by Gary Ponzo
A Touch of Greed
( Nick Bracco - 3 )
Gary Ponzo
Gary Ponzo
A Touch of Greed
Chapter 1
When the blood stopped oozing from James Braden’s head, FBI Agent Ricky Hernandez knew his partner was finally dead. Hernandez was tucked behind a steel column in an abandoned airport hanger just inside the Mexican border. His partner was sprawled on the floor ten feet away, his body riddled with bullet holes from the ambush.
“Mr. Hernandez,” the man’s voice called out from behind him in a Mexican accent, “we have two kinds of soup today. We have chicken soup and we have screw-you soup. Unfortunately for you, we are out of chicken soup.”
A roomful of laughter echoed throughout the empty chamber of aluminum roofing and corrugated steel walls. Hernandez judged about thirty men surrounded him with AK-47s, while Hernandez had an FBI issue 9mm pistol with just one solitary bullet left. He stared at Braden’s corpse lying there in such an unnatural position, his eyes wide in horrified shock. Hernandez’s legs trembled. His left eye had an uncontrollable twitch. The desert heat was so viciously oppressive, his sweat-soaked shirt stuck to his chest.
The voice taunting Hernandez belonged to Antonio Garza, known as El Carnicero throughout the world of Mexican cartels. The Butcher. He was an infamous assassin with a legendary reputation for torturing anyone who crossed him. Including undercover FBI agents posing as drug dealers. Hernandez had seen the remains of the bodies Garza had left behind. Fingers, eyes, tongues, all severed and stuck inside the victim’s mouth, while the body floated in a vat of boiling water. The assassin was known to have a doctor on hand to continuously revive the victim and prolong the torment for hours, sometimes days.
“Mr. Hernandez,” Garza said, closer now. “I make you a deal. Come out right now and I let you speak with your family. You can say a proper farewell, eh?”
Hernandez was in shock, his mind numb to the statement.
“You can’t be saved, so make your peace,” Garza ordered.
Among other things, Garza was a chronic liar. Hernandez was lured into Mexico while undercover, so there would be no rescue. He was out of US jurisdiction. Then it hit him. He still had a minute or two to say good-bye to his wife. He fumbled into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
“I’m waiting,” he heard Garza say.
Tears blurred his vision as he tried to find his Nicole’s number in his contact list. He was bawling now, warm urine leaked from his bladder. Once he’d heard her voice he realized he wouldn’t be able to speak. He was wasting too much time just trying to gather himself. Then he saw the name just above Nicole’s. Nick Bracco. Hernandez knew then what he needed to do with the remaining seconds of his life. He pushed the button.
“Time is up,” Garza called out.
“Hey, Ricky,” came the voice on the phone.
“Nick,” Hernandez stammered. “Nick can you. .”
“What’s wrong?”
Hernandez’s hands shook, tears crawled down his face. “Please tell Nicole. .” he hiccupped and whimpered, “how much I adore her.”
“Where are you, Ricky?” Nick demanded.
“Now!” the assassin screamed, a barrage of bullets exploded all around the agent as he shriveled up behind the column for protection. His legs were getting pounded by direct hits and ricochets.
“Ricky?” Nick shouted into the receiver.
The shooting stopped. The tops of Hernandez’s feet were missing, only two toes stood out among the bloody stumps. Hernandez’s stomach spiked up into his throat. “Nick,” he uttered. “Promise me you’ll kill him.”
Footsteps came shuffling up behind him and Hernandez dropped the phone between his legs. He took one last look at his partner, then said, “I’ll be right there, Jimmy.” As he braced the tip of his pistol tight under his chin, the one thought which remained, the one glimmer of solace which contained him, was the thought that Garza would not survive long. Hernandez had an irrational rush of jubilation. Nick Bracco had been notified. Ricky Hernandez smiled.
Then he pulled the trigger.
* * *
Walt Jackson was considering going home. It was almost seven and his stomach was beginning to growl. He stood behind his desk, searching for a couple of secure flash drives he needed to take home, when his cell phone chirped. “Nick Bracco,” came up on his display. As the Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore field office, Walt was the head of an elite anti-terrorist task force simply known as, “The Team.” Four of the shrewdest investigators the FBI had ever trained. Along with Nick and his partner Matt McColm, the team was split across the nation. Nick and Matt were in Arizona, while the other two worked out of the Baltimore field office. Nick Bracco was the lead agent of the group and rarely called to chitchat.
“What’s up?” Walt asked, finding the two flash drives and slipping them into his pocket.
“Sorry, Walt,” Nick said with a somber tone.
Walt’s instincts told him to prepare for the worst.
“Tell me,” Walt said.
“Jim and Ricky are dead.”
Walt’s pulse quickened. He felt lightheaded and plopped down in his leather chair with wobbly legs. He ran a hand over his face and looked at the floor. His new team was only six months old. They’d been grooming new members carefully ever since four of the original six members were murdered by a Russian assassin last year. Now the newborn group of four was down to two.
Walt had the overwhelming sense that he’d come too close to touching the sun and was now paying the price. He tried to control his breathing with mild success.
“You still there?” Nick asked.
“Yeah,” Walt croaked.
“Jill and Nicole need to know.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Sorry,” Nick repeated.
“Damn it,” Walt muttered. “Someone gave them up.”
“Yes.”
“Someone on our side.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, but I will.”
Walt took longer breaths while Nick patiently waited for him to recover.
“You took every possible precaution, Walt. There was no way to eliminate all the risk.”
“No I didn’t, or we wouldn’t have two more dead agents on the team.”
Walt’s stomach tightened, while his head throbbed. He was clearly losing the battle with his emotions, but needed a clear mind. He needed to make the right choices or the damage could accumulate.
“Nick,” Walt said into the phone, rubbing his temple. “You can’t go down there.”
“I know.”
“I’m serious. Once you cross that border, you’re alone. Completely.”
“I know.”
“I mean, these cartels, for crying out loud, Nick, they are the law down there.”
“I understand.”
Walt looked around to assure his solitude. He was in his office with the door closed, yet still knew enough to keep his voice low. “You’re going to need help.”
This one seemed to stop Nick. Walt could tell his lead agent was surprised by his suggestion.
“You mean. . Tommy?”
There was no other help Walt could’ve been suggesting. The CIA was constantly at war with his division and adding untrained FBI agents to the body count simply wasn’t acceptable. Nick’s cousin Tommy, however, had roots within a well-known Sicilian family which occasionally operated outside the law. A family whose information had been very instrumental in capturing terrorists in the past. It was a relationship Walt found uncomfortable, but the return on investment had been remarkable.
“Yes,” Walt confirmed. “He’ll have contacts which could
be extremely valuable.”
“Okay,” Nick said.
“I mean, we can’t afford to send shoes down there to muddle things up. The more agents we send, the scarier it gets. We use the surgical tactic we’ve planned. The smaller, the better.”
“That’s fine, Walt, but I’ll need Stevie to bring some tech toys with him.”
Walt looked out the bulletproof window behind his desk. The setting sun cast a shadow over the few cars left in the parking lot. His wife probably had his cold dinner already wrapped and in the refrigerator. After thirty years of marriage, she’d still be waiting for him with a smile and a kiss.
“I’ll have Stevie on the first flight out in the morning.”
“Good,” Nick said.
There was a silence while the two of them put their thoughts together. Walt wanted to tell Nick he’d hop on a plane and be there himself, but as he stared outside, he could sense the sun setting in too many ways. He owed it to his wife to be there. She’d seen too much action.
As if Nick could translate the silence, he said, “Stay where you are, Walt. You’re more valuable to me inside the beltway where you can get decisions made.”
Walt took the cue and said, “Nick.”
“Yeah?”
Walt squeezed his eyes shut. “Please. Be careful.”
Chapter 2
Not far from the US border, Antonio Garza, El Carnicero, stood inside the walls of his complex with a hose, watering the vincas and grumbling to some nearby soldiers about the status of his plants.
“Lo siento,” one of the soldiers said with an uneasy expression.
“In English,” Garza snapped. “Always, in English, you fool.”
“Sorry,” the soldier apologized.
Garza insisted his inner circle used their second language, because they needed the practice for when they crossed the border and tried to assimilate into the American public.
The late summer heat might have caused his garden to wilt, but that’s all that was drooping. His income had been growing remarkably over the past couple of years and the future looked bright. Being an independent contractor for the various cartels made him a necessity to everyone, yet no one’s enemy.
Just in case, his complex was surrounded by a ten foot block wall with subtle parapets for his guards to monitor the perimeter. The complex was able to withstand an attack from any number of weapons-including rocket-propelled-grenades. It was topped with a rectangular balcony which doubled as a watchtower.
Not by chance, the eight-thousand-square-foot building itself was built of brick on the side of a hill and housed thirty-five militia warriors, ready to follow his orders at a moments notice.
From behind him, Garza heard a window creak open and his primary lieutenant, Victor Sanchez, nodded for his attention.
Garza waved back. “Okay, I’ll be right there.” He handed the hose to one of the soldiers and gave instructions, then ran up the outdoor spiral staircase to his second floor office. It was an oversized room with dark tiled floors and rounded doorways with views from every direction. From there it was easy to spot anyone approaching the complex.
Garza passed a couple of armed guards on the way and as he arrived, he found Victor standing beside his desk holding out a cell phone.
Garza took the phone and smiled as he sat down and stretched his feet up on the desk. “How are you, my American friend?” he asked.
The man on the line didn’t sound like he appreciated the comment. “I have your information.”
“Please,” Garza waved his hand in a wide circle, “tell me everything.”
“His name is Nick Bracco,” the man said. “He’s been the Bureau’s top anti-terrorist agent for over a decade. He has a wife and an infant son. His partner’s name is Matt McColm. McColm is a sharpshooter who used to be with Special Forces before joining the Bureau. Neither of these men are stupid. They should not be taken lightly.”
“Excellent,” Garza said. “How motivated are they to come get me?”
“Very. You just killed two of their friends. They will retaliate.”
“Fantastic.” Garza’s eyes sparkled. “What else?”
There was a silence, which meant the American was considering how much to contribute.
“My friend,” Garza said. “Now is no time to be shy. We have much too much at stake. No?”
The line remained quiet for a few seconds. Garza waited.
“There is one other thing you should know,” the man said. “Bracco comes from a Sicilian family. His cousin, Tommy, has connections within a particular crime family out of the Baltimore area. No one knows how deep these relationships run, but there’s been rumors throughout the Bureau that Tommy has actually helped the FBI capture terrorists. He supposedly has informants all over the place. Maybe even below the border.”
Garza pulled his feet down from his desk. “You mean the FBI is using criminals to help them? Is that legal in your country?”
“Technically they’re informants, but they’re treated like consultants. The information flows both ways, however. There’s certainly some questionable ethical debates, but no one within the government is anxious to prosecute someone who’s rounding up bad guys.”
Garza twisted his chair to get a good look out the window. In the distance, past the airport hangar and the two-mile stretch of high desert landscape, was the border. He had so many good ideas roaming in his mind, he couldn’t help but smile.
“Where does this Agent Bracco live?” Garza said, pulling a notepad from his desk drawer.
“In Payson, Arizona,” the man said.
Garza found a pen in the same drawer. “And exactly what is his address?”
The man gave it to Garza and he wrote it down. El Carnicero circled the address and leaned back and sighed. “I have many surprises planned for this agent.”
“I’m sure you do,” the man said with no emotion in his voice.
Garza disconnected the call and placed the phone in his lap. He considered his next move. After a few minutes, he pushed a button on his phone. When a man answered, he said, “Expect company.”
“We’ve been waiting,” the man said.
Garza hung up the phone and went over to his window. Just below him, within the secure walls of his compound, his seven-year-old son Julio was waving a baseball at his dad.
“Papa,” he screamed. “Play with me.”
Amidst the soldiers with assault rifles, Julio was tossing the ball in the air and catching it with his baseball glove. It was a lonely existence for the boy, not being able to play with friends like a normal child. Since his mother was shot during a drug bust, Garza had been the boy’s sole friend.
Garza smiled. Julio was the only person who had received his unconditional affection. The boy’s attitude and zeal for life was the antidote to the daily stresses of his work. He picked up a worn baseball glove from a side table near the door and opened the window. “I’ll be right down,” he yelled.
Chapter 3
It was only 6:15 AM in the Bracco house, but infants couldn’t read digital clocks so Nick’s son, Thomas, was up and ready to go. Thomas was on his back kicking his legs in the air with a playful smile. Julie Bracco changed his diaper on one side of their bed while Nick threw underwear into a canvas bag on the other side.
Julie tickled her son’s tummy while she asked Nick, “How long will you be gone?”
“A few days,” Nick said, acting as casual as possible about his treacherous assignment. He tossed some shirts into the bag and caught a reflection from the lake in their backyard.
From their second floor bedroom window, Nick could see the lake glistening in the early morning sunlight, while pine trees cast long shadows across its shoreline. He’d moved his family to Payson, Arizona, to escape the threat and stress of dealing with terrorists, but the move hadn’t changed the landscape. It certainly didn’t dissuade a Kurdish terrorist from tracking him down and attempting to murder him and his wife. It was the final act of the terrorist’
s career and prompted Nick to install a high-tech security system just for times like these.
Nick decided to remain in the mountain community hoping his wife and infant son would be safer, while he operated the west coast division of the Bureau’s anti-terrorist task force. Now, he wanted his wife to feel secure while he left and found revenge for a couple of his close FBI teammates.
As if she could sense the tension in Nick’s mind, Julie looked up from the bed with a worried expression. “What’s going on?”
Thomas kicked his tiny legs in the air and giggled while Julie patted his bottom with powder.
Nick grabbed a few shirts from the closet, then sat next to her. “Ricky and Jim are dead.”
Her mouth opened and her face scrunched up into a combination of horror and confusion. “But, how?”
Nick locked eyes on her and kept them there. “They were outed while working undercover.”
Julie glanced down at Thomas and secured his diaper.
“Where?”
“Mexico.”
Julie glanced at the open canvas bag, then back to Nick. “That’s where you’re going, isn’t it?” She scooped up Thomas and clutched him to her chest as if he might need extra security.
“No.”
“Nick.”
He gave his son a soft kiss on his smooth cheek, then brushed back an imaginary hair on Thomas’s head. “I’m not taking any chances,” he said with as much conviction as he could.
Julie looked up at the ceiling with glossy eyes. “It’s been so quiet. Have you been keeping things from me?”
“No,” he lied.
She looked down at Thomas wiggling in her arms. “Are we in danger?”
Nick stood up, folded his shirts and shoved them into his bag. He tried to act casual for this one. “I don’t think so, but I’m going to have Jennifer stay with you just in case.”
Julie examined his demeanor while he opened a dresser drawer and grabbed some socks. Having the lone resident FBI agent from Payson staying at your house would seem like an extreme measure for an average family, but Jennifer Steele was no ordinary FBI agent. She was Matt McColm’s girlfriend. The same Matt McColm who’d been Nick’s partner for the past decade. Jennifer and Matt were regular visitors to the Bracco home and many times had spent the night in the guest bedroom when the beer and wine flowed in abundance.
