Imagine (Black Raven Book 4)

by Stella Barcelona

  The longstanding smile wager amongst field agents had been won a few times. The laugh wager, never. When it became obvious that Zeus wasn’t going to crack a smile, all laughter in the room faded.

  “In four days, on the twenty second, the ship will depart out of Macau, which is an administrative region of China, near Hong Kong,” Zeus continued. “Let me be clear. This job is on a ship that will be flying the flag of the People’s Republic of China, and it will be travelling in the South China Sea. For those of you who are geopolitically challenged, that means we’ll be operating within the jurisdiction of a Communist regime.”

  Zeus’ glance from agent to agent underscored the seriousness of his words. “We are undertaking this job at the request of a longstanding client. At this time, Black Raven does not have a license to operate in China. My partners and I are willing to assume the risks presented by a job that is not sanctioned by the Chinese government because this is a very lucrative job for a powerful client. More about the client and the job objective later. Stills?”

  Paul Stills, on Ace’s right, straightened in his chair. “Yes, sir.”

  “You’re first in command of the field agents.”

  “Evans?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ace said.

  “You’re second.”

  Zeus held Ace’s gaze for a second. When interviewing Ace, a little over two years earlier, the man had been blunt. ‘Your final mission as a Marine, and the resulting fallout from it, is a drawback. Deserved or not, reputations have a way of coming back to bite, and clients who are paying Black Raven’s fees have a way of hearing about them. So, it’s going to be a while before you’re first in command. You may have to swallow your pride for a few years. We’re hiring you because you’re better than good. The world is getting more violent. Criminals are getting more creative. Black Raven needs you. You will not only make a great agent, your accomplishments with the Marines tell me that you’re partner quality. Not many agents are, by the way.’

  After two years of swallowing his pride, Ace was getting tired of it. He rolled his shoulders to shake off his frustration and gave Zeus a nod. Zeus’ gaze drifted from Ace. “Kamin, you’re third in command. Leo?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’re in the field on this one. We’re not expecting complications, but that doesn’t mean a glitch or two won’t arise. My team’s preliminary troubleshooting suggests that communications could get tricky. If that happens, your expertise will be required on site.”

  From Ace’s seat, he saw Leo in profile. She gave Zeus a casual nod, yet Ace knew her well enough to know she was thrilled. She loved fieldwork. Given his own aversion to working in an office, Ace didn’t blame her.

  That someone of Zeus’ stature within the company called Leo by her nickname, and not her full last name, Leon, wasn’t lost on Ace. Most agents went by their full last names for official business, but Leo wasn’t like most agents. She’d been a teenage software designing prodigy. By the time she’d graduated from college, she had multiple software patents for designs that facilitated data assimilation and cross-network communications. She had caught Black Raven’s attention at a time when the company was expending considerable effort to meet the technology-driven demands of its clients.

  The company had courted her throughout her college years, and she’d accepted Black Raven’s employment offer at the tender age of twenty-one with her own demands. One of which was the opportunity to do fieldwork, in addition to the technology systems work for which she was being hired. After rigorous field training, she’d earned universal respect in the Black Raven ranks when she’d stared down danger, at Zeus’ side, on the Jigsaw job. The complexity of her fieldwork on the recent Hutchenson job, where the company had busted a human trafficking ring, had also elevated her stature.

  “In the next few minutes, you will each receive a dossier with job fundamentals. It’s a working document. Notes you make within will be dated, timed, and are visible to all team members. Marks?”

  While Zeus continued with individual assignments, Ace pulled his laptop out of his backpack and logged into his work assignment folder. Keyboard clicks filled the room, as other agents did the same. The dossier wasn’t there yet. In the upper right corner of Ace’s screen, an instant messaging dialogue box appeared, with a message from Leo. He opened it.

  “You look like hell.”

  He glanced her way. Her attention was focused forward, bouncing between the front of the room and on her laptop screen. Bright light from the screen framed her firm jawline. He replied, “Nice to see you, too. You wouldn’t look so great if you’d been flying commercial air for twenty-four hours. Due to delays, the last leg was coach, and crowded.”

  She replied, “From the looks of this job, we’ll be working late. Hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  “How about Luigi’s? If I throw that out to the team, I know they’ll go for it. Maybe we’ll even catch a glimpse of the game when we break. Want to bet? I’ll take the Chargers by 7.”

  “Yep. I’ll take that bet. Luigi’s sounds great. You know what I want.”

  The idea of food from his favorite Italian restaurant in Denver and a glimpse of a football game, even while working, made his world almost perfect. Almost, save for the persistent feeling that he was missing something, which he could now trace back to their kiss.

  By the time he’d awakened the day after Halloween, she’d been on a flight out of New Orleans. Her text had said that she’d been called to headquarters on an emergency job assignment. Given her reaction to their kiss, and her aversion to talking about personal things, he had assumed the emergency nature of her job assignment was a classic avoidance move on her part.

  Since then, their assignments had taken them in different directions. She’d been at headquarters in Denver, working out kinks in software, most notably a facial recognition system that integrated databases from around the world. He’d been on security details jobs that had taken him from Spain, to England, and Saudi Arabia. Between England and Saudi Arabia, he’d taken time off at his home in La Jolla, California, hoping that a few days of surfing would help clear his head of the thoughts about Leo that their kiss had awakened.

  Not a shot.

  He wished he didn’t feel anything odd when he looked at her, but…so much for that. Truth was, he’d looked forward to seeing her for more days than he cared to count. He also wished he was able to forget about their kiss. Especially because, as she’d requested, it had not been the subject of a conversation. Not that he hadn’t tried, in a roundabout way. She’d shut him down, each time, so he had dropped it, each time.

  He’d been around enough—and with her in particular—to know when a person needed space. Yet her silence on the issue, amidst the friendly banter of their usual emails, texts, video chats and telephone calls had, for some inexplicable reason, made him dwell on their kiss even more. He hoped the memory of it was as vivid in her mind as it was in his.

  Damn well hope it’s torturing her, like it’s doing to me.

  As the document appeared in Ace’s work folder, Zeus continued, “And you should all have the dossier now. We had some final tweaking on our end. After you’ve opened it, follow the prompts to open a dialogue box where you can make notes. We’re using a new live word system. Everyone’s area of expertise will be reflected as we go through the data. For example, Evans is the job’s schematics expert. Kamin is the job’s engineering expert. The interactive nature of the document will allow everyone to know each other’s thoughts as we proceed.”

  Ace opened the document and saw the names of the other agents materializing in the right-hand margin. He followed the prompts, and his name appeared, in yellow.

  “Ragno,” Zeus said. “Ready?”

  “Yes. Good afternoon, Agents.” Ragno’s crisp, matter-of-fact voice filled the room. Looking over her laptop screen, she gave the agents an all-encompassing glance with denim-blue eyes, while she typed a few final clicks on her keyboard.

 
; Several agents answered Ragno with ‘good afternoon,’ while others nodded. The woman was a mystery. Ace assumed that her name was manufactured, but no one had confirmed that. Most agents didn’t know the details of Ragno’s tragic history. Even Ace didn’t know all the facts, because everyone in the company, her close friends like Leo included, guarded her privacy. He did know that for years, post-traumatic agoraphobia had reduced Ragno’s entire world to her apartment at corporate headquarters and her home office. Now, she was able to freely travel through the various floors of the high-rise headquarters building. She was better, but not healed. To his knowledge, the pretty, petite woman with ash-blonde hair and delicate features never left headquarters.

  On his screen, an instant message dialogue box appeared from Ragno, revealing what her last few clicks on the keyboard had been. He opened it. “Leo being in the field on this one is a lucky break for us. Having her in China will make it easier to keep your secret until Christmas. BTW-What’s the pup’s name? I need to call her something.”

  Leo’s home was an apartment that was next door to Ragno. As he’d landed in Denver, he’d received a text from Ragno, with an image of the puppy that was to be Leo’s Christmas gift from him. It had taken some planning on Ace’s part, but the puppy had arrived in Denver earlier that morning, via a flight from California. Ace’s youngest sister had been in charge of the puppy’s transport and delivery to Ragno. The text had signaled the puppy’s safe arrival, and had been accompanied with a photo of the black and white, thick-haired puppy snoozing atop a plush blanket. Ragno was happy to be the dog’s ongoing second mom, for times when Leo worked in the field.

  He thought about the name issue for a second, then sent his reply. “Let’s stick with breeder’s name for now. Noelle.”

  From the front of the room, Ragno glanced at the computer screen, but gave no indication that she saw his reply. Addressing the agents, she said, “Imagine is a luxury vessel designed to provide the world’s wealthiest gamblers with an unforgettable experience. The ship is owned by Imagine Casinos Worldwide, which is owned by Theodore Baru. Here he is, for those who aren’t familiar with him.”

  A photo of Baru appeared on the wall next to the image of the ship. Bald, with light blue eyes, and round, wire-rimmed glasses, he was in his mid-sixties. He was slim and wore an expensive-looking suit that was a little too shiny for Ace’s liking.

  “Baru will be aboard his ship for the cruise, which boasts the newest casino in his empire of luxury resort properties in Las Vegas, Macau, and Nassau,” Ragno continued. “The ship’s maiden voyage will host a private tournament for seventy-five of the world’s wealthiest gamblers, including one of the top five wealthiest men in the world, Ling Wen, of Hong Kong, where the corporate home of Ling Wen Enterprises is based. As part of our due diligence for the job, you will become familiar with every guest who will be aboard the ship.”

  “Baru is not our client,” Zeus said. “Nor are the guests. Assuming everything goes smoothly, Baru and the guests will never know that Black Raven is aboard the ship. Well-placed financial incentives have ensured that the in-field team has a variety of undercover positions, designed for optimal spreading around the ship, appropriate visas for entry into the country, and other details that fall into my team’s responsibilities.”

  Zeus didn’t have to be more explicit. In that context, Ace knew that financial incentives meant bribes, though the company didn’t typically admit engaging in the practice of payola.

  “Our client is the Howard Underwriting Group,” Zeus continued. “HUG for short. Some of you have worked on HUG jobs in the past. You know that the underwriting group provides K & R coverage for wealthy individuals and upper echelon businesses.”

  Another panel of light opened behind Zeus. Text appeared, with the headline ‘Kidnap & Ransom Coverage.’ Underneath, policy language provided bullet points of K & R insurance coverage.

  “For those of you who haven’t worked on HUG’s files, K & R clauses mean what they say in plain English. A policyholder buys the coverage, and if he or she is ever kidnapped and has to pay ransom to secure their freedom, the insurer will reimburse the policyholder. Each policy has customized requirements about ransom negotiation, payment protocols, and other details, but we won’t worry about those now. What makes HUG policies special and worthy of hiring Black Raven, at enormous expense, is the considerable accumulative value of the HUG policies and the wealth of HUG’s clients who are insured by those policies.”

  As Zeus paused, Ragno continued. “Current cyber-chatter has businesses that protect the upper-echelon wealthy—HUG and Black Raven included—on a category red alert this holiday season. There has been a proliferation of terrorist groups, worldwide, that are waging a war against wealth. Trends in violence indicate that, among extremists, wealth is becoming equated with greed. Extremists are now taking aim at the rich.”

  Slides appeared on the wall behind Zeus, with headlines of mass shootings, targeted bombings, and high-profile kidnappings that had occurred in the past few months. A bombing inside an auction of priceless antiques in Manhattan, New York; ten people, dead. A sniper-style, mass shooting at a ritzy ski resort in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy; fifteen, dead. The kidnapping of the LeMoine family, of the diamond cartel, from their home in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; negotiations for their release currently underway.

  As the newsfeed continued with headlines of other high-profile kidnappings, Ragno said, “Occurrences such as these have made K & R insurance a hot commodity. Because only a handful of insurance companies write K & R insurance, a disproportionate number of the world’s billionaires are HUG clients. Of the one hundred and fifty passengers on Baru’s gambling-tournament cruise, forty-three have K&R insurance provided by HUG.”

  “Baru caters to the wealthiest of the wealthy,” Zeus said. “If the worst happens, and K & R coverage is triggered for all HUG clients aboard Imagine, liability will be in the billions. Aside from worrying about K & R coverage, HUG’s life insurance policies for the guests aboard Imagine also present an enormous potential liability. Black Raven will be aboard the ship to ensure that the inaugural cruise is free of any mishap that would activate any HUG coverage.”

  “Field agents, I’ll be in charge of your Denver-based cyber and intelligence support. The cyber agents who are currently in the room with you will be on my team,” Ragno said. “We’ll call in other agents as needed.”

  “I’ll be in Denver for the duration. I’ll lead trouble-shooting should the need arise,” Zeus said. “As you all know, I’m the lucky guy who gets to deflect the fall-out from governmental agencies if a job goes off kilter.”

  Zeus looked from agent to agent. “Let’s make sure my governmental liaison skills are not needed on this one. I’ve dealt with a variety of governments over the years, but Communist regimes are tricky and China’s the trickiest of them all. If this job goes sideways, you may all end up in a prison for the remainder of your natural lives.”

  A gleam in his eyes suggested that Zeus was joking. Dead silence in the room indicated most of the agents in the room weren’t finding humor in his words.

  “Come on, Zeus. Stop scaring them.” Ragno’s tone had shifted from pure business to something a little gentler. She shook her head and gave the agents a dramatic eye-roll.

  Zeus gave a slight smile. A few agents sighed, as though relieved to see that he had actually been trying to be funny. “If I’m scaring them, Ragno, we have big problems looming.”

  “Agents, of course we won’t leave you sitting in a Chinese prison,” Ragno said, with an almost motherly tone in her voice. “Well, at least not for the rest of your lives. We’d eventually figure a way to get you out. I promise.”

  “A condition of our employment is absolute anonymity,” Zeus said. “Simply put, HUG does not let its valued and wealthy clients know that it is covering its own ass. Because Black Raven isn’t in the business of trusting anyone else, no one on the ship will know of our presence. Not even Quan Security, which is
the private security company that has been hired by Baru. Also, the security teams hired by the individual guests will not know that Black Raven is aboard, unless those agents are Black Raven agents. Your legends are in the working document.”

  Legends were the details of the undercover agent’s role on a job where Black Raven’s presence was to be undetected. Ace clicked and found his alter ego. He’d be cruising as Zack Abrams.

  As Ace read through the details, Zeus continued. “For the next two days, until the field team departs for Macau, we’re going to analyze scenarios where things could go wrong and we’ll formulate a fix. For now, I’ll give you a few minutes to look through the dossier, then we’ll move on to more job details.”

  Shit!

  Details of his legend revealed an immediate issue, but not the kind Zeus was trying to troubleshoot. This problem was purely personal.

  Zack Abrams was the fiancée of Chloe St. Laurent, an heiress who loved high-stakes gambling. According to legend, Zack was a man who seemed content to manage Chloe’s businesses and was frequently seen at her side whenever she appeared in public. Zack and Chloe were to do what fiancées did on a cruise—stay close to each other, act like a couple in love.

  Share a room.

  Typically, Ace wouldn’t have had a problem with this sort of legend. After all, he was a professional. His issue was that the name of the agent who was to be Chloe St. Laurent was Sylvia Leon. Their kiss had created an issue, and sharing a room with her would force them to confront it.

  He glanced across the briefing room. His eyes met Leo’s, who was looking over her shoulder, at him, with wide eyes and an oh-fuck expression that told him she’d just read the exact same thing. The near-panic in her eyes revealed exactly what he’d been hoping for—that she was also having an issue with their kiss. Despite his own initial reaction to the fact that they were sharing a room, he couldn’t help but smile in response to her discomfort.

  He moved his cursor to their private dialogue box. “Don’t you think we should talk about why the prospect of us sharing a room horrifies you?” He sent the message, wondering what creative way she’d give to shut down his attempt to bring up what had happened in New Orleans.