by Abhishek Roy
Lucas connected his watch with the terminal and logged into the ANNT network. He searched the database for ‘Viper’ and ‘Dimitri’. The results were quite amusing. Dimitri Bertsekas was Rosmus’s right hand man…the one who handled all his illegal transactions in the Middle East. No one had ever seen his face and none of the security agencies around the world had any details on what he looked like or even his whereabouts. He was a Ghost and the only identification mark that the security agencies knew about was the tattoo of a rattle snake wrapped around a dagger along his spine. He initially belonged to Romanovich’s payroll before moving over to Rosmus’s team. Apparently Romanovich was a close friend of Rosmus and had personally suggested Dimitri’s name since he had made a big investment in Rosmus’s operations as well and wanted to have the entire operation monitored by someone he could trust.
As for Viper, it was the name of the security organization which handled the security of Romanovich’s business establishments all over the world. The notorious crew mostly consisted of handpicked ruthless mercenaries and criminals from around the world who were paid enough dough to ensure that they would do anything that Romanovich wanted them to do. Seems like Rosmus was up to something big with the Al Qaeda and Suleiman involved and was using Romanovich’s help in terms of finances, contacts, establishment as well as crew to execute his plan.
Suddenly the scenario was starting to make a little sense. From the very moment Lucas had landed in Cuba, he had been under constant surveillance. His whereabouts were being tracked through the APTS. Maria had had to pay the ultimate price owing to this. However he was still not sure how the APTS was implanted in his PDA in the first place. Was he tracked from the very moment the mission was handed over to him? What happened to Annie and was this somehow related to the attack on the Serpent as well? He even started wondering whether Major Kapoor was involved in this although his conscience was not willing to believe it.
He was now pretty sure about the work Agent Alpha was doing in Cuba. Alpha must have had received Intel on the fact that prototypes of the APTS were still available and had fallen in the wrong hands. He must have traced it back to Suleiman and Rosmus before he was brutally mutilated and murdered. Only two questions still remained unanswered…What was Rosmus planning to do and how was the APTS used to track him down. Lucas turned off the console and swiftly left the police van. He had to prepare for the next night. He was going to pay Rosmus, Suleiman and Romanovich a surprise visit…at their own backyard…the Tropicana casino. But first, he needed to rescue Annie, wherever she was being held.
Tropicana Casino
Lucas took a cab and headed off to Centro Havana. He ensured that the power source of the APTS module was not working anymore and could not track him any further. He took the remains with him in case it would come handy at a later stage. He had to work on his reconnaissance as well as be prepared for alternate plans to find Annie, in case he wasn’t able to extract information from the casino about her whereabouts. Also Rosmus and his henchmen would surely not oblige to his requests of sharing their secret without a bloody battle. Owing to the incident with the tracker, Lucas could not trust anyone anymore, not even his home base in Dehradun. There was surely a mole somewhere in the system which he would eventually need to find out. Hence Lucas was in a completely unknown territory, without any form of Intel, fighting against an unknown set of enemies and on top of that would need to conduct a rescue mission to recover his partner. So any form of reconnaissance would be crucial before he could make any plans.
He had a personal acquaintance named Charlie Hang who worked at the Los Dos Dragone’s restaurant in Chinatown. Hang was a Cuban resident born to a Chinese father and Cuban mother. Hang’s father Mr. Xiao had opened up a chain of Chinese restaurants all over Cuba. Hang was in charge of the Los Dos Dragone’s supplies and deliveries. A few years ago, Hang had gone over to the Guangzhou province in China to visit his ancestral home. Incidentally Lucas was at the same place on a routine mission for the ANNT, trying to track down and eliminate two extremist leaders who were planning to eliminate the Chinese premier. During an encounter with the extremists, who tried to use the civilians as cover, Lucas had saved the life of Hang and his family among many others. Since then, Hang had been constantly nagging that Lucas should visit Havana and spend time with him in Chinatown. Lucas could not trust his home base anymore. He certainly couldn’t trust the Cuban police and bureaucrats. Hence he decided to pay Hang a visit in order to arrange for resources for the night.
When Lucas finally arrived at the restaurant and looked for Hang, the little man could hardly hide his joy. His friend had finally come to visit him in Cuba. He promised to show him around and also arrange for his accommodation and food for free. However, he could not help but wonder why Lucas didn’t have anything apart from a backpack. Well, Lucas was already prepared with the excuse. His luggage was lost during transit and hence he would need new clothes and shoes to survive the next few days till his luggage arrived.
Based on their interaction in China, Hang had always known that Lucas worked with the Peace Corps and moved frequently all around the world helping underprivileged communities by working on various social activities. This identity was perfectly suitable for Lucas in this case since he needed some form of changes to his overall outlook and face to ensure that Rosmus and his henchmen would not identify him easily. As far as Hang was concerned, he had been told that Lucas needed the attire, wig and makeup kit for a small skit that he was planning to do in a nearby locality to help educate underprivileged children.
On the next day, Lucas went around with Hang to the markets near Centro Havana, purchasing clothes and accessories and at the same time keeping a constant eye on the roads leading to the casino for the number of guards, cameras, vehicles, nearby traffic signals, policemen and whatever else would be helpful to him for his nocturnal visit. Hang also managed to arrange for a few sets of fake beard, moustache and wigs which Lucas would apparently use for the skit. Lucas had a light supper and headed back to his room to sleep. He particularly requested Hang that no one should disturb him for the night as he needed to get a good and long sleep to get over the jet lag.
Around 9PM at night, Lucas left the locality in disguise and hired a cab to take him to the Tropicana casino. He slipped straight through Chinatown in front of Hang and his friends, but they couldn’t recognize him. Well, he was dressed up as a middle aged European businessman with blonde curly hair carrying a small backpack. He also put up a goatee and his glasses to complement the look. He was now William Adams, the CEO of the rapidly growing logistics company named Zipline. He asked the cab to stop and wait for him at the back of the casino. He got down, got his backpack disposed through one of the service elevators of the casino that he had noticed that morning, quickly headed back to the cab and asked the driver to drop him at the main entrance. This was particularly necessary since he could not carry a backpack with a gun and explosives through the main entrance with all the security measures that were in place. He carried a tracking patch with him assuming that it could come useful later.
Tropicana casino was a real extravaganza on this particular night. It was jam packed with guests ranging from famous celebrities, bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen. Jessica Lopez, the famous Columbian pop singer was performing on the main stage on the first floor. Lucas quickly looked around. He had very little time to figure out how he was going to execute his plan. He took the stairs instead of using the airlift to head to the first floor. He wanted to get a good view of the position of guards and others that may be of interest to him. He also wanted to locate Rosmus and his troops.
On reaching the first floor he could see that there was a different bartender in the main bar. However, Alberto was also present in the casino. He was working as a personal bartender to a group of people who were sitting in the VIP enclosure. Lucas headed over to the Blackjack table while his eyes and wits were constantly focused on the VIP section. He could immediately identify Romanov
ich, a well-built man who was enjoying his champagne with the two blondes sitting by his side. On the other side an Arab sheikh was constantly debating something with a guy in a black leather jacket. Lucas could not see his face, but the tattoo creeping out on the back of his neck was clearly visible….A black serpent with the words ‘Дерево жизни’ written below it. The words spelled as ‘Derevo zhizni’ which roughly translated to ‘The Tree Of Life’ in Russian. Lucas had found his man, he was looking at Yuri Rosmus.
Yuri Rosmus was once the right hand man of Sergei “Mikhas” Mikhailov and had helped him turn the SoIntsevskaya Bratva into the biggest criminal organization in the Soviet Union. Later after the Soviet Union was disbanded and Mikhailov was killed, Rosmus took over the reign of the organization and concentrated on expansion and world domination. He founded the Odessa Mafia which was the most prominent and dominant Russian criminal organization in US and Canada. They had also started expanding into the rest of the countries in Central and Latin America. Rosmus’s organization also had operatives working and supporting the Georgian, Albanian and Chechen mafia groups.
It was said that Rosmus had entered the Arab countries with the help of Al Qaeda and Suleiman. Rosmus was a good friend of Romanovich and assisted him in taking care of his dirty business in St Petersburg and all around the world. In return, Romanovich often helped him get in touch with and influence diplomats, bureaucrats and ministers thereby smoothly paving his way for entering new territories. Well Lucas had got hold of Rosmus and Romanovich just like he had planned. However he needed to find out Suleiman and more importantly Dimitri ‘The Ghost’. Also he was pretty sure that the Viper operatives were in the casino as well, most likely dressed as civilians, providing additional security to the VIP enclosure.
Lucas needed to get closer to the enclosure and engage in a conversation with Rosmus and Romanovich. He wanted to observe Rosmus face to face to try and find more about him before taking him down. He also needed to get Dimitri out from hiding to take him down. To accomplish these tasks, he needed to get close to the VIP section and engage in conversation with Rosmus and Romanovich without having to force his way through. He also needed to ensure that the guards would not stop him as he approached the VIP section.
Lucas left the Blackjack table having lost all his money. He cursed the dealer a bit, grabbed and gulped a glass of scotch from the guy that was sitting beside him and left his seat. He could hear the abuse the guy was throwing at him, but he simply didn’t care. He needed to create an even bigger tantrum. He headed off to the main bar, ordered a few round of drinks and then grabbed the glass and slowly headed towards the VIP enclosure. As he reached the VIP enclosure, few of the security guards and enforcers gathered in front of him.
Lucas introduced himself as William Adams, the CEO of Zipline, stating that he had some business discussions with Mr. Romanovich. Although the guards were not particularly amused by the excuse and didn’t show any sign of allowing him to go through, a bit of debate and few moments of cursing in Russian ensured that the guests of the VIP enclosure were made aware of his presence. Owing to the debacle the entire floor was looking at his direction trying to comprehend what was going on. Romanovich immediately called up his security chief looking for an explanation about what was going on. After talking with the security guard, he ordered them to escort Mr. Adams to the VIP enclave since he wanted to have a word with him. Lucas’s plan was successful; his tantrum had ensured that he was getting noticed.
As he entered the enclosure and was ordered to sit down, Lucas checked the scenario with a brief 180 degree glance. Two guards were standing by his side with silenced pistols dangling from the holsters. He could also see that the Sheikh carried a dagger with him and Rosmus had his own pistol lying in front of him on the table. Romanovich was the only person who didn’t seem to carry a gun and was busy enjoying the company of his blonde guests. Romanovich looked a lot younger than an average 60 year old. As of Rosmus, his was a face of a battle hardened criminal. Wearing a loose shirt beneath the leather jacket, Lucas could now see the tattoo inked on the front of his neck…a knife piercing his neck from side to side with a whole lot of blood drops signifying the number of people he had personally killed. The sheikh sitting by his side was not Suleiman Hossein. It was Sheikh Bakhtiyar, the Kuwaiti Oil tycoon whom he had seen previously at the casino. He was surely working with Rosmus for the consignment that they were talking about the other day.
All of them stared at him while Romanovich sought an explanation on what Lucas was doing in the casino. Well, this was his chance to impress Romanovich. Lucas introduced himself as William Adams, the CEO of Zipline. He created a background story where William Adams was born in Vladivostok in Russia where his father worked in the dockyard. Later his father moved to Amsterdam where he was raised. That was a good enough explanation of his fluency in Russian and his overall outlook. Lucas started Zipline nearly 3 years ago as a small door to door delivery company and had expanded his business vastly in the past 3 years. Zipline was a fully grown logistics company now which had already expanded to various Asian countries like India, Thailand and China.
Hence Mr. Adams wanted to talk to Mr. Romanovich about a business proposal where Romanovich would be made a stakeholder in the company and in return would help the business to grow worldwide with the help of his resources and financial background. Also, Zipline was looking to desperately penetrate the logistics market of the Middle East, US and Cuba where he believed Romanovich could be of considerable help with his experience and wise counsel. Romanovich was thoroughly impressed by the young guy’s presentation skill; he wanted to get into more details before committing to any form of agreement. So he asked Lucas to meet him later in the night at the Violet suite with details on the plan.
Lucas’s plan had worked perfectly. He rose up and shook Mr. Romanovich and Rosmus’s hands although Rosmus didn’t seem to be too interested. He attached a tracking patch to Rosmus’s sleeve while shaking his hand. He would place a tracker on Romanovich as well when they would meet later. The violet suite was a luxury penthouse, the grandest form of accommodation available in the Tropicana casino and was located on the topmost floor. The violet room had its own private swimming pool, gymnasium, games room and full sized bar apart from other facilities. On the very top of the casino, Romanovich had his private helipad.
Lucas had a lot of work to do. First up on his task list was a way to find a key to one of the hotel rooms and get hold of his backpack. He could very well try to book a room using his fake passport, but the risk was too high and his mission could be in complete jeopardy if his fake identities were already out courtesy of the mole. So he would need to find a hotel guest, immobilize him temporarily and get hold of his keys without anyone suspecting that something was not right. Lucas left the VIP enclosure seeking farewell and headed off to the floor below. He needed to find his prey quickly.
Lucas headed off to the elevators leading to the guestrooms. There were five elevators for the guests. Romanovich had his personal express elevator for the penthouse with two guards waiting at the elevator entrance. However all of these elevators were located beside each other. He waited for some time and then followed a guest on to one of the elevators. He started a conversation in order to get his name and details. The guy was Sam and he was an American banker by profession who had come over for a business meet. He would be leaving Cuba the next day and hence planned to spend considerable amount of time that night in the casino. However, he was diabetic and hence needed to take his daily medication. So he was heading back to his room on the 18th floor for some time. Lucas explained that he too was staying on the 18th floor and followed him out of the elevator.
The corridors leading to the rooms were empty; a perfect hunting spot. Sam stopped in front of Room 1808 as Lucas passed on towards room number 1821 where he was apparently staying. He quickly checked the position of the security cameras, went on to room 1821 before returning back to 1808. He put up the ‘Do Not Disturb’
sign on the door knob and then slowly knocked on the door. Sam opened up rather surprised to see Lucas at his door. Lucas explained that his keycard was not working and hence it would be really helpful if Sam allowed him to use the phone to call up the room service personnel. Sam was more than willing to help and allowed him in. Lucas seized upon the opportunity with both hands after closing the door. As Sam turned away to lead him to the phone, a swift knock on the side of the neck ensured that Sam would rest in peace for the next few hours. Lucas used the bed sheet and towels to tie him up. He also gagged him to ensure that he could not scream in case he woke up before Lucas finished the job. He pulled out the keycard, locked the door and headed off to the other end of the corridor in search of the service elevator. He needed his equipment back.
