Xposed

by Lynda Filler

  Xposed

  Code Raven Book 1

  Lynda Filler

  XPOSED:

  Urban dictionary.

  To find out someone's secret or see them doing a shameful act.

  Then you yell: "XPOSED!" while making an "X" by crossing your arms.

  © 2018 Lynda Filler

  XPOSED, an action suspense thriller uncovers a dark and dangerous world of high-level intrigue, passion, power, and greed.

  The US government is in the throes of cyber warfare with China. Luke Raven, a high-tech billionaire, is the only man that can save America from the deadly fallout. Luci, a highly trained ex-Mossad operative flees her hiding spot in Colombia. Spotted by a drug cartel, she is chased up the Pacific coast of Mexico where she is saved by ex-Navy SEAL Zach, a member of ‘Raven’s Group.’

  Luke and his team recruit Luci to help execute a dangerous, highly classified special operations mission that is crucial to the national security of the United States of America. They take their high-paced adventure across the USA to Canada, and over the ocean to Paris.

  The action culminates in Shanghai, China where an ultra-wealthy and ruthless business tycoon Sying possesses highly sensitive information that would have catastrophic results in the wrong hands.

  But will they get there soon enough to secure the information before she sells it to the highest bidder amongst the USA’s most dangerous enemies?

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Characters in the Raven Group.

  Luke Raven

  -Billionaire scientist, high-tech genius, history of working on US top secret projects, philanthropist, somewhat reclusive. He is a Patriot. He formed the Raven Group after his wife and seven-year-old daughter were murdered in the Bahamas. He will do whatever it takes to keep America safe.

  Samaar (code name Luci)

  -Ex-Mossad, once on loan to M16, assassin, in hiding from her ex-employers and a South American cartel after exposing their drugs/money/guns/CIA scam.

  She’s the sometime romantic interest of Luke Raven and sometime agent in the Raven Group. She currently resides in Paris with her four-year-old daughter Alice and a team of security provided by Raven to keep her safe.

  Alice

  -The daughter of Samaar never knew her father an Arab Journalist murdered in the Middle East. Currently lives with her mother in Paris, learning to speak French and Arabic, already knows English, and Spanish from her life in hiding with her mother in South America.

  RB

  -Genius techie, security expert, inside crucial man of the Raven Group, and close friend of Luke Raven. They met at Caltech. Luke taught, and RB was his protégé. Luke and RB have an unbreakable bond. RB was there for Luke when his wife and daughter were murdered. When Luke formed the Raven Group, RB was the first person he recruited.

  David

  -Family to Zach, part of his Navy SEAL team, recently retired from the Navy, pilots Raven’s prototypes and corporate jet, joins the Raven Group and very active in Silk Road.

  Zach

  -Retired Navy SEAL, was involved in the takedown of Osama Bin Laden. He was born in Israel, his parents were professors (undercover CIA) in Beirut, killed there when he was a child. Zach is now a full-time international operative for the Raven Group.

  Maggs

  -Ex-US Special Forces, Michelin trained chef, the only full-time woman in Raven Group. Currently stationed in Paris. Likely with Samaar and Alice.

  Himanish

  - An ex-military Pilot for India. Joined RAW-Research and Analysis, the Indian secret service department. He covertly helped Samaar/Luci disappear by hacking into a South American Cartel’s Swiss bank account. He took 250 million US dollars and gave it to Luci and Alice to support their new life on the run. Himanish currently works for the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva Switzerland, in a covert role he has created for himself.

  Lorena

  -Friend of Zach and Raven. Trained operative. She looks after a safe house in Puerto Vallarta, Yelapa Bay, Mexico.

  1

  Yelapa, Mexico

  ZACH TAPPED furiously on his iPhone.

  “Come on Samaar, check your messages!”

  Steel grey waves slammed the shoreline while tropical storms raced towards the Bay of Banderas.

  “If she doesn’t pick up soon, we won’t be able to save her.” His six-feet-two muscular body prowled the safe house in Yelapa, Mexico. Zach ran his fingers through shoulder length dirty blond hair and attempted to tug on a non-existent beard recently shaved since returning from the Middle East. In the pauses between the out-of-control thunder, he could hear the crabs scratching the Palapa’s thatched roof, clinging to safety.

  He peered into the blackness of the Pacific cursing the tropical storm. Zach turned away from the window and allowed himself to think back to the first time he’d seen Samaar, code-name Luci.

  He was on loan from SEAL Team Six and had been assigned to do cross training with America’s ally Israel. Mossad’s equivalent to the elite SEAL team had no name. He expected a bunch of macho Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Tough boys like the SEALs. When Luci walked into the room, he was dumbstruck. Five-feet-four, center-fold hard body Israeli beauty with a slight slope to her exotic jade eyes. What was she doing in Mossad black ops?

  Over drinks one night she shared her story with him.

  “My grandparents escaped the Nazis during WWII. My parents were born in London, but both were Orthodox Jews. They made Aliyah emigrating to Israel when they married. I was born in Tel Aviv. Still, my parents wanted me to be a citizen of the world, so they insisted I get my education in Britain. They sent me to boarding-school in high-school, and for the most part, it was good. I was a bright student, excelled in languages, but I missed my family and Israel.” She stopped, trying to control her emotions.

  “My parents were both doctors and offered their services to Israel. They were attacked and killed by a suicide bomber. I was only a teenager and an only child, but I vowed revenge.”

  Zach responded to Samaar with sadness. “Those of us with violent histories don’t always make the wisest choices with our careers.” He could relate to losing both parents, but he’d gotten lucky and was still young enough to be adopted.

  “The Israeli Special Forces heard about the angry Israeli girl who returned from London and wanted revenge. Then the Mossad heard rumors of how damaged I was and rushed in and claimed me. And as you can see, this is my life.”

  Their relationship was more than business, less than lovers at that time. Not because Samaar might have rejected him, but Zach had made a vow of celibacy many years ago. And to this day, he kept it. Now she had Alice, a daughter that needed a father. Lately, he was beginning to wonder if maybe it was time to take a different kind of vow.

  Those years before Alice were always interesting. Samaar kept in touch even when Zach found himself on another continent. When they did meet Samaar seemed most comfortable in her role as the agent code-named Luci. Her idea of a good date was knife-play, the gun range, and parkours. He trained with her and shared hours and days of urban climbing all over the city of Tel Aviv. She was smart, tough and scary. Zach smiled at the memories.

  “I’d never want to be on her bad side.” He murmured.

  They’d sworn they would always be there for each other. And then Luci went off the grid. And they had to let her go.

  But her name had shown up on in a dangerous way on Raven’s radar involved somehow with Russians, the CIA, and the South American cartels. RB reported she was in grave danger and immediate
ly turned on her locator chip. She was on the run. Zach and the Raven Group had quickly formed a plan to rescue her.

  He logged onto the Satellite again.

  “Luci!! Connect!”

  2

  Huatulco, Pacific Coast, Mexico

  SAMAAR DOUBLE-CHECKED the lock on the chipped metal door and caught her faint reflection in the cracked window by its side. Strands of her disheveled braid stuck out in all directions. Suddenly palm tree fronds smacked the cement block hotel room while coconuts banged against each other, launched to the ground by the torrential rains. The storm was definitely escalating.

  Even though she was exhausted from driving, she was too nervous to rest. She gazed at four-year-old Alice tossing in her sleep.

  “What’s next for us my darling Alice?”

  The West Coast of Mexico in the middle of hurricane season was not the smartest place to hide. But she couldn’t stay in Colombia or Uruguay or anywhere in Central or South America. Hopefully, no one with any brains would be chasing her in this weather, so maybe they were safe for the night.

  She lay down beside her daughter for a few minutes, more to calm herself than her child. She laid her head against her daughter’s heartbeat, and with trembling fingers, she outlined Alice’s baby lips and hugged her. She pushed back auburn hair and brushed another kiss over her heated brow. “I love you so much, baby. I will protect you with my life.”

  A Mossad/MI6 agent’s life is not the best way to bring up a four-year-old daughter. For the last couple of years, she had tried to become Samaar, her given name. But in reality, most of the time she was operational; and when she was, she became Luci.

  It had all started when she was put on an international task force to stop the flow of illicit drugs around the world and identify their connection to weapons and terrorism. If the task force could follow the money, they’d find the players and confiscate the funds, legally or illegally. She worked closely with a RAW agent from India who had superior hacking skills. Between the two of them, they discovered a link too big and dangerous to engage. The largest South American drug cartel’s client was the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA.

  But Luci didn’t scare easily.

  She made a trip to Zurich ostensibly to withdraw funds from her personal safety deposit box, but she was following a money trail. She stayed in a hotel next door to the bank. And this is where her plan fell apart.

  She entered the elevator and rode down several floors standing beside the son of the boss of the drug cartel in South America. She recognized him from the files she’d scoured working the drugs-for-weapons angle for MI6. He smiled at her. If she recognized him, there was a slight possibility that he knew who she was. She was utterly calm outside, but in her gut, she knew she’d have to make a move.

  Later that evening, she accessed the hotel records and found out he had vacated the premises. What choice did she have? She had preparations to make but she would go on the run immediately, stash her daughter in a safe place in a small town in South America, stalk the son, and kill him.

  It turned out it was too late. The cartel already knew who Samaar was. And killing the son of a drug lord had not been one of her better decisions. Now Samaar was trying to outrun the South American cartel with a four-year-old child; and she had to admit, for the first time in her life, she was scared. If only she’d had time to reach out to Zach.

  But some parts of her plan had been perfect. Four months ago, the night before she left London, Samaar sat in her dark apartment in an elegant part of London and pulled out her computer. She knew she wouldn’t sleep she was too wired. She prepared false paperwork for both herself and her daughter, then packed the bare essentials in knapsacks. They would leave in the middle of the night. First, she’d drive to Spain, then take a ferry to Morocco, and make a flight from there.

  Her hacking genius, Himanish, the Research Analysis Wing agent from India, had recently gone offline. She had no idea what he was up to, but she sent an encrypted message in a cipher the two of them had designed. She let him know she was getting out. He already knew she had dual citizenship with Israel and Britain. She was initially on loan to MI6 from the Mossad. But neither agencies were ever going to let her resign. She was far too skilled and knew too much. They gave her no choice. She had to disappear. Himanish, her friend from RAW never responded. But that was the norm for him.

  She wasn’t only worried about the cartels, she also worried about money. The personal cash she’d secured in Zurich wouldn’t last long. She had turned most of it into diamonds that she could cash when she got low on funds. But, eventually, she’d have to re-invent herself and figure out how she was going to make a living.

  That night was crystal clear in her mind. Alice was asleep, and Samaar prepared to move out in the middle of the night. She wasn’t going to sleep, so she opened up her computer and looked at her budget once again. Samaar pulled up her online bank balance to calculate how long she could last without working.

  “What’s this?!”

  Alice moaned in her sleep. “It’s okay baby, go back to sleep.” Samaar was breathless. $250,000,000 had been added to her funds that day! She smiled and knew immediately what had happened. There was no question now. The cartel heir had to die, so he’d never connect her to the bank account Himanish must have cleaned out. That was four months ago. And now the cartel had found her, connected the dots, and wanted their revenge. And the return of the money they assumed she’d stolen.

  In the lull between lightening cracks, she calculated what to do next. She watched Alice sleeping. It was terrible enough Luci killed the drug lord’s son. But the fact they assumed she had the cartel/CIA funds, they’d never stop chasing her until they got their money back or she was dead. Alice didn’t deserve the life she would have to live with a mother on the run.

  3

  Somewhere In The Pacific Ocean Off The Coast Of Mexico

  COMMANDER MIKE ANDREWS scanned the horizon with a high-tech periscope. He tugged at his graying hair pulled back in an elastic band, a bit longer than Navy standards but normal for a SEAL on leave. He tensed in pain and wondered if the next surgery would cure his latest injuries sustained in Somalia. At five-foot-eight, Mike was probably the shortest SEAL on the team, but his keen eyesight and calm under fire also made him the team’s deadliest sniper.

  “How’s it looking out there, Mike? Any sign of the girl?”

  The odd light flickered along the Mexican coastline. The storm screamed. The waves were dangerously high; it was hard to estimate exactly where the shore began, and the ocean ended.

  “Nope.” He promised Zach he would wait. But he was beginning to worry. Fatigue was setting in, and his men needed rest. They were supposed to be hanging out in Puerto Vallarta drinking margaritas. Instead they’d Zach had found them. And Raven, a friend of the US Government, requested their help.

  “Great job everyone. Let’s hope the Mexicans can clean up the rest of their mess themselves.”

  They’d just come in from a twenty-four-hour mission. The team unofficially supported the Mexican Federales on a clandestine operation against the New Generation Cartel in Michoacan. A quick in and out. On May Day this cartel had scared a lot of people in Puerto Vallarta blowing up gas stations, throwing Molotov cocktails, and smashing bank windows. No killing, just intimidation.

  But they played with the wrong people, people more powerful than this young cartel. There’s too much money flowing into politicians’ pockets from tourism. If you want to behead your competitors or steal their weapons and drugs, go right ahead. But do it in towns where nobody cares.

  Joe looked up from his computer. “Looks like you were right, boss-man. The weapons confiscated track back to the U.S.A, but the serial numbers proved they were used in conflicts in the Middle East. We need to track down the arms dealers. Looks like someone in Asia, through the Port of Shanghai. U. S. Intelligence is going to want answers.”

  Mike gazed again towards the East. He felt the damp along his wounded
spine. Mike was still haunted about the night he sustained his injury and the children he and Zach couldn’t rescue in South Sudan. He shuddered at the memories. But he’d promised Zach. He knew this was personal. And this was one mother and child he would not let die.

  Two a.m., time for coffee and sat-phone check with Zach on his very precious cargo.

  4

  SAMAAR EASED HERSELF up from Alice’s bed. She would sleep later.

  Using her Satellite connections, she logged into her encrypted messages. At first, Samaar was sure her tired eyes were deceiving her.

  There was a strange message waiting for her, and it wasn’t from Himanish.

  “Samaar, you’re in danger.

  Get out now!

  My men are offshore.

  Go north five hundred yards along the beach.

  A powerboat is waiting.

  The local’s name is Jaime.

  Z”

  Samaar couldn’t believe what she was reading.

  How did Zach know where she was? How does he know what’s going on in my life? Instincts honed with years of training set in. She could get her answers later.

  Samaar grabbed her waterproof knapsack, her Sig Sauer, two clips, some energy bars, her knife, and jacket.

  She cooed gently to Alice. With closed eyes, Alice murmured, “Sleep time mommy?”

  “No, mi Amor, time for an adventure with Mommy. Let’s get your rain jacket on. We are going on a boat. Hold tight to mommy.”

  “Maddie Mommy?”

  “Yes, baby, your Maddie doll is coming too.”

  Luci, the lethal agent, adjusted her knapsack; her knife sheathed in her boot, her SIG in her right hand. Alice on her hip on her left. She extinguished the lamp and peered out the window. Seeing no one, she slowly eased open the metal door.