Mike Black is making the move to take his organization completely legitimate. When Congressman Martin Marshall tells him about a ethanol venture in Cuba with a group of Chinese businessman, Black agrees. But seeing an opportunity to expand his gambling interests, Black takes CeCe to Nassau. His intention is to expand his gambling and extortion operations. Martin had set up a meeting the next day with the Chinese. When things don't go their way, Black is shot and left for dead. Will he survive?
Excerpt:
For Monika Wynn it was starting to feel like old times as she climbed over the wall and dropped down. She had been a part of an army special operations unit along with her partners, the late James "Jett" Bronson and Nick Simmons. Those days, Monika's specialty was munitions, but she ex-celled in weapons, commando tactics, electronic surveillance, and computer operations. Now, she did jobs that required her skills and paid very well. This job fit that description.
On the ground waited Travis Burns; the feeling was the same for him. There was a time when Travis planned, and he and his old partners, Jackie Washington and the late Ronnie Grier, executed high-tech robberies. They robbed banks, grocery stores, jewelry stores, and anything else they could hit quick and come away with a large return for their investment of time. His team was organized, prepared, and over all else, disciplined. The third member of the team was me.
My business is gambling, number running, extortion and prostitution. But now, thanks to Wanda, we are making the move to become legitimate. Our legit businesses include interests in finance, real estate, restaurants, funeral services, and small businesses--too numerous to name.
Monika and Travis work for me; and I like to keep up with what they're doing to give my approval and to ensure that I get my cut.
Because of her unique set of skills, Monika had become my secret weapon--my own personal assassin--handling all the little things that Freeze used to do and so much more. Freeze was murdered by Mylo; a rogue DEA agent whose real name was Clint Harris. Before his death, Freeze ran the day-to-day operation. In a move that surprised everybody, including Nick, and angered a few, I reached out to Nick Simmons to take over. Even though everybody knows I still called the shots, there are some who don't think Nick is up to the job, and some of those believed that Nick was responsible for Freeze's death. But I trust Nick. And for that reason alone, it made Nick the only man for the job.
I had to have somebody I could trust in that spot while I focused my attention on legitimate business and my political connections, courtesy of new US Congressman Martin Mar-shall. But lately, I've gotten restless and bored. So when Monika came to me with this job that she was hired for, it peaked my interest. "What you got?" I asked Monika the day her and Travis came to tell me about the job.
"It's a hit," Monika began. "Money's right, and as a bonus we'll get access to a bunch of Swiss bank account codes."
"I'm listening."
"We'll go in, eliminate any opposition we run into, locate the objective, terminate him and then Travis will go after the account codes."
"How much opposition do you think you'll run in to?" I asked. There are times when Monika has a tendency to think she can take on the world.
"No way to be sure. My intel says that it may be as few as three or as many as ten."
"You plannin' on just the two of you taking out ten guys?"
"We'll recruit somebody to go in with us," Travis told me.
"Who? Jackie?" I asked and looked at Travis. He looked at Monika. It seems they had already had that discussion.
"We might use her in the operations phase, monitoring movement in and out of the house. But Jackie's a driver, not a shooter," Monika said, knowing that Jackie had major is-sues the last time she had to kill a man. "We'll find some-body good. Trust me. I know some people I can go to for this type of job."
"Alarms; cameras?"
"I already got a copy of the architect's original floor plan and appraised any electronic surveillance or security systems they have in place. So that won't create a problem," Travis advised.
"Like I said, we go in, eliminate, get the codes, and we out. Clean and easy," Monika said confidently.
"What do you think, Black?" Travis asked, looking for my approval.
"You covered all the bases. Sounds like fun," I said.
"Why don't you come along?" Monika asked me that day. "I know you tired of playin' legit businessman."
"I might just do that."
So it was set.
On the day of the job, Travis hacked into the objectives security system remotely and shutdown all the alarm systems before we went in. He then programmed a five-second repeating loop of all the designated areas, so all the monitors displayed the same five seconds. That way, anyone looking at the monitor wouldn't see us coming or moving through the house.
Jackie's assignment was to remain in the van to watch with a satellite generated three-dimensional, thermal image of the house and monitor our communications. She could hear what was going on with the use of a parabolic microphone that magnifies distant sounds. That device allowed Jackie to locate the source of a sound and suppress background noises. It was capable of amplifying signals up to seventy-five times that of a normal omni-directional microphone. From that position, she could monitor movement inside the structure. The red lines on her monitor represent walls so Jackie would be able to see each room in the house. The red dots represent everybody in the house.
"How will I be able to tell you from them?" Jackie asked Monika.
"We'll have special tags that will change our thermal signatures so you can tell us apart. Once we get inside, you'll see three moving indicators that will look like this," Monika said and activated her tag. "One will be me, one will be Travis, and the other will be Black. I'm Alpha, Travis is Beta, Black is Gamma, and you'll be Omega."
"So we ready to do this?" I asked.
"Give us a sound check, Jackie," Monika barked.
"Alpha?"
"Check one, check two," Monika replied.
"Acknowledged; Beta?"
"Sound check, one, two," Travis said.
"Acknowledged; Gamma?" Jackie said and winked at me. Lately our relationship had gone beyond just her running a gambling spot for me. At this point me, Jackie, and her girlfriend Vonda had gotten intensely physical.
"Check," I said and put one in the chamber.
"Let's do it," Monika said and went over the wall.
From her position in the van Jackie was able to identify that there were eight people inside the house. There was one man at the gate and one walking the property. With her night-vision goggles on, Monika spotted the one walking the property. She took aim with her rifle, equipped with a silencer, and dropped him with one shot. While she looked out, me and Travis moved his body out of the way and then we approached the house.
"Alpha to Omega," Monika said.
"Go ahead," Jackie responded.
"Where are they?"
"Two of them are in a large room, and three more are in a smaller room next to it." Jackie looked at the floor plan. "According to this floor plan, the large room is the living room and the smaller room is the kitchen. Three are up-stairs--two in a bedroom and one in the hallway outside the door."
"Acknowledged."
"Recommend that you enter through the window on the back side of the structure and make your approach down the hall to the opposition," Jackie advised.
"Acknowledged."
"Good," Travis said. "If I'm right that's where the computer and the codes are."
"Okay. Once we're in, you get to work on gettin' those codes, and me and Black will handle the rest."
"Acknowledged," Travis said.
The three of us made our way to the window and went in. As he expected, the computer was there, and Travis went to work on it. Monika went to the door and peeked out into the hallway. She turned to me. "Hallway is clear. You ready for this?"
"Right behind you," I said.
"I'll take the three men in the kitchen. The two guys in the living room are yours."
"Got it," I said and followed Monika into the hallway. We made our way down the hall to the unsuspecting opposition.
When we reached the open area, Monika tossed a flash grenade in the living room and then she moved toward the kitchen while I went in the living room. The sudden flash of light and loud noise distracted the two men in the living room and before they could react, I fired two shots to their chests and then one apiece to the head.
Hearing the commotion, the three men in the kitchen began to move toward the living room, but Monika was there waiting. She hit the first two that came out of the kitchen and then she went in after the third man. Monika fired two more shots as she passed the fallen opposition.
