by K. T. Tomb
Ken smiled.
“Alright, that’s a fair enough deal. I’ll make sure to grab it on my way home.”
“Thank you,” she said, in her warm voice.
“How’s the kiddo doin’?” Kenneth asked as he got into his car.
“She’s finishing up her homework,” Dawn said. “Then it will be time for bed.”
Kenneth looked at the clock in the car.
“I didn’t realize it was already so late. I’ll hurry home as fast as possible.”
“Don’t forget about the bakery!” Dawn called out.
“I won’t!” Ken promised. He hung up and started the car. He raced over to the bakery and quickly retrieved the order, paying for it with a cursory swipe of his credit card. It was a fresh loaf of bread and a pink and white box of sweet goodies. They all smelled wonderful and he had to hold himself back from grabbing a piece of the bread. He eventually put it all in the back seat in order to keep it out of arm’s reach while he drove.
He pulled into the gas station in what looked like the nick of time. The needle on his gas gauge was just touching the E. The warning light had also made its appearance sometime before. The attendant filled up the tank with premium petrol while Kenneth sat back to wait. The smell in the car was making his stomach grumble. When the tank was full, he paid the attendant and got ready to leave the pump. With that little chore finished, he was finally able to head home.
What Kenneth didn’t notice as he drove away was the attendant signaling to two people who were standing beside two shiny black Kawasaki street bikes off to the side of the station. Neither had he noticed the two motorists prepping their bikes while he was having his tank filled. When Kenneth left, so did they.
They followed Kenneth all the way home. He didn’t discern their presence a few cars behind him in traffic the entire ride. He didn’t even see them stop a few feet from his house and make a note of the address. Instead, he was cursing himself for the millionth time about forgetting to call the security company to come out and have a look at how slowly the electronic gate opened and closed. He was also preoccupied with the delicious bread in the back of the car and how he could convince his wife to let him have some before it cooled off, regardless of what she had prepared for dinner.
“Hey, baby,” Kenneth said, slipping in behind Dawn and wrapping his arms around her waist as she was busy cutting up the ingredients for a salad.
“Mmm… somebody must have had a good day,” she murmured. “That or you want something.”
“What makes you think I want something?”
“’Cause you’re in here rubbin’ all up against me and talkin’ sweet.”
“Maybe I’m just in love with the most beautiful woman on the island.”
“How much of that bread did you eat?” she asked, turning within his grasp and reaching for the brown paper bag that he’d placed on the counter as he came in.
“I’m shocked that you don’t trust me.”
He tried to fake a pout, but it didn’t have much of an effect on her.
“I was wrong,” she said after discovering that the bread was still whole. “But you want some now, don’t you?”
“Well, now that you mention it, if it’s not too much trouble and while it’s still warm.”
“Now I know what all of that lovin’ was about.” Dawn kissed him softly. “Go change and wash up, I’ll get this on the table.” She moved over to the oven that was still warm from cooking and slipped the bread inside. “I’ll keep it warm for you.”
“I hope that’s not all that you’re keeping warm for me.”
He winked at her as she turned and grinned at him.
“Maybe you better take a cold shower.”
“Not a chance, baby.”
Chapter Four
Romeo closed his car door as he stepped into the parking garage.
He patted his pockets for his phone and wallet out of habit. He always needed to make sure they were there and didn’t fall out by accident. He slid his keys into his left pocket and headed over towards the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in DC.
His one day of rest had been a great help to him. Even so, his body was still sore and bruised. When he got dressed earlier, he had noticed large, swollen, purple spots all over his body. Even pulling his shirt over his arms had been painful Thankfully, walking was easier, it seemed his legs had avoided most of the damage.
He strode into the FBI office. The short time he’d had off was nice, but too long at home made him stir crazy. Romeo wondered what had been happening at the embassy in Kingston since he’d last checked in.
He showed his badge to the woman at the front desk and scanned himself in. He emptied his pockets into the bucket and stepped through the metal detector. The security guard let him through and he retrieved his things. The familiar process made him feel a little more at ease and helped his mind focus.
Romeo headed into the elevator and rode it all the way up to the third highest floor. It was a quiet ride, but he was feeling anxious; eager to get back into the action but not sure what kind of mess had been created after losing Rufus. He couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.
When the elevator doors opened, Romeo was comforted by the busy, noisy atmosphere in the open workspace. He waved to a few co-workers as he passed by, but he didn’t want to stop and talk. He hopped up the stairs and found his way over to Robert’s office. He knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Romeo entered the office. Robert was sitting in his chair, typing on his computer. His eyes shifted over to the door. “Oh, Romeo, great. Sit down.”
Romeo did so. He checked for his phone and keys again.
“How are you doing?” Robert asked as he swiveled his chair to face Romeo.
Romeo shrugged, which brought a surge of pain to his shoulder.
“Getting there. But I’m pretty purple up top.”
Robert nodded. “If I had my druthers, you would be at home getting some time to heal up, but there are some things we need to discuss.”
“No problem, by all means,” Romeo said. “What’s going on?”
Robert leaned forward.
“I wanted to talk to you about the unit we’ve assembled for the Kingston embassy. They’re working on the extradition of Marcus ‘Moses’ Brown.”
Romeo rubbed his chin, he was, of course, familiar with the case. It was what had got him into this mess in the first place.
“You’ve been pretty close to the case and I think you’d be a welcome addition,” Robert said, looking at Romeo.” We need you to go to Quantico and go through all the wiretap recording transcripts, and see if they’ve got anything worthwhile in them.”
Romeo thought about that for a moment. “That sounds like an extremely tedious job.”
“It’ll be keeping you seated and useful while you heal up a little.”
“I’m really not that bad,” Romeo protested. The bruises hurt, but he wasn’t a sissy, besides, reading through transcripts wasn’t an enormous thrill to him.
“There’s a massive amount of patois in the recorded conversations. You can certainly be of help deciphering some of what’s being said.”
Romeo’s mind raced, he would rather be out in the field, but he decided not to argue the point. He really didn’t have a lead for tracking down Rufus anyway. Though he doubted it, maybe he would dig up a fresh lead from the transcripts.
Romeo sighed. “Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind, so I guess I’ll be going to Quantico. Any news about Rufus? Or who took him from us?”
“We’re tracking some leads, but nothing’s turned up so far.”
“Marcus’ east coast posse?”
“That’s where the bets are being placed right now, but since this whole damn fiasco broke out in Kingston, every one of those boys is laying low… like belly to the ground low. We haven’t heard a peep out of any of them. Perhaps we should just assume that he’s safe among his own kind for now. We’ll find him soon enough.”
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“Thank you. I’ll update you if I come across anything.”
He stood and left the office.
A few hours later, Romeo was at Quantico. He entered a grubby looking office where all the tapes were stored. As he had been told, most of the conversation was in patois, the English dialect that was native to Jamaica, so Romeo had to go through and manually add the translations to the printed transcripts. He didn’t mind, though. The work was easy and it was giving those bruises a chance to heal up a little.
As he went through them, he found that one tape was different from the rest. It was in plain, fluent English.
“Hello?” It began. Romeo didn’t recognize the first voice.
“It’s me,” the other person responded. Romeo recognized the voice as that of Marcus Brown, the Boss.
“What do you want?”
“How are things progressing with the campaign?” he asked.
“Very well. Things will look just fine when elections hit.”
Romeo began taking notes and opened up his laptop. He was hoping he could quickly zero in on what the conversation was in relation to; maybe then, he’d finally have something to report.
“Perfect. So the deal is still on then?” Marcus asked.
Romeo wondered what “the deal” was all about. It was so different from all the other tapes.
“The votes for the bay, of course? I don’t see a reason for things to change,” the man on the other line said.
The bay? Which bay? Romeo was typing away furiously at his computer. He was hoping that something in the recording would give him a definite name. It was narrowed down to the coastal states at the very least, but that was still a lot of names to go through. Who knows how many officials there were with the power to give the Boss access to a bay. If he just knew which bay. Romeo could only assume that Brown wanted it for drug smuggling. As long as they had the pockets of the officials there, he would be able to run drugs without any security checks whatsoever.
“Excellent. It looks like you’ll have your votes, then,” Marcus said. “Thank you for your time, Governor.”
Finally! Romeo fought back the urge to do a fist pump. At least now the list was narrowed down to very few people. New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland; those would be the most likely candidates with access to votes from a bay-side area. But it was possible that it could be anyone along the east coast. They only had to check out who was running for re-election this year and the current governors. That should take no time at all.
He jotted down all of the information and prepared to send in a report to Robert. He could get some guys to whip out the data in record speed.
***
For the moment, Rufus was having the time of his life. He’d just finished with a beautiful woman, who was lying on her back, smoking a blunt of weed. It had been amazing.
Lying on the table beside him were his new ID and passport, complete with a valid US visa. He was getting ready to leave the country soon, but not back to Jamaica. He even had a new car to get around in for the remainder of his stay in the States.
The girl turned over and after she had taken a second to smile erotically at him, she looked like she was going back to sleep. Rufus saw that as his chance to go exploring the rest of the house. Rufus spent most of his time making sure that only the girls were in the house—there were several available to him. Satisfied that no one else was there, he reached for the burner phone he’d hidden. He desperately needed to give Romeo a call.
The phone rang a few times and Rufus wondered if Romeo was even going to pick up.
“Hello?” asked Romeo.
Rufus closed his eyes and sighed thankfully.
“It’s Rufus.”
“What the hell? Where are you?” Romeo asked. “What’s going on?”
Rufus had to stop himself from laughing.
“Don’ worry about me. Everyt’ing is fine, bredrin.”
“Where are you?” Romeo asked. He sounded angry. That only made Rufus want to laugh more.
“Better you don’t know, bredrin.”
“Tell me where you are and we’ll meet up and get you back in the program.”
Rufus ignored the comment. So far, “the program” hadn’t worked out very well. Wherever he was, it seemed safer than anything the FBI could provide, not to mention the additional treats, which the FBI would certainly not provide for him.
“Did you pick up Kenny?” he asked. He didn’t even notice the girl he had been in bed with get up and to go to the bathroom behind him.
“Not yet. We’re working on it.” Romeo responded.
“You need to hurry up with that, man,” Rufus told him. “He’s gonna run out o’ time.”
Romeo sighed.
“I know. I said we’re working on it.”
“Also,” Rufus began, “go find a man named Curtis Colton. He’s Kenny’s son. He works in Atlanta. He might be the next target.”
“Curtis Colton…” Romeo said. “Okay, I got it.”
“Hurry man. If anything happens to Kenny, Curtis will try to fly out. He’ll be gunned down off the plane.” Rufus could hardly control himself. He needed Romeo to understand how big of a deal this was.
“I got it,” Romeo said. “We’ll take care of it.”
Rufus hoped so.
“What the hell has got you so worried?” Romeo asked.
“Lemme explain,” Rufus began.
Chapter Five
CNN Wire Staff
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
HEADLINE: Post-9/11 Mood Descends on Jamaican Capital After Gun Battle
There’s a post-9/11 atmosphere in Kingston, Jamaica, local residents say, after a failed police assault on the stronghold of a suspected drug kingpin wanted by the United States government.
“The daytime really isn’t a problem, but the night can be. Your rights are reduced after 6 p.m. The police can stop you for virtually any reason. It’s a similar situation to after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States,” one Kingston florist told CNN.
“I wouldn’t say I’m afraid,” said the woman, who asked that neither she nor her shop be named. “But,” she said, “you don’t know exactly what is happening. You are more cautious because you don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not like you can’t come out of your home... it’s not like you can’t go out, but it could be more of a hassle if you do,” she said.
Police moved earlier this week to arrest Marcel “Moses” Brown, the suspected ringleader. They were met with violence that has left at least 29 people dead, including police officers, a soldier and many civilians. The government said Wednesday that more than 500 people were in custody. Some people, however, were attempting to get back to business on Wednesday.
***
Curtis Colton sat down on the couch with a glass of wine. The news was on and his girlfriend was sitting in the armchair beside the couch.
The news anchor was saying something about a crime spree in Jamaica. He couldn’t help but shake his head.
“This is why I left that fucking place,” he started. His girlfriend looked at him with vague interest. She was wearing an evening dress that hadn’t exactly been zipped up all the way up. “The people there are too backward. All they do is fight and deal with this criminal bullshit.”
He sighed and took a sip of his wine. It was a lovely bottle of Cohce-Dury Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru; a gift from his boss. Even as he was opening it, Curtis knew he should have saved it for a special occasion, but that was Curtis’s style. He did what he wanted, when he wanted.
“Isn’t your family still there?” Melanie asked.
“Yeah,” Curtis said.
“Aren’t you worried about them?”
Curtis shrugged.
“My dad is a professional and the crime stuff is mostly centralized in the Inner City and a few of the politically volatile areas. Thankfully, my family lives in one of the most opulent residential areas. So they shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Certa
in places will remain as isolated, socially astute and safe; basically anywhere that’s on a hill is going to be as quiet as they always are.
Curtis looked at his phone and saw the time.
“We should get going though,” he said as he stood to go.
“Oh, you’re right,” his girlfriend said. She stood up and turned her back to him. “Can you zip me up?”
“Of course,” he said, with a smile. He leaned in to kiss her back before pulling the zipper all the way up. “Perfect. Should we still take separate cars?”
“Yes. You have that conference call to China with your team right after the silent auction and who knows how long that will take. Without you there to keep me in the boy’s circle and engaged in intelligent conversation, I’d rather be able to leave before those damn wanna-be reality show housewives get too deep into the open bar, if you know what I mean.”
Curtis nodded his earnest agreement. She always had such good judgment.
“Let’s get going then,” she said. She handed him his dinner jacket and picked up her little clutch purse. They walked through the laundry room into the spacious three car garage of their beautiful Marietta home. Curtis popped the doors and started Melanie’s Mercedes SLK remotely, and then handed her the key. “I’ll meet you at the entrance to the ballroom. Have a safe drive in.”
“You too, honey,” his girlfriend replied.
She hopped into her car and backed it down the driveway. As she drove off down the street, he shook his head, smiling. She had mercilessly begged him for the car the previous Christmas. The things she had done to persuade him still gave him pleasant, erotic reactions, but he had been hesitant. It was such a girly car. But damn, did she look good in it!
After she’d sped off towards Atlanta, Curtis pulled out his phone and called his travel agent.
***
“What are you trying to tell me?” Romeo asked Rufus. The two were still on the phone and Rufus was trying to explain what was going on.
“I’m tellin’ you that there’s a rival posse stirring up themselves. They’re preparing for when the Boss gets caught so they can take over his operation,” Rufus was saying.