Chapter 8
“Hello?”Petra saidinto her phone two days later and stared into space with a blank look on her face as she listened to the person on the other end of the phone.
“Agent Thomas, you’re wanted in the Director’s office.Please come now,” the person said, then hung up.
Petra rose from her desk, grabbed a pad of paper and pen to make it look good, straightened her suit jacket, and headed toward the elevators.Five minutes after her phone had rung, she was walking into the conference room and only stumbled once when she saw who was fixing himself a drink in the corner.When he turned, she nodded only once.
“Agent Kessler.”
“Agent Thomas, please, take a seat.”He took one across from her, and that was when Petra realized it was only the two of them in this meeting.Her direct supervisor, nor the Director of the department was in attendance.
“I’m going to get right to the point.I heard back from Agent Rankin.He tells me you are one hundred percent on board with what he wants to do?”
“I am.”Petra didn’t hesitate in her response to him.
“You realize that you might be undercover for years?That according to everyone in this office you will have been let go, and your only agency contact will be with me or Agent Flynn with the DEA?”
“Yes, Psycho explained it all to me.Sir, I’ve been sitting at my desk for the last eight months longing for another undercover assignment.I know we took out some bad people when I was in Tucson, but I’m good with that.I also know it’s going to take work getting the club that Psycho wants to get started up and running.I know it will be hard work to clean up his house and the building for his club house.I know this, I am ready to push up my sleeves and get to work.I also know that if any of the men that was with us on the Devil’s Scorpion sting has any women, I will be the one to not only do background checks on them, but I will also be in charge of them if something goes down.I’m up to the task.”
“And this romantic interest Rankin told me about.Where he thinks the two of you can make a go of it?”
She shrugged, then grinned, “I have no problem with that.I sort of fell for him out in Tucson.It took everything in my power not to call the jail out there and check to see how Psycho was.I know you call him Rankin, and maybe I will too, eventually, but I met him as Psycho, and that’s all I’ve known him as.I fell for him hard, and this will give me the opportunity to satisfy that part of my life, as well as to work undercover helping him and the others take out some very, very bad people.I believe if this is done correctly, then we can get more than just the one percenters arrested.”
“How so?”Kessler looked genuinely confused as he asked that.
“Think about it.If we can get the drugs or firearms in the hands of these one percenters, and if the timing is right, when you make your raids, then you can not only get them, but you can get the people they are selling them to.You might even get the people that are ordering these products.”
“Again, how so?”
“This is all hypothetical at this point, but what if the one percenters are the go between?For example, say they’re looking for a large shipment of cocaine, or heroine.After Tainted Shield is established and gains the reputation of getting what people want, sans women and children, that is.What if the person in charge gives the one percenters the go ahead to order a large shipment of drugs, say a few kilos, to get their feet wet.Word gets out, we provide it, then you sit on them after they pick it up.It would be your agents that would keep an eye on them to photograph and document who comes and goes to their homes.Other than other club members.Eventually, you can get the person ordering it, the one percenters, as well as the people on the streets who sell it.”
“I see, once one of your stings are in motion, then we come in and see what’s what, without making any arrests until we can research the players.But we can work with the locals to pinch a few of the street dealers, and we can make it look like it was a random bust, and not something Tainted Shield set up.”
“Exactly, and again, if done correctly, slowly and methodically, we can get these fuckers.Will we wipe out the entire shipment of drugs coming into the country, no.We’re not expecting that, but we can get some of them off the street.”
Kessler sat there and sipped his coffee, staring off into space.It was a good three minutes before he shook his head and looked at her.“You know, when Rankin came to me about you, I was extremely skeptical that this plan of his would work, but hearing how you think about it, it makes more sense to me.I’m going to go ahead and approve of your going undercover.Again, there’s no end date to this.If you want out, then you’ll have to come to me and we can terminate your employment.I will get with HR back in Washington, DC and have them deposit your check into the same account you used for the Devil’s Scorpions operation.”He nodded when she did and asked, “Is there anything else?”
“Yes, one, when do I start with Psycho?”
“When is he leaving again?”
“This coming Monday.”
“Then your last day will be Friday.Go with him.We don’t want the natives where you’re going to think it suspicious that a couple would arrive at different times.Will that give you enough time to clear up your life here?”
“Yes, I’m living in the agency’s rental, so not much to pack.I lost my parents a year before the Scorpion’s mission.I’m an only sibling, so no family to say goodbye to, or make excuses as to why they can’t reach me.I only have to pack up my personal belongings, and I can hit the road.”
“Okay, then go ahead and leave with Rankin.You said there were a couple of things, what else?”
“Two, Psycho said to mention for you to give me some money so I can purchase some burner phones on the way to our destination.Enough to get all the members one.Right now, I know of six, including Psycho.I have no clue as to when they will be joining us, but they will be coming.”
“Okay, I’ll get that to you by the end of day.What else?”
“I haven’t talked to Psycho about this, because it just occurred to me, but if all the members of Tainted Shield are all cops or agents, send some to us if they need to lay low after a mission.You know, like I was stuck in an office on the other side of the country from the Devil’s Scorpion’s mission.”
“Ah, I understand.They can regroup, if they want to join you, then they would have to work with Rankin, I understand he will be the President of this new club.”
“That’s what he told me.However, I wouldn’t just send them to us blindly.”
