Ultimatum Read online

  He’d lived like a monk in his ivory tower for years. No romance, no repeat lovers. He had his hi-tech billion-dollar empire, his passion for the USA, and power beyond anyone’s imagination. Why had he allowed himself to get hurt again?

  When he’d been enlisted to help Samaar and Alice escape from the cartels in Central America his heart had betrayed him. All he could think about was seeing her again. Their training in the Mossad where he’d met Samaar, code-name Luci, had been the right person at the wrong time in both their lives. He was still in mourning. And she, well, she was so damaged from the death of both her parents by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. They were both so sad and angry and yet their attraction was fierce.

  He undid his faded denim jeans, pulled his grey tee over his head and took his hard body and burning desire to bed.

  He fell into a fitful sleep, sadness and yearning making it impossible to find peace.

  After a couple of hours, he got up.

  He needed to run.

  Raven stood over six feet tall, lean and rugged. He was insulted that sometimes he was mistaken for Bill Gates. They shared the same mega rich bank accounts, but Luke considered himself much better looking than his friend Bill. Gates wanted to save the world through philanthropy, eradicating disease; Raven’s idea was to make the world a safe place by eliminating evil men. Bill in the public eye, Raven a shadow warrior. Luke thought of himself as a knight in DARPA’s invincible armor.

  He and Bill were both romantic idealists.

  He left the house through a back entrance hidden from the road and secured by the latest in electronic monitoring. The sun was slowly rising over the desert mountain. Everything went from charcoal to gold like a curtain sweeping open on a stage. The needles on the cacti caught the light and stood erect like swords. The chill of the night left a liquid haze on the bulletproof wall-to-wall windows. It was slowly evaporating with the early morning sun.

  He stretched his back and calf muscles. The tension from last night’s mission and his conversation with Luci would ease as he ran the trail up the chalky foothills and over the desolate mountains. He arranged his Glock and knife in specially made holsters. Raven was always prepared.

  He turned, alerted by a noise, and was surprised as a flash of hot pink spandex took off at break-neck speed ahead of him.

  He laughed out loud.

  “Oh, so this is how you want it? We’ll see about that.”

  12

  Hong Kong

  MEI MOANED. She stared at the ceiling in Billy’s stylish bathroom. If she had a gun, she’d take great pleasure shooting down the Baccarat crystal chandelier. It probably cost Billy half a million US dollars.

  The maid ran a steaming hot bath and added soothing oils and a touch of aloe. Mei was embarrassed to be seen with the damage inflicted by Lam; little did he know that his time was coming to an end.

  Mei’s parents were Chinese Party followers. Her beauty came from her mother, a distinguished opera singer; her intelligence from her father, a key player in the Communist Party. Several years ago, she and her brother had been taken from their parents and placed in a monastery. Mei never knew why. But when she was of age she was reinstated in formal education in Beijing. Mei easily earned a place in higher education with Doctoral degrees in computer science and spying.

  She effortlessly conquered the title of Miss Hong Kong with help from her sponsor, the People’s Republic of China. Meeting Billy Yee Lam, a pussy hound, was easy after that.

  After her Buddhist upbringing she abhorred what the party was forcing her to do.

  Her refusal was never an option.

  Mei eased herself gently into the bubbles. Her maid stood off to the side in case she needed help and then discreetly left the chamber.

  She knew what Billy was up to. And that’s what they were paying her to find out. Faking sleep, she’d listened to his conversation with Sying. When a woman as powerful as Sying gets into bed with the triads, the smoke turns into severe fire.

  China wanted world domination. Billy Yee Lam was interested in power of a different nature. His goal was to conquer the underworld and money and power were the ultimate spoils of his war. Billy and Mme Sying together was not a good thing.

  China’s massive war machine would not be derailed by Billy’s cyber-crimes.

  Mei added more hot water to her bath. She winced in pain. Mei endured the whipping inflicted by Lam. In Mei’s mind she longed for the moment when she could take Billy’s whip and wrap it around his balls and squeeze.

  Little did he know, his ultimate fate rested securely in her murderous hands.

  13

  Shanghai, China

  “LOOK WOO. I don’t care who it is. I’m busy.”

  Mme Anjou fussed in front of a full-length mirror, applying make-up and outlining her pouty red lips. You’d think she was going on a date instead of meeting her old friend Billy Yee Lam to discuss a business proposal.

  “Mme, I’m afraid you must take this call. It’s Tariq.” Woo bowed slightly. At that moment more than anything he wanted to be facing a computer terminal, his fingers flying over the keys, focusing on his current project for Sying.

  Sying immediately stopped her preening. Fear washed over her.

  “Yes, of course you are right Woo. Give me the phone.”

  “Good morning Tariq.”

  “Hello Sying. I thought you were in prison in Paris?”

  “Yes, I was, briefly. But money overcomes many obstacles. How did you locate me?” Mme Anjou panicked. If Tariq could find her, the Raven Group could trace her too. If Luci finds out she’s out of jail, her life will require a whole new level of security.

  “Easy. I have many sympathizers in France. I think we have some unfinished business. First there is the situation with the hack into the Office of Personnel Management in the US. That was a huge disappointment.”

  “Yes, you are correct, but totally out of my control.”

  “Then the human cargo I paid millions for from El Guapo in Mexico. What happened to that Ms. Sying?”

  Sying sighed, silent.

  “Let’s not forget about the ten million dollars I transferred into your account for Miss Jalisco. What can you tell me about that?”

  “Let me explain Tariq.”

  “And I understand you are responsible for my Gulfstream being hijacked by this agent Luci with my precious new adopted daughter on board!”

  Sying waited, scheming.

  “What do you have to say?”

  “Now that I have you on the phone, I think I may be able to make up for your losses.”

  “Yes?” Tariq probed.

  “I have a plan. You will not be required to do anything.” Playing games with the leader of ISIS was not a good business move.

  “Three times now you have disappointed me Sying. You’ve cost me anguish, pain, disappointment, and most important, money. You will have to make this very good. What do you propose?”

  Tariq listened while Mme Anjou outlined her plan.

  “I can work with that. Go to the front door of your suite. Now!”

  Sying glanced at Woo.

  “Woo, open the front door to our suite. Tariq has sent us something. Tell security by my private elevator.”

  Woo looked back, his face white.

  “Mme Anjou, I think you might want to see this.”

  Sitting comfortably in two antique Louis V chairs were her security team. Both shot between the eyes.

  Trembling, Sying stated, “I understand Tariq.”

  Tariq was already gone.

  14

  Las Vegas, NV

  “I HAVE NO IDEA! All I know is I’m out of here. On to Plan B.”

  The rooftop of the Encore Hotel had been a brilliant choice for the meet. With fake security badges, no questions were asked when they made their way up to the communication towers on the roof.

  The setting sun cast a golden glow over Sin City. Josh thought about taking a selfie with the extraordinary lights of the strip beh
ind him. It would only take a few seconds to post to Facebook. But he was pretty sure his guest would not have been impressed.

  He opened his camouflage vest and pulled out a small object. Josh tested his prototype binoculars on the Wynn Penthouse suite directly across the rooftops. With the naked eye, he could see virtually nothing.

  He noted a strategically placed mole on the call girl’s body. He offered the binoculars to his companion.

  “If I’m not mistaken, that mark on her body is anything but a mole.”

  His guest was entranced; probably most interested in her naked body.

  “I would guess that mole has “eyes”. I saw this demonstrated at a security conference last month. More than likely, the john’s credit card, banking and personal passwords are currently being transmitted from his iPhone to her iPhone. A remote connection at this precise moment will be cleaning out his accounts and charging his cards to the max.”

  He took his glasses back.

  “Look, I was careful, cautious. What saved me, and my security team was the underground facility that was built as an air raid shelter.”

  Josh kept some equipment on site at Nellis not far away from his center of operations. When he was unsupervised, he went to the abandoned space and worked on gaining access to the secure files. At a casual glance, the work was being done from the same location; exactly where he was supposed to be.

  “We had strategically placed a desk to hide the upper entrance. There was a secondary exit, a tunnel to an aircraft hangar; all forgotten years ago. Probably on a map somewhere but whoever came for us didn’t know about it. If they found us through heat signatures, we made it look like we were upstairs; but all this time I stayed directly underground with my security.

  As soon as the internal sensors were blown out, I grabbed my equipment and took off. Sloppy intel on their behalf. Lucky for us.” Josh finished his nervous explanation.

  “I contacted you right away.”

  “Capturing you would have required drastic measures.” Josh’s controller had turned his body from prying eyes and spoke quietly without seeming to move his lips.

  “What will you do now? The Chairman is counting on you. That information is critical going forward.”

  Josh graduated MIT with honors, his specialty Cyber Security. Over the past summers he’d worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency who hoped to secure his brilliance year-round on their permanent staff.

  “What worries me is who is aware of me? And what do they know?” The temperature lowered quickly in the waning light. He was shivering.

  “Here’s the challenge I’m facing. DARPA is dangerously close to securing its networks. But I have made remarkable progress. I have codes. Now I have to find a way to get them to Washington.”

  “Failure is not an option Comrade Ling.”

  “I would prefer, sir, that my family name is never used in conversation. My cover is deep.”

  “My apologies. I am old school. I suppose you are much more aware of the listening capabilities of the world’s superpowers than I am.”

  Josh doubted that. More than likely it was a subtle reminder that if he failed his family in Toronto and Beijing would disappear.

  They both looked out over the gaudy Vegas strip.

  Welcome to Sin City, an adult gaming paradise.

  And Josh’s game, not by choice, was espionage.

  15

  Run Luci, Run; Nevada desert

  THE NIGHT CREATURES had returned to their caves and the day beasts had yet to rise. The creosote bush smelled of recent rain; wild, cleansing, comforting.

  Luke let Luci take the lead. He was all out of conversation.

  She was captivating yet fueled by anger and revenge. You wouldn’t want to make a pass at this girl at the neighborhood bar. She could turn a game of pool into a deadly encounter. Couldn’t he choose a tamed woman to soothe his broken soul?

  Run Luci, run.

  She disappeared over the crest of a hill, dust billowing up behind her.

  He knew how enraged she must be. He’d been there. His wife and child were killed in a diving accident in the Bahamas. He’d been in denial but now knew in his heart Sying had been responsible. Still, he blamed himself. When you can’t protect your loved ones, you don’t deserve to live. Yeah, he knew Luci’s anger.

  Luci had been on the run with Alice since her birth. But it was a desperation move to try to keep Luci killing for the Mossad. They needed her for a Mossad-CIA operation. She was sent to take out an alleged rogue US agent responsible for helping himself to supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars in diamonds.

  Raven heard about the heist. Top secret meant nothing to him. He found out that the guy was innocent. But Luci saw this as an opportunity. Alice’s dad, an Arab, had been killed in the Middle East and she had found out later that she was pregnant. Now, Luci was a Mom and Mossad wouldn’t let her out. So, she found a way to access the diamonds and the money and took off on the run. She also accessed bank accounts jointly owned by the CIA and the cartels. But that was through an agent of RAW, a top-secret contact, who had also gone underground not too long ago.

  More than a few people wanted her dead. But Luke had stepped in and made a deal that saved her life. Mossad stepped down. And she could breathe again in certain parts of the world. Still, she really didn’t want this life. But, it was what she knew; and she owed Luke after he rescued her and Alice on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

  Now Luci and Alice were here.

  His responsibility.

  His family.

  One thing he knew for sure; he would defend them with his life.

  16

  Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, DC

  “I DON’T CARE what you have to do. We must have that information! It’s all about the money. If we control the money, we have the power.”

  “But sir, how can we do that?”

  “The American banking system has the ‘fake’ money, the IOU’s, the futures, the debt. The Federal Bank, which is not a federally run institution, controls everything. We get the information we need. We get in, put in our back door, we get out. We have control.”

  “So, while they are watching, thinking we are only after their military and industrial secrets, we take control of their money?”

  He smiled for the first time today. “Something like that Cheung. Something like that.”

  His assistant looked puzzled.

  “What?”

  “But the Chairman wants China to be the most powerful country in the world. Doesn’t he need their military secrets, the things DARPA is working on?”

  “Yes, he does. But that is not your concern. We are taking care of that. Now back to work. Contact Zhang again. Be relentless until he gets us what we need.”

  “Yes Comrade, sir.”

  17

  Las Vegas, NV

  ZERO TO ASTOUNDING in sixty seconds.

  His Harley was his passion. Well, aside from his lover Cai; but lovers come and go. Bikes are forever.

  He was distracted by his conversation on the roof of the Encore Hotel. How was he going to give China what they wanted and still satisfy Billy Lam? And more important, how had his estranged brother Billy found out he was working for Chinese Intelligence?

  He cruised the Las Vegas strip. A mid-Western couple wandered aimlessly. They looked lost in the hangover of last night’s free booze and apparent losses. He slowed for a light by Fashion Show Mall and watched the wife smack her husband on the arm. His black plastic Wynn bucket tumbled to the sidewalk. A couple of lonely quarters rolled into traffic.

  Speeding up, Josh turned into Trump Tower, and gave the doorman his keys. Cai’s family owned several units in the ultra-luxurious condo complex. Josh was old Chinese money; at least it appeared that way if anyone was vetting him. But in reality, his family were profiteers. Recognizing the ultimate form of communicating and moving money, they’d made sure Josh was educated at MIT and prepared to take over
their vast fortune.

  Josh had his own ideas. He didn’t want the structure of their now legitimate businesses. His goal was retirement in five years or less by selling some fantastic hi-tech idea; and then they would chase boys in Thailand or some remote island in South Pacific. Josh and Cai hadn’t planned on the Ministry of State Security for China getting mixed up in their lives.

  Josh used his key to enter the condo. It looked like any other condo. But he went through the process of retina scanners disguised as a realtor’s lockbox, with a panel that responded only to their fingertips.

  You can’t be too safe he mused.

  “Honey, I’m home!”

  Josh moved slowly through their living area into his office.

  It was the odd smell that first caught his attention.

  Something seemed off.

  He noticed a russet colored heart-shaped mark on his white acrylic desk. A small object sat in the middle. Ah, Cai playing games again. He smiled and moved to pick it up.

  And then he gasped.

  18

  The Las Vegas Desert

  LUKE CONTINUED AT a brisk pace, enough to burn energy but not enough to catch up with Luci.

  The mountains of Montana were more Luke’s style. But that was before he experienced the stunning beauty of the Nevada desert. Last week he’d camped out by himself and captured the wonders of the howling coyotes with infrared photography. He could be in stillness for hours at a time. Patience was a secret taught to him by his Blackfoot grandfather; that, and how to kill.