by Melody Anne
“That jackass actually asked the IT department to shut down our computers so we could learn to do it the old school way and do all of the billing and inventory on paper,” Green moaned. “Thankfully the IT department supervisor isn’t an idiot and told his boss, who told his boss, who told the kid’s dad. Daddy wasn’t happy with him and told the kid to stop being a f’ing idiot and do what he’s supposed to do.”
Chad smiled at the sight of Green tensing as he talked about the kid boss. It was funny to see any of the men become so frustrated with peons. Chad himself had known some of the same frustrations but had been brought back to reality by knowing how many people were never taught excellence, let alone were able to achieve it.
Those at the tip of the pyramid were a small fraction for a reason. While a lot of individuals wanted to join the top, they were aware it didn’t happen for all, or even most of humanity. It didn’t mean there weren’t frustrations with others, but knowing they could only pull people so far before making them be responsible for their own forward movement was a must. The more Green was involved in these missions, the more he learned about the average, everyday Joe out there. He’d been at the top so long, he’d forgotten what it looked like from down below.
“That being said, I’ve made inroads with a few of the workers on site, and I’ve been able to get into a few meetings that only senior level managers normally attend. Of course, I chatted them up just enough to remember me, but not be super impressed or leave negative impressions,” Green finished.
“That isn’t all, Green,” Eyes reminded him when he went silent.
“Oh yeah,” Green said. “I joined the company’s political action committee. It’s made up of mostly executives and front-office peeps, but I paid my initiation dues and signed up. Last week there was a meeting where invitations were being sold to a fundraising gala put on by Senator Anna Miller. It’s happening tonight. Yes, the same senator who was with Damien Whitfield at the veteran’s center. And, before you ask, we checked and confirmed; Damien will be in attendance. I signed myself and Smoke up to attend at ten thousand dollars a ticket,” he said, as if a little disgusted. He didn’t do many political donations on his own dollar because he was blown away when people paid that much to attend an event for politics. Maybe all politicians were dirty. People paid those prices because they expected to get something out of it. It disgusted him, and he didn’t think it should be allowed.
“I told Green that having him or me there would raise a flag since both the senator and Damien met us at the veteran’s center. I told him to take Smoke. We’ll have to be careful to not let Damien see us all together or he might realize we’re trailing him,” Eyes said.
“That was good thinking,” Chad told them then smiled as he slapped his hand down on the table. He was excited. “This is great. There will be a lot of heavy hitters at the event, some very deep pockets for sure. All of those fundraisers bring out people wanting to use their money to buy a chance to stand next to a decision maker so they can whisper in their ear.”
“I probably don’t need to ask, but I can’t help myself,” Chad said as he looked at Brackish. “Are we going to have the ability to record faces, voices, et cetera?”
Brackish was shaking his head in disbelief before he looked up with a smug expression. “Chug, come on, who are you talking to? I have all of that covered and so much more. I received the news last week about the event before I left on my trip and gained access to all the CCTVs in the building, the street cameras around the location, ATM cameras within five blocks of the site, and even have a couple of little toys for you two knuckleheads to use tonight.”
“I figured as much, but if I don’t ask, I don’t know all of the crap you’re capable of doing,” Chad told him. “I’m just damn glad you’re on the good guys’ side.” He meant every single word of that sentence. Brackish could easily be the top billionaire in the world if he chose to use his powers for evil. It was a good thing he didn’t do that, because Chad was sure no one would be able to catch him.
“No one will ever know what I’m fully capable of,” Brackish said, his smugness in full force. The men chuckled. But they knew he was correct. They all had genius level IQs but next to Brackish they sometimes felt dumb.
Brackish continued. “We’ll see every person who enters and exits the event. I’ll have facial recognition uploaded into my system before they’re able to blink. Every open-source information on all who attend will be dumped into a pool. The best part is that if any close associations are found, they’ll be highlighted. One of the toys, if you want to know, is a device that rips data from every phone that Smoke or Green stands within three feet of. It takes approximately thirty seconds for us to have every single phone number, calendar schedule, photo, video, and website the attendees have visited. It also downloads their social media, even those messages they thought were forever gone.”
“You scare the hell out of me,” Chad said, once again grateful Brackish was on their team and not rooting for the bad guys.
The team sat back in a bit of stunned silence after Brackish finished speaking and Chad made his comment. Brackish was a mad genius. It was hard to follow up with anything after that little speech. But of course, if anyone could change the tone of a moment, it was Smoke.
“All I heard you say is that you have some little toys for us to use. I hope you washed them after this weekend,” Smoke said.
And just like that, Chad knew the men were done with the meeting. The volley of jokes, insults, and overall commotion grew at such rapid-fire succession there was no way to keep up with everything being said.
Chad, however, did notice Sleep was relatively quiet on the subject. Maybe the fact he was now engaged had subdued him, or maybe he was staying away from the firefight before the bedroom secrets of him and his future bride were exposed. Whatever it was, this was the first time in months that Sleep was tight-lipped. It made Chad laugh internally.
“Let’s break this meeting up,” Chad said as he stood. “You all have your assignments and Green and Smoke have a party to attend.”
“Roger that, boss,” Smoke said. “I need a run. If I have to dance like a monkey for the crowds, I need to burn off some adrenaline first.”
Smoke was the first to exit the room. The rest of them cleared out soon after, and Chad called it a day. They had the mission down to a science and they’d rehearse some more later that day. He could kick back, relax, and have a bottle of wine with his wife, and maybe even his own afternoon delight. He walked from the building . . . and dialed Bree, telling her to get naked and put the wine on ice. She quickly agreed, and it was a race to see who’d be the first one home.
***
Green and Smoke walked up to the entrance of The Ruins at 1900 hours, wearing tuxedos that had heads turning in their direction. They were large, great looking men, and in a tux, they were showstoppers. If they chose to, they could easily model for any clothing line they wanted. But neither of them wanted to make a name on their looks — they wanted to do it with their brains. They also knew it didn’t hurt to look like Greek gods; it got them through a lot of front doors, but they preferred sneaking in through the back.
Tonight, Green went with no vest or cummerbund, and just a traditional black bow tie, black pocket square, and French cuffed shirt. Normally his cufflinks were the five-star Medal of Honor ribbon. This time, though, he put on simple black buttoned cufflinks. His blue eyes all but glowed against all of the black material perfectly fitted to his body.
Smoke wore a vest, the deep V a perfect match to his physique. He opted for the same black bow tie as Green, but went with a deep red pocket square that matched the color of his cufflinks, shaped into a cross that looked like an X. The color blending worked well with his smooth chocolate skin.
The two men entered the front doors, and were met with the sight of a large wooden horse painted with fine flowering vines over its body. The end of the hall made a T and they decided to split up from there and mingle.
The building wasn’t overly large, but the decorations were eclectic. Glasses of wine and champagne were distributed throughout while a plethora of hors d’oeuvres were never far from reach.
In times like this, the special operators’ differences contrasted. Green looked at the food, reviewed its contents, took a bite while mindfully tasting the combination of flavors, and taking note of the pros and cons. Smoke, on the other hand, took three or four of the samplers, consuming them in seconds.
The hob-knobbing went on for almost two hours. Smoke was much better at it than Green, who’d always hated high-society events. But Green had something to accomplish, so he made sure to step beside every person there. The cameras had already captured their faces, he needed to capture their data. As far as operations went, and specifically data collection, it was a 100 percent success at the end of two hours. Of course, there was always more to do. Brackish was most likely in nerd heaven. They’d chosen to not wear earpieces, which had annoyed their tech guru.
When the rich had their fill of rubbing elbows with one another and bragging about how much more they had than the next person, the room dimmed, and lights flashed, indicating a speech was about to be made. A few vocal announcements in each room notified the attendees where to go. Green and Smoke moved back together and waited.
Senator Miller stepped up to a microphone. She was good — she was damn good as she looked out at the crowd, making eye contact with several people, nodding her head at others, and sending a secret smile to some as if they had their own language and it was just the two of them in there together. It wasn’t hard for Green to see why she’d seemingly risen from nowhere to become a star so fast.
“Good evening, everyone. It’s so wonderful to be here with you all. I’m thankful you were able to support this organization, and I’m glad to see you’re having a wonderful time,” she began.
“Here, here,” someone called. “This is a top-notch event.”
“Yes, it is. I wish I could take credit for that,” she said, bowing her head the slightest bit before looking back up with an innocent, happy smile. Green was sure she’d practiced that a million times in her mirror. Everything the woman did was practiced.
“Is there anything real about her?” Smoke whispered. He’d noticed her fakeness too.
“I honestly don’t think so,” Green replied. “I think she’s been fake so long she wouldn’t know how to find the real Ms. Miller.”
“Amen, my brother,” Smoke replied.
The senator continued speaking. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of you for the first time tonight, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to be here. Most of you have been with me for years and I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” She paused and looked more people in the eye, gave a few more gestures, and made that innocent smile she was so good at. Green smiled as her eyes met his. He could give it to her just as good as she could. She quickly moved past him, not interested. He knew that would change once she figured out he had money to burn. Then she’d suck right up to him.
“While I only recently took this position as one of your honored senators, I’ve worked toward this goal my entire life. I’ve wanted to be here since I was in grade school,” she said. “I was told I couldn’t achieve greatness because I’m not only a woman, but a biracial woman, however my focus never wavered.” She again paused, playing the room like a damn fiddle.
“Tonight, the select few of you are starting this new race with me, and I’ll forever remember each of you. To end the suspense and get to the point, over the next three years I’ll be building my campaign to run for . . .” She stopped again, meeting several people’s gazes, letting the anticipation build. Then she looked down. When she looked up again, Green was fascinated by the expression on her face. She looked like a young girl who was hopeful, but scared, powerful, but one of them. She morphed herself into this person who was exactly what she needed to be to every single person out there. If they wanted innocent, she’d give them that. If they wanted powerful, she’d do that too. Each person she connected with thought of her as the person they wanted her to be. Green had no doubt this woman had been made for politics. She was a robot of the system, and she was their top dog.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said with a smile. “I got a bit choked up. I’m truly amazed this is happening. I’m running for President of the United States of America.” As she said the final words, her crescendo grew louder and stronger as pride radiated from her voice. Senator Miller’s words brought everyone to their feet in a huge thunder of applause, whooping, and yelling in approval and support of the news.
The Senator stepped back and a group of men approached her, all extending their hands to shake hers. Green and Smoke watched as Damien Whitfield stepped forward, a smile on his lips as he congratulated her.
She spoke to those on stage first, then descended the steps to walk into the crowd, smiling as she shook hands and gave hugs. The crowd was all smiles as they rushed to let her know they were 100 percent on board with her. As she made her way through the crowd, Green stood his ground, making sure his expression was appropriately jolly. The two of them came face to face. Their hands were locked together as numerous flashes went off from different angles.
That moment would be the image of the night and would be shared throughout Seattle, and within a day, the entire country would hear about a new POTUS contender. They’d eat up the photo of Green and the senator. He was a young, strapping man — and she was single, which she couldn’t remain for long, not if she wanted to run for the highest position in the land. The press would use this image to the max.
She moved on after nodding at one of her men who stepped right up to Green.
“Hello, sir,” the man said. “Do you have a card?” Green pretended to be dumb.
“What kind of card?” he asked.
The man smirked, thinking Green was just what the doctor ordered: young, dumb, and great looking. “A card with your information on it.” Everyone who was anyone had a card with their info, but Green was playing his role of attending this event because he was new to the area, had a ton of money to blow, and wanted to know what politics were all about, not a man with an agenda.
“Sorry, I don’t have any of those,” Green said.
The man pulled out his phone. “Then I’ll just take down your information,” he said.
“For what?” Green asked in a friendly tone.
“The senator might want to speak to you some more,” the man said.
Boom. Second mission of the night accomplished. He was moving to the inside. Brackish had given Green a great cover that the Senator’s people would find when they did his background check. Brackish had made him the heir of a wealthy uncle who’d just left him a ton of money that he didn’t know what to do with. He was working at the docks because that’s the life he’d always had before getting his inheritance. If they asked why a wealthy guy like him was working for minimum wage, he could say he hadn’t even thought of not working — the money was that new. The Senator’s people would find him perfect. They’d think him rich, great looking, and stupid enough to be molded.
Green expressed proper excitement at this prospect and handed over the information he wanted the man and the senator to have. The aide walked away and Green moved forward, Smoke at his side. They were finished with the event. They didn’t speak until they were in the car.
“That was more successful than I thought it would be,” Smoke said as he began undoing buttons on his monkey suit.
“Damn straight,” Green replied. “Sometimes it hurts to be this damn good-looking, but someone has to do it.”
“Too bad you don’t hold a candle to me,” Smoke told him. “If I’d have been the one assigned to the fine looking senator, I’d be in her bed right now. The second I met eyes with her, the rest of the room would’ve faded away.”
Green laughed. “You’re trying to sleep with the enemy?” he asked.
“Damn straight. There’s nothing be
tter than some down-and-dirty, bad-girl sex.”
They both cracked up as they drove back to the operation center. They didn’t have other residences yet, but Green knew he’d have to secure one immediately. He’d be vetted extensively, and soon. Brackish was probably already taking dings on his name. He wasn’t at all worried. There was no way they could obtain information faster than Brackish could feed it to them.
By the time they returned to the operation center, they found Brackish with six monitors in a semi-circle in front of him, his fingers typing away, moving from one keyboard to the next as he spun back and forth, his face priceless, it was so filled with joy. He was totally in his element.
“Having fun?” Smoke asked.
Brackish barely looked up. “The time of my life,” he said. Then he went back to work.
Green was right. It didn’t take them long at all to contact him . . .
