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  “Drop her in the deep-water Port of Hong Kong. You know where.”

  He felt nothing for the severely disfigured female body crumpled on the cement floor. There will be plenty more like that before this is over. He closed his tablet and exited the open door of his vehicle.

  Along the black slate pathway Billy stopped to pick an ivory star-shaped jasmine flower. Its sweet melancholy aroma took him back to his mother’s lap. She was long dead. Would she be proud of his power and fortune?

  Miss Hong Kong posed against the black and gold door of his mansion on Hong Kong’s Peak Road. Her ruby lips pouted dramatically. A blood red kimono teased exposure as she seductively strode forward.

  “Mi amour.” She licked his ear. “I have missed you. Come, let me get you a drink.”

  Billy grabbed her by the arm squeezing tightly. His onion breath overwhelmed her senses.

  Impassioned by the bloody photo, he whispered in her ear.

  “Later woman. First, it is I who will show you how to relax me.”

  She pretended coolness to mask her hatred of the man who thought he owned her. She kissed Billy with a shiver he mistook for passion.

  She only prayed that one day she would be the one to use a cold steel blade to cut off his balls.

  Unaware of her feelings, he crushed the forgotten flower under his feet.

  5

  Singapore, Malaysia

  SYING PACED HER black onyx floors, her gold Louboutins clicking to the tune of Woo’s abacus.

  “Woo, when did you last hear from Billy Lam?”

  “This morning Mme Anjou.”

  Sying, of Chinese descent, had always deplored her humble roots. Her Asian-American parents had tried to build in Sying a desire for her homeland China, but Sying had only one interest. And that was money. With money came power. And some of that power had backfired recently, thus the change of name and facial reconstruction.

  “Woo, we cannot afford another failure like the Office of Personnel Management in the US Government! That information would have made us billions. Now I’m on the most wanted list of ISIS, North Korea and the US. It’s a good thing they think I’m dead, and only a few are aware I’m reincarnated.” Her high-pitched laugh would be unnerving to anyone but Mr. Woo. He’d learned how to tune her out when he worked his magic on the abacus.

  Sying admired her slim shape in the baroque Parisian mirror. She adjusted a Chanel jacket that barely covered perfect tiny breasts and emphasized a minuscule waist. One would never guess this fashionista was an expert of mixed martial arts; deadly, to be precise.

  Woo nodded, continuing his calculations.

  “How did Luke Raven find out about my involvement in the cyber breach?” She looked out her skyscraper windows, admiring the Marina Bay Sands Hotel across the Bay.

  “I suppose he knows me better than I realized. I was his protégé of sorts during our Caltech days. Or maybe RB, his lap dog during our postdoctoral studies, recognized my electronic signature.”

  Sying admired her blood red nails. They matched the color of the soles of her designer shoes.

  “Luci and the Raven Group have interfered in my business and they will pay. Raven hunted me down and destroyed my magnificent payday. They left me for dead in Shanghai. But it’s not that easy to kill Sying is it Woo!”

  Woo put his abacus down and focused his full attention on Mme Anjou.

  “I will see Luci suffer in death. But that will have to wait. Money and power always come first. And we have a plan, right Woo?”

  “Yes Sying.”

  After a few failed business ventures that included a partnership with a now-defunct Mexican drug cartel and the abduction of Luci’s four-year-old daughter, Sying had allowed herself to be captured and placed in jail in France. Little did the Raven Group know, she was out within 24 hours and in her place was some poor Chinese immigrant whose family were well paid to have her impersonate Mme Anjou. Now she had crafted a brilliant new plan.

  She felt at home in the high-stress cosmopolitan city of Singapore rebuilding her empire and counting her money.

  “Woo, let’s order champagne and lobster! I wish to celebrate our partnership with Billy Yee Lam. The triads are the perfect instruments for the destruction I have planned!”

  6

  Beijing, China

  IN AN UNDERGROUND facility somewhere in central Beijing the sweat poured down Colonel Zhang’s plump back. He popped another blood pressure pill and paced the rows of computer terminals.

  A team of experts worked at a frantic pace.

  “Come on! What’s taking so long?”

  His stout form was anxiety packed. At sixty-two he should be mindful of his weight and be thinking about retirement. Ha! In the new China, he’d work until he was eighty.

  “Anyone? Anyone in yet?” One hundred studious young men bowed their heads in concentration.

  “If you can’t get the job done, I’ll demote the entire team and bring in others. Younger and smarter!”

  He strode between the rows of terminals, tension mixed with fear. If Zhang doesn’t perform he won’t get fired, he’ll be shot. The Chairman only understands results.

  The hack into the Office of Personnel Management was a mere diversion, a red herring. And Sying, the brilliant partner in that venture turned out to be useless. Yes, there could have been some information there that might have helped the Government but to get to it would take a lot of work; retired employees and military contractors. Social Security numbers! These were not the players China wanted. The breach was merely a probe to see the reaction of the US government.

  And Zhang had been right. They did absolutely nothing; too afraid to rock relations that were already fragile.

  Zhang moved amongst the ranks and stopped at the first cubicle.

  “Chen! What are you doing? There will be no breaks, no conversation. Perform or I replace you with another team leader!”

  The Colonel had a long and honorable career in China. He was a quiet behind-the-scenes man. He was not happy when he was publicly lauded for his most recent career success. Since 2010 China had opened eight National Intelligence Colleges in major universities. Their express purpose was to prepare brilliant young men and women to fill the roles of spies both in Asia and around the world. There was little doubt in the Western world that these young people were being trained to steal the technology of private business and infiltrate various military branches. So far, their enemies couldn’t prove anything. Last year over five hundred had been accepted into the program. Many would relocate to the US, UK and Europe.

  Zhang smiled to himself.

  “Chen. You know the US government spends billions on back door cyber protection. But the Ivy League Universities open the front door and accept Chinese students and their billions in tuition money! The summer schools in China spit out spies-in-training and laugh as their students make the honor roll at Stanford, Caltech and MIT!”

  Chen nodded but focused on his computer terminal.

  Cyber War was thriving and spearheaded by the Chinese government all over the world.

  “Chen. Have you reached our agent in Nevada yet?”

  “No sir. He appears to be offline. No response.”

  “Keep trying!”

  “Time is running out! We miss this window and we shut down. Again!” A chorus of yes sirs filled the room.

  Zhang checked his vibrating iPhone. A photo popped up on his screen.

  He smiled for the first time all night.

  Later my little flower. Later.

  7

  Nellis AFB

  “LUCI, ZACH, READY?”

  “Yes boss. Lead the way!”

  “Okay. The red light on the corner is the only indication that anything is happening over here. The satellite image is from twenty minutes ago. It has located movement in the building, here and here.” Raven pointed to his iPhone. The lighter signature will be our person of interest, the rest his security detail. Foreign loyalty. Expendable. We have no idea ho
w involved they are, so we can’t have anyone left alive except our target. Got it?”

  Luci and Zach nodded. Each did a last-minute check of their weapons.

  Luke wondered at the lack of sentries outside the structure. This team was definitely cocky. His body focused on the job at hand. His mind wandered back to the conversation he’d had with the Department of Defense (DOD) earlier in the evening.

  “We know your team can handle this discreetly. We can’t let the information get out that we are this vulnerable to attack. It seems every time we take one step forward, someone copies us and moves ahead. We’ve narrowed the leak down to this small sector. We don’t want the base to know that Nellis AFB has been compromised in any way.

  This property is an out-of-bounds no-go area. It’s far enough from the rest of the base that using silenced weapons shouldn’t be a problem. There are so many things happening in the desert that are entirely off the books, so their top command understands need-to-know. We want absolutely no intel, and zero fallout from this incursion. Do whatever you have to do. Get us what we need!”

  Plans for the structure of the building were imprinted on their minds. It appeared to be a simple four-wall box. A low-tech potent chemical would be placed along the doorjamb to destroy any type of traditional locking mechanism. They used their Raven Group modified iPhones to neutralize all codes.

  In five seconds they were in.

  Luci moved quickly along the hallway to the area in the southeast corner that was dedicated to the cyber operation.

  Zach expected to encounter guards. None were present.

  “Luke!” He gestured, fingers to eyes, shaking his head back and forth.

  “Negative here,” Luci whispered.

  Luke grasped the handle on the inner door mere seconds after they entered the cement structure. He stood confident, well protected with DARPA’s latest body armor. The door should have been secure but wasn’t.

  Going in low, silenced weapons alert, their penetrating optics quickly swept the compact space; nothing.

  No exterior doors. No windows. Empty. The three operatives looked at each other.

  “What the hell Luke!”

  “Out! Let’s move it.”

  8

  Beijing, China

  ZHANG CURSED LOUDLY. A window of opportunity lost again. Lau will never let him get away with this. He sent a message to Chen.

  “My office. Now!”

  Chen quietly entered the barren office of Colonel Zhang. He knew this was it. Failure was never an option. He should have been able to get past the DARPA firewall. They had all the information, the latest codes sent most securely from their contact in Arlington, Virginia.

  “The Chairman will not accept failure Chen. What went wrong?”

  Chen stumbled, his words trailing off into cyberspace. He looked at his feet, his hands, coughed and finally muttered his apologies.

  “We’ve put so much time and millions of dollars into this project Chen! I am counting on you to lead your men and women. What seems to be the obstacle?”

  “Sir. We’re trying. The best way I can explain, they have firewalls that so far are impenetrable. Every time we use a code on our list, we can get in, then get jammed and bounced out. I don’t know how they’re doing it! This should not be happening.”

  His grey military jacket was too big for his slight frame. His short black hair showed signs of premature grey accents. He used his white t-shirt to clean his Armani glasses, the only indication that he was being paid more than the average wage for a young man in the Chinese military.

  “You’re a brilliant man Chen. I don’t understand half of what you do. But I know one thing. We need that information. Whatever DARPA is doing right now, we have to be smarter and better. The Chairman will accept nothing less from us.”

  China liked to play the robust, intellectual giant, a military force unparalleled. But the reality was that they needed to steal the technology that they had not yet developed.

  “Soon we could be at war Chen! We have a plan of attack. Before we initiate, we need to know what our enemy is capable of doing. We must get into DARPA!”

  “Yes Sir!”

  “When is our next opportunity Chen?”

  “15:00 sir.”

  “I’m leaving now but I’ll be back. If you have any kind of breakthrough, message me.”

  “Yes Sir.” Chen turned and quickly exited Zhang’s office.

  Zhang frowned; so many games, so many players. It won’t be long now.

  9

  Shanghai, China

  “SYING. Or should I call you Mme Anjou?”

  Sying smiled at the sound of his voice.

  “Billy. You may call me Sying.”

  “As I recall at Caltech we had many interesting names for each other.”

  “Hah, we were young and foolish. But we were smart, right Billy? Very smart, and here we are, cohorts again.” Sying smiled at the memory of many nights in the BDSM dungeons near Santa Monica. Billy had peculiar tastes for blood, sex and chains and Sying understood them very well. Her body tingled with anticipation.

  “Are you planning on coming to Singapore Billy?”

  Billy laughed; his phone on speaker so he could continue stroking the bruised thigh of his current Hong Kong playmate Mei. He admired the welts he’d strategically whipped along her back, smiling at the fact that her body was always ready for more. A cocktail of narcotics soothed her into submission and eventual sleep. He was too self-absorbed to notice the tears that trailed silently down her tawny cheekbones.

  “Not sure Sying. What have you got for me?”

  “I have financial information on the cartels in Mexico. The largest one is in shambles. The Mexican government assassinated the leader El Guapo and his key lieutenants. Their accountant is dead. I have codes, account numbers and key transit information. Mr. Woo, my assistant, is a computer genius. He has an idea. We have the access. Don’t ask how we did it. They lead to and from the US, Europe, Asia and many of the Caribbean Islands. There are billions. I need your help.”

  “How exactly can the triads help you?”

  “That’s what I want to discuss, but only in person. Meet me in Singapore the day after tomorrow; when you get to town, text me.”

  “How could I say no to that, Sying?” Billy Yee Lam laughed out loud. The audacity of that woman! She always was a bitch; a bitch in heat.

  This trip was looking very interesting indeed.

  Mei sighed, feigning sleep while plotting her revenge.

  10

  Desert, Las Vegas HQ

  “LOOK, I HAVE no idea. You were the one that gave us the intelligence. And more important, how could you make a mistake on heat signatures? Satellite imaging?”

  Luke stood, fuming, his fingers clicking keys on his command center console. RB monitored the big screen for any sign of unusual activity surrounding AFB Nellis.

  “I’m pulling up the image now. We got out as fast as we got in to avoid any kind of detection. It wasn’t easy. That was a stupid risk we took Sam. You better check into your information. You’ve got a leak somewhere or something is gravely wrong. Call me back.”

  “We shouldn’t have taken Sam’s word for this. If we’d used our own equipment, we might have avoided this stupidity. RB, what do you see?”

  “First, from the info you’ve given me I see something you might have missed on base.”

  “What? There was nothing to miss.”

  “Maybe there was Luke. Check this out.”

  RB pointed to a shadow within a frame. “See this? I think there’s an underground facility, a tunnel of sorts. Not too wide, maybe three meters. If you go back, you probably access it here.” RB placed his finger on a spot in the corner of the room where the empty desk had stood. “Or from another facility with a tunnel connecting.”

  “Where are Luci and Zach?”

  “Here.” Luci strolled in. Her shimmering black hair hung loosely to her waist, wet from her recent shower. Zach, all hard
muscle in a Black Sabbath t-shirt followed. He blushed as Luke gave him an angry look for checking out Luci’s assets in her tight black jeans. Even if Luci and Luke hadn’t slept together since her return from rescuing Alice, Luci belonged to him.

  “Take a look at what RB’s discovered.”

  They grouped around the satellite imaging.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Zach glowered.

  “Looks like it. Bad intelligence at the Department of Defense? Or were we meant to fail?”

  The four stood in stunned silence.

  A fifth entered the room.

  “Hey guys, is this a bad time for Chocolate Kahlua brownies?” Maggie stood in the doorway, her Glock firmly wedged in her hip holster, a platter in her hands.

  Luke laughed. “I want mine with vanilla ice cream.”

  11

  Later; Raven Group Las Vegas Desert HQ

  “YOU WILL NEVER understand, Luke. Don’t try.”

  “But Samaar. I do. I lost a wife and child to violence also. But give us a chance.”

  “I can’t. I’m sorry Luke. After Alice was kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta, I realized that her safety, her life was all that mattered to me. I can never be complacent again. I will never let my guard down.”

  “But I can protect both of you. Can’t you see that?”

  Samaar turned away, wiping her eyes, and quietly left his room.

  “Dammit!” Luke slammed the bedroom door.

  He stared at his angry image in the mirror. He could see the odd strand of grey peeking through his Cool Hand Luke messy style. It’s not that he looked terrible for being in his late thirties, but maybe he was getting too old for this shit. He’d lost his first love and his only child. He blamed himself for years for not being with them on that dive boat in the Bahamas. He could have saved them dammit! He believed he’d never recover or allow himself to love again. And now he was all twisted over Samaar and the delightful little Alice.