social Security cards and hit a key to enlarge the images a hundred times.

  “These cards are real,” he continued his explanation. “You can see that the formerly solid line now says, ‘Social Security Administration’ over, and over for the entire length of the signature line. Forgers don’t do that, so the cards are real. The Social Security numbers are real, too. They aren’t just taken from children who died young. The forger created these numbers, backdated them, and placed them in the Social Security database. The only way we know they’re forgeries is because we know the truth! Pure genius!”

  “So, what do we do?” Trina asked, suddenly apprehensive. She knew of Anthony Wolfe by reputation before she started working for him.

  “He has to know that we know,” Ray replied with a shrug. “He trusts us, so we have to trust him. I know you’re new here, Trina, but Mr. Wolfe is a good man. He doesn’t do anything drastic without an extremely good reason.”

  Trina thought about it for a moment and sighed. She looked into his green eyes and nodded. “Ok, Ray. We’ll tell him when he returns from his meeting.”

  ***** ***** *****

  Anthony opened the door for his wife and smiled as she took his hand so he could help her out of the SUV. The meeting was a success, and soon they would have another venture bringing in capital to replace the illegal businesses in which they were currently involved.

  Soon, Anthony thought. Soon, we won’t have to deal with the bottom feeding scum anymore, and our family will be secure.

  He thought about Justinian and Camille. The boy had a good head for business and security, and Camille knew almost as much about the Law as Jared did. He smiled as he thought about their burgeoning romance. They were already good friends, and now something more.

  As he entered the mansion, holding hands with Linda, they spotted Ray and Trina heading towards them from one direction. Then they saw Justin coming towards them from another. All of them wore urgent expressions on their faces. As they approached, he held up his hand.

  “My office,” he said simply. Then he turned to Linda. “Sweetheart, I’ll be back shortly.”

  “Of course, Tony,” she said with a loving smile. They shared a sweet kiss, and then she went off to organize her next fundraiser for charity.

  Once they were all in his office and Anthony was ensconced behind his desk, he looked at each of them in turn. First, he started with Justin. “What is it, Son?”

  “This, Father,” Justin said, handing Anthony his BlackBerry with the picture on it.

  In all the time that Ray worked for Anthony Wolfe, he’d never seen the man shaken before. Neither had Justin, for that matter. His father was always the calmest man in the room. Until now, that is.

  Anthony stared at the picture of the ghost on the screen. “He’s dead,” he whispered.

  “He’s dead. It can’t be him!” Anthony Wolfe shouted. Then he turned an accusing gaze at Ray Hammond. “What is this? Who decided to play this prank? Was it you, Ray?”

  “No, sir!” Ray said emphatically. “This is from the security footage this morning, while you and Mrs. Wolfe were leaving for your breakfast meeting. He was sitting in that car and taking pictures of the mansion.”

  Anthony looked into his tech expert’s gaze and saw the truth there. He closed his eyes and regained control of himself. “I… apologize for my outburst, Raylan. I owe you all an explanation, it seems.”

  “What’s this all about, Father?” Justin asked, concern showing on his face.

  “That man is Salvatore Lupo, Justinian. He was my brother, and your uncle,” Anthony said tiredly. He stared at the picture some more before he continued. “I thought he was dead, though. He is still dead to me. I shot him twice in the chest after I found out that he betrayed the Family to the Russians.

  “Umm, sir?” Ray said. When Anthony looked at him and raised an eyebrow, he continued. “We figured it out. Well, Trina and I figured out who you really were, but we didn’t know everything that went down. We just wanted to let you know that your secret is safe with us.”

  Trina and Ray shared a glance, and then they both nodded affirmation to their Boss.

  “Thank you both for that,” Anthony said with a nod. Then he explained the situation and started giving orders.

  “However, that point is now moot. I can’t refute the evidence. Salvatore Lupo is alive, and he presumably knows that Anthony Wolfe is really his long lost brother. I can’t keep this a secret any longer, at least amongst our own people. I know how my brother operated back in New York.” He paused, and then looked at each of them in turn. “Trina, I’m assigning you as Ray’s personal bodyguard. Keep him safe. Ray, no backtalk. Trina is your shadow, and you’re her shadow too. You stick together. Justinian, you will keep Camille and Nathan safe. That means you will have to spend every moment with them outside
of the mansion. Also, assign at least one security team member to every non-combatant in our Family.”

  “Yes, sir,” Justin replied. “What are we going to do about Salvatore, though?”

  “Leave that to me, Son,” Anthony replied, his face a stone mask. “We don’t know exactly what he’s planning, but we need to find out and soon.”

  Then he turned to Ray. “Ray, did any of the footage capture the license plate on his car?”

  “Probably, sir,” Ray replied with a nod. “When I find it, I’ll track it and let you know.”

  “Good,” Anthony said as he looked at each of them in turn. “See to your tasks, but don’t bother Royce and Tamara. They’re on their honeymoon.”

  “I’ll set up schedules and assignments immediately,” Justin said with a nod. “With your permission, I’m going to lock down the mansion too.”

  “Not yet, Justinian,” Anthony said, shaking his head. “Only if something happens, and then only on my order.”

  “Understood, sir,” Justin replied professionally. He quickly formulated a plan to enact if the situation demanded, though.

  “Ok, we’re on that footage,” Ray said, and nodded at Trina, who followed him back to the command center.

  As Justin turned to leave, Anthony stopped him. “Justinian.”

  “Yes, Father?” the younger Wolfe asked, turning to face Anthony.

  “I’m sorry that you had to find out this way, Son,” said the elder Wolfe.

  “I read about that massacre, and I understand why you kept our true name secret,” Justin replied with a nod.

  “No, Justinian. You are a Wolfe, not a Lupo,” Anthony explained. “By the time you were born, your mother and I already had our new identities. Your legal name is Justinian Marcus Wolfe.”

  “I understand, Father,” he replied. Then he turned and left his father’s office. He pushed those thoughts from his mind for the moment. He had to focus on the safety and security of his friends and family, first.

  First, he made his way to Jared’s office. He had to see Cammie, and warn her and Jared about the imminent threat.