Miami's Forgotten

by Matt Lincoln

  27

  Jake

  The streets were mostly cleared of tourists, except for the ones with clear slickers and umbrellas, decked out for just such an excursion. We got a few looks of derision as we hurriedly passed by, but most people just ignored us and went on their way with their tasks.

  I kept a careful eye on each one until we moved on, just because of what Yolanda had told Xavier about the Colombians. If they were perhaps looking for Nohemi and any witness that could identify the trio, then I needed to make sure they weren’t tailing us, either. The slogging through the streets got easier as we got to the better parts of the city, the ones they kept up appearances for. The rain tapered off slightly, but it was still a wet, miserable deal with our clothes plastered to our bodies and muddy proof that we’d been up to something else.

  We reached the docks and found our point guy still there, taking shelter from the rain and waiting for us to return. I paid him extra for his time and effort before we got into the speeder and headed back to where we’d stashed Wraith.

  “Dry clothes, here we come,” I joked as I helmed us directly to the location.

  But I guess today had been going too easy for us because as I rounded the trees to the alcove where I’d left Wraith, we saw another boat. Three seconds later, we were being fired on by a group of gunmen.

  We all ducked instinctively for what cover we could have in the sleek, small speeder, and I maneuvered abruptly to keep us from getting hit. Rosa was quick to get her weapon, and she fired back, giving us some cover fire as I helmed us away to safety. I pulled up on the sandbar maybe fifty yards from Wraith, but the trees gave us the cover we needed to get out and get into the fight.

  “Do you want me to stay with the boat?” Xavier asked as he pulled his pistol but looked unsure if he wanted to use it.

  “No. Wraith can take care of herself, but I counted six guys back there. Rosa?” I looked up at her as I checked that my Ruger was ready.

  I saw five, so let’s plan for seven, she signed.

  “Fair enough. Let’s go.” We were going to be at a slim disadvantage in the unknown territory and the dense vegetation we were cutting through, but it was the quickest way to get to where we needed to be. The trees were tall and allowed some decent movement cover for us. Plus, with the rain, the leaves were already non-stationary, which meant that our sounds, scents, and passage would be hidden. I liked these odds before I even got within range.

  Rosa saw the first guy and raised her weapon to fire. I motioned for her to hold off until Xavier and I got shots too.

  I leaned in very close to both of them and whispered my plan. ‘Wait. We have time to aim and take down three at once if we all fire at about the same time. That will help our odds. Xavier, you understand what I’m talking about? Nobody fires until we have three visible targets.’

  They both nodded back that they understood, and we stopped to wait. Only one more came into view in the next few minutes, and I realized that time was of the essence. They looked at me for direction, and I whispered my answer to them.

  ‘Rosa, you and I will take the shots. Xavier, if anyone else comes through those trees, they’re yours.’ Rosa and I both raised our weapons, took aim, and fired at the men’s chests. Two shots, two kills, and then the trees erupted in a storm of gunfire.

  I rushed forward, conscious not to fire at anything I didn’t see move. Rosa was going to do her part in taking out as many as she could, and I just had to hope that Xavier would not freak out in the middle of a gunfight. I had lots of faith in him, but this wasn’t exactly his forte.

  A shot zoomed past me and hit the tree I had used momentarily for back cover. I judged the location it had come from, and then I turned to see one of the men aiming right at me. I fired first and hit him in the neck. He grabbed his wound and fell to the ground. It wasn’t a bad shot if I was any judge of such things.

  There was a yell made in pain from somewhere to my right, but it didn’t sound like Xavier’s voice. I had to assume that it was a target, and that made me smile. I rushed forward, determined to get to Wraith and take this to them in kind. There were a few more shots fired behind me. I had no way of knowing what the count or odds were now, and that was okay. This was only going to end in one way.

  One of the men tumbled out of the trees, and we surprised one another. We both raised our weapons and fired almost simultaneously at one another. I felt the bullet graze my forearm as I saw him react to the shot in his shoulder. I jerked back a little and then fired again. That one hit center mass, and the man fell. I checked my arm and saw only a stream of blood running down the skin. It wasn’t life-threatening, so I kept moving.

  There was a set of three shots fired ahead of me, and I took cover, crouching down at the base of a thick fern. From this spot now, I could see the shiny, beautiful profile of Wraith. I was almost there.

  “I’m coming, baby,” I whispered quietly, ready to make my move. I could see two men, one of them injured in the leg, guarding the boats, both mine and theirs.

  I scanned the area, looking for Rosa or Xavier, but I knew that I wouldn’t see them. That was kind of the point. We were trained not to be seen unless we wanted to be. A sudden thought whipped into my head. I couldn’t hit these men from where I was without hitting Wraith, but I bet that Rosa or Xavier could. And while the boat was protected, I still didn’t want to damage my baby in any way, shape, or form. So, I took a deep breath and stepped forward two steps. I still had my Ruger raised and ready, but I was hoping that my team would be taking the shots. I was just drawing the target onto myself.

  The two men saw me, and both of them turned immediately to fire. One got a shot off before a bullet from the extreme right of where I’d hit him in the side. The other guy took a hit in the knee, low enough to not go anywhere too near to Wraith. Rosa ran out and finished him with another shot once the knee shot dropped him into the sand.

  I glanced up at Xavier, who was coming from the trees to the right, and at Rosa, who was rushing forward to cover us. I nodded and smiled at a teamed-up job well done.

  “Everyone accounted for?” I asked, just to make sure.

  Six, as you said, Rosa responded after holstering her firearm. Are you okay? She was looking at my bleeding arm.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. You both alright?” I asked, looking them over.

  “I got hit, I think.” Xavier came forward as he pulled his arm forward and up across his chest. Under his bicep, there was a ragged piece of meat and tissue bleeding for all that it was worth.

  I grabbed his gun, securing it for him while Rosa rushed to his aid. She pulled out a clean cloth from her shorts back pocket and wrapped it tightly around his upper arm.

  “Is it bad?” Xavier questioned, looking at it with a mixture of awe and anxiety.

  “Not too bad. Rosa will fix you up in Wraith.” I didn’t want to scare him, and besides, Rosa wasn’t looking alarmed at it. I walked over, unlocked Wraith, and watched them get on board. I went to the water, bent down, and washed the blood off of my own arm. Once I’d cleaned it, I could see that it wasn’t much after all. A little antiseptic spray, a band-aid, and I’d be fine. Well, unless Rosa got a hold of it.

  I stood and looked over at what had just taken place. There had been six men, all armed and adequately organized. There was only one way to find out if they were Colombians or locals. After I hopped off of Wraith, I checked the body of the two here in the sandy alcove with us that I could get to, but found no wallets or IDs in any of the pockets, no cells, nothing to help give me an idea of who they were or what they were doing here.

  Next, I checked out their boat, a medium-sized cruiser with nothing special about it. They had come with extra ammo, but not anything out of the ordinary. Maybe they were just local pirating types that had come across my hiding spot and thought that they’d hit the jackpot. I was glad that we disappointed them. I grabbed up what ammo we could use and dumped the rest into the water. The boat was in pretty good shape, but I didn’t
have a clear idea of how to get it back to the mainland. Our rental wasn’t too far from here, I knew. Maybe the company we’d used would know what to do about it.

  I dialed the rental company up and sort of explained the situation as I walked back to Wraith with the extra rounds of ammo. Once that was secured, and the rental people were satisfied with my explanations about running out of fuel and being stranded over here, they agreed to send a boat out to get us.

  “Rosa, I’m going to take this extra boat over to where we left our rental. Away from the bodies.” I thought that best. “Then I’ll head back here. Have Wraith ready, and we’ll leave before they get here with any questions.” I looked over at Xavier, who was already busy on his laptop and bandaged up thanks to Rosa’s skill. “You doing alright there?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. She says that it looks worse than it is.” He smiled at both of us and went back to work. That was enough for me.

  “Okay, see you two in a few minutes.” I left them and Wraith, making short work of the trip back to our rental with this other boat. I checked it one more time to make sure that I wasn’t leaving anything behind that might give us details as to what had been its purpose. I still didn’t find anything. Then I made a quick walk back to Wraith and my team, boarded her, and we got out of there as hastily as we could.

  28

  Jake

  On the long trip back to Miami, Xavier dug into what he’d been finding out about our trio ‘friends.’ He started with the lesser threat, the deceased Caris.

  “He was Indian Special Forces, Ghatak Force,” he read off his screen. “Doesn’t say when he retired, though, so maybe he was still in the military?”

  “Unlikely,” I replied as I helmed Wraith through the empty waters. “I think all these people are independent. Mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, that sort of thing. No current military or governmental affiliation. There’s no way they could get the clearance to do that kind of stuff they’re doing here, anyway. It’s too risky.”

  Mercenary, like Kippy’s Mao crew? Rosa reminded me, and that thought hadn’t crossed my mind at all. Xavier had been able to do some extra credit work since my last visit with Kippy in Puerto Rico. He’d discovered that the mercenary team she had coming out of Cape Verde was the Mao and that it wasn’t a reference to any Chinese dynasty. Nor were the Mao in any way connected to the Yabut. Their motto or tagline was, ‘The World’s First Weapon,’ but apparently, that was some kind of code or another kind of BS ploy at covert and cryptic symbology. I had no idea what it meant.

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “Who knows what kind of work any of them will take if the money’s good enough?” That was always my worry with mercenaries. And why my team and I definitely refused to classify ourselves as one.

  “Anyway…” Xavier tried to get us back on point. “So, since he’s out of the picture, I’m going to move on. This Voyda guy is a chemist of some note. Or he used to be, anyway. He’s from Croatia, which would explain the ‘funny accent’ we keep hearing about.” Xavier didn’t seem to find that amusing, but he allowed for differences of opinion in humor. “He had a visa for work here in the US, but they revoked it, and he got deported five months ago.”

  “Guess he found a way back in,” I sighed. I had a feeling all these guys were going to be like this. Solid backgrounds, highly skilled, and all were working for the Yabut, and by extension, Judge Fu and the DEA. But still criminals.

  “On to Astreya, last name unknown. That’s interesting. It’s like she’s an international crime lady rock star. A one-name phenomenon.” Xavier chuckled to himself as Rosa and I exchanged looks. Then we smiled, knowing that we were thinking the same thing about him and his goofy behavior at times. That’s what made him so lovable, I guessed.

  “What do you have on her?” I asked. “Oh, and how did you find her name so easily back at Nohemi’s? You running a database on questionable criminally compromised individuals now?” That honestly wouldn’t surprise me if he did, actually.

  “No, but she’s a known associate of Caris, or was,” he informed us. “And so, I put in Caris’ name, and then Voyda’s, and she came up pretty soon. All very convenient if you know where to look online.” He said this as if everyone should know that type of information.

  “Okay, then…” I didn’t know that type of information, and I worried about those that might. “But you never told us what this Astreya person did or how she was connected. Can you fill us in now?”

  “She’s out of Colombian Government Intelligence if that helps you. Her file is extensive but redacted. She’s got to be the brains in this Miami scheme, and that’s saying something. I mean, none of these people are slouches. And she’s probably the Yabut connection, directly tied into the Colombian end of things.” Xavier stopped and corrected himself. “That’s just speculation on my part, but well…”

  We’ll add it to the pile of speculative intelligence then. We have plenty, Rosa noted. I caught her eyes and gave her a questioning look. None of it was verified. Not really, not yet. I’m just saying what we all already know.

  “True,” I replied. “Thanks for that depressing little tidbit of info. Xavier, what else do you have? Have you found out anything about the woman known as ‘Mirror’? She sounds fascinating to me.” I was joking as I thought back to the woman at the lab, with the girl Jozie, and where I’d shot Caris. I’d heard the woman’s voice, heard her tell someone that ‘they’d been compromised,’ but it was too busy then for me to remember now if she had any kind of accent. That could have been Astreya, or it could have been Mirror.

  But then again, Nohemi said that Astreya was always at the docks, and that was the city lab I’d been in, so maybe… this really was the Israeli or Middle Eastern woman I had seen that day. “Xavier, do you have any pictures of the other known associates? I saw another woman, and she could be that Mirror we’re looking for. I might be able to identify her if there’s an image available.”

  Xavier typed hurriedly, and a few moments later, he came over to the helm to show me what he had found. There was a long queue of photos of women pulled up on his screen, and there was no way that I could look through all of them from here. “Make it easier on me, Xavier. She had an olive complexion, dark brown hair, and she was kind of mundane looking, no scars, nothing like that.”

  Hair can be dyed, Rosa teased me, but she was right.

  “Yeah, I know, but we have to have something to go on,” I replied. “Middle Eastern descent, most likely. That might help you out.”

  “It will. Thanks,” Xavier answered and went back over to sit and research. “And Nohemi said something that made you think that she was a doctor. Is that right? Or am I misremembering that part?”

  “No, you’re right. Add that to your list.” I grinned as if he hadn’t already planned on doing that.

  Xavier used the trip back home well, but he still didn’t come up with much on Mirror’s real identity. But at least we did know where to start looking for the other lab and the rest of the trio.

  During one of my break times on Wraith, when I should have been napping or something equally restful, I texted LaShawn to let him know that we would be back in Miami probably by this evening if everything went well and we didn’t run into any more trouble. The stories and explanations would have to wait to be told in person, and I promised that there’d be some good ones.

  Once I got better cell reception, I called Verity to let her know that we were on our way back and that everything had gone well.

  “Hey. How have you been? How’d the opening go for your company?” I expected her to tell me everything as I laid on the bunk and tried to get tired enough for a nap. Not that listening to her was boring, not really. But her voice was relaxing and calming after everything that the team and I had just gone through.

  “We had to postpone it,” she sighed. “There have been some odd things happening, and they canceled our venue out from under us. Weir is trying to find out exactly why, but so far, no one is returning his calls.�
� This was upsetting to her. I could hear it in her voice.

  I wanted to be empathic to her situation. “That’s got to be hard, Verity. I’m sorry. Maybe you all can locate another place. It might be short notice, but there’s no reason---”

  “Oh, no! We already tried that.” She cut me off with her justification. “they have put all our permits on hold. We just don’t know why. It’s so infuriating. I tend to think that Weir has an adversary somewhere higher up that is undermining his influence. It's enough to make me… ugh!” Her frustrated noises were kind of amusing, only hearing them over the phone. I thought it best just to let her vent and not interrupt her.

  Once it was safe to reply to her, I offered my most concerned anecdote and called it a night so that I could hang up. I had been avoiding having this mental conversation with myself for a while now. And now I was lying here with nothing but my thoughts to occupy me. And I had to face the fact that Verity and I were not compatible.

  I liked her a lot, but that wasn’t going to be enough to make this a lasting thing, let alone a relationship with a future. My mind went back to several of my old girlfriends like Linda, long-time ones, live-in ones, ones that I thought might be worth settling down for, and I just couldn’t imagine seeing Verity’s beautiful blue eyes every morning. I just didn’t feel strongly enough about her, and I didn’t feel like she was there either. We liked one another’s company just fine, but that's about as far as it went.

  I just didn’t feel it, and it was unfair to drag it out. But I was going to wait and do this upfront and personal. For that, I had some time to figure out the best way to broach the subject and to do it so that I wouldn’t feel like a heel later on. At this resolution, I started to feel a little more relaxed and content about being back in Miami once again. With this, I closed my eyes, still thinking everything over, and got absolutely no rest at all.