For the next several months, Katelyn and her team were targeting primarily every processing or storage locations they could find and trying to dry-up the cartel revenue stream by destroying any shipments they found and hacking into cartel bank accounts. Soon there would be nothing but cash deals and no one to fence the cash. Banks who were knowingly dealing with the crime organizations were finding their banks suffering tremendously. Bart made certain that no monies were confiscated that could not be directly traced back to their illegal source and not a penny of it was spent for anything but supporting their operation.
At Katelyn’s suggestion and King Verron’s blessing, an unknown entrepreneur opened a coffee plant in an empty manufacturing facility in a poor neighborhood in Bogota. When in full production, it proposed to employ nearly 3000 people. There was also money made available for those who lived on top of or beside the plant to relocate to much better housing being subsidized by the coffee manufacturer. The local citizens began to clean-up the neighborhood and soon work crews were hired from the local community to build the much needed water and sewer system required by the plant and to do the extensive renovations required for the facility. For the first time in decades, hope was alive and well in the Bogota slums.
Hunter and his Russian friends had not been completely idle. He had Lucy, Elizabeth Hudson at the CIA, “Zack the Hack”, who he found out was really named Zachery Wellington Ewing the third, with Bart, John Graham on Verron and two Serbian hackers that were cousins of Slav Yana; during the six month period they had carefully targeted any numbered banks accounts owned by the many mafia, triad and drug organizations. They had also identified the source locations for manufacturing and distribution of weapons being sent to support terrorist and organized crime around the globe. That was the good news, the bad news was that most of the weapons facilities were either government owned or government subsidized. Chinese, North Korean and Russian made weapons came as no surprise to Hunter, but French, American, British and Israeli weapons were a surprise. They began by hitting the most obvious targets, ships in international waters leaving from Pyongyang, North Korea, several different ports in China and from the Gulf of Finland. Russia was shipping out of both Russia and Estonia. Since they began their operation, there had been 9 ships destroyed; mostly Russian and Chinese, each was given a 30 minute warning to evacuate and each of them was hit with a ship-buster whitematter round, Hunter did not want to set of another nuke. One Chinese ship destined for Africa declared he was carrying medical supplies. Hunter thought about it a moment and replied in Chinese, “Next time don’t carry weapons of destruction along with hope of life” and gave them 20 minutes to abandon ship.
The various countries began to complain to the United Nations about the piracy on the international waters. They claimed to be selling legal weapons to legally recognized countries. What they didn’t reveal was the fact that the legal countries were in turn illegally distributing them to terrorist organizations across Africa and the Middle East. The Arab community was swarming all over the now deposed nation of Qatar. It looked as if the ruling family of United Arab Emirates was the closest relative and was organizing his takeover of Qatar. Everyone knew who had killed the Emir and his son, destroying his yacht and half his palace, but no one could prove it. Hunter did notice a marked decrease in funding being distributed through secret bank accounts to fake corporations and charities.
Hunter had been spending his spare time in Israel visiting Priscilla Barak. He was now a regular at Mosha Barak’s home and was having a difficult time breaking the news to him that his own cousin was a member of the Jewish Mafia and exporting Israeli made weapons to drug cartels in South America, Central America and Mexico. As he sat on the living room sofa with Priscilla, he was deep in thought about how to break the news to the Israeli Minister of Defense that his own cousin was selling guns to the Jewish Mafia. His greatest fear was that Mr. Barak already knew and was either involved in it himself or at the least, turning his head to the impropriety of his kin. His other concern was that Mr. Barak had no clue and would be outraged that Hunter would ever accuse his cousin of such a thing. Worse of all, he was wondering how Priscilla would react. She had no brothers or sisters and this cousin of Barak’s had two daughters that Priscilla had been raised with, from Pre-School all the way through University.
Finally Mosha opened the window of opportunity for him to speak about it. He had just entered the room and joined Hunter and his niece in front of the video game they were playing on the big screen. Priscilla was beating him severely, so it was a good time to find a way out of the game. Mosha opened the door by asking as he sat down, “So what is the young Prince Charming been up to lately. Sunk anymore Chinese or Russian ships? Someone is claiming that you destroyed a scud missile plant in North Korea, any truth to the rumor?” Hunter smiled and told him, “I have no doubt that the Mossad members of my team keep you informed on our activities. So you already know the answer to both questions. However, there are none of your men working with the operatives in South America, Central America and Mexico. I actually wish there were then I wouldn’t be the one to discuss a sensitive subject with you, one of them, no doubt, would have done so already.” Hunter cleared his throat and looked at Priscilla, wondering how this was going to affect their relationship. There were already enough problems in their continuing things as they were progressing, he didn’t need to deal with another. He then decided to go for broke. It had to be done, better from him than some political enemy who would love nothing more than to ruin the man.
Hunter began, “Mr. Barak, while on our operations overseas against the drug cartels, we have confiscated and destroyed thousands of weapons of Israeli manufacture; light machineguns, assault rifles, Uzis, handguns, in particular that big .50 caliber Desert Cannon you call a pistol, even RPGs and shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles.” Mosha was sitting forward in his seat listening intently. Priscilla had released herself from his arms and was staring at him in distress. He took a breath and continued, “Sir we checked and rechecked the serial numbers and bills of lading and are certain they have all been shipped from your cousin’s Abraham Barak’s weapons factory by way of the Jewish Mafia, also confirmed and reconfirmed. Sir, your cousin is an illegal arms supplier to the Jewish Mafia, who in turn sales them to any organized crime syndicate that has the money to buy them.”
He sat silently as Mosha stood and walked to the small bar and poured himself a scotch whiskey. He glanced briefly at Priscilla who was watery-eyed, but remained silent, waiting on the Uncle who raised her to speak. He sat back down and looked off out the window past Hunter and declared, “Abraham has always had a gambling problem, this I knew. I am embarrassed to say, I knew nothing of the rest.” He said nothing else and reached for the phone. In a moment he spoke to the party that answered, saying, “Abraham, I need you to come over here right away. I have a slight problem with this young man Priscilla is dating and I believe I need to talk to you about it.” He obviously would do anything that involved helping Priscilla. He only lived about three miles up the road and was walking through the door 15 minutes later. He looked at Hunter with a contemptible look and stood next to Mosha who had risen to greet him. Mosha turned to Hunter and asked, “Please repeat what you just told me.” He did, while Mosha and Priscilla closely watched the expression on Abraham’s face. By the time Hunter had finished, Abraham went to the bar and joined his cousin with a glass of scotch.
Abraham sat down and began to weep, saying “Three years ago I lost big, I mean, really big in Monaco. Arad Kuntz was there and loaned me enough money to settle. They weren’t going to allow me to leave until I took care of the three quarter of a million; to Kuntz that was pocket change. When we returned he immediately began pressuring me for the money. Where I went wrong is, I padded the company books to hide the fact that I had embezzled the money. I took it from the retirement fund and planned to pay it back over the next 24 months. Arad found out, he must have people inside the company watching what I do. He agreed to ke
ep the entire incident quiet if I would sell him, at a drastically discounted rate, a wide variety of weapons manufactured by my company. Each week a Solomon Consolidated truck would arrive and was loaded with the requested items. I never knew where they went and actually was afraid to ask. He has been extorting weapons ever since and has even threatened to harm my family on three occasions when I tried to stop the whole thing.” He looked at his 1st cousin and asked, “Am I going to prison Mosha?” Mosha looked at Hunter and back at his cousin, saying “Not if you cooperate; me and my young friend here intend to destroy the entire gun running operation. Mr. Kuntz will be either in prison, dead or out of the country when we finish, either way, he will not be bothering you and your family.
The plan was launched to place a tracking device in the cartons being picked-up in two days. To avoid being seen, Hunter was going to use cloaked surveillance drones to pinpoint the location where the weapons were delivered. The truck wasted no time in driving to Haifa and unloading his cargo onto a ship with Argentine registry. There was enough weaponry aboard the semi-truck and trailer to supply a small army. It was discovered by Mosha Barak that Solomon Consolidated Freight was owned by one of Mr. Kuntz shadow companies. With some additional computer digging, it was discovered that he had his fingers into prostitution and the illegal drug trade in Israel. He was trading guns for drugs and distributing them in Israel, Turkey and even to Syria. Hunter waited until the ship was loaded and out of the harbor, then in broad daylight, from somewhere out of the clear blue sky, it was struck by a missile and vanished just a few miles from port. Agents under the direction of Mosha Barak’s Internal Terrorist Assault Squad raided the warehouse where the freighter had been off-loaded. They discovered 5000 pounds of Marijuana, over a million oxycontin, and 500 kilos of cocaine. The warehouse was also owned by shadow companies owned by Kuntz.
That was all Hunter needed to know. He located Arad Kuntz’s estate and under the cover of darkness, while Mr. Kuntz and six of his closest Jewish Mafia friends discussed the tremendous loss they had just suffered and planned their retaliation, he and Priscilla planted a containment bomb and left the estate. In a flash of light that could be seen all the way to Haifa from Tel Aviv, the six highest ranking members of the Jewish Mafia vanished, saving Israel years of trials and court costs. Israeli manufactured weapons would no longer be flowing to unknown destinations and a lot of local addicts would soon be in need of Verron Anti-addiction Injections.
With that out of the way, Hunter now had one major international issue to deal with and one very personal issue that could make or break his future with Priscilla. He managed to forget about both while busy with the Mafia operation, but now he was sitting alone with the most beautiful woman in the world and the woman he could not bear the thought of losing, and wondering how he was going to breach the subject on his mind and if he would have the conviction to stand his ground, even if it meant losing Priscilla. He finally sucked-up the courage to speak, thinking, “I’d rather face a 1000 Volvs with my bare hands than this woman with a mere conversation.” Holding her hand he began, “Priscilla, all I ever think about anymore is you. I have never felt as strongly towards anyone in my life and I believe you feel the same way. You know us guys, we don’t use the “L” word often, but I will admit I am in love with you.” She squeezed his hand gently and replied, “I love you too, Hunter, where are you going with this?” He knew she could see right through him and that he was not exactly fast on the uptake when it came to women and their feelings. He had found that out the hard way a few weeks earlier when he excitedly told Ursula about Priscilla. It was the first time he had seen Ursula cry. She tried to act excited for him and deep inside blamed herself for never telling him how she felt. They talked a long time and remained best of friends. Hunter felt like an idiot that he had never even had the faintest idea how Ursula felt about him.
He swallowed and told Priscilla, “Our relationship has become serious and as far as I’m concerned, hopefully until death do us part serious. But there is one problem that could ruin the whole thing. I made a commitment a long time ago to never marry anyone who did not share my faith in Jesus. I’ve attended Synagogue with you and I understand Hebrew better than most. I believe everything that is written in the books of the Torah and the Prophets, in fact it is what the foundation of Christianity is built on. Even Jesus himself used the Torah and the Prophets to teach and Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, used those same books to prove that Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God. The problem that exists is a problem of translation and interpretation, rather than our foundation of belief. Priscilla, I love you dearly and I would never want to pressure you into changing just for me, I’ve seen people switch religions before and it just doesn’t work if both aren’t on the same page. Baby, I’m a horrible explainer. In fact I’m terrified just saying the things I’m saying now, but I’m asking you to listen carefully to the Christian message from someone who understands it better and explains it better than anyone I know. If we can’t come to an agreement, I will not waste your time on a relationship that can never happen. This is not an ultimatum, so please don’t take it as one. I love you too much to have either of us live a lie. I promise to always be honest with you regardless of what the consequences may be. Think about it, I would like to take you to Verron over the weekend to visit with the wisest woman I know, Grandma Verron. She’s written over 40 books on both our religions and loves Israel so much she has been here a dozen times. She’s the one who keeps reminding me, ‘don’t ever forget – we worship a Jew; kind of hard not to love them.’” Priscilla was crying when she kissed his hand and said, “I promise I will listen with all my heart and not just my mind.”
Hunter was a nervous wreck when he stepped through the gateway into the Mansion. He had forewarned Queen Mother Alene Verron about what was coming and she was one of the proudest Grandma’s in the world knowing that her Grandson and future ruler of Verron was so committed to his faith. After a nice dinner with a couple dozen close and personal friends, there was no such thing as a quiet meal in the Dragon Palace, the Queen Mother escorted Priscilla to the library and shut the doors. Hunter went for a run with his Grandpa. People always wondered how the two of them could go running after a big meal. Paul would often say something disgusting like, “Who says we can. I figure if I lose my supper, I can always eat more when I get home. Then I get to have twice the pleasure at meal time.” Hunter knew that neither of them ever lost their supper, but he went along with the crude humor. The entire run, Hunter could think of nothing else but what was going on in the library. Paul loved to harass his grandchildren and family members and asked, “You ever hear of the Inquisition, well your Grandmother was just a little girl back then, but still learned some pretty neat ways to get people to come over to her way of thinking.” Hunter had heard that line when he was younger and looked up the Inquisition only after he had asked Grandma Alene what it was like to be around all that torture. Her reply was, “I know some pretty good ways to torture your Grandpa. Would you like to watch and learn?”
Priscilla was nervous, until the Queen Mother prayed with her before they began. She had been around plenty of prayers but never one so personal and just for her. It seemed like a ton of burdens had been lifted from her when she finished. Her first comment was one that surprised her. She asked, “First thing I need to know is do you believe every word of the Torah and the Prophets to be the true and inerrant word of God and every word inspired by God for men to write? If you don’t believe the first part of God’s Word is true, I’ll be wasting my time to even bother talking about the other part.” Priscilla thought a moment. She had always been proud to be Jewish, but it was more of her national pride than a religious fervor. Jewish was simply what she was and she had never given much thought about what she really believed. She decided to answer, saying, “I’m not sure what I belief, I only know what I’ve been taught by the Rabbi and school teachers when I was growing up, I never actually studied the books mysel
f. I always let someone else tell me what it said. But, yes I suppose I do believe it’s all true, even if I can’t understand it.” Alene smiled and replied, “Good, then we both have the same foundation in what we believe. So now all I need to do is show you what this book says that no one’s ever told you about. Just remember, most religions are learned. What Christianity offers is a relationship.”
She proceeded to go through the Torah and Prophets (the Old Testament) cross referencing the teachings of Jesus and of Paul in the New, showing that there was no contradictions between what was written by the Prophets and what Paul and Jesus were teaching. She then took each Prophesy about the Christ and showed how they had each been fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. By the time they had discussed the teachings of Judaism and Christianity for nearly three hours, Priscilla began to cry and asked, “You mean that the Messiah came over 2000 years ago and has been speaking through his Holy Spirit to his church the entire time and all his own chosen people are missing out on it?” Alene’s eyes watered as she answered, “That’s why I and millions of Christians all over the world pray for Israel every day. You are still God’s chosen people and he wants to use your people to change the world. Those in control of religion continue to ignore anything that would circumvent their historical religion and traditions. This whole thing is not about religion it’s about God and how much he loves us. So much that he would even sacrifice his own son so we could be saved, and he loves each and every one of us the same.”
That night, before they left the library, Priscilla prayed for Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. It felt so good when she finished. Something strange happened in her and she began to mumble in tongues and couldn’t hold it back. The Queen Mother was a life-long Baptist who didn’t practice or advocate praying in tongues, but she was wise enough to know that with a son and grandchildren who were spirit-filled believers, to never discount anything God does with someone. She gave Priscilla a hug and thought, “My word, we’re going to have us another Pentecostal in the family.”
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