by Sara Schoen
“What happened?” I questioned as I knocked on Camden's door to have him let us in. He told me to come in and Wes immediately started to tell Camden what was going on. He must have already told Camden's father, because Wes said that some survivors were on their way to talk about what happened.
“Survivors?” Camden questioned in disbelief. “Did we lose people?”
“We lost Jax to a gunshot wound. Many others were killed in the panicked shooting caused by other members, and a few have gone missing,” Wes said. “There were no names given by the people who infiltrated, and an unacknowledged description from the surviving members. It could be anyone on the street based on their descriptions; a girl with dark blonde hair who seemed to find a way out of every trap they put her in, and a tall man with black hair who they saw leaving the base.”
A tall man with black hair, that could have been Demon, but I couldn't be sure. I wasn't even aware that they had been going into Sandtown. We only had brief meetings so we could exchange information, but he rarely said anything about CIRA movements. He had told me they were going to make a move on a compound, but he purposefully kept me in the dark on the details so that my reactions would look sincere when I was told the news. The cartel would never suspect a thing as long as I was in the dark, and I reacted as they did.
“What about the base?” Camden questioned. “Did we only lose people? Do we know what they was after?”
“It's not clear,” Wes said. “They found her in one of the offices that was getting packed up for the move to the new compound. She was seen taking a few files according to one of the other men that tracked her, but not clear what she was taking because she had scattered most of the papers in the room when she escaped.”
“They let her escape?” Camden demanded, the anger prevalent in his features. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white. His dark stare had fixated on Wes, waiting for his answer.
Wes cleared his throat before he attempted to please Camden with an answer. “They had her, sir. They chased her into one of the storage warehouses. That's how the other two men survived.” Wes' gazed turned to the floor. “Jax had ordered one of them to guard the door, and the other to gather more members so they could finish her off if she escaped again, but then Jax was killed and the girl escaped. We aren't certain where she is now, but there are people looking for her.”
“How did they know she had entered if they caught her so late in the act?”
“One member, Tessa according to reports, said that she saw someone go in and got Jax to look. We don't know what happened to her during the fight or what else she knew. One of the men Jax sent said she was dead, but we don't know for sure.” Wes glanced at me, possibly to see how I was handling the news, but I gave away nothing.
Personally, I was pleased that the raid on Sandtown had finally gone according to plan. They had clearly found whatever they were looking for, and the girl had escaped. It had all gone smoothly for once, and maybe if they found what they wanted, I would be out of here sooner rather than later.
“There's more news coming in as well,” Wes said hesitantly. “The survivors went after the loose ends as instructed and one got away. There was a witness that saw him with the girl from the compound, but no idea where they were going.”
Camden sighed. “It's not like she can go into hiding forever. Find out who she is and put out a hit on her. I want to know if she's working for the same people we dealt with last time.”
My teeth clenched and my body went rigid at the mention of the last CIRA attempt to take down the Sandtown compound. It had ended up with five agents dead about a year ago, just after I took the position and told them where the base was. Since then, Demon had made his meets rare. I knew that it was because he had taken the loss of the agents hard, and then he had to start looking for people to take over the missing spots in the team. Last I heard they hadn't found anyone to fill the positions yet, but they had pulled in a few agents from other teams. A reconnaissance agent, taken from the team who usually handled sensitive missions for the CIA and FBI, and a girl who was known for her fighting skills and was a skilled tactician. They were a mash up of a few other teams, but if they had successfully completed this mission, they must have managed to pull together. I only hoped that there was a spot for me once I was done with this mission, I needed the flexibility they had so that I could search for Ash Crest, and finish him.
“If it was, then it wasn't the same agents,” Wes said. “They didn't recognize them, and they said that there were fewer numbers. They only found the girl, and saw one other person. It could be someone else, we may need to move the compound earlier than planned, and your father wants to talk to you to discuss what to do, Camden.”
Camden hesitated, trying to figure out the correct response. His father had been pressuring him because he was being prepared to take over, but with every decision Camden was the one suffering the consequences. It was tough love, but it was working. “I want to talk to the survivors first. Send them in when they get here. Do not go back to my father until I have had a chance to talk with them.”
“I won't,” Wes promised. “But what do I do in the meantime? They won't be here for another few hours.”
“Find me everything you can on the base in Sandtown, and see if you can find out who this girl is. I want to know everything about her, and then I want her hunted down and killed,” Camden ordered without hesitation. He wanted revenge for what she did to his base because he would be taking full responsibility for the disaster from his father, and he got rid of anyone who caused him trouble in these cases. Even if it was someone that he had to hunt down and kill later.
I just hoped that whoever that girl was, she was ready to run for her life. Camden wouldn't let her live long once he found out who she was, and as for the people who helped her, they'd be dead as soon as they were found.
Chapter 2
Camden had been talking to the survivors of the raid for hours. They were piecing together an overall story from what I was able to hear through the door. Most only saw the girl, or heard about her from Jax's men. They had ordered some of the other members to shoot if they saw the girl escape. Most claim that they saw the girl take Tessa as a hostage, and that Tessa was shot while the girl escaped. It's not clear what happened to the girl, and most don't know what happened to the other members. All of them were shot, but they didn't know who did it.
Camden did though.
It was a tactic he used often to keep those that had seen crimes or his plans fall through quiet—permanently. Which meant the plan hadn't gone according to what Jax thought it would. He was probably the only one killed by the agent, and the others were killed to keep what really happened quiet. The ones who survived the slaughter that Jax's men had unleashed weren't near the action, and didn't know what happened until after the smoke cleared. Either way, we were hearing what Jax wanted us to if he hadn't died. It made me wonder what actually happened, and what the agent had done. She had escaped somehow, and since no one seems to know what she looked like, she may just get out of this alive.
The only news that came as a surprise was that Ash Crest was found dead in his mansion. After the raid, they had discovered his file was missing and a few members were sent to check in on him. They found the grounds littered with bodies. Whoever had done him in made sure to leave no survivors. An angry growl escaped my lips when I heard the news, which caused Camden to kick me out of the room. He thought that I was upset we had lost members and our “co-workers” as he loosely called them, and sent me into the hall to calm down. I was upset at the lost chance for revenge, not at losing a few cartel members.
The door opened, breaking me from my thoughts as the last survivor stepped out. “He's ready for you, Marco,” the man spoke. The emptiness in his eyes was suffocating. He had seen his friends die. He'd seen their lifeless bodies, and carried some of them off. This day would be with him forever, and hopefully it would make him see just how dangerous it was to be
working for a cartel.
“Thank you, Miles,” I responded before forcing myself off the wall I had been leaning on for support and standing at my full stature. I towered over him by about a foot, and it took him aback. As he looked up at me a pang of fear came into his eyes. He saw the part I played, just how it was supposed to be, but only if he knew who I was. Maybe then he wouldn't look at me as the Angel of Death, and more as someone who could save him from the Hell he had placed himself in.
“Just let me know if you find the person who killed my brother,” he said with a sullen tone before he walked past me. Little did he know, the person who killed his brother was most likely one of the people that had flown over here with him.
“Miles,” I called, regaining his attention. “Do you know who did this? I want to know who did this to our people.” I tried to force the scowl off of my face to make it seem more upset than angry. Ash Crest was dead. It should relieve me, but instead it angered me that someone else had killed him. I had wanted revenge, and I'd do the next best thing to get it. Find the person who killed him, and kill them.
“No,” he said sadly. “I just saw everyone being taken out around me. As I told Camden, everyone else is dead, even Ash and Theo. I have no idea if it's connected to the base in Sandtown or not, but if it is then you better watch your back because whoever they are, they're ruthless.”
“Understood,” I said, biting my tongue to say that a hired hit man and a cartel only looking for money were ruthless. The people who had taken out members of the cartel were protecting the citizens around them from the dangers cartels, mobs, and mafia brought with them. I would much rather be around them than undercover here.
We turned away from each other, and Miles left with some of the other guards as I walked into Camden's office to be briefed on what had happened in Sandtown. I knew that there would be a few traitors and deserters who needed to be taken care of when we had the time, and I knew that I could be sent out to make sure they paid for their decision. Didn't these people know there was no way out of the cartel? Well there was, but it was through the door in a body bag. I learned a long time ago once you're in the cartel, you're in it for life, even if it means a bullet to the head.
When I stepped into Camden's office he was on the phone with someone. I took the time to shut the door, knowing he would ask me to do it once he was off the phone; he always wanted the door shut to keep privacy on the sensitive topics discussed. I looked around the office. It was spic and span as always. There were a few fake plants for looks, his desk, the seats for the clients, and a bookcase with a filing cabinet next to it. Somewhere in those drawers held the files of the cartel, but they were buried under case files that Camden and his father had used over the years to hide the true meaning of their business; a cartel. They hid behind the masquerade of a private investigative service. It looked clean on the outside, but it was just to hide the drug running and weapons trade they were doing from public eyes.
After I took the seat in front of his desk and waited for him to finish, he seemed to be in a rush to hang up. It made me curious on who was on the other end of the phone call because normally he wouldn't mind that I was listening in.
“Something warm,” Camden said, turning his attention back on me.
I could see his fingers tapping on the desk with anxiety. Whoever he was talking to was making him nervous. I smiled lightly, realizing that he was embarrassed. I would have to make fun of him for that later. Though the smile was quickly wiped off my face as I noticed a missing poster sitting on his desk. It looked torn at the edges, as if he had ripped it off a telephone pole himself, and it seemed weathered like it had been through a storm or months in the Georgia weather.
I looked as closely as I could without being obvious, but it didn't take long before I realized it was my photo on the poster. Fear and anxiety shot through me. Did he know that I was a fake? He could have found out who I actually was, how I wasn't sure, but he had to know. Why else would he have my photo with him except to compare to me?
I thought my disguise was well put together, but clearly someone had found out. They could have seen me dying my hair black in order to cover the blonde strands that had reemerged last week, or seen the colored contacts that I kept hidden away. I was usually very careful, but someone must have seen me keeping up my appearance, and if Camden knew then I was as good as dead.
How was I going to get out of this alive?
“It's supposed to be cold. Now I really must go. Marco just came in and we have to finish up some business before I see you tomorrow. Good-bye.” Camden hung up the phone and looked at me expectantly.
I waited for him to say something, hoping that he would break the ice and let me know if he had an inclination at who I actually was, but it didn't come. That was never a good sign. If Camden didn't tell you what was on his mind it meant he either had bad news or he was in a foul mood. My eyes drifted back to the photo; I had definitely been caught, but maybe I could make a way out of this.
“What's with the flier?” I asked curiously, trying to determine what he knew, if anything, about me.
“I picked it up a few years ago,” he said simply, turning the flyer to face me so I could look it over. “I got it from a girl who was looking for her brother. She's commissioned our help in locating him. Four years is a long time so looking into this one shouldn't be a problem. He's probably dead. They usually are if they haven't come back home by now, or they met someone and just ditched.”
My hand balled into a fist to stop myself from blurting out that I hadn't left her by choice and that I was alive and trying to get back home to her. I could only assume it was Danielle who had contacted him. No one else would take the time to look for me so vigorously as to hand out fliers. She probably read all the faked reviews about the investigative service, and saw the record for solving cases. They had managed to find a few people, but it was always by accident. They took the credit for it anyway, because in the long run it just made their fake business front look more legitimate.
I glanced at the flyer again. The photo Danielle used was from my senior portrait. Our parents had insisted that I get it done since it would be their last school photo of me. I was going straight into the army after school, and they wanted to make sure that they could have the photos from senior year and then into my first year in the military. The description was plain, luckily for me, and described my blonde and brown mixed hair, six foot four build, and other basic features. Nothing that would give me away, which thankfully Camden didn't seem to know already. “Are you going to take the case?”
Usually they just said that they had too many cases at the moment, and would ask them to call back in a few months if they found no one else to take the case. It was always a lie, but no one else knew that so it didn't matter to the Cardozas. They were usually just busy with deals for the cartel, even though the leaders very rarely stepped out into the open, in fear of being targeted and taken out.
Otherwise CIRA would have killed them a long time ago, or I would have. Either way, I wouldn't have to be here now.
CIRA had something against killing unless absolutely necessary. It didn't make any sense to me because I had been trained to kill in order to keep the mission alive, and I would do just that, but when it came to leaders it was always hard to decide. In cartels, another person would just step up into the position and it would be as if nothing happened in a matter of weeks depending on who it was. Someone had already taken over Jax's position in Sandtown, but that was only to move people out to other bases.
Whoever CIRA had sent into that compound had made it impossible for the cartel to continue working there. Somehow the citizens in the area found it, they called the police and the police found everything. It wasn't a big hit, because most of the merchandise had been destroyed in the previous attack on the base, but it was a hit and we were getting closer to taking them down. The more Camden and his father scrambled, the more time I had to work until I got whatever Sharp Shooter wanted.<
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“Not sure yet,” Camden said thoughtfully, as if he was actually considering it. “I'm told we have to keep up the appearance of our business, so a few stray cases shouldn't cause too much trouble hopefully.”
“You could get a few people to help look for him,” I suggested, hoping that I could then lose the flyer while I was taking it to whoever was going to be searching for me. I knew that there was very little chance of them finding anything on me since CIRA would have covered my tracks the moment they recruited me, but I didn't want to take any chances. Demon had said that I had been missing the entire time I was training for them, they must work hard to keep up that appearance for all their agents. Then again, according to them I was a renegade, and always had been. Maybe I was easier to keep hidden for that reason. I did things my way, and usually that meant going as unnoticed as possible. Unlike the two that had gone into Sandtown and let their faces be seen.
Rookies.
“Yeah I could have a few people look into it, then meet up with her to discuss it later,” Camden said, thinking about the suggestion for a moment longer. “That might be the best plan actually, thank you Marco.”
I smiled knowing that he still used my fake persona's name. I dodged the bullet this time, but next time I may not be so lucky. I had to make sure that they wouldn't look too far into my case, and that I could get out of this without them ever realizing that I was an agent for CIRA.
“I could look into it, sir,” I offered, taking the flyer from his desk. “There's no need to bother everyone else with it with the trades and meetings we have coming up. I can do it when you don't need me, and see if I can find out anything about him.”
“Thank you, Marco, you should have time tomorrow while I'm out. That way we won't have to discuss it with her anytime soon and we can see what we find before she calls about it again.”
