

BREAK NIGHT

John A. Rigby

Copyright 2012 John A. Rigby

##  Published by John A. Rigby at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
*****

BREAK NIGHT

*****

Chapter 1

Wednesday 1 August 2012 22:00pm, Matamoros, Mexico

The old barn was the only building for miles around and visitors were clearly neither welcomed nor wanted. The gravel crunched loudly under the large wheels of the black BMW as it pulled to a halt outside the barn. Heavily tinted, bullet-proof windows provided the security and anonymity that the occupants craved. The two well dressed men climbed out of the car and walked through the hot night air up to the barn door. The only noises that could be heard were crickets clicking and the occasional flutter of the wings of a bird flying off.

The men rapped sharply on the rickety wooden single door and a small shutter slowly opened. A battle-scarred face peered out at the two visitors and as soon as he recognised their faces, the doorman let them in.

"Gracias Juan" said the man in charge. "Wait out here please".

"Si Signor Perez" replied the burly doorman, leaving the barn as instructed.

The two men strode into the gloomy barn, where a man sat tied and slumped forward on an old chair in the middle of the room, illuminated only by a single bulb dangling from the ceiling. His head was covered by an old and torn hessian sack.

"Well, well, well.... Commandante Cabrere. What a disappointment you have turned out to be. I have looked after you so well over these years have I not? And now...well I hear that you have been sharing information with my enemies. What is happening to Mexico's great police force these days when its senior officials cannot be trusted?" said Perez with mocking irony.

He roughly pulled the sack from the cop's head to reveal a bloodied and badly beaten face - the result of Juan's brutal handiwork. The dazed cop slowly looked up at Perez with a resigned, knowing stare and paused before snarling

"Go to hell Perez!"

Perez slowly circled the chair, his gaze constantly fixed on Cabrere. He slowly and very deliberately pulled a gold pistol from the inside pocket of his Gucci leather jacket, letting the cop get a good close look.

"I can understand a man getting greedy. Indeed I am a very greedy man myself" he said nodding his head in self agreement.

"But I cannot tolerate disloyalty and people crossing me. No, no, no... It makes me sick. And it makes me look weak which I am certainly not." said Perez now shaking his head as if to give emphasis to his words and inner thoughts.

When he abandoned these self doubts and thoughts, he was positioned directly in front of Cabrere with his back to the prisoner. He paused reflectively for a few seconds before speaking again, his voice now a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"You are probably right Cabrere, I will go to hell" he paused again before adding in a steely voice.

"But you'll be there first - you sly bastard."

Perez then spun round very fast, looked deeply into the policeman's eyes, now filled with fear and shot him twice through the forehead at point blank range.

The cop slumped forward instantly dead, blood spraying from his brow.

"Come on Luis - it is done now and I feel much better. We have work to do for our business in Florida. This is not a problem for us now and we will soon find somebody else at the _delegacio_ n who will work for us." said Perez, now in a more contented frame of mind.

They walked out of the barn and Perez pulled a large brown envelope bulging with pesos from his jacket pocket and handed it to the hard doorman.

"Thank you for finding him Juan and bringing him here. I like to look after my loyal friends like you. I am afraid the Commandante has lost his head in many ways. He needs to rest in peace now - at the bottom of the sea perhaps. Can you arrange for this please?"

"Si Signor Perez y gracias" said Juan, tucking the envelope into his jacket pocket and walking back into the barn to oversee the disposal of the body of the corrupt law chief.

Thursday 12 August 2012 19:00pm, FBI Headquarters 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington DC

DEA Special Agent Logan Watson slouched back in his office chair and rubbed his face with both hands. His top button was undone, his tie was pulled down and he was real tired now. He looked out of the office window at the people down on the sidewalk heading for the bars and restaurants. He felt envious and wanted a cold Budweiser to take his mind off narco-criminals and these jerks at the FBI.

He looked across the desk at his new temporary partner, Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Madison Hayes. He wanted her too but he wasn't sure how to move that carnal desire on without screwing up their fledgling working relationship.

Watson was in the second week of a secondment from his Drug Enforcement Administration agent role to work with the FBI, the military and other Agencies in a series of cross-departmental operations called Operation Marlin. Its aim was to tackle the tidal wave of narcotics invading America, via Florida, and originating from Central and South America.

Several inter-Agency "mini-teams" had been established each to target a major known narcotic trafficker and bring them to justice through close co-operation and the open sharing of data and resources - without any prejudices. Hayes and Watson formed a mini-team code-named MEX1.

The President had ordered a major offensive on the dealers as he worked towards winning a second term in the White House. The November Presidential election was looming and the Republicans and Tea Party folk across the States had started to become very angry with the nation's seemingly unchallenged drug problems. They were rapidly winning public support for a fight back against the pushers and peddlers.

Across the whole of the United States, the President's meet and greet sessions with ordinary folk were punctuated with questions about the rampant drug problems. Dads Against Drugs (DAD) and Mums Against Drugs (MAD) button badges and bumper stickers were everywhere along with banners and T-Shirts. The TV and radio interviews all featured a series of awkward and difficult questions about how he planned to tackle the drugs issue.

Everyone it seemed wanted something done to tackle the white pus that oozed through America from Seattle to San Antonia and Portland to Philadelphia. It seemed that no street, no fashionable neighborhood, no ghetto nor corporate office block was untouched.

With the US drug trade said by the White House's Office of Drug Control Policy to be now worth $70bn a year, the Administration was losing the battle to keep its streets clear of drugs. The President was starting to look weak, ineffective and lost - he didn't like that and his ratings were suffering badly. He wanted results to convince the people of America that he was serious about drugs and that it was he who could make a difference.

Senior officials at the Department of Justice too were long aware of the criticism that its two most powerful agencies did not work well together and wanted to improve co-operation and intelligence sharing. The DoJ really wanted - no really needed - big results, more convictions and to win public admiration to ensure that it's multi-billion dollar budgets were not hacked back any further in the next round of public spending cuts. The order for all the different and competing agencies to "get along" had come from the very top – The White House. The War On Drugs was declared as he issued the quintessential Presidential order - "Take them down!"

Logan Watson was a promising agent in his late twenties who had progressed very well since joining the DEA. He had attended the State University of New York at Brockport for two years before joining the US Navy, where he had served as a reconnaissance pilot in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

His work with the DEA had taken him down to South America where he had spent a month's attachment with the DEA Jungle team in Columbia. But the recent past had been spent on street busts around Washington, New York and Boston.

Standing at 6 feet 2 inches, weighing 210lb with brown eyes and thick, curly black hair he was a strong, fanatically fit and imposing figure. He was also a dammed good poker player, a skill honed during idle time in his Navy days.

His father, Logan Snr, had served for many years in the NYPD before retirement and he had always held strict views on what was good and what was evil. Those beliefs had passed on to his son so maybe Logan was always destined to work in some form of law enforcement role eventually.

Watson had quickly volunteered for this secondment opportunity from Arlington in the hope that it would boost his career prospects - and his monthly pay cheque. A lot of his fellow DEA agents were married and settled down with kids and didn't really fancy being away from home for a long time.

But a couple of months in the Sunshine State appealed to a single guy like Logan - and he decided to give it his best shot as he was confident he could get along with anybody. His boss, Special Agent Frank Jinks felt Watson was destined for good things in the Agency and happily supported Logan's application.

But by now Watson had already had enough of the painstaking intelligence work in Washington and getting the cold shoulder from some of the Feds - who historically resented what they considered to be "jumped up" DEA staff. He had hoped to make some new friends, and then take in some serious sports action in Florida like watching the Marlins at Sun Life. As he was a keen marksman, having scored top in DEA target practice competitions, he fancied his hand on one of the many shooting ranges down there.

So far none of his colleagues, with the exception of Madison, had shown any interest in him or made him feel particularly welcome in Washington. Madison had bought him lunch on his first day working with her and she was always cheerful and friendly but Logan wondered if that is what she had been told to do.

So Watson now itched for some action, some real action. He wanted out of Washington and into the Florida heat.

Madison Hayes was a graduate in bio-chemistry, in her late twenties too and in her fifth year now with the FBI. She had originally planned to follow her parents' footsteps and become a physician but had then decided to cut her own path and do forensic and analytical scientific work instead. Her interest in matters medical had remained and she had received advanced FBI medical training in dealing with emergency situations.

Madison was very attractive, standing about six feet tall, very slim with shoulder length dark brown hair and smouldering pale blue eyes. She was a highly intelligent, clear thinking, respected and calm lady very focused on doing her job well.

Hayes hadn't really applied for the secondment - her boss, Assistant Director Joel Konchesky, the FBI Assistant Director for Law Enforcement services and the senior officer in charge of MEX1, had nominated her for the job. He had long been impressed by her thorough, ordered analytical skills in the laboratory whilst examining drug samples or dead bodies always followed by logical conclusions. She possessed a tough and driven side to her personality that Konchesky liked.

Konchesky had earmarked Hayes as having the potential to rise to FBI Assistant Director Status in the not too distant future and she was on the Agency's Fast Track Development program. He felt some serious field experience, facing out hardened criminals, would complete the missing part of her impressive CV.

And as Konchesky had always been firmly in the "don't trust the DEA" camp, he knew she wouldn't take any shit from the DEA.

Madison kinda liked Watson straight away and thought he was polite, honest, knew his work well, had a sense of humour - and was hot. She wasn't dating anybody now but didn't yet want to mix her professional and social life. She was keeping things cool with him for now.

The pair were shared an office next door to Konchesky's office up on the 5th floor of the J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. They had spent the past week piecing together intelligence information supplied by local field agents from the FBI, DEA and occasionally from the murkier quarters of the CIA.

Reports were being received about illegal narcotic activities from all over the Americas and a lot of dollars had been thrown at informants. The walls of the MEX1 office were covered in grainy photographs of suspects, properties, boats, autos, sea maps, airport listings and hundreds of contact numbers on sticky notes.

The joined-up intelligence was slowly beginning to work but there were still some key gaps in data.

Watson and Hayes had been given the task of apprehending Miguel Perez, a violent Mexican who had amassed a fortune from a lifetime of illegal activities including drug running, protection rackets, arms supply and prostitution. The terms of reference for all teams operating under Operation Marlin were simple - Kill or Capture.

Perez was on all American agencies "most wanted list" primarily due to his recent links with fanatical Middle Eastern terror groups, to whom he had been providing a terrifying arsenal of weapons, explosives and chemicals.

He was nicknamed _Pablo de la nueva_ or _the new Pablo_ after Pablo Escobar the famed Columbian drugs baron. Perez was now the biggest player in South American smuggling and operated separately from the other cartels in Mexico after several bloody feuds had ultimately led to agreements on "territorial" rights. He had risen to become the ruler of the narcokleptocracy in South America.

Perez kept a very close circle of acquaintances and trusted very few people, perhaps due to his uncertain and unloved start to life. His secluded white fifteen roomed hacienda, perched high on a cliff outside Matamoros, was rumoured to have cost over $50 million - and was more protected than Fort Knox. The Perez estate included helicopter landing areas, a small runway for light aircraft and at the bottom of the cliff there were moorings for various superfast vessels. Between four and five ex-Chetnan soldiers provided round the clock armed security - and they took no prisoners.

American agency attempts to bribe locals for information about Perez had not been very successful and any unfortunate servant thought likely to have spoken to the Americans was quickly wasted. However large wads of pesos or greenback dollars always appealed to members of the poorly paid local community and every now and then somebody would talk in private.

Perez was a very hands-on guy and most of the time would personally deliver shipments of cocaine or heroin to buyers - to ensure full and immediate payment, usually in cash. His wife, Maria, was heavily involved in the business and the only other associate identified by American intelligence, was his childhood friend from the less affluent part of Matamoros, Luis Delgado.

The US Government wanted him dead or alive.

Hayes had been tapping away on her PC for some time now and seemed engrossed studying something. Watson struck up a conversation in the hope that it might lead to a drink with her later on in one of the nearby bars.

"Hey Maddi - you found something?"

Hayes didn't really like being called Maddi - and neither would her parents had they heard it - but she tolerated it as they needed to get on. She later found out that this was the abbreviated nickname he had for a college acquaintance back in New York also called Madison and he had no idea that it had offended her.

"I'm still waiting for our Florida agent's latest update on Perez but to tell you the truth I was reading about a weird incident. This is the second case I have seen this year of a huge tapeworm being recovered from the intestine of a human body down in Florida. This worm measured over ninety feet in length, was described by eye witnesses as being very thin, bright white and aggressive in nature."

"Unfortunately the surgeon didn't retain the parasite instead ordering its immediate incineration. The host, an elderly man in his 60s, died a few days later of heart failure. One of the junior surgeons posted an internet report on a pathology newsgroup I follow and guessed the worm was from the Diphyllobothriasis family of parasites. He said the creature was similar to a serpent in its behavior."

Watson could see she was fascinated by the article and resisted the urge to make a joke about his colleague's favoured internet browsing - which was of an entirely different nature to his own preferred gambling web sites.

"Ninety feet? No way!" he said trying to sound as interested as he could and using this as an excuse to lean over her shoulder and look at her PC. She smelt good he noticed.

"And what the hell is diffyobothry?" Logan asked in understandable ignorance.

"It is a fish tapeworm that is caused by an organism called _Diphyllobothrium latum_. People can contract it by eating raw or undercooked fish or shellfish, like mackerel and red snapper that contains fish tapeworm larvae. Usually in human intestines, this type of tapeworm grows up to thirty feet long which is why the 90 foot worm in Port Charlotte is so weird."

"You know I really worry about what is happening to our eco-system down in Florida when people are dumping unwanted pets like snakes, cougars and tigers and introducing them into new environments and habitats. Some estimates say there could be upwards of 100,000 pythons in the wilds of the Everglades National Park. When big aggressive snakes like the African python and the Indian python cross-breed we've got a real problem on our hands. And who knows what has already been produced down there that we don't yet know about - or understand."

Logan nodded. He had been told pre-assignment that she was very smart and logical and now he was seeing those qualities for himself.

They were then interrupted by Assistant Director Konchesky's harsh voice.

"Madison, Watson my office now. Your target is on the move."

Chapter 2

**Thursday 12** th **August 2012, 22:00pm EST, El Alcatraz longliner, Gulf of Mexico** **.**

"It is working again Senor Perez" said Capitán Hector Sanchez nervously. His brow was sweating profusely and his hands, covered in diesel, still trembled with fear. He had witnessed Miguel Perez's temper before and had once watched Perez execute a fisherman who had crossed and upset him. Sanchez cursed the engine and was desperate for his usually reliable new boat to get his unwanted client to American waters.

"No more delays" shouted Perez curtly with his eyes narrowing.

"We cannot be late to Florida. Do you understand me?" He shot a frightening look at Sanchez which didn't really need a reply.

"Si Senor" gulped Sanchez as he steered El Alcatraz out into the Gulf of Mexico and increased the ship's speed gingerly.

An attractive young woman climbed the steps and joined Perez and Captain Sanchez on the bridge of El Alcatraz.

"Miguel. Is it OK now?" she asked keenly.

"Yes the old man says he has fixed it. There will be no more problems now" Perez replied to his young wife kissing her softly on the cheek and then glancing again towards Sanchez, who swiftly avoided any eye contact.

"We will be in American waters by daylight and then we will meet Luis as planned. He has acquired a very fast boat and has it hidden in a boathouse near to Boca Grande lighthouse. Everything else is good."

Perez stood about 5 feet 10 inches, had dark brown eyes and was of slight build with thick black hair parted down the middle and brushed back. He was well tanned and had perfect white teeth - the best money could buy.

He had been born in Matamoros forty three years ago and had lived there all his life - though he could have afforded to live anywhere in the world he wanted. He had no idea who his parents were having been abandoned at birth and had been raised in a series of orphanages. This is where he had been schooled in all sorts of criminal tricks and cons and a violent criminal was formed.

It is in one of those orphanages that he met Luis Delgado and a lifetime friendship was forged. Delgado was a large boy who slept in the bunk bed above Perez. They became friends as Perez helped Delgado with homework and Delgado had looked out for Perez like a younger brother. When other boys at the orphanage started to bully Perez, Delgado had stepped in with his fists and protected his friend. This level of "brotherly" protection had carried on throughout their teen years and Perez had never forgotten it. He was the brains and Delgado was the muscle.

Perez never had the opportunity to attain many qualifications at school but that didn't mean he wasn't intelligent. He certainly was naturally bright and now spoke English, Russian and Portuguese fluently. He often wondered what he might have become had criminality not rewarded him so well.

Perez and Delgado's criminal education started off with low level activities such as picking the pockets of the middle classes around town before moving on to shop lifting, car theft and forgery. Perez realised he was good at this; it was very profitable and it was much easier than working in a factory or on a trawler.

By the time he was eighteen he had moved onto armed robbery and soon added murder to his CV. He was already feared - and respected - by the hoodlum underclass in Matamoros whom by now he pretty much controlled. It was only a matter of time before he graduated to drug supply, where the real money was being made, and where, one day, he was to become the biggest _Capos_ , or drug lord, in the whole of Mexico.

To be successful in that business it was important to have no rivals. So Perez set about obliterating any other operators, either personally or by hiring _Sicarios_ to do this dirty work for him.

As the various drug cartels in South America became embroiled in bloody battles for territorial control, it soon emerged that no single group would ever have exclusive rights. Perez was one of the first _Capos_ to realise this and negotiated deals with the Cali Cartel and Gulf Cartel to pay a "tax" on drug shipments when trading "out of town" and a rental fee for storing cocaine in other cartel's warehouses. These agreements served every group well and reduced the death levels amongst the gangs.

To ensure a consistent and regular flow of high quality cocaine from Columbia, Perez funded the establishment of several well equipped laboratories located deep in the jungles of South America regions. These mobile laboratories were difficult to spot from the air where he knew American spy planes would be scouring the ground for evidence of disturbance and activity.

Perez was always at the forefront of developing new methods of evading detection by the Americans and others. Using the technical and scientific skills of Soviet acquaintances, he funded the development of the first narco-subs that travelled from the depths of Columbia's dense jungle rivers and up along the coast to America with their illicit and lucrative cargo safely stashed beneath the waves.

To avoid any unwanted attention from the authorities in Mexico City - he had no need to fear the local police as they had all been either bought or shot - he needed to have a legitimate front end business that gave him the opportunity to travel freely around South America. He set up a coffee import and export business, called _Café Cielo_ with its HQ in Matamoros with him as CEO and Delgado as Vice President.

_Café Cielo_ trucks delivered coffee - and collected other powders from all across South America. Many overseas cargos of coffee crates were supplemented by packages of white powder cleverly concealed in the lower third of specially manufactured and marked coffee tins.

The spurious coffee front-end provided perfect cover for Perez and Delgado to make frequent trips to Columbia where they hatched deals with the various cartels in Bogota, Medellin and Cali for the provision of vast quantities of cocaine. Using his instinctive cunningness, and the various porous routes into America, Perez was able to flood Florida, and every other state, with California Cornflakes, Florida Sunshine, Canadian Black, Orange Barrel, Patico or whatever the dealers and junkies wanted -and were prepared to pay him to supply.

He was now a very, very wealthy businessman and happily married too. He had employed Maria as a live-in nanny to look after and care for his only child, his son Pedro, born to a nightclub dancer Perez had shared a short affair with three years ago. Perez was instantly drawn to the gentle, attractive young girl and despite there being a twenty years age gap they connected very quickly.

Maria had soon moved from her servant's quarters to his bed and became a vital cog in his life. She was in awe of him, loved him very much and relished the opulent lifestyle she now led. They had married two years ago in a quiet service in Matamoros, followed by a lavish reception in his hacienda.

"Capitán. Can my wife and I have some food and wine in our room please?" said Perez. "I'll just check our cargo again".

"Of course Senor" said Sanchez, now delighted as he realised that Perez would soon be off his bridge.

"Javier!" he called. "Some food and wine for Senor and Senorita Perez."

The captain's big assistant, cook, and only other member of the crew on this trip, nodded and went down to the galley to prepare a meal of _huachinango a la veracruzana_ – the Perez's favourite fish meal of fresh red snapper in a tomato sauce.

Javier regularly made this dish for the couple when they were travelling on-board. Sanchez had started to tell Javier the VIPs were due on board so Javier could prepare for their presence and be ready to see to their every need. Perez had grown to like to take a bottle of chilled Californian white wine with his meals and Maria too had developed a taste for the crisp wine. Javier always kept a case in the stores for their enjoyment.

Sanchez felt relieved as the Perez's disappeared down the steps to the hold and then to their room. He gave up his large cabin to Perez when travelling on the boat and it had been furnished to suit their tastes rather than his.

The night air was now very sticky and Sanchez turned up the air conditioning unit to cool everybody down - particularly himself.

He had first been approached by Miguel Perez in the fishing harbour at Matamoras about ten years ago and asked if his vessel was for charter. Sanchez, who was not a rich man then, agreed to take Perez and a large cargo of wooden crates out to meet a vessel in the Gulf of Mexico and transfer the cargo at sea.

Back then Sanchez did not know what was in those crates - and he didn't really care. Perez had handed him an envelope stuffed with dollars before they left harbour - and another stuffed envelope again when they returned. Like the fish his boats hunted every day, Sanchez was now reeled in and netted.

This arrangement had continued successfully for many years and Sanchez had now become a wealthy man himself, with a fleet of boats, a neat villa and new cars. His wife and family had no idea that he was making a fortune by helping the country's biggest criminal to smuggle drugs and weapons from South America to its Northern cousin.

However, Sanchez now wanted this all to be over and for Perez to go away. His nerves and conscience could not cope much longer. For some reason, he was particularly worried about this trip and felt a heavy guilt about the trade he was now deeply involved in as a courier.

Sanchez had never snorted coke or injected heroin and couldn't understand the American fascination with drugs. He dreaded his wife and family ever finding out what had been going on - let alone his brother, the local priest. Now he just wanted to retire to spend time with his family and particularly grandchildren.

But once you had supped from the Perez cup, and taken his gold, you had sold your soul and there was no escape....

Sanchez took out a small bottle of Tequila from his navigation cabinet, undid the screw cap and took a long swig straight from the neck. His throat burned but he instantly felt better and confident. El Alcatraz was now moving smoothly through the tranquil sea and darkness and they would be there soon there. Then this latest cargo of shit would be off his ship and his conscience would feel much better. Perez wanted him to pick up something from a Panamanian tanker in the Gulf and then head back to Mexico.

It would all be over soon he convinced himself.

Meanwhile Perez climbed down the stairs and into the hold normally used for fish catches. He flicked on a small light which barely lit the holdup but did sufficiently so to satisfy him that the wooden crates were undamaged. In the morning he would open them up, transfer the bags of cocaine into water-proof suitcases before putting them in the ship's motor boat and meeting up with Luis at sea. Perez, Maria and Delgado were all experienced in navigating speedboats at sea day or night.

This deal was an important one for Perez. The top grade coke was being sold for $35,000 a kilogram, or in the case of the entire shipment of 300 kilograms, $10.5m cash. Half of that amount was then being re-invested immediately to buy Semtex and C4 plastic explosives from Vladimir Shevensky, a Ukrainian arms dealer Perez had dealt with many times before when procuring ex-Soviet army Kalashnikov rifles for various rebel groups around South America.

The $5m worth of explosives would then be smuggled by a variety of circuitous routes into Oman, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. The price to Middle East extremists would treble; giving Perez a total return in the region of $20m after various necessary "expenses" such as bribes, drug "taxes" and transportation costs had been excluded.

By anybody's reckoning that would be a highly impressive return on investment in these times of global recession.

Chapter 3.

Thursday 12 August 2012 20:25pm, Assistant Director Konchesky's office, FBI Headquarters 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington DC

Hayes and Watson followed Konchesky into his office, which was only illuminated by a huge silver desk lamp and sat down at his large oval conference table. Konchesky was a tall man, standing well over six feet, bald, trim but walked with a limp from a shooting incident many years before so it took a few moments for everybody to settle. A man that Hayes and Watson had never seen or spoken with before was already sitting at the table underneath a large oil painting of an eagle - Konchesky's favourite bird.

"Madison Hayes, Logan Watson - this is Steiner - he is with the CIA and has just come over from Langley with some vital information for us" said Konchesky in an unusually awkward and hesitant way as he introduced Hayes and Watson to the stranger with no first name.

Steiner was a similar age to Konchesky, in his mid to late 50s, bald and had a tanned, leathery face from what Hayes guessed to be lengthy exposure to the sun - probably in the Middle East. Steiner had menacing, piercing eyes which were now focused on Hayes' chest and he instantly gave her the creeps.

"Colleagues" said Steiner in a softly spoken but treacherous voice "We have reliable intelligence in from South America that Miguel Perez is making a considerable drop of high grade cocaine - 70% pure - somewhere in South Florida tomorrow night, Friday 13th July, via a mother ship based in the Gulf of Mexico. The purchasers are the Lombardi family from Miami, who have a large network of pushers across the States."

Both Hayes and Watson were aware of the Lombardi family and its alleged association with the drug trade in Florida. So far though the DEA had never been able to gather sufficient evidence to indict the family for narcotics provision and Watson wondered how Steiner had gotten this data.

Steiner slowly continued. "The revenue raised from this transaction will be used to purchase C4, Semtex explosives - and possibly Uranium, required for nuclear explosives, from Ukrainian contacts for onwards transmission to various Jihad militant groups in Syria, Oman, Pakistan and other Middle East terrorist groups."

"These groups will pay handsomely to get their hands on that sort of shit. Their likely targets will be our embassy offices or maybe even an attack here in DC. We cannot allow that to happen as many American lives will be in danger." Steiner hardened whilst emphasing the last point, as this was clearly his priority area and he spoke as if it were he that ran the US and not the President.

"Perez is likely to use a high speed craft to move the cocaine from the mother ship to the Florida coast. My sources do not yet have the precise drop location but we suspect it to be somewhere in the Port Charlotte area - which we understand he has used before."

"What's the name of this mother ship and how big is it?" asked Watson, who like Hayes had an instant mistrust of the shadowy CIA man. Watson was the type of guy who wanted hard information in order to make informed decisions.

Steiner stared straight and hard at Watson, as if resenting having to tell him anything before forcing a slight smile.

"The mother boat is a large fishing boat, a longliner, registered in Mazatalan, Mexico as El Alcatraz. The ship is usually based in the Sea of Cortez and has substantial storage areas beneath deck - which at the moment ain't full of fucking fish. My people are trying to locate the ship's precise position from those assholes in the US Coastguard".

Another agency rivalry reared its head.

"Mr Steiner. How do you know all this information is correct?" said Hayes quizzically.

"FBI agents have always found it very difficult to gather reliable data from sources close to Perez?"

Steiner smirked in a satisfied way then paused before replying.

"Pretty lady. There are various ways of, shall we say, encouraging people to co-operate with you. Most peasants have skeletons in their cupboard or a simple desperation for money. A skilled operative will know which button to push to uncover the required information. What I have told you tonight is correct and it's now up to you now to intercept and bring him in. Within this operation you two have jurisdiction in Florida for drug matters". This was said with almost resentment.

Madison tensed inside. She was still picturing torture, brutality, blackmail and bribery - all the daily tools of the trade for somebody like Steiner she guessed, who clearly had no respect for the human rights of foreign nationals. Nor probably any non-patriotic American citizens.

"OK." said Konchesky awkwardly, as he sensed the antagonism in the room growing and wanted to bring the meeting to a close. "Thanks Mr Steiner that has been mighty helpful."

Steiner slowly rose from his chair to put his tatty jacket back on, smiled like a python and said "Good night" before leaving the office.

When he had gone Konchesky spoke again but this time seemed more like his usual confident self.

"Well guys we've done our research and now it's Showtime. Logan, your DEA colleagues have kindly facilitated a fully loaded King Air 350 plane, so you will fly tonight from DC to Charlotte County Airport. A local FBI agent, Ryan Dempsey will be there to assist you - he's a good guy. You know what you gotta do people - so let's go to work".

23:30pm Thursday 12 August 2012 Port Charlotte Airport

Both agents already had bags on standby and quickly rendezvoused at Dulles Airport. Early into the two hour flight to Florida, Watson sensed that Madison was edgy, tense and quiet. She was using the King Air's range of sophisticated radar and on-board PC equipment to track data and keep communications, updated but kept looking out of the window into the night sky.

"Are you OK Madi?" he finally asked.

"My name is Madison and I'm just fine. Why wouldn't I be?" she snapped back at him.

"OK, OK. Take it easy, no worries." said Watson who now knew for sure she was nervous. He needed to know that he could rely on her if things got hot down in Florida and now he was starting to have some doubts.

After a difficult period of silence, only broken by the drone of the Nightstalker's engines, Hayes turned round and said " Logan, US Coastguard have got the co-ordinates of the El Alcatraz so maybe they aren't as crap as Steiner thinks. They got its position as 28.195 N 83.426 W and say it is at rest - anchor down for the night. It looks like the captain is in position for tomorrow's offload."

"Good work. We're gonna need those guys assistance tomorrow for sure. I did a training stint with the Coastguard in Alaska a few years back and they know what they are doing." added Watson. He didn't share Steiner's poor opinion of the US Coastguard.

After a few minutes further silence, Madison turned in her seat and said to him

"Logan. I'm sorry I snapped at you before. I gotta tell you that I am a bit nervous now. I've done FBI weapons training but I haven't much experience of using a Glock gun for real and I've never faced out real terrorists before."

Watson knew her best skill-sets lay elsewhere and he tried to put her mind at rest.

"Yeah I'm nervous too. Don't forget we've lots of back-up from Team America and we'll be OK. I've got a good feeling about this now and I'll be looking out for you. Remember the motto of Florida - In God We Trust. Well we can change that a bit to be In God and Glocks We Trust!"

He had his own reservations but with a big toothy smile he achieved his immediate objective of easing her fears. She broke into a smile and without looking at him said softly "Thanks Logan".

The King Air touched down on a quiet runway at Port Charlotte Airport before it taxied to a dark unmarked hanger on the periphery of the airport. Madison and Logan got out of the plane into the stifling hot night air, both holding their luggage bags, where they were greeted by a very overweight, older but friendly FBI agent wearing big round glasses with thick lenses.

"Madison, Logan? My name is Ryan Dempsey. I'm with the FBI here in Florida. Real nice to meet you both" he said offering a strong handshake to both.

"I've gotta car for you - hey let me help you with those bags!"

Dempsey willingly picked up the bags and loaded them into the car before wiping sweat from his face and forehead with a handkerchief.

"Hey Logan, are you a ball fan?" asked Dempsey as they walked over to the car.

"I sure am" said Watson. "I try and get to see the Yankees when I am in New York - I've always followed them since my dad took me there when I was about eight."

"I'm a Marlins fan" replied Dempsey. "I just got tickets for next week's game against the Rays and then tonite my wife goes and tells me that she has arranged a surprise birthday party for her folks. Can you believe that?!! If you are still down here you are welcome to have the tickets".

A friendly Fed? Things are looking up thought Logan.

"I sure would like to go Ryan and thanks!"

A black Chrysler Town Country with blacked out windows was parked just outside the hanger and the three agents climbed in. Hayes and Watson gave Dempsey the news about El Alcatraz's position as he drove them out of the airport complex.

"We'll get a Nightstalker up tonight over that area. With the night imaging cameras and 3D capability we might get some clue as to how many are people on board or if there are any touchdown boats ready for launch" said Dempsey who came across as very competent.

"Madison I've got those maps of the coast roads around Charlotte Harbor you asked for earlier and I've got you rooms at the Palm Beach motel on Bayshore Road. I reckon you should get a few hours rest tonight and I'll pick you both up at 7am tomorrow. Then I can show you our observation point, have a recap and plan-on."

Ryan gave out a lot of confidence and Hayes felt a whole lot better now.

Chapter 4

Friday 13th August 2012 06:00am Gulf of Mexico El Alcatraz

Miguel Perez was showered, shaved and dressed in a red Ralph Lauren polo shirt, blue Levi jeans, Nike sneakers and a Rolex Oyster. He had doused himself in his favourite aftershave, Amouage Die Pour Homme, a present from Maria and costing $300 a bottle.

He had his gold plated AR-15 automatic tucked into his belt - a trusty piece that had served him well on many previous occasions. He, Sanchez and Vakha, the Chetnan, broke open the wooden cases below deck and carefully carried the plastic bags of cocaine onto deck. A motorboat was lowered into the sea and Maria got in with her husband.

The bags of coke were then handed overboard by Sanchez, Vakha and Javier to be stored and organized by Perez into durable plastic suitcases in the front of the motor boat. Perez fired the engine into life and the boat raced off in the direction of the American coast, slicing across the sea at high speed. Twenty minutes later a Motion 35 powerboat pulled alongside and Perez high-fived with his best pal Luis Delgado, before transferring the illicit cargo to the Motion.

Once the Motion was fully loaded, Delgado took out an Ousi machine gun from under his seat and in a deafening and juvenile performance, he and Perez triggered out the fiberglass bottom of the other boat. Within minutes, the craft slowly sank to its grave deep at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico - taking with it any fingerprints or evidence of their presence and activities. They laughed out loud like kids at their destructive handiwork.

Delgado started up the Motion, throttled back and the three of them headed back towards Florida at something close to top speed. The boat sliced through the waves like a knife, skimming the water like a pebble. With the sun beating down, the sea breeze in their faces, hair flying and adrenalin pumping, they all felt both untouchable and invincible.

In a few hours time they would be even wealthier.

Shortly before 07:00am, the Motion glided quietly into the quiet and inconspicuous boathouse Delgado had hired long term for cash several months before. He moored up alongside a speedboat that would be used by Maria to return to El Alcatraz later that evening.

"I need a cup of coffee now, that boat journey has made me thirsty!" said Maria smiling.

"It is a very fast boat for sure" said Delgado "It stalled on me before but now it is going fine".

"Amigo, let's hope it is OK for the next few hours and then we can buy ten new ones if we want!" joked Perez.

The boathouse was locked up and the trio headed off to a local cafe-bar for a coffee and cigarette and then onto motel rooms Delgado had scouted out for a few hours peace and rest. Perez carried both suitcases and had no intention of letting them out of his sight at any time. They got to the motel and checked-in looking just like tourists. They now had a few hours to kill before the transfer took place.

For Delgado, that time would be spent having a hot shower and a nap after an uncomfortable night's sleep in the boathouse guarding the Motion.

For the Perez's, it would be an hour of frantic, passionate love-making.

Friday 13 August 2012 07:00am, Palm Beach Motel, Bayshore Road, Port Charlotte, Florida

Hayes and Watson stood outside the motel waiting for Dempsey. Hayes hadn't slept that well whilst Watson had slept solidly.

Both agents were wearing lightweight jackets to conceal shoulder holsters carrying their weapons of choice. Hayes carried a standard FBI issue Glock 17 revolver whilst Watson had qualified to be issued with a DEA Glock 27 automatic due to his top marksmanship. He also had a large Bowie knife in a leather sleeve strapped around his calf - a throwback to his Navy pilot days.

Both had combat pants on and heavy boots. They were dressed and ready for action - which they fully expected was coming their way tonite.

Hayes had her field iPad with her, which had secure VPN satellite phone and video conferencing capacities built in. She had been checking intelligence reports since 5.30am before taking a long hot shower in an attempt to relax her tenseness.

Ryan pulled up at just after 7am wearing a big smile and armed with take-away cups of latte for all.

"Thought you guys might need a morning boost" he said handing out the drinks as they climbed into the big Chrysler.

"I've gotten these pictures in from the Nightstalker." he said passing a file over to Watson who was in the front passenger seat. Watson looked closely at the pictures which showed no signs of a speedboat on deck ready for lowering. The 3D pictures showed that the El Alcatraz was riding high in the water suggesting her hold was empty. He passed the file into the back for Hayes to study, then looked out of the window and started to turn some theories over in his mind.

"We reckon on two, maybe three, on board from body heat imaging but we can't tell if Perez is one of them." said Dempsey.

"I'm gonna take you to our observation tower up on the road to Alligator Bay now" said Dempsey "We get a great view up there of all the coast road and miles out to sea, so we can see what is coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and we can communicate with anybody in the World."

Dempsey headed along out along Burnt Store Road leaving Port Charlotte a couple of miles behind. He pulled off onto a quiet boulevard and came to a tall, four storey non-descript white house that looked a bit run down on the outside. The kitchen and diner were on the ground floor and they were visible to anybody. All the windows on the other floors were tinted and had the blinds pulled down.

The car pulled onto the forecourt, all three got out and Dempsey unlocked the front door with a swipe card. He opened up and led them through the sparsely decorated hall and then up the stairs to a room on the fourth floor. Hayes and Watson were astonished to see what looked like a Command and Control centre packed with radar, computers, plasma TV screens, eavesdropping kit and monitoring equipment.

There were two massive, powerful telescopes sited by the windows, one pointing out to sea and the other up the coast road. On a clear day like today Ryan was right - you really could see for miles.

"Wow!" said Watson, "this is some place you guys have built here!"

"Yep it sure is!" said Dempsey. "We have had this place since the 60s when it was used to monitor tobacco and whisky smugglers coming up the coast. It's been upgraded quite a bit since then though. Its quiet and inconspicuous - we don't get any visitors! We can listen in on any radio frequency to conversations, intercept cell phone calls or messages and monitor any suspicious craft particularly at night with the infra-red lenses".

As they talked they heard the noise of a speedboat coming up the channel.

"Hey quick! Take a look at that boat through the scopes" said Dempsey to the agents.

They both moved a scope each towards the estuary and zoomed in on the boat, which they could see in great detail. A young couple were laughing on board and looked like they had been night fishing. They had no idea that there every movement was under intense scrutiny.

Just then a beep came from one of the many monitoring devices. Ryan looked at the message on the screen and said

"Hey it's from our friends over at the US Coastguard. They gotta update." He read the communication out.

"No movement from El Alcatraz. Large vessel has appeared 5 nautical miles north. Vessel is Panamax tanker."

Everybody was suspicious.

"What's the tanker's name and where is it from?" said Hayes quickly.

Dempsey tapped away at a message on his keyboard and a few minutes later got a reply.

"She is called the MV Shanghai registered in Panama, weighing 60,000 tonnes with a cargo of premium Vodka and Dutch cheese".

"Which port has she sailed from and how many crew on board?" asked Watson curiously.

Dempsey tapped away again and pinged the message.

"Last port call was Rotterdam, Holland. 16 crew reported." was the reply.

"And the port before then?" queried Watson. The tension in the room rose noticeably.

Another pause - then the reply came back.

"Yuzhne. It is near Odessa - in the Ukraine".

Hayes and Watson exchanged glances. "Well that sure looks like our bomb ship" said Watson starkly.

Chapter 5

Friday 13 August 2012 08:00 am, FBI Safe House outside Port Charlotte, Florida.

Dempsey made some coffees and then the three agents sat around a small table to review and brainstorm their next actions, using a discretely hidden interactive whiteboard that Dempsey opened up. Madison quickly took up the marker pen and scribed in her ultra neat college-like assignment handwriting.

"We're gonna need the cavalry to deal with that tanker - we three can't do anything about that" said Watson bluntly. "We need to focus all our efforts on Perez." The others agreed and that became the first point on the action plan on the interactive board.

"We'll need the Coastguard or Navy to deal with a vessel and crew that big - or some Jedi warriors!" suggested Dempsey

Backup to deal with tanker MV Shanghai. Ship weighs 60,000 tonnes with 16 crew possibly armed. Last co-ordinates 27.392 N 75.341 W - Coastguard/Navy? AD Konchesky

"I wanna see the Lombardis taken down too." added Watson.

"My bosses in Arlington would love to see them nailed. But we're gonna struggle to know where exactly along on the Port Charlotte coastline the drop is though.

"We can get some of our agents from Tampa and Florida up and down that coast road in unmarked vehicles. Just how long is that road Ryan?" asked Hayes.

"About ten miles for the stretches where you could sneak out to a boat" replied Dempsey.

"I reckon we would need at least four unmarked cars up and down that road and some support in the sky."

Another action point went up on the board.

4 FBI/DEA unmarked vehicles on coastal road for observation and rapid air support- Hayes.

"Yeah and I'll get one of our Nightstalkers up from Tampa. With all that smart night-targeting kit you can pick up loads of movement at sea which can be analyzed back here." added Dempsey.

"I'll liaise with the local sheriff's office too and also the Port Charlotte harbor authority."

Two more points joined the increasing list.

Inform Sherriff McCluskey's office and PC Harbor Authority - Dempsey

Scramble Tampa Nightstalker from 21:00 - Dempsey

"OK that's cool. The DEA have some pretty fast stuff too. But I really wanna know where Perez is like right now. If there ain't a fast boat on the El Alcatraz's deck, where is it and is Perez still on-board?" said Watson thinking out loud. He stayed quiet for a minute or so lost in his own thoughts before speaking again.

"Ryan, can you check with the sheriff's office and see whether they have had any reports thefts of big speedboats in say, the past six weeks from any of the harbors around here?" he added

"Sure can" said Dempsey.

Check local police for speedboat thefts past 2 months - Dempsey

Watson studied the local geo-maps whilst the other two were on the phones and computers.

About 15 minutes later, a lengthy fax came out of the machine and Dempsey read it excitedly.

"Hey Logan! It looks like you were right man \- we might have something here. There is a report of the theft of a new Azure Blue Motion 35 from a private mooring up in Miami three weeks ago. It's got a top speed of 120 knots and cost about $150,000. Local cops have had no joy finding it and they said it's just disappeared into thin air. The guy who owns it is puzzled as he said it had started to stall regularly and he was gonna getting it fixed."

Watson looked up straight away and Hayes turned away from her iPad screen.

"Motion 35s are popular rum-runners as we DEA geeks call them" Watson said in a self mocking way. He stared at the whiteboard and went into deep thought again as his brain approved and rejected various thought choices. When his thoughts were formed to a conclusion he spoke out loudly again causing Hayes and Dempsey to turn around and pay attention.

"Listen up - this is what I think. I reckon Perez wanted a local fast boat and had that Motion stolen to order. I don't think he is on the trawler - he is already up the Florida coast somewhere just waiting for nighttime to do the drop off. Once he has passed the coke to Lombardi he'll head back to El Alcatraz with the money, probably torch the Motion and then head off to meet the Shanghai to pick up the explosives."

The other two nodded and both secretly admired his logical thinking around the Motion theft.

"We are gonna need to be in the water near El Alcatraz and take Perez out there - when he is back on-board" said Watson. "Trying to find him near the coast is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Let's not look for him on land - let him come back to us."

Watson already realized he would need one of the other agents to be in the boat with him. Dempsey did not strike him as fit enough and Logan wondered just how good his eyesight was \- particularly be at night. He had also noticed how Madison had perked up and seemed much more confident now than she had been on the way down to Florida. He also guessed she would have insisted on being in the boat anyway. That in mind, he diplomatically made a suggestion to suit everybody's needs.

"Ryan, you've got all the local knowledge and contacts. How about you track stuff here, scan radio talk and see if you might pick up anything? Madison and I will be in the boat and you'll be our on-shore eyes and ears." he offered encouragingly.

Dempsey readily agreed and Madison nodded straight away.

"Madison and I will need a boat."

"Well that's no problem" laughed Dempsey. "Come on downstairs with me guys"

He led them down to the building's kitchen and opened up the heavily secured back door.

A small path led to a white boat-house which was double padlocked - and alarmed. Ryan opened up the door and Hayes and Watson saw a clean FBI Dive boat, which was unmarked and sprayed dark blue.

"She is all fuelled-up and ready to go. She's fast and it is really hard to see her in the dark too." said Ryan who clearly took pride in his work.

"Great! By the way Logan, can you drive this thing?" said Hayes who was now feeling really upbeat about the outcome.

Watson laughed.

"Do you mean steer the craft?" he teased.

"I sure can - don't forget I was in the Navy! Is there a dinghy and oars on this craft?

We'll need them for a silent approach" asked Watson.

"Yeah, right under this seat cover here" said Ryan.

"We've got digital mike and headsets upstairs that fit neat in your ear and they won't drop out easy. I can keep you in touch with anything that happens back here using the covert channel." added Dempsey.

They all returned upstairs and updated the plan which now read:

Backup to deal with tanker MV Shanghai. Ship weighs 60,000 tonnes with 16 crew possibly armed. Last co-ordinates 27.392 N 75.341 W - Coastguard/Navy? AD Konchesky

4 FBI/DEA agents in unmarked on coastal road for observation from 21:00 and air support to be mobilized - Hayes.

Inform Sherriff McCluskey's office - Dempsey

Scramble Tampa's FBI Nightstalker from 21:00 \- Dempsey

Check local police for speedboat thefts past 2 months - Dempsey

Motion 35 Azure Blue - maybe not Blue now?

FBI Dive boat fully loaded - Watson to drive!

Headsets/Mikes/torches - Dempsey

Control centre liaison -Dempsey

Some Good Luck!

"I'll send this through to Konchesky" said Hayes typing in Konchesky's email address and clicking a button on the whiteboard which instantly sent off the encrypted scribing to Konchesky's mailbox.

Friday 13 August 2012 12:00pm EST, FBI Safe House outside Port Charlotte, Florida.

"Anybody hungry?" asked Dempsey who was clearly controlled by his vast stomach. "There is some pastrami, emmental cheese and rye-bread in the fridge and you guys have just gotta try proper Key Lime Pie seeing as you are here in Florida! There's one in there with our names on it!" he added.

Watson wondered how Dempsey had ever passed an FBI fitness test or why he didn't seem to care what shape he was in. His food and caffeine intake was immense.

"I'm OK thanks Ryan but you go ahead" he replied politely.

"I'm fine too" said Hayes, just as her iPad made a beeping sound.

"It's a video conference request" she said waking the screen up. "It's from Konchesky" and she clicked the Accept Request button.

Moments later Assistant Director Konchesky's face appeared on the screen sitting at his conference table.

"Hi guys. Hey you are doing great work down there and Ryan - long times no speak my friend! I hope you are keeping well. Listen up, I have been in touch with all other agencies involved in Operation Marlin to update them on the data you've fed back. We all agree that you are gonna need some extra help and firearm backup."

"The USCG Stratton, a high endurance cutter is on course for Florida and we are going to arrange for some armed support for you. So you won't be on your own."

At that moment another voice could be heard and the voice activated videoconference camera moved to Konchesky's right to focus in on Steiner.

"Yes good work. We've been in touch with the Oval office this morning and you're gonna get all the help you need. The message is that the President is looking forward to Senor Perez being apprehended" the serpent smile slithered across his face.

If the Florida agents weren't feeling nervous before they certainly did after that news.

The pressure for them to deliver was really on now - and the President himself was expecting.

Konchesky spoke again but, just as in the meeting back in DC, he seemed unnerved by Steiner's comments or presence.

"We'll have multiple teams of both FBI and DEA agents along the Port Charlotte coast all wired up. From this point onwards I am authorizing the switching of all verbal communications to Secure Satellite Channel 26 for personnel involved in this operation."

This made eavesdropping by anybody else impossible.

"I have also authorizing the use of a second Nightstalker for nocturnal surveillance and the US Navy have a Hawkeye plane up at high altitude to feed data back. You guys try and get some rest now and we go green from 17:00pm EST. Good luck and talk later."

The video conference ended at that point.

At the DC end, Steiner turned round to Konchesky and said

"Joel, do you think they can do this? Fucking up is not an option for you and me." He paused theatrically before adding in a threatening tone.

"You know that we both need this to work."

Konchesky avoided eye contact with Steiner before replying.

"Yes I know perfectly well how important this is for us both. Hayes is one of our best young agents. Like you, I've no time for the DEA but Watson seems good, gets great appraisals so he ticks all the boxes. I think they are both real smart and that they can do this".

Steiner put his coat on and went towards the door

"I fucking hope so. Let me know as soon as Perez is taken down - you know how to get me."

He left the office and Konchesky unlocked the top drawer of his desk. He glanced down at a large sealed envelope addressed "Private - FBI Director" and sighed deeply before opening a cabinet door and taking out a half empty bottle of Wild Turkey.

Konchesky poured a large measure into a glass and gulped it down without a pause. He sat down in his large leather swivel chair and stared out of his office window into the night sky, lost in lonely thought.

Chapter 6

Friday 13 August 2012, FBI Safe House outside Port Charlotte, Florida, 13:50pm EST

"So Ryan, you worked with Konchesky before then?" asked Hayes reflecting on the contents of the video call.

"Yeah, yeah! It was a few years ago when I lived up in DC. We both joined the FBI at the same time and worked the field together. Joel was always ambitious and going places so I ain't surprised he got to where he is now. Me? I just plodded on. I am a family guy who likes a beer, my wife, my kids and most of all - my food!" Dempsey patted his ample belly and burst out laughing as did both agents.

Dempsey then carried on but this time in a puzzled and more serious tone.

"That other guy with Joel – Did he say Steiner? His face looked familiar but I can't quite place where I have seen him before."

He went quiet and his brain was clearly searching deep into his memory banks for a name.

It was now nearly 2.00pm and Hayes wanted some fresh air and a change of scenery to take her mind off the forthcoming events.

"Logan. You fancy a walk up the coast and test out those headsets?" she asked.

That sounded good to Logan who was also feeling stuffy and wanted to stretch his legs.

"Yeah! That's a great idea. Ryan - Are you OK here if we walk out for a bit and test this headgear?"

"Sure" said Dempsey who was busy sorting out his contacts and getting himself prepared and organized for the night's action.

"The headsets are in the bottom cupboard beneath that fax machine and here is my swipe key to get back in." he tossed the card to Hayes.

Watson and Hayes left the safe house via the back door and walked along the stony pathway with the sea on their right side. It was a beautiful, hot afternoon and the sun beat down relentlessly on the deserted coastline. The gentle swishing sound of the surf on the shore made a very relaxing sound.

"Do you think Ryan will have eaten out the fridge when we get back?" joked Watson.

"I wouldn't bet against it!" laughed Hayes. "He's a really nice guy though isn't he?"

"He sure is and he knows his job real well" said Logan.

As they walked along the promontory, looking out to sea, they chatted for some time about their careers, their hopes, their aims and a whole load of other things. A real bond was now being formed by two people thrown together - not by choice but by circumstances. This really helped to ease the nerves and alleviate the worries that had started to build up within each of them. Without realizing or intending too, Hayes and Watson were establishing a strong team spirit and mutual trust. Privately now both felt that there would be a positive outcome at the end. There had to be.

After a while, they sat down on the shore and gazed out towards the sea.

"Have you ever got close to settling down with somebody Logan?" asked Madison, completely catching Watson by surprise. After a moment or two he replied.

"Yeah. When I was twenty back in New York I was going steady with a girl called Carla and things looked real good for us. Then I was away in North Carolina on a camp when I got a call from my folks telling me she had been killed in a road accident. I was devastated and I lost my way for a long, long time." He looked pained at having to recount this tragic part of his life before carrying on.

"Then about three years later, when I was in the Navy, I thought I'd met somebody perfect but I guess I was way still too young and naive back then. When I got back from Iraq she had gone off and met somebody else so I guess I would have been making a massive mistake."

"I've drifted from place to place since then with the DEA and I ain't come close to meeting anybody special. But I'd like to settle, get married and have kids one day. Then I'd like to live in California during the hot summer, then New England for the Fall and New York for a snowy Christmas!" At this point, his trademark toothy smile came out again.

Hayes was touched by his honesty and openness and felt kinda guilty for asking him a direct question which had such sad content.

"Logan. I'm real sorry to hear about Carla. That must have been awful for you" said Hayes, as she wondered how she would have dealt with that situation had it been her.

"Yeah it sure was. But you gotta try and carry on which is why I went into the Navy" reflected Watson. Having opened up to her, Watson now turned the tables.

"So come on now, what about you Madison? I bet you've never had a problem attracting guys!" said Logan smiling and looking more cheerful.

She smiled back.

"When I was at high school and college I got a lot of male attention and I had a couple of boyfriends. But I think guys found me hard to talk to cos I was real shy back then and my folks kept a close watch on me. I met a guy when I was at college and we got on great for a long time. I think my Mom wanted me to marry him as he was polite, good looking and had a great career ahead of him! He's a lawyer in Cleveland now doing real well"

"But something in the relationship was missing for me and I started to feel I was just going through the motions. We split up at the beginning of last year and I ain't found anybody else I'm interested in yet." She looked at Watson for a few long seconds and smiled again.

"My sister and brother are both married with kids now and I think my Mom reckons I'm gay – which I certainly am not!" she added unnecessarily forcing a small laugh.

"I'm really enjoying my job with the Bureau but, like you, I would like to start a family one day when I meet the right guy"

They both reflected on what had been said then Madison spoke.

"Hey let's check out these headsets now and make sure they are OK. I trust Ryan and I reckon they are fine but best to be sure!"

They both slotted the earpieces snugly into their right ears and pulled the microphone piece down towards their mouths.

"Ryan, Ryan. Do you copy?" said Hayes.

Moments later Dempsey's voice boomed back loud and clear confirming that all was OK on the communication front. They wandered back along the coast to the safe house.

Now all they could do was wait for darkness - and for Miguel Perez.

Chapter 7

Friday 13 July 2012 19:25pm EST Bachetti family home, Port Charlotte, Florida.

Even at 19:00pm the weather in Port Charlotte, Florida was still stiflingly hot and sultry. Today the temperature had reached 38C and humidity was very high.

Brianna Bachetti had just gotten little Jake out of his bath, gotten his pajamas on and was trying to settle him down with a drink of hot milk before he went to bed. But Jake wanted to play trucks with his daddy on the veranda and he had no interest in going to bed.

"I'm sorry Jake but Daddy has gotta go to work soon and you have school tomorrow" Brianna said.

At that moment, her husband Ethan came out onto the veranda of the house in his works overalls. "Hey little guy your mommy is right. You need some shut-eye now but we can play trucks tomorrow I promise."

Jake looked disappointed but he didn't say anything. He quietly pushed a big truck up and down the veranda in the hope that his parents would let him stay up a bit longer.

"C'mon Jake! I'll put you to bed" Ethan said after a couple of minutes and scooped up his young son who now started to smile. Ten minutes later Ethan came back onto the veranda and Jake was fast asleep in his bedroom.

"Honey" said Brianna "How are your guts? I saw you holding your stomach again before. I really want you to go to the Medical Center and get checked out. You've been in pain for a month now at least".

Ethan looked up awkwardly. "Hey it ain't too bad today – just a twinge but it's nothing." He smiled to try to put his wife's mind at rest but reflected on the fact that he had been in pain now for nearly two months and his stomach felt weird. Ethan was desperately keen not to take any time off work as money was tight and the loan companies unforgiving.

"If it ain't right next week, I'll go up the Center" he offered as a peace deal again with a big smile.

Brianna smiled too. "OK honey. I just worry about you and you are real quiet at the moment".

"I'm fine. Hey I better get up to the garage now. I am on at eight tonite and I really hate these nite shifts".

Ethan worked as an auto mechanic at a garage just outside Port Charlotte center, which also offered route-side assistance to broken down vehicles on behalf of Road America. At this time of year, the East coast of Florida was always full of tourists from all over the States and beyond, and Ethan was busy fixing punctures, overheated radiators and air-con problems. Whilst he didn't like working nights, shift attracted a bonus payment which helped with the mortgage, vacations, Jake's schooling and a hundred other things too.

"This may help keep you going, honey". Brianna smiled as she handed him a small bag containing some shrimp sandwiches and a flask of black de-caffeinated coffee.

"Thanks!" said Ethan giving her a kiss and climbing into his Ford F450 pickup truck. He fired up the big truck waved goodbye and headed up Harbor View Road to Johnson's Autos just a couple of miles outside Charlotte Harbor listening to Cat Country 107.1 his favorite station.

Fifteen minutes later Ethan pulled onto the forecourt of the garage and parked up. Hank, one of the other mechanics was just finishing the afternoon shift and was getting ready to leave.

"Hey Ethan - it's been dead quiet today man. You're gonna need a good book, a magazine or some music tonight!"

Ethan smiled, said goodbye and went into the office to check the paper work and say Hi to Jim Johnson Snr who manned the phones at the garage - even though he had retired many years ago. The old air conditioning unit whirred noisily but was just about doing the job of keeping the small office cool and bearable.

"Hi Jim - how ya doin?"

"I'm fine thanks Ethan. Hey! Have some of these cookies"

Ethan took a cookie but his stomach didn't really fancy it so he quietly put the cookie down on his desk for later.

"Jim are those CB radio things working OK again now? One played up on me the other nite"

"Well funny you should mention it Ethan cos the new ones I ordered last week arrived this afternoon. Gotta range of about forty miles in them so you'll be loud and clear all over Charlotte County tonite. Hey! I'll know where you are as they gotta a GPS tracker device built in - so ya can't be playing pool instead of working! They are all charged up so you can test one out tonite"

The old man smiled happily at his jokes and so did Ethan.

Friday 13 August 2012 20:00pm Boca Grande area, Port Charlotte, Florida

Delgado was already at the boathouse when Mr. and Mrs. Perez arrived. He had unlocked the boathouse doors and had double checked that both vessels were fuelled-up.

"Ola!" said Maria.

"Are you refreshed Luis?"

"Si" replied Delgado "I think it will be a great night for us all"

He started up the Pantera for Maria as she kissed Perez goodbye and then gave Delgado a kiss on the cheek. She reversed out of the boathouse, headed out to the Gulf to re-join the Alcatraz and await the return of her husband and his best friend. They would be bringing a small fortune with them and Maria started to dream about what she might like to spend some money on next.

About three quarters of an hour later, Perez and Delgado, stashed the suitcases into the small hold, fired up the Motion and reversed out of the boathouse. As Delgado headed up the estuary the Motion's engines started to splutter and cough before clearing themselves.

Delgado looked worried and turned to his friend.

"This boat is like a Senorita - beautiful one moment then a bad temper the next"

"It seems OK now. Keep going" replied Perez more in hope than certainty.

The massive boat limped through the water and edged on towards Alligator Bay.

Delgado slowed down and nursed her along but finally the engines spluttered to a halt and the craft slowly stopped. The Motion drifted aimlessly in the water until it gently ran aground, like a beached Minke whale.

The deal with the Lombardi brothers was now in big danger. Non-delivery meant no payment.

Chapter 8

Friday 13 August 2012, 20:30pm EST, FBI Safe House outside Port Charlotte, Florida.

It was time to go. Hayes had showered again whilst Watson was rising himself after his sleep. Both agents were wearing wet suits and Watson tried real hard not to stare at Madison as she bent over to zip up her wetshoes. She fitted her wetsuit perfectly he thought.

Hayes, Watson and Dempsey went through the back door of the safe house and down to the boathouse unseen by anyone. Dempsey unlocked the solid metal doors and switched on the light.

The atmosphere was tense as everybody was nervous to some degree. Ryan sensed this and read out loud from his clipboard.

"Hey guys! Whilst you were out before, I loaded up and checked all the equipment:

Spare headsets

Medical kit

Torches/flashlights

2 x waterproof carry bags

Sample analysis kit

Inflatable dinghy with oars

Handheld GPS

Heat/thermal camera

Spare Glock rifle and ammo

Flare gun

Life jackets

FBI bullet proof vests

2x NVT goggle sets

Money-belt with cash and credit cards

A flask of coffee

And plenty of pretzels!

As he read out the last item, they all laughed.

"She is all A1 and good to go" concluded Ryan.

"That's great thanks Ryan. Let's go Logan "said Hayes wanting now just to get on with things.

Dempsey opened the front of the boat house and unmoored the craft as Watson turned the ignition key. The boat fired into life and Watson steered them out into the night sky, switching on the craft's night navigation lights and the on-board GPS.

"Good luck. Remember I am here monitoring it all and I'll give you any updates we get. We are gonna bring that son of a bitch in!" roused Ryan.

"See you later" said Hayes and Watson. Ryan locked up the boathouse, went back up to the observation room where he could see the boat slipping though the sea via his night scopes.

Watson turned the boat into the estuary and then followed the GPS directions starboards towards the Gulf of Mexico. With its muffled engines and dark paintwork, the boat stealthily eased along attracting no unwanted attention.

Watson throttled back a little as they edged past Charlotte Harbor Nature Reserve and hit the Gulf of Mexico. There was no wind and the sea was very placid and quiet as if holding its breath in expectancy.

Friday 13th August 21:00pm, Coquina Sands, Naples, Florida

Giancarlo Lombardi, his brother, Valentino, and their bodyguard Marco climbed into their Rigid Inflatable Boat, known as a RIB, at an exclusive private mooring in Coquina Sands, near Naples carrying two suitcases packed with dollar bills. The cases contained over $10 million in cash and was the full payment agreed via numerous Blackberry Messenger haggles with their trusted contact, Miguel Perez. It was a hell of a lot of money but Perez had always delivered on time. They trusted him.

Their superfast boat, equipped with eight Yamaha outboard motors sped northwards up the Florida coast to the agreed transaction venue in Alligator Bay, outside Port Charlotte.

This was a previously used rendezvous point that all parties were happy to use again.

The well dressed Lombardi boys, in their Gautier suits and Jimmy Choo shoes would be there in plenty of time for the scheduled 21:30pm handover of top grade coke which they were confident would quickly turn over into a $3 million profit. Everybody would be happy.

Chapter 9

Friday 13 July 21:20pm, Johnson's Autos office, Port Charlotte, Florida

The phone rang loudly in Jim Johnson's office and the old man answered in the same manner he had for the past 15 years.

"Hi! This is Johnson's Autos. Jim senior speaking how can I help you there?"

It was the Road America central call center patching a call through taken from an elderly customer, Al Furnbecker, from Montgomery, Alabama who had some problems with his Chevrolet Cruze. Mr. Furnbecker was now stuck with his vehicle out on Grassy Point Boulevard near Alligator Bay.

"Don't worry Mr. Furnbecker; our top mechanic is on his way to you. You just stay by your vehicle and he'll be there soon."

Jim printed off the time worksheet and shouted out of his office to the reception area where Ethan was getting a drink of cold water from the chilled drinks dispenser.

"No time for that Ethan boy. First call of the night now - a Mr. Furnbecker from Alabama is broken down out on Grassy Point Boulevard. He said his Cruze was stuttering about like an old turkey! In fact Mr. Furnbecker sounded like an old turkey" chuckled Old Jim as he handed Ethan the worksheet.

"No problem Jim. I'll make sure I check out that new radio gadget tonight for you!" and with that Ethan climbed into the F450 and headed off up the quiet, dark coast road. After a couple of miles he found the broken down Chevrolet Cruze with Mr. Furnbecker standing next to his car looking outwards towards the night sea sky.

"Hi. Are you Mr. Furnbecker?" asked Ethan. "I'm Ethan Bachetti from Johnson's Autos. Now let's see if we can get you going again Sir."

As he talked, Ethan's guts stated to roll and move about like he was on a boat at sea. He didn't feel good and realised Brianna was right. He needed to see a doctor up at the Medical Center and he vowed to himself to do it tomorrow.

Mr. Furnbecker proceeded to tell Bachetti all that gone wrong with his car, then all about this driving holiday to Florida, about his deceased wife, his life, his religion, baseball and everything else under the sun. Ethan soon realised this customer was lonely and quietly opened up the hood to diagnose the problem.

"Mr. Furnbecker - I just need a few tools from my truck" he said excusing himself and retrieving his toolbox. As he walked back to the Chevrolet he could hear Mr. Furnbecker still chattering away. Ethan smiled to himself, slipped his hand into the toolbox onto the new radio piece and switched it on. This would give Old Jim something to listen to back in the office and if Ethan had to politely suffer this - why shouldn't his boss?!

From the stricken Motion bobbing aimlessly in the gentle sea close to the shoreline, Delgado could see the lights of a truck and a car and watched in silence for a few minutes.

"Miguel!" he whispered loudly "Look up there!" and he continued to watch as Ethan went to work under the car's hood.

Perez came over still in a furious temper.

"What is it?" he snapped.

"A mechanic fixing a car engine" said Delgado. Perez looked blankly at first not connecting on the same wavelength as his friend and then suddenly realised why Delgado was so interested.

"Si, Si! He can fix this piece of shit next - or die" said Perez now cheering up a little as a glimmer of hope appeared.

They rowed the stricken Motion towards the shore and beached it before climbing out into the warm sea and wading up to the beach, trying to make as little noise as possible.

The two dealers crept up to the roadside and crouched beneath some scrub bushes. They could hear Mr. Furnbecker thanking Ethan for fixing his car and then they heard the Cruze fire back into life.

"Goodnight Mr. Furnbecker – now you have a safe trip back to Alabama!" shouted Ethan who then turned and walked back to his truck. He started to fill in his time sheet report for Road America, whilst leaning on the hood of the Ford.

He didn't hear the two men approach until he heard a click and then something sharp pointing roughly into the back of his neck.

"Amigo. We watch you fix that car. Now you will help us and fix our engine." said a foreign accent.

"I ain't got any money" said Ethan in a panic, as he realised there was a gun pointing at his neck.

"No, no my friend - we don't want your money \- we want you to fix our boat engine - NOW!" roared Perez.

With that he pushed Bachetti hard away from truck and the startled mechanic fell to the ground. He turned round and looked up into the darkness to be greeted by two swarthy men, both pointing handguns at him.

"Take it easy man" said Ethan "I just need my toolbox".

Perez nodded and Ethan picked up the metal toolbox from the storage compartment on his truck. He glanced down and saw the 2-way radio lying on top of some ring spanners.

"Shit! I hope it is working" he thought to himself and moved quickly to turn the volume up before either of the foreigners looked into the toolbox.

Delgado led the way down the shrub path and back onto the beach. In the moonlight, Ethan could see a long, sleek looking boat, half on the beach and half bobbing about in the gentle sea. Ethan's Uncle Roy had once owned a boat and he had told Ethan all about rum-raiders - smugglers who used mighty fast craft to outfox the cops and coastguards many years before. Now Ethan was about to try and fix a modern version.

Bachetti paused for a moment but a sharp prod in his back from the other foreigner's gun encouraged him to start walking through the sea and climb into the back of the boat. His tummy was really leaping about now through nerves and goodness knows what else. He tried to keep his head clear and the rest of his body calm, as he wasn't really familiar with outboard motors but he had helped Roy with his boat's engine years back.

He opened the toolbox and spoke clearly, slowly and fairly loudly in the desperate hope that the radio would blast his scared voice into the garage office at Johnson's Autos.

"What exactly happens when you start the boat's engine?" he asked.

If Old Jim was still awake and listening, maybe he could raise the Sherriff's office and get some help down here? They would know exactly where he was, as Jim had said that these Kenwood's had in-built satellite navigation features. Bachetti desperately clung onto this hope. It was the only chance he had.

"The motor engine, it ...how you say? Cut out" replied Delgado.

"I'll check if the boat's battery is charged first" said Bachetti slowly and loudly.

He slowly fiddled amongst the tools in the toolbox, found his voltmeter and checked the battery terminals - there was plenty of juice in the Motion's batteries - so that wasn't the cause.

"That's fine." he said out loud. Now what the hell should I check next he thought?

"Hurry!" snarled Perez. "We have an important meeting very soon" and he toyed with his gold gun in a threatening manner which left Ethan needing no further explanation.

Fuel supply. That was next on Bachetti's check-list and he quickly identified the pipes bringing fuel up to the Motion's two engines. The first pipe seemed OK but the second pipe had some type of blockage in it - that had to be the problem.

"This fuel pipe is blocked." he announced loudly so all his audiences could hear him.

"Well fucking fix it" came the response from Perez, in surprisingly frank English.

Bachetti unclipped the hose from the carburetor with a screwdriver and put the pipe to his lips. He sucked hard and the acrid taste of fuel burnt his mouth as he drew it through from the fuel tanks. He spat out what he could and re-connected the pipe. He cranked the ignition key again and the engine spluttered and coughed. "Come on!" thought Bachetti and he tried again with a long drag on the key.

Again the Motion spluttered and then again and then, at long last, it roared into life like a volcano.

Delgado joyfully revved the engine and a relieved smile spread all over his face.

"They gotta let me go now. They gotta let me go now." thought Ethan as he stood by the engines realizing his feet were soaked from wading through the sea.

Just then, Perez's Blackberry phone rang out.

"Si Maria. Yo no lo creo. En primer lugar este maldito barco y ahora Sánchez. Estamos en el camino ahora para cumplir con Lombardi en la Bahía Alligator. Llamaré más tarde."

"What the fuck was all that about?" thought Bachetti who spoke no Spanish.

Perez took a deep breath and then smiled at him.

"My friend. Before we can allow you to go back to your cars we will need your help one more time if you please."

Bachetti's heart sank at this unexpected news and his tummy was now doing cartwheels.

"Luis. Let's go and collect our money!"

Delgado spun the steering wheel round and throttled back fully. The Motion near leapt out of the sea and they sped off into Alligator Bay for a very big pay-day.

Chapter 10

Friday 13th August 2012 21:50, Alligator Bay, Florida.

Giancarlo Lombardi was getting anxious and kept looking all around into the darkness.

"Where is that fucking Mexican?" he muttered aimlessly.

As if by magic his question was answered by the sound of a fast boat thumping over the waves and into the cove they had used for previous transactions.

Perez's Motion pulled alongside Lombardi's RIB and they joined the craft together temporarily.

"I'm sorry we are a little late my friends. Please have these as forgiveness present" said Perez, in his usual charming manner, as he tossed two boxes of Havana cigars to his business acquaintances.

"We had some mechanical problems on the way with this boat which have delayed us."

"No problemo" said the elder quickly Lombardi forgetting his earlier annoyance at Perez.

"Who is he?" he asked nodding towards Bachetti who was sitting in the back of the craft with his toolbox on his lap.

"Our mechanic" laughed Perez. "Now please let us get down to business."

He reached down into the storage area on the Motion and pulled out the two rubberized suitcases which he handed over to the brothers, along with a key set. They opened one of the cases and took out the top plastic packet of white powder.

Valentino opened it with a flick knife, tasted some cocaine and snorted some more from the back of his hand. Unlike Perez, the Lombardis did mix business with pleasure.

"Excellent amigo!" said Valentino, who knew good coke when he sniffed it.

The two suitcases of dollars passed quickly from the RIB to Perez who couldn't resist the temptation to take a quick glance inside and look at the money. However he did not wish to offend the brothers, with whom he now had a built a trusted and mutually beneficial relationship, so he closed the case again quickly without counting the money.

Honor amongst gangsters.

"That is good business for us all Carlo!" said Perez

"We must go as our other boat is not good either! Adios Hasta Luega"

And with that Luis opened the throttle of the Motion and swung the wheel around. The super boat, now functioning perfectly, powered its way out of the bay and headed back towards the Gulf of Mexico. The second part of the night's work was about to begin.

The Lombardis too were very happy and headed back to Coquina Sands at rate of knots in their boat, readying to distribute the immensely valuable consignment across the United States of America.

Chapter 11

Friday 13 August 2012 22:00 EST, FBI Safe House outside Port Charlotte, Florida

Dempsey was sweating profusely by now and his forehead, armpits and back were drenched. Umpteen empty bottles of Dr. Peppers and Coke lay scattered around the office where he had casually discarded them.

The call from the Sherriff's office thirty minutes ago had sent the old agent into manic action and reminded him just why he had wanted to join the FBI all those years ago. A car mechanic had been kidnapped off the Grassy Point Boulevard but he had an open line radio with GPS transmitter, which Dempsey had now homed in on and was able to listen to every word of the conversation with his kidnappers.

He had radioed through to Hayes and Watson to tell them it was all on. He had given the Nightstalker and Bell crews the co-ordinates of the RIB, which was whizzing across Alligator Bay and he had patched the transmission to all agents on the Burnt Stove road with an ultimate view of intercepting the Lombardis.

He had updated Konchesky via video and the Assistant Director looked absolutely delighted at the developments.

Friday 13th August 2012 22:15pm EST, Gulf of Mexico

The sky was darkening every minute now, it was very warm and the moon was shining brightly.

"Hey Madison - this could be real romantic" laughed Logan.

"Yeah - but some other time!" Hayes replied smiling at him and at last, giving Logan the glimmer of encouragement he wanted. Despite her increasing nerves, she thought to herself how strong and handsome he looked as he guided the craft.

Using the Sat Nav Watson set course for El Alcatraz's last known position and twenty-fie minutes later he cut the engines. They both put on their headsets and Watson scanned northwards with his night binoculars. He went quiet and Hayes aimed her binoculars in the same direction.

"There we are" whispered Logan at the same moment that Hayes focused in on the dark shape bobbing ever so gently in the tranquil waters. The ship, which was about 600m ahead, was in almost total darkness with no sign of life or activity on deck.

"Madison - you got that thermal camera there? See if you can pick anything up" asked Watson.

Hayes dugout the camera from the bag held it up to her eyes and traced up and down the boat. After a minute or so she said "I got four human heat sources. Two in front bridge area, one on lower deck and one in rear area."

"Good" said Watson. "There are landing ladders on the port side - they must be down waiting for Perez to come back. Let's get the inflatable ready and moor the boat against that homing buoy."

They maneuvered the dinghy overboard and tied it to the rear of the Diveboat before loading the equipment they thought they would need next. Watson steered the boat up to a Coastguard's weather buoy and lashed the Diveboat onto it.

"At least it won't drift off now. I'm thinking we need to either get close to, or on-board El Alcatraz now - it's no good trying to reach her when the Motion comes racing back."

Hayes agreed with his logic and felt the nerves twinge again in her stomach. They clambered into the dinghy, turned on their headsets and night goggles and paddled as quietly as possible towards Sanchez's trawler.

When they were about 200m from the landing ladders on the port side, Dempsey's voice in their headsets broke the silence, causing them both to jump.

"Hayes, Watson - we have a target update – and a real slice of luck. An auto-mechanic has been kidnapped near Alligator Bay and forced at gun-point to repair a broken Motion speedboat. The mechanic - he's called Ethan Bachetti - was carrying a works two-way radio with GPS tracker built-in so I have a plot on my radar screens and I'm trying to get a visual through the scopes. We've run voice recognition software against the voices and our archives - and we gotta match on Perez. Perez's made his transfer to Lombardi and he's headed back to Alcatraz."

With her adrenalin pumping and her palms sweating, Madison spoke.

"Hi Ryan - where is Lombardi now?"

"Him and his brother are in a fast RIB and are headed south out of Charlotte Harbor. There is no chance of any of our boats catching him but we have a Nightstalker tracking him and a DEA Bell Helicopter on assist. At the moment we are just silently tracking him and we think he is headed back to Naples" gasped Dempsey who was in a high state of excitement.

"Perez's boat should be back at Alcatraz in approximately twenty minutes" he added.

"Ryan - We got no choice now but to get on-board Alcatraz now, hide and wait for Perez." said Watson "We sure could do with that backup now."

At that point, the agents got the news they had been praying for as Konchesky's voice broke across the conversation.

"Hi guys, Joel Konchesky here. The US Coastguard Cutter Stratton's crew will shortly be joined by NAVY SEAL Team Two, Special Warfare Group, from Virginia who are airborne now. There are five guys in that team - four are gonna take over that tanker at the right moment and the other guy is gonna head to you. He is one of the best of the best".

Watson felt a surge of great hope and relief and spoke into his headset.

"MEX1 to Konchesky. That is great news Sir. Navy SEALS are the best trained men on the planet and they can get into places that water cannot! Over and out."

He patted Hayes on the knee in an encouraging way and said

"Hey Madison! That will even things up a bit now!"

She smiled back, a mixture of delight and relief.

Watson and Hayes rowed on quietly towards the trawler. All was deadly quiet on deck.

"Madison. We'll have to swim the last hundred meters. We can't leave our dinghy near that boarding ladder" whispered Watson.

She nodded and in her usual efficient way, put her back-pack over her shoulder which held the sampling kit, medical supplies and her Glock revolver with ammo. Watson's back-pack held the GPS, two Glocks and the thermal imaging camera. Both agents had distinctive FBI bullet proof jackets on.

"Frank Jinks would shoot me if he saw me wearing this FBI vest!" joked Watson, trying to ease the atmosphere.

He cocked one leg over the side of the dinghy and lowered himself gently and quietly as possible into the warm sea. Hayes did the same and they swam up to the boarding ladder, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Watson went up the ladder first trying to make as little noise as possible, and peeped up onto deck. Nobody was there. He beckoned Hayes and she followed him quietly up the ladder. They darted across deck to a large stack of boxes, nets and lobster pots, which reeked of fish, and crouched down hidden in the night sky, still dripping from the sea.

Logan opened up his back-pack and drew out his gun, which thankfully had remained dry, and the thermal camera. Hayes drew out her Glock and tried to breathe in deeply and slowly, fearing her heart would leap straight out of her chest, such was its rate of beating.

Watson used the infra red camera to closely study who was in the wheelhouse. The windows were all wide open to let any fresh air in and from his position he was about ten feet away from the window. He raised two fingers indicating the number of crew he had in sight.

Just then the sound of a high revving engine and the thumping of a boat's hull against the sea broke their thoughts. The NVT goggles showed them that it was a long, sleek speedboat which pulled alongside the port-side of the Alcatraz. Moments later they saw three men climbing the ladders onto the ship and walking towards the wheelhouse. The man in the middle was holding his midriff with one hand and in obvious discomfort, whilst carrying a toolbox in his other.

Watson guessed he was the mechanic and assumed he had been beaten around his guts.

Hayes whispered quietly into her headset.

"Logan. That's Perez with the blue jacket on, carrying the suitcases".

It was an unreal moment for her to finally clasp eyes on the man they had been tracking for weeks and who was wanted across America and throughout the World.

Watson nodded and watched as the men entered the bridge area. Immediately Perez kissed his wife on the forehead and put the suitcases down. Hayes and Watson couldn't hear the conversation but guessed that Perez was furious with Sanchez that the ship was not moving, as he was yelling at the old man and waving his arms about. He pointed at Bachetti several times probably explaining to his wife and Sanchez why the captive had been brought back.

Sanchez then hurried from the wheelhouse and seemed to be heading for the engine room, presumably to try to fix some engine problem.

Meanwhile Bachetti sat on a chair, leant forward, retching and gasping for air. He was not well.

Friday 13th August 2012, 23.00pm EST, Gulf of Mexico

As the Lombardi brothers raced back down the dark coast towards a disused but heavily fortified warehouse five miles from Naples, they were oblivious to the fact that their precise location was constantly being tracked by the FBI, DEA and US Air Force. By the time their boat pulled quietly into a private mooring, a total of ten FBI, County Police and DEA cars, packed with armed officers were on a silent approach, lest the cargo be jettisoned overboard at sea.

As soon as the brothers and their bodyguard started to move the suitcases from the boat and onto dry land, the law enforcement officers moved in swiftly with weapons drawn, shouting for their immediate surrender.

Whether he was affected by snorting cocaine, or simply felt he could never be taken will not be known but Valentino Lombardi made the fatal mistake of drawing his gun from his jacket and aiming at one of the police cars. In seconds he was gunned down by a hailstorm of bullets, dying instantly on the quayside. His brother and Marco, the bodyguard, put their hands up instantly and surrendered without further action being necessary.

The cocaine suitcases were recovered and at long last the Lombardis had been caught red-handed. The whole episode would delight the DEA hierarchy and at least temporarily slow the cocaine supply train from Florida.

Chapter 12

Friday 13th August 2012, 23.10pm EST, El Alcatraz, Gulf of Mexico

As they sat there weighing up options and contemplating their next move, a new voice crackled into their headsets.

"MEX1 - this is Viper from SEAL Team Two. Confirm your location on target craft Alcatraz. Over."

Watson spoke calmly and clearly using the same military speak - something he hadn't done for a few years.

"Viper this is Watson from MEX1. We are on the aft deck behind the wheelhouse. Three targets in wheelhouse with one hostage. Two targets in galley area on lower deck and one target in crew area. At least four targets are armed including Soviet bodyguard. Access ladder is down and on port-side. Over."

"No problem." came back the confident reply. "I will be on-board in ten minutes. Hold your position. Out."

His voice disappeared. Watson smiled at Hayes, mainly in relief that the cavalry had arrived, and gave her the thumbs-up sign. He turned his eyes back through the window to Perez and Delgado. Bachetti was coughing and retching more and more now.

"Madison. Let's agree now - if we need to start shooting, you take down Delgado and I'll take Perez- I've got a clear on him now through this open window. We don't want to both take out the same man."

Hayes nodded and looked out to sea again and again. Watson realised she was looking for the SEAL and he tapped her leg gently. He shook his head and pointed upwards to the sky indicating the SEAL was still in the air now and not yet in the sea.

The agonizing wait went on for what seemed like an eternity. Perez was now shouting and yelling at Bachetti to fix the engine but the mechanic was slumped forward in a chair clutching his stomach, gasping and wailing.

"MEX1- this is Viper. I am on-board and have visual with you." Hayes looked around her but there was no sign of Viper - his speed and silence had astonished her.

Viper continued "I'm going to take out all targets on the lower deck. Watch my back on any movements up here. Out" Then the deathly silence returned again.

With his night goggles on and dark combat suit, he would make a terrifying sight for any unsuspecting person who came across him. Viper moved silently along the boat and down the staircase to the galley area. He could hear somebody in the toilet so he waited crouched and poised in the cramped, dark corridor behind the line of the door.

The big cook, Javier, came out and Viper struck grasping the cook's neck in a vice-like lock in his forearm, twisting twice from side to side. The cook slumped dead with his neck broken. Viper effortlessly dragged his body back into the toilet, shut the door and headed back along the corridor to the galley, where Sanchez was pouring out a juice for himself.

Beyond the galley was the small crew's lounge where through the gap of the part opened door, Viper could just see the Chetnan Vakha's feet sticking out from the sofa.

Sanchez finished preparing his drink and moved to the sink area with his back to the door. Viper took this opportunity to strike again. He moved quickly and silently into the room drawing his SEAL combat knife, a vicious six inch dagger, with sharply serrated teeth - from his leg sheath.

He put his hand across Sanchez's mouth to ensure silence and violently ripped the blade across the old Mexican's throat, slicing the jugular to ruination. Sanchez's retirement plans were now like his throat - shredded. Viper caught the captain's limp body and laid him quietly on the galley floor and turned his thoughts and attention to Vakha.

Viper decided it was best to draw Vakha out from the lounge rather than trying to take him down in the small room. The element of surprise lay with Viper, as Vakha hadn't moved at all during the Sanchez kill.

Like all members of SEAL Team Two, Viper had been trained in electronics but this was his speciality. He decided to isolate the lighting to the lower deck area, which included the crew's lounge. The electrical main supply was in a recessed box next to the kitchen.

Viper quickly worked out which was the isolation switch for the lounge and threw it. His NVT goggles made it easy for him to see Vakha as he staggered out of the lounge cursing and groping around. The SEAL took him down with one hefty blow across the back of his skull using the butt of his Heckler & Koch pistol.

Viper ensured the Chetnan posed no further threat by snapping his neck before lifting his body onto the sofa, as if asleep, and restoring power to the lower deck.

"Viper to MEX1. All targets down." he chillingly and clinically announced. "I'm coming up to join you. Out."

No sooner had that conversation ended than Maria Perez rose from her seat and opened the bridge door.

"And find out what the fuck Sanchez is doing" shouted her husband as she walked out into the night air. She started to walk down the stairs to the lower deck and Hayes quickly spoke into her headset.

"Viper, Viper. Target on staircase headed your way." her heart thumped like a drum now as she watched the pretty, petite Mexican woman head down below deck. Hayes pictured the lower deck to be like a bloodbath or killing field after the SEAL had taken down most of the crew. She glanced at Watson who was steely faced with his Glock ready and poised.

There was a complete and eerie silence in their headsets as they waited for Viper to say something.

Meanwhile below deck Viper was crouched under the metal staircase concealed in the dark. He was mighty grateful to that lady for her warning as he was just about to race up the stairs when she had spoken to alert him.

He saw some legs coming down the staircase and waited for the target to reach the bottom step. He realised that the target was female but at that moment in time that was irrelevant to Viper who had only one course of action in his mind.

Mrs. Perez walked towards the galley looking for Sanchez and said softly "Hector? Hector?"

Viper followed her silently before striking. He grabbed her round the throat and with extreme force, crushed her windpipe continuously. In less than thirty seconds she was dead. Like all others on board El Alcatraz, she neither saw nor heard the man who was to end her life. As per his million dollar training program, Viper had followed the SEAL code "slow and smooth, smooth and fast".

"Viper to MEX1. Target down. Hey thanks for watching my back! Confirm that there remain two targets in wheelhouse. Over."

Watson answered "MEX1 to Viper. That is correct. Hostage is in bad health - needs urgent medical assistance. Over."

"I'm on my way to bridge now. Out" replied Viper.

A few minutes later Viper crept up to the starboard side window outside the wheelhouse and peered in. The two Mexicans were arguing and shouting at the hostage and were clearly very agitated.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" shouted the big man in the red T-shirt. "Let's just waste him now."

"And who will fix this ship to get us moving then?" replied Perez. "Where is that old fool Sanchez and Maria?"

Viper was inclined to throw the lights again but didn't want to leave his position as he sensed matters were about to reach a head.

"MEX 1 to Viper. We have a clear line of sight on target Perez in the blue coat through the window. The hostage needs medical attention now. Can you take down Delgado in the red T-shirt? Over." Watson was clearly keen to get it done now.

"I am Green for Go" said Viper. "On my count of three we shoot."

Hayes and Watson took careful aim aided by their NVT goggles, both with their mouths dry and their pulses racing.

"One....." started Viper.

"Two....." he continued.

Then it happened.

Bachetti lurched forward in the chair and appeared to start vomiting. Something white sped out from his mouth and then just kept coming out and coming out. All who witnessed it were momentarily stunned and frozen like statues. The long, thin white expulsion appeared to be moving and slithering around on the floor, then reared up to a surprising height as Bachetti fell off the chair gasping for breath and fell unconscious to the floor.

"What the fuck is it?" yelled Delgado, who stepped back in a mixture of fear and confusion. Viper was the first to react and re-focus. His red laser guide was positioned on the nape of Delgado's neck.

"Three...Fire!" he said calmly into his microphone, before he dispatched a short round of lethal fire from his MP5K pistol into the back of the Mexican's neck and head. The violent force exploded the back of Delgado's skull and projected him forwards over the prostrate Bachetti and onto the floor.

Watson immediately fired his Glock and caught Perez in the right shoulder area. Hayes had been slightly thrown by events and fired twice. Her first shot was very accurate and hit Perez in his right thigh but her second shot was wild, missing Perez all together and smashed into the ship's instrumentation panel.

There was a loud bang and a flash of light that temporarily blinded those wearing NVT goggles.

Viper was the first to recover his senses and he raced into the room, pulling a torch from a pocket in his combat suit with his pistol in his other hand. He screamed very loudly "Keep down, keep down!" at Perez. Watson and Hayes followed him into the room with weapons ready.

Viper was now standing over Perez with his pistol pointing down at Perez's head as the narco baron writhed about on the floor in agony.

Both agents simultaneously had the same fear \- that Viper was about to execute Perez.

"Viper, Viper! We got him! We got him!" shouted Hayes.

The large SEAL turned slowly round and Hayes felt like she had suddenly become a participant in Call of Duty on her X-Box. He stood about 6 feet 4 inches and weighed around 220 pounds. Dressed in a full black combat suit, with an automatic weapon on his shoulder, various bags and pouches strapped to his arms and thighs and a fully enclosed helmet with NVT goggles he made for a very frightening and intimidating figure.

"Eh. Yeah, yeah OK. Where is that fucking snake thing?" he added frantically scanning the floor with his torch, aided by Watson who got down on his knees looking under the chairs. His attention was now focused on finding the creature.

But there was no sign of anything hiding - or hissing.

Chapter 13

"I'll get some power back on" said Viper, regaining his sense of priorities and racing off to the lower deck electricity room.

"I'll come with you" said Watson, who also wanted to see for himself what had happened down below deck earlier on.

Very quickly the ship's emergency lighting system came on thanks to Viper. He came back up to the wheelhouse and took off his helmet and NVT set. By now Hayes had fully expected to see an android underneath the helmet or at the least a badly scarred face. Instead though she was surprised to see a man in his late twenties with a gentle smiling baby face and thinning fair hair. He was nothing like she had expected.

"Hi! I guess we should introduce ourselves now! I'm Captain Vicente "Viper" Vecchio."

He gave a big friendly smile and offered his hand first to Madison.

"Hi! I'm Madison Hayes with the FBI in Washington. It's real nice to meet you in person Viper and thanks!"

"You are the bio-chemist scientist aren't you?" said Viper.

Hayes was surprised at how much detail the SEAL had been given about them and the boat in such a short period of time. The US Special Forces teams certainly knew how to prepare quickly for any situation.

"This guy needs some help quickly" said Hayes moving towards Bachetti "and Perez is bleeding badly from his shoulder. I think Delgado is dead."

"I'll take a look at Perez" said Viper taking out his SEAL issue medical kit.

Madison opened up her medical bag and knelt down by Bachetti, who was shaking violently, sweating profusely and not breathing well. He was in a state of shock and confusion.

She spoke softly to him in a re-assuring manner. "It's OK now Ethan - it's all over. I'm a trained medic with the FBI and I'm gonna help you." She shone a torch into his eyes and then rolled up his sleeve. She drew out a blood pressure device and inflated it around Bachetti's biceps. Using the torch she checked the readout which indicated his blood pressure was low.

At the point another voice burst into her headset, breaking her concentration.

"Hayes, Hayes do you copy? Can you give me a status report?" It was Konchesky.

Hayes replied.

"Yes Sir. We have a man down here; it's the hostage Ethan Bachetti. I think he is suffering from Anaphylaxis. He has breathing problems, low blood pressure and gastro intestinal symptoms. I'm going to administer five ml of Epinephrine."

"Are you OK Madison? What about Watson? Over."

"Yes Sir. We are both OK. The SEAL guy was something else. All targets are down. We are about to check Perez who is wounded but still alive. We are going to need to transfer at least two people to hospital. Over."

"I'll sort some urgent assistance for you. Confirm again that Perez has been taken alive over."

Hayes was surprised to be asked again about Perez again but confirmed the situation.

"Yes sir. Repeat. Perez is shot but still alive. He has wounds to the shoulder and thigh and will need medical attention when we dock. Over."

"Good work MEX1. I will update you shortly. Over and out."

Meanwhile Viper had pulled out a small black electronic box from the medical bag strapped to his thigh.

"This is standard SEAL procedure. I gotta take DNA samples for our database records" he announced as he sensed Hayes watching him.

He flicked out two probes from one end and removed the sterile protective covers before swabbing some blood from firstly Perez's shoulder wound and then Delgado's neck.

Seconds later the data was being transmitted back to Virginia for analysis and storage.

Viper and Hayes decided to move Delgado's body out of the way as he had fallen awkwardly across Bachetti when taken down by Viper's shot to the skull. As they positioned themselves to lift the big Mexican up they both had their backs turned to Perez, who hadn't yet received any treatment. Unwatched and in considerable pain, the injured drug-lord edged his left hand slowly to a leg sheath where he had a hidden pistol.

He slowly stretched his hand down and started to work the weapon free of its holster.

At that moment, Watson returned into the room having just started to drag all the bodies below deck into one single area, which was to become a makeshift morgue. This would help with the morbid task of identifying the victims of Viper's clinical work.

His eyes fell straight onto Perez, and the gun now being freed into his hand.

"He's gotta a gun on his leg!" yelled Watson flinging himself like a wide receiver over Viper to knock Perez's hand. He drew out his own Glock and pointed it into Perez's face, momentarily unsure whether to kill Perez there and then.

Viper scooped up Perez's weapon before composing himself and saying.

"Thanks. Hey both you guys have both saved my life today! And that was good shooting before to take this guy down. We call that a Double Tap in the SEALS!"

Viper then turned to Watson who offered out his hand.

"Hi! I'm Captain Vicente "Viper" Vecchio."

"Hi! I'm Logan Watson with the DEA in Arlington."

"Yeah!" said Viper "You were with the US Navy weren't you? I read both your biographies when we were airborne. I got them issued along with a schematic layout of this trawler."

"Why are you called Viper?" Is it because you have a silent and deadly strike?" asked Watson smiling.

"No, no!" laughed Viper "I think it's just that I got a lot of Vs in my name!"

Neither agent really believed him.

"Who are you bastards?" yelled Perez interrupting the conversation though gritted teeth and in obvious pain.

"Where is my wife? I want to see my wife. Luis, Luis are you there?"

"We are FBI and DEA agents. Miguel Perez you are under arrest for violation of Schedule II of the United States Controlled Substances Act. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense." said Hayes in word perfect fashion despite her frantic heartbeat. She stared into the eyes of one of the most wanted men on the planet - and didn't flinch.

"Where is my wife? Where are you taking me?" he shouted again in an agitated voice.

"I am afraid both your wife and Luis Delgado are dead Mr. Perez. We are taking you to back to Florida where you will be held in custody at a US Naval base for questioning" replied Watson.

The Mexican looked furious, shocked, confused and pained all at the same time. He went quiet for a bit and started to cry in either pain or sorrow. Viper and Hayes cleaned up his wounds with a swab and applied a tourniquet to his leg injury. Viper's SEAL medical kit contained medication for dealing with most emergencies and he drew out a hypodermic needle, with a dose of Morphine pre-loaded. Almost without looking Viper jabbed the needle into Perez's thigh muscle, giving him some instant pain relief and temporarily silencing him.

The agents then undertook a search of the boathouse room for evidence and anything else that would be useful in the future in their war against drugs and terror.

"How much money do you make in a year in your DEA work, amigo?" Perez suddenly spurted out at Watson as he lay on the boathouse floor with Sanchez's trusty seat cushion under his head.

"No, no I will tell you how much you make. You will be on GS pay and I guess you have a few years service. So let me think...you earn between $80-$90,000 a year. Am I right?"

Watson didn't answer but was privately amazed that Perez knew this level of information.

"You not answer me - so that means I am right" Perez added smugly.

"That is not a good salary amigo. No, no it is not good. Listen to me my friend. I will make you all very rich people. I will pay you $1,000,000 each now - you, your FBI friend and the army guy. And then I will pay you another $1,000,000 next week \- if you help me to go free. I will wire the money anywhere in the world you want. I have the money here now in these suitcases. Take a look! I am a man of my word. Do we have a deal?"

The Mexican was desperate to barter for his freedom and his life long in-built ability to survive whatever situation faced him kicked in.

Watson however was full of contempt for Perez and despised corruption - another throwback to his parental influence. Watson realised that Perez had lost his wife and his best friend but the most important thing to him now was to try and bribe his way to freedom.

"I don't want your fucking money!" shouted Watson grabbing Perez by the lapels of this coat "I want you in jail for the rest of your life! You are looking at a penal sentence of 10 years and a fine of $10 million"

Viper and Hayes pulled him off the Mexican. "Easy man, easy" said Viper in a strangely calming way. "Don't let him get to you."

Perez laughed. "I not understand you. I have worked with the US Government for many years and there has been, how you say? Mutual benefits. I have helped you Americans and your Government many times"

Hayes looked shocked and assumed Perez was lying.

"What do you mean worked with the American Government? Who have you worked with and when? Or are you just lying to try to save your skin?"

Perez's face was very serious. "But no Senorita. I have provided weapons for freedom fighters across the Americas at the personal request of the American Government officials. I have names and contact details. I have dealt with two men from your National Security Council. One goes under the name of Archangel the other calls himself Iron Eagle. These are, how you say, code-names? One is like you with the FBI and the other one is CIA. I also know their real names."

Both Hayes and Watson listened keenly. Now Perez was talking with what seemed like honesty - perhaps due to being in a state of shock following his deaths of his wife and best friend, or maybe the effects of morphine. Perhaps he did just want to save his skin but whatever the reason his voice and manner was now very different.

"I will tell you all what you want to know. But only when you let me go free" Perez added before the effects of Viper's morphine hit him fully. His eyes closed as he slipped into a deep sleep leaving the agents tantalized.

Chapter 14

Viper got a call in his SEAL channel headset.

"Yes sir. All targets are down with one injured and hostage is free. The hostage requires medical attention but the two agents here are arranging for that with the Coastguard."

He listened to news from his colleagues, smiling and nodding his head.

"That is great news sir. US Special Forces are the best in the world - no question there. Out."

Viper turned to Hayes and Watson looking pleased.

"SEAL Team Two took the ship after a gunfight. Two Ukrainians were killed and the rest surrendered. None of our guys were injured and the team found two barrels of Semtex and C5 explosives. The USCG Stratton is headed towards us now to pick you up along with the injured and dead."

Hayes couldn't contain herself and asked Viper some questions that were at the front of her mind.

"Viper. When did your team get told about this situation and what was happening?"

Viper had taken an instant like to both Hayes and Watson and whilst he never normally spoke outside SEAL circles he opened up a little.

"SEAL Team Two is trained to be mobilized at very short notice to tackle any situation where American lives and interests are at stake. We only got about one hour's notice of this situation and our Colonel decided to split us into two operational units. We have some guys in the team who are experts in handling chemical and nuclear material and explosives so they were dispatched to the ship."

"I have been trained in electronics and close quarter combat so I was sent to assist you guys. Sometimes when we have more notice we can build a mock up of the target zone back at our base in Virginia but there wasn't enough time here. I had to try and memorize as much as I could about this boat's layout and who was on board."

"We were briefed to deal with four fanatical terrorists with Middle Eastern and Soviet connections. I gotta say that there was only one person who looked to me like a terrorist below deck and then the two armed guys in the bridge. Nobody mentioned anything about a young woman being on board but ..." he hesitated and then said in an almost apologetic way

".. If you are told they are terrorists and you gotta take them down... well then that's what you gotta do. Anyway I'm real grateful to you guys for your help" he added modestly and massively playing down his own role in the liberation of the boat.

"We needed really your help here Viper and would probably have just ended up trying to shoot our way out!" said Watson.

"Yeah Logan's right. You knew what to tackle first and I'm real thankful to you. You were told they were terrorists and you did your job properly." added Hayes.

Privately, both agents thought about Viper's stunning efficiency and appreciated that America's multi-million dollar investment in training Navy SEALS had paid handsome dividends in averting a major terrorist attack on the United States homeland.

After a short period of silence and reflection on all these events, Viper spoke out trying to end the puzzlement in his mind.

"Hey! What on earth was that massive white snake thing that came out of this guy's mouth?" asked Viper. "I've never seen anything like that in my life and I've spent time in some weird places!"

"I suspect it was some form of tapeworm" replied Hayes switching her thoughts back to the worm and momentarily away from Perez's comments about corrupt American officials which were really bothering her.

"I was only saying to Logan the other day that there have been a couple of instances this year of massive tapeworm discoveries in Florida. I wish we could have gotten a closer look at it."

Watson spoke then. "There is a slimy trail by the cabin door over there. I saw it as I went downstairs to the galley before. Looks like whatever it was; it went through the railings and towards the sea. It must have moved real fast"

Hayes mind was whizzing.

"Parasites can survive outside the host's body for several hours but they need to feed on something. Maybe this thing needs to survive in sea water?" she wondered out loud.

"Well maybe we can get a closer look at it" said Viper suddenly.

He rolled up the sleeve of his combat suit to reveal a small, flexible micro-HDTV screen secured around his forearm by two Velcro straps. The two agents looked on in silence as Viper pressed a couple of tiny buttons on the panel of the micro unit.

"This is a bit like a home camcorder." he explained. "It's linked to the HD camera in my headset and can show live feedback to Virginia HQ as well as storing local data.

Anything on here is Top Secret NOFORN classified but I'm gonna show it to you guys as our mission still has live status."

He fast forwarded the recording through his parachute jump into the sea and through the multiple killings of the crew of El Alcatraz- all caught on camera.

Nobody said a word.

When he got close to the frames where Bachetti expelled the parasite, Viper stopped the recording.

"Here we go - I'll use freeze frame progression mode."

The three watched as the huge worm first appeared from Ethan's mouth. Viper could zoom, pan and edit the lighting so that even in the dark, the picture quality was excellent.

"Good job you kept your head still!" joked Watson, truly fascinated now by what he was watching.

"That looks a bit like an Anaconda or Python to me. I've faced them in jungles in South America before" said Viper slowly advancing the images. The creature reared its body about two feet off the ground at one point, looked around slowly and a hissing sound could be heard."

"It looks reticulated for sure but tapeworms consist of strobila - small sections. I do understand though why you would think it is a snake and it does appear to have eyes which tapeworms do not possess. It also has the characteristic triangular shaped head and this has a tongue flicking out."

"There have been some sightings of huge Nemertean white worms in the Gulf of Mexico but this looks slightly different" said Hayes, who was really puzzled by the creature and its classification.

"But the host here, Ethan Bachetti, is from Florida and that is consistent with other tapeworm research and findings from that area recently. I wish we could get an oncosphere" she said as she closely studied the footage, at the same time losing her two colleagues.

The sound of gunfire came next as Viper, Watson and Hayes all opened up on Perez and Delgado. And then darkness came.

Viper rewound the recording and clicked another button. He dragged an icon with a measurement gauge onto the screen using his index finger and the two agents realised he was using some highly advanced software to calculate the creature's body length.

"I usually use this for estimating pipe length or explosive cable - not for measuring snakes!" joked Viper who remained convinced that is what he had seen.

The micro-screen computed the worm's length at 28.35 meters or 93 feet.

"Mercy me!" muttered Viper suddenly remembering that he was in the presence of a woman and all three were astonished at the length of the creature and what they had witnessed.

"Viper! Is there no way you can share that footage with us? I am a scientist and I would like to try to get that creature analyzed in case it presents a threat to human life in Florida. You have my word that I'll not reveal where I got the information from." said Madison almost begging now.

"There is no way maam." he said seemingly without negotiation. "Like I said, this data will be classified under Top Secret No Foreign Access."

"OK" Hayes added disappointedly but grateful that at least he had shown the footage to her.

She had no doubt it was a vital discovery and without hesitation she would be including reference to it in her end of assignment report for Konchesky. She had to agree with Viper that it looked like a snake and her mind started to wonder if the creature was somehow connected to the abandoned snake problem in the Florida Everglades. Maybe it was some form of new hybrid life form - something between a python or an anaconda and a tapeworm? Had mankind created a new Frankenstein?

However like all scientifically minded people, Hayes wanted hard facts thoroughly supported by incontrovertible evidence – not fanciful guesswork.

Viper then got another call in his headset on his SEAL-only channel.

"My chopper lift is nearly here, I better get on deck or the Major won't be happy" he said before pausing for a moment as he packed his last items of kit away.

"Look. Have you guys got a business card with your full work address and ZIP code?" he suddenly asked the two agents. This surprising request gave Hayes some hope that he would be able to furnish them with something.

"Sure" said Hayes handing him a card from the supply she kept in her iPad sleeve bag but saying no more.

"Now I ain't promising anything...." he added as he zipped the card into his sleeve pocket.

Viper had all his SEAL combat kit back on now and he shook hands again.

"Thanks again guys! Nice working with you."

Watson went out of the wheelhouse with him and looked around. It was very quiet and peaceful after the mayhem of the last hour. As they stood on the Alcatraz's deck a light suddenly appeared over their heads and a rope ladder dropped out of the darkness from a near silent helicopter.

This time it was Watson who was startled.

"Where the hell did that come from?" he said.

"It's our Sikhorsky Stealth attack gunship. Changeable skins and acoustic mufflers - you can't see it or hear it until it is too late! So long Logan" laughed Viper saluting.

And with that Viper caught hold of the ladder and was whisked upwards and away towards the stars. He was gone into the darkness almost as fast as he had fallen out of it.

Chapter 15

Saturday 14 August 2012 04.30am EST somewhere in Gulf of Mexico.

A utility boat from the USCG Stratton pulled alongside Alcatraz and four US Coastguards climbed up the boarding latter to start to organize the transfer of the injured and dead to the advanced medical facilities aboard the cutter. The first man up the ladder was an officer and he spoke to Hayes.

"I'm Lieutenant Kramer from the US Coastguard Service. Are you FBI Agent Hayes?" said the officer in charge to Madison.

"Yes Lieutenant" replied Hayes shaking hands. "This is my colleague Agent Logan Watson from the DEA. We have two injured men in the wheelhouse and five fatally wounded down in the galley area."

The Lieutenant looked puzzled. "Did you say five fatalities?" he queried.

"Yes sir" replied Hayes. "A Navy SEAL parachuted aboard and he took no prisoners whilst liberating us."

"Is he still on-board?" asked Kramer now very confused.

"No he left about five minutes ago by helicopter." said Watson.

The Lieutenant looked really puzzled.

"We never got any radar indication of an aircraft in the area" said Kramer.

Watson smiled to himself.

"We'll get the two injured over to the Stratton first to they can be assessed. You need to get over to the Stratton on the first trip with your kit. I guess you have had a tough time tonight? We'll get you some food and drink and somewhere to rest for a couple of hours" he said kindly and with a friendly smile.

The agents moved their kit bags and the seized suitcases down the ladders and into the utility boat. Two marines carried Bachetti down first on a stretcher and then returned for Perez. The utility boat zipped back to the Stratton leaving a white trail through the gentle sea before returning for the grim task of transporting the five dead bodies to the ship's mortuary.

On board the Stratton, Bachetti and Perez were taken to the medical quarters where the ship's doctor confirmed Hayes diagnosis of Anaphylaxis. Watson patted her arm, smiled and nodded his head as a sign of appreciation of her quick work. The medic diagnosed that Perez would need some minor clean up surgery to remove fragments of bullet from his shoulder wound and some more major work on the damaged muscle area in his thigh.

He was given a further dose of morphine to alleviate the pain which also sent him back into a semi-conscious state. Though his identity was not revealed to the crew, an armed marine stood guard in his room. No risks were being taken with this valuable cargo.

Lieutenant Kramer then took Hayes and Watson to a secure office where they stored their belongings - and $10million dollars in greenback notes.

Kramer then took the agents onto the vast bridge of the Stratton and introduced them to Captain Fishbourne, the friendly young captain.

"Hi! Nice to meet you both. My crew will do everything they can to make you comfortable on the short trip back to Key West. The galley is open now so please help yourself to pancakes and coffee."

"There is a shower room at the back of the office Kramer has stored your kit in and you are welcome to use it if you wish to freshen up. We are due to dock in Key West at about 07.00am. I have armed guards watching your prisoner so you need not worry about him!"

A warm shower was just what was needed for both of them and put some energy back into their sagging minds and bodies.

Chapter 16

Saturday 14 August 2012 07.00am EST United States Coast Guard base, Key West, Florida

As the Stratton glided slowly and silently into the secure USCG harbor at Key West, another beautiful day was born. Watson and Hayes had gotten Perez into a mobile stretcher bed loaned from the ship's medical team. They were taking no chances and wanted him in a secure cell as soon as possible.

Perez was sitting up on the inclined bed and Watson had cuffed his left hand to the wheelchair's frame which prompted a further torrent of foul abuse. But given his incapacity he hadn't a chance of making a run for it.

Perez would be held at Key West for questioning by FBI and DEA investigators, whilst an ambulance would take Bachetti to Mariners Hospital, Tavernier, the local civilian hospital for observation before he was transferred back to Port Charlotte, where his now hysterical wife was desperate to see him.

When Hayes and Watson had all their belongings together, Watson pushed the stretcher bed up the narrow pedestrian ramp and rattled it towards the quayside. Hayes had their various kit bags, plus the two impounded cases, on a trolley just behind. The early morning heat suggested it would be another blazing day and despite both being very tired, the agents felt upbeat and pleased with events.

As Logan reached the last quarter of the landing ramp, he heard a low thudding sound and then something wet hit his right arm.

Perez's head flew backwards and then his whole body slumped forward without him making a noise. Madison let out a cry of horror and shouted out

"Logan - get down! Get down! He's been shot!"

Watson hit the floor and noticed blood dripping from the stretcher onto the ramp and realised that it was Perez's blood that had hit his arm. There was an eerie and complete silence and no further shots. A siren sounded and the naval base went into overload with armed guardsman running everywhere and lots of shouting.

Minutes later two officers came down the pedestrian ramp and shouted at Watson and Hayes.

"Hey! You two get up here now! Move! Move! Move!"

Watson stood up and pushed the stretcher up the last quarter of the ramp like an Olympic bobsleigh competitor whilst keeping bent low and holding onto Perez's collar to stop him falling out. Hayes ran along right behind him, crouched and pushing the trolley as hard as she could.

The officer guided them quickly into a ground floor office.

"Stay here! Keep down! Don't move!" he bawled in true military fashion.

Hayes and Watson lay flat on the office floor gasping for air, their minds swishing with confusion as they tried to fathom out what had just happened out there.

"Somebody was waiting for us here - they knew we were coming, they knew when we were coming. They knew who was with us and just where to take Perez down." shouted Watson. "We just delivered Perez on a plate - and they sent him to his death. We've been fucked over".

They both looked down at Perez on the stretcher, his face covered in blood and a vacant lonely permanent stare in his now soulless eyes.

Madison felt tired and emotional after twenty-four hours of stress, turmoil and lack of sleep. Fighting back tears of frustration, confusion and anger she said

"You are right Logan. You are right. We've been used, we've been set-up and I want some answers."

After about thirty minutes, some level of calm returned to Key West again. The Lieutenant, who had ushered them into the office, re-appeared and introduced himself as Lieutenant Harris. Two orderlies were summoned and they took Perez's body to the medical wing to await a post-mortem.

Lieutenant Harris led Hayes and Watson to another office in the main building block and knocked on a large grand door, which had the nameplate Admiral J.P. McVey in gold lettering proudly embossed.

The Admiral shook hands and ordered some coffees to be brought in.

"This isn't the type of welcome we like to give to visitors to USCG Key West" he said solemnly and apologetically.

"I'm very sorry for what has happened. We only got a message from the Pentagon at 04.45 am that you had a vital cargo and were heading to Key West for a secure transfer. We have marines searching the base's perimeter area and the local police have set up roadblocks outside but we've found nobody or anything yet - whoever did this seems to have just disappeared into thin air. At this early stage, it looks like a sniper was positioned in one of the rear control towers overlooking the docking quays. He took out your prisoner probably with a very powerful rifle."

"This is going to be highly embarrassing for us - we have never experienced anything like this before and I will need you to provide a written statement for the enquiry that will inevitably have to follow. Can I ask you who the victim is? We were never given a name by the Pentagon."

Watson spoke first.

"Admiral, our prisoner was Miguel Perez, a Mexican narcotics dealer wanted by the DEA, FBI, CIA, National Drug Intelligence Center, Interpol and.... Just about every law enforcement agency on the planet. The DEA have wanted him for three years, as have the FBI. Madison and I have worked together on a joint project called Operation Marlin charged with apprehending Mr. Perez and bringing him before a U.S. Court."

"Our terms of reference were 'capture or kill' but we preferred the capture option. We never expected him to be taken down inside a US military base."

The Admiral winced inside.

Hayes spoke then. "Sir, I am a trained medic and would like to attend the post-mortem as a witness. Logan and I were talking in the other office and we believe this was a professional hit job. Whoever took Perez down had a lot of inside information, such as, time of the Stratton's arrival, dock number, best vantage point for the shot. This isn't a drug gang revenge affair - this is the work of an American agency. Nobody outside the FBI, DEA, USCG or SEAL team knew about him or his whereabouts."

The Admiral looked shocked. He paused before saying "That is a serious allegation Ms. Hayes but given all you have just told me, I do understand your concerns and frustration. And Yes, I am happy for you to witness the post-mortem as an independent witness."

The old Admiral was clearly not looking forward to being cross examined by military investigators and having to explain how his base's security had been breached to such devastating and deadly effect. He realised he need to fully co-operate with the two agents as much as possible and picked up his office phone.

"Dr.Hoffman? Admiral McVey here. When will you be able to undertake the post-mortem on the prisoner shot this morning? OK...I have an FBI medical agent here with me, Madison Hayes, who will be joining you as a witness. OK...thanks."

"Ms Hayes. Dr. Hoffman, the base's senior medical officer will perform the post-mortem at 11.30am and you are most welcome to join him. In the meantime, I will arrange for you both to have some private quarters and an office here whilst we continue to investigate what has happened."

Hayes and Watson were shown to their temporary quarters. They had about half an hour before the post-mortem and they sat down and again tried to make sense of the past few hours.

"Like I said before, we have been used" said Logan. "Somebody high up wanted Perez dead for some reason and we were sent to bring him in and then unknowingly set him up." He looked bewildered, tired and angry.

Madison agreed that they had been used - but she couldn't figure out by whom or why exactly.

"I'm gonna get in touch with Konchesky and see how he reacts." she said.

Logan now sensed for the first time since they started working together that she had real doubts about her boss and his motives. They hadn't heard anything from him since Perez was wasted.

Whilst Hayes went to observe the post-mortem in the medical wing, Watson showered and changed into some spare clothes Admiral McVey had provided for them both. He went to their temporary office and started to write up his version of the end of assignment report.

He had never been good at typing and wrote the draft report by hand. Over the next three hours, his scribblings soon ate up many pages of A4 and he repeatedly made amendments and alterations to cover the last twenty four hours of activity.

Logan was real tired now and his eyes started to sting through lack of sleep and fresh air. He was thinking about having a sleep back in the quarters the Admiral had provided when Hayes returned to the office.

"Hey Madison, how did it go?" he asked her with renewed enthusiasm, as she put down her iPad case.

"Dr. Hoffman retrieved a 0.452mm "dumb dumb" bullet from the right frontal lobe of Perez's forehead, which the report will state caused instant death. The Doctor noted that type of ammunition is not widely available outside military circles – certainly not commercially – and is designed to cause maximum damage to the target on entry.

"Our two bullets were also removed having caused muscle punctures to the right shoulder and to the right deltoid. His secretary is typing up the report now for the record and Dr.Hoffman will forward us a copy."

Hayes looked at the paper scattered all over the desks and smiled before asking.

"Logan – don't you type?!"

He grinned back at her. "I don't find it easy. I can't type and think at the same time – Hey! Don't forget I am a man!"

Madison laughed and said "Can I read it please?"

"Sure. I want you too. Feel free to amend it in any way you want as I probably have forgotten stuff – so much seemed to happen so quickly. I know you'll certainly add to the tapeworm section and you need to make reference to the post-mortem" he replied handing the papers over to her. "I'm real tired."

He decided the time was right now to ask her.

"Do you fancy going out for something to eat and drink later on – it's all on me?! I got some emergency money in the belt in my bag. I need to get out of here and get a change of scene."

Hayes quickly agreed. "Yeah me too and that would be great! Hey I haven't got anything fancy to wear though apart from this T-shirt and jeans they leant me! "

Logan smiled "No problem – I'm stuck with jeans and T-shirt too!"

Madison sat down and started to read the report whilst Logan made coffee – more to keep himself going than anything else.

Hayes kept nodding as she read over the draft report and occasionally made an alteration to the text. The format was not written in the FBI reporting style she was programmed to use – it seemed to be more military to her – but it was very accurate and clear. She was particularly pleased he had included a prominent reference to the tapeworm and highlighted the unexplained presence of this creature with a request for further investigations into its origins.

After twenty minutes or so, she put the papers down and turned round to speak to Watson and then saw that he was fast asleep in his chair. She smiled and switched on her iPad to start to type up the draft report for Konchesky and the other agencies.

She typed away on the iPad, battering the keys for about 30 minutes before a video-conference beep sounded. The noise work Watson up and he was very apologetic for falling asleep on her.

The request was from Ryan Dempsey who had spotted Madison was on-line on the FBI network.

Hayes switched on her web-cam and clicked the accept button. Seconds later, Ryan's big smiling face appeared.

"Hi guys" he boomed. "I've been trying your cell phones but they are switched off. Are you guys all OK?" he asked with fatherly concern.

"Yeah sure thing Ryan" said Hayes "Hey thanks! - You were brilliant co-coordinating all that data us. We would have rung but we have been tied up with a post-mortem and interviews with the Navy Criminal Investigation Service down here after Perez was wasted by the dockside – I guess you have heard?"

"Hey! The story is in all the papers and on TV down here. I don't understand how it got out so quick and with such detail – we are talking less than six hours."

He read out a passage from the Charlotte Sun Herald.

"One of the world's most wanted narco-fugitive's, Miguel Perez, was shot dead early this morning at Key West, Florida. The Mexican, wanted for multiple drug related offences in the US, had been apprehended in a joint US DEA/FBI sting operation and was at Key West for interrogation. The US Coastguard and Navy are investigating the shooting and suspect that Perez was killed by a rival drug gang."

Dempsey clearly had serious doubts about what he had read.

Logan answered. "Hi Ryan. I wanna say thanks for all your help too man and watching our backs - you were great. Now that story is bull-shit. Perez had been shot in the shoulder and leg on the Alcatraz and was sitting up in a stretcher bed when he was gunned down from the quayside at Key West by a professional assassin."

"Were you both close by when he got taken out?" asked Ryan.

"Yeah I was wearing his blood!" said Watson. "Say Ryan, have you heard anything from Konchesky today?"

"No I ain't. Talking of him, I want to tell you something that I found out that has been bugging me. That guy – Steiner? – who was at the conference call the other day. I've found some old paperwork which mentions him. His real name is Juan Salvez and he worked with Konchesky several times down in South America back in the 80s. He was on an attachment to the FBI from the Central Intelligence Agency and they worked together on some pretty heavy and classified stuff. I don't know any more than that but I found it real strange that Joel deceived us over Salvez."

"Thanks Ryan. That is really useful info and I will speak to you soon." said Hayes clearly unsettled by the news that Dempsey had just told them.

"Yes. It has been a real pleasure working with you two – you take care" added the big agent before disconnecting.

Watson spoke first. "Madison. I gotta say I've been having a real problem trusting Konchesky. I need to tell you that straight and I've also gotta tell Frank Jinks too. I believe Konchesky knows a whole lot more than he is telling us and now we have been put into life or death situations. Neither of us trusted Steiner, or I should say Salvez, and Konchesky needs to give us some explanations."

Madison sighed and agreed with him.

"You are right Logan. The thing is he has always been so straight in the past with me and given good advice. He's mentored me, given me encouragement and self-confidence and helped me to develop. But now I'm real confused about it all."

She had barely finished talking when her iPad gave out another beep requesting a video-conferencing meeting. This time it was from Konchesky.

Madison turned quickly towards Logan looking for advice.

"Accept the invite but we'll be on our guard. Let's say we gotta be interviewed by the Navy Criminal Investigation Service again. Let's see how well he plays poker!" he quickly whispered forgetting the conference hadn't started yet.

She accepted the video-conference invitation and moments later, Konchesky's face appeared sitting at his desk.

Chapter 17

"Hi there! I've been trying your cell phone Madison but it's turned off. I guess things have been hectic for you guys and I wanted to check you were OK. You have done a great job!"

"Yes sir we are OK but both shook up." Madison replied in her most matter of fact tone.

"We have been interviewed by the Navy Criminal Investigation Service team after Perez was murdered. In fact they want to talk to us again later on. I've attended a post-mortem and Logan has been working on our end of assignment report."

"Good, good" said Konchesky. "I take it you are travelling back to DC tomorrow? It'll be good to see you safely back here and to discuss your report" he added with some genuine feeling in his voice.

Watson spoke then and the web camera moved across to focus in on him. His voice was harsh, unforgiving – and he wanted a fight.

"Konchesky! We were surprised to hear the press release about the assassination of Perez. We can't figure out how that got out so fast or why it was so full of shit. But then again we can't fully understand why we were set up to bring Perez in for a kill."

Konchesky looked horribly uncomfortably and shuffled about, his eyes inadvertently looking to his right side.

"Set up? What the hell are you talking about Watson?" he finally snapped back.

The poker champion in Watson took over now.

"I think you know what I am talking about Konchesky. I think you and your slimy friend Steiner know a lot more than you are letting on. We've been talking to people down here and Perez squealed all about his FBI links, when he was full of Morphine and self pity - and before he was wasted. There are a lot of questions that you and your pal are gonna have to answer - before a Congressional hearing I suspect. You risked the life of one of your best young agents to do some sort of dirty work. You and Steiner owe us some explanations. Hey! Why don't you put him on?"

Watson's instinct had been right. Another voice cut in and the web-cam in Konchesky's office moved to show the face of Salvez.

"You better have some serious evidence asshole cos you've just ended your career." snarled Salvez losing his temper.

"Ended my career? You aren't in a position to say that to me Senor Salvez" said Watson raising the stakes higher by outing and taunting the CIA man, whom he had always suspected would be sitting in the room with Konchesky.

"But we know that you have been working with Perez haven't you?" said Watson provocatively.

"Fuck off pretty boy!" was the best response that Salvez could muster as his arrogant temper finally exploded.

"You two! Be in my office tomorrow at 9.00am" yelled Konchesky in a furious before cutting the broadcast.

With his brow starting to sweat and his mouth bone dry, he turned to Salvez.

"That's it Juan. It's Game Over now"

Salvez seemed cool and unbothered.

"What the hell are you talking about Joel? What fucking evidence have they got? All they got is some verbal ramblings from a dirty dead drug dealer and some two bit hunches. They got nothing. They got nothing. Now just keep cool and everything will be fine. Remember - dead men can't talk".

At the same time in Key West, Madison sat in silence, put her face in her hands and started to cry. Watson feared that he had wrecked things with her with his risky strategy and started to comfort her, half expecting her to push him away.

"Hey Madison, c'mon it's OK."

But far from being angry with him, she put her arms around him and clung on tightly.

"Konchesky has lied to me. He told me not to trust you but it's you I believe in and not him. You are dead right \- he is in this real deep."

"Yeah! We'll see him tomorrow - but only when we are ready. I think your boss is gonna crack up and fall apart. He's probably real frantic now wondering exactly what we've found out" said Logan.

Madison looked up at him and smiled wiping away her tears.

"Come on Ms Hayes – let's finish this report then I'm gonna take you out for some fun now!"

For the next couple of hours they sat together, recounting all sorts of incidents whilst amending, refining and finishing the report. It ran for many pages and covered absolutely everything including the statement made by Bachetti to the NICS investigation team, their concerns over the breach of internal security, the Perez claim of American officials paying for illegal weapons, the misinformation given to SEAL TEAM 2, the murder of Perez on American soil, the deliberately inaccurate briefing passed to the President's office – and the unexplained tapeworm creature. They both read it one final time.

Watson had his own views on the strange creature and had a hunch that Hayes did too so he pushed the subject once again.

"So c'mon Madison! We are off-line now and you are a smart scientific type. So tell me what you really think that creature was!"

Hayes smiled and then replied.

"OK. At this point I am inclined to agree with Viper and you. I think that it originates from a cross-bred snake species and may have been evolving for some time. I'd love to be able to investigate more as the footage on Viper's camera showed that was more reptilian than a tapeworm."

Watson felt pleased she had given him a straight answer and finished reading the report.

"That reads well to me and I can't think of anything else" said Watson "Can we send a copy to Frank Jinks?"

"Sure" said Madison who was now completely at ease with the situation. She was desperately unhappy with many of the now emerging aspects of the behavior of her superior and felt that some independent scrutiny of the whole affair was essential.

Loyalty was one thing - deceit of the public quite another.

She encrypted the report and then emailed it to Logan and Jinks.

"I wanna take a shower to liven up and then I'm ready for that fancy dinner you promised me" laughed Madison. "But before we go out let's call in at the base's hospital and see how Ethan Bachetti's doing and ask him a few private questions." suggested Madison.

"That's a real good idea. I feel sorry for him after that experience. And I have his toolbox to give back – it came off the boat with all our gear and the suitcases of money. That might help to cheer him up!" said Watson.

Forty five minutes later after a shower they met up outside Watson's room. He immediately thought how pretty Madison looked in T-shirt and jeans as he was used to her being in a business suit or more recently combat gear.

They made their way to the camp hospital, showed some ID and found Bachetti sitting up in his bed watching baseball on TV. He looked to be in pretty good shape and didn't seem to be too traumatized now.

"Hi Ethan! How are you doing?" said Hayes. "I'm Madison Hayes. I am the FBI medic who helped you on the boat after you were kidnapped. This is Logan Watson from the DEA who helped rescue you from the ship."

"Hi!" replied Ethan offering his hand to both of them.

"Hey I want to say thanks to you guys. Things are still a bit hazy and I can't remember everything but I did think I was gonna die. I remember fixing the old guy's Cruze and then these two guys appeared from nowhere with a gun. They made me fix their speedboat – real fancy machine it was too. I remember thinking they were going to let me go and then they took me onto a boat at sea which they said was broken too. I don't remember too much more apart from feeling terrible and then being sick."

"Ethan. Can I ask you what your favorite food is back at home in Port Charlotte?" said Hayes.

Bachetti was a bit thrown by this question but after thinking about it for a moment and getting his mind back on track he replied.

"Yeah. I love red snapper and seafood - ya know shrimps and prawns. That's one of the joys of being a Floridian!"

They smiled at him as Hayes noted his penchant for seafood – the likely cause of the infection. She asked him another question.

"Had you had stomach problems for some time?"

"Yes. My wife has been on at me to go to the local medical center but I have been worried about work and losing pay so I kinda put it off. I reckon I had those pains on and off for about three months. So was it a tapeworm and how do they get there?" he asked genuinely unaware.

"Yes you had contracted some form of tapeworm. We weren't able to identify what species but I suspect it is was a fish-based tapeworm you probably picked up from local seafood. The key thing is that it's no longer in your intestine and things should get back to normal for you pretty soon"

Madison did not want to alarm him in any way – she felt that Ethan had suffered enough already.

"Ethan I got some good news for you!" said Watson moving on and trying to keep Bachetti's spirits up.

"I managed to get your toolkit back off the boat so you'll be needing this when you get back to work. Hey! You are a hero now! You using your works radio was the key to everything – if you hadn't done that things would be a lot different now. I reckon you are in for some award for this!"

They gave the embarrassed Bachetti an abbreviated overview of what had happened and who Perez was. He looked blown away.

"I gotta get back to Port Charlotte soon. My wife and kid are missing me and probably my boss. I ain't got no money though it was all in my coat in the pickup truck." He looked anxious.

"Don't worry Ethan" said Madison. "The American Government will arrange to get you back to Port Charlotte. I will sort it out for you - it is the least we can do for you."

He looked really relieved and pleased.

"Are you a baseball fan then Ethan?" asked Watson looking at the game on the TV screen.

"I sure am. My boy Jake and me love watching it on TV"

"Well I've got two tickets here for the next Marlin's game. I can't go now as I will be back in Washington on Sunday. You have them please and take Jake along" said Logan smiling as he opened his the wallet to hand Ethan the tickets that Ryan had given him, what now seemed like weeks ago.

"No way man!" Ethan was really thrilled and stunned.

"Hey thanks. I'll ring Jake in a bit and tell him".

He opened up his faithful toolkit by the side of his bed to re-acquaint himself with his regular mechanic's life.

They were about to leave the room when Ethan shouted out again.

"Hey guys wait a minute!" He was waving something gold and shiny above his head.

"This fancy phone ain't mine. I swear that I don't know where it came from."

He handed a solid gold Blackberry phone handset to Hayes. She looked at the phone and turned it over. There was an inscription on the reverse side which read:

" _A mi querido Miguel. ¡Feliz Navidad! Todo mi amor Maria_ xx"

She translated it quickly into English.

"To my darling Miguel. Merry Christmas! All my love Maria xx"

Her heart started to beat fast.

"Logan, Logan" she shouted excitedly.

"It's Perez's personal Smartphone! This must have all sorts of vital data on! He won't have been able to remotely wipe it either!"

Watson's face lit up and he was excited too.

"Our IT guy might be able to get into this and get all the data off. I don't believe it!"

Chapter 18

They said farewell to Ethan and as they walked out of the hospital, Madison turned round to Logan.

"Hey soft heart! I thought you were gonna take me to the baseball game?!"

"Are you a baseball fan?" said Logan looking genuinely surprised.

"Not yet but I am sure I could learn what it is all about!" she replied laughing.

Watson took the Blackberry back to Admiral McVey's office and asked if he could secure this vital new evidence in the Admiral's safe. The Admiral was only too happy to oblige again.

When he re-joined Hayes, Watson rang Special Agent Frank Jinks at the DEA Office in Arlington.

"Hi Frank! It's Logan Watson. How are you doin?"

Jinks replied "Hi Logan. It's great to hear from you. I'm fine thanks but more importantly how are you and Ms Hayes? I've been trying to ring you but your phone has been off and I guess you have been real busy?"

"We are both OK boss." said Watson.

"Well done to you both on finding Perez and Lombardi – he is in custody now in Naples and I can retire happy!" chuckled Jinks.

"Frank, have you had a chance to read our end of assignment report yet? We have some real big issues with Joel Konchesky, Madison's Assistant Director and we don't know how they are going to pan out."

"Also we've just had another great result. We've got Miguel Perez's personal gold Blackberry. It seems it fell into Ethan Bachetti's toolbox by accident when Perez was shot on the boat and nobody knew it was in there."

"Frank, we need somebody to hack it fast and we don't want to have to hand it to

Konchesky when we see him tomorrow morning. The data on that phone is like gold dust – it's gonna have all the names and numbers of the main global narco-players."

Jinks paused for a moment.

"OK, I understand. Well I have just been reading the report now and it is real hot. I'm gonna send the VIP jet to collect you both from Key West. You can travel back to Washington in style then just like you deserve!"

"I'll get Nathan Powell, our IT crypto king to fly down on board too. Nathan can get into places that water can't – he'll be able to get info out from that phone before you touch down at Ronald Reagan Airport. He won't like giving up a Saturday though - probably got some geek conference planned - but like you said this could be massive. I'll aim to have the plane at Key West for a 10.00am flight for you – is that OK?"

"That sounds just great Frank. Thanks speak again soon"

Watson turned to Hayes.

"Frank is going to send a plane down here for us. In the DEA they use a Lear Jet for VIP flights and that is what we are getting. He is also sending down an IT guy called Nathan Powell to crack open the phone. A bit of an odd geek but he's OK!"

His mind returned to the present and his plans for the evening.

"The Admiral recommended a couple of good restaurants nearby" said Watson. "He said there is a great seafood bar in North Roosevelt Boulevard. But you know what? I'm kinda off seafood for a bit after your tapeworm tales! I remember you saying in the office back in DC last week that you like Italian food and McVey said there is a classy Trattoria about two blocks away. I'm OK with a chilli-burger myself!" But he couldn't keep a straight face for long.

After a relaxing meal, the first they had enjoyed for over twenty-four hours, and plenty of fine wine they headed onto a local rock bar. More drinks, chatting, dancing and laughter followed and they headed back to the base at about midnight.

They walked along the corridor and reached Madison's room. As they stood outside her door, Logan looked deep into her smouldering eyes and he knew then that the time was right. He took her tightly in his arms, looked again into her eyes before kissing her passionately. It was the moment he had longed for ages and he savored the taste of her lips. From the deep sigh she made, and the way she threw her arms around his torso he guessed Madison was ready too.

After everything they had faced and been through over the past few days, neither of them had any intention of spending the night alone. No words were needed and she led him by the hand into her room - where they fulfilled each other's needs.

Chapter 19

Saturday 14 August 2012, USCG Key West Naval Base, Florida.

The next morning Hayes and Watson both woke up a little nervous – neither had any regrets about the previous night but they were unsure what would happen when they got back to DC.

They showered, packed their bags and then had some breakfast in the camp's restaurant before seeing Admiral McVey. They thanked him for his hospitability and restaurant recommendations, signed their witness statements and collected Perez's Blackberry from the safe. The Admiral shook hands and had arranged for his car to take them to Key West International Airport for the flight back to Washington.

The car got them to the airport at 09.45am and the DEA plane was already there waiting for them. Hayes felt nervous now as she walked up the boarding steps behind Watson and into the cool air conditioned plane. The plane had deep luxurious leather seats, fitted desks and banks of communication equipment which made it look like a floating office.

A youngish man with a long pony tail, a goatee beard and rimless glasses wearing a black T-shirt, tatty jeans and a baseball cap was sitting at one of the desks with a host of electrical cables and boxes opened. As he fitted the bill, Madison immediately guessed this geekish man was Nathan Powell and Logan introduced them.

"Hi Nathan. This is Agent Madison Hayes from the FBI" said Logan.

"Hi Nathan" said Hayes cheerily.

"Hi" said Nathan who Madison guessed didn't find it easy to mix with people and probably preferred an X-Box to a bar conversation.

"Here is the Blackberry, Nathan. This is more valuable than a Ming vase" joked Watson.

"I comprehend the situation" said Nathan.

He pulled out a pair of rubber surgical gloves and interlocked his fingers before making a clicking sound. He bent a desk lamp over to throw more light on the Blackberry and removed the cover. He slowly took out the battery and SIM card breathing dramatically.

"Let the magic begin! I have some college friends who are now working their way up the corporate world in Silicon Valley. They have given me access to forbidden code and restricted software that can break the MD5 and SHA1 algorithms used by the Telcos. I don't approve of the Black Hats but sometimes to understand a hacker, you have to become a hacker" said Nathan at which point Logan tapped Madison's arm and nodded towards the far end of the plane. She was delighted to move away as she struggled to take Nathan seriously.

"We'll leave you to your secret hacking then Nathan and we'll wait up there" said Logan.

They headed towards the coffee bar and the pilot announced over the intercom that the jet would take off in five minutes. Madison sat down, still grinning and Logan fixed a couple of flat white lattes.

"You can only take a few minutes with him. He lives in a world of characters from books, films and TV series and everybody he meets has to be another character" said Logan.

"But what he doesn't know about PCs, Laptops, iPads and PDAs ain't worth knowing. If anybody can find out what is on that phone, Darth Vader over there can!"

The plane took off and silence fell. Hayes and Watson were both thinking on to DC and what might happen whilst Nathan worked on the Blackberry.

"I'm nervous Logan" said Madison after about twenty minutes. What are we going to do if Konchesky plays dumb?"

"No worries. We already have enough to make this work" said Logan confidently.

"Think about it. Firstly Konchesky and Salvez won't know how much Perez told us – they will be mighty curious and worried now though. Secondly we know Steiner isn't his real name. Now we do know his true identity but we have been lied to blatantly by an FBI senior. Thirdly SEAL Team Two had been deliberately misled about who was on the Alcatraz. Sure there were dangerous people on board but not Middle Eastern or Soviet terrorists."

"And fourthly there was an assassin ready and waiting for our prisoner at Key West who had to have been neatly tipped off by an insider. By the way...I think I have totally fallen for you!" he smiled dramatically changing the conversation thread.

Madison blushed a little and a huge smile spread across her face. "Well that is real nice to know Mr. Watson cos I am finding you cute too!"

Before this loved-up conversation could progress any further, they were rudely interrupted by a yell from the back end of the plane.

"Hey Top Gun, FBI Babe!" shouted Nathan. "Vader has delivered as requested!"

Watson and Hayes shot out of their luxury leather chairs and hurried down the plane's aisle to Nathan's desk, where he was reclining in his chair with a big satisfied grin across his face and his hands behind his head. They were eager to see what he had found.

A small electronic unit, with Perez's SIM card inserted, was attached by an improvised cable to a laptop. Masses of names, addresses and phone numbers were scrolling down the screen – too fast for the human eye to read.

After a few seconds the scrolling stopped and a message appeared on screen "File Transfer Complete – Press Any Key".

Nathan copied the list to a USB key and handed it proudly to Watson.

"Voila! There's your list. It will be in alpha-numeric text format showing contact names, numbers and last call details."

"Thanks Vader. The force is with you!" said Watson leaving Nathan to get down to some serious gaming on his laptop. Watson and Hayes returned to their seats and plugged the key into her iPad. Hayes clicked on the file and it opened up an alphabetical list of the contacts that Perez had used and which they studied in almost childlike excitement and eagerness.

"Wow! This looks like a definitive list of the world's narco dealers." said Hayes.

"Madison, see if you can find Archangel or Iron Eagle" said Watson focusing back quickly.

Hayes re-ordered the huge list and eventually found both names. She hardly dared to look at the information but clicked on Archangel. A cell phone number appeared and an email address.

"We haven't got long now till we land in DC" said Watson. "Can you get a trace on the owner of that cell phone number?"

Hayes opened up the FBI database, copied the number from Nathan's file and pasted it into the search field. An hour glass appeared agonizingly as the records were accessed and then a name got returned.

The name was Juan Salvez.

Hayes went back to Perez's list, found Iron Eagle and opened the record up. Again she traced the number.

"I got a feeling who this might be" Hayes added ruefully.

Sure enough the name was Joel Konchesky.

"So Perez was telling the truth." said Watson. "Now you don't need to be afraid – we've got him."

Hayes felt the relief flow through her body and she started to feel really upbeat.

"Do you want me to email this data to Frank Jinks?" she asked.

"Yes please!" replied Watson, who looked now like a guy who had won the State lottery.

Chapter 20

Saturday 14 July 2012 11.00am Reagan International Airport, Washington DC.

The plane touched down at Reagan Airport at 11.00am. After thanking Nathan again the agents quickly passed through the Arrivals area without anybody challenging them. As they walked through the main terminal doors, with all their cases and bags close by, a familiar and friendly voice shouted out to Watson.

"Hi! I got a car for Mr. Watson and Ms Hayes!" They swiveled round and Watson was relieved to see the friendly chubby face of Frank Jinks, wearing his weekend clothes of a loud checked shirt, denims and sneakers. The casual appearance took Watson by surprise as he was used to seeing Frank in his regulation dark suit, white shirt and tie.

"Hi Frank! Hey I didn't know you'd be here but it's sure good to see you. I don't think you have actually met Madison Hayes in person before" said Watson, shaking his boss's hand warmly.

Jinks then shook hands with Madison.

"Good to meet you at last Madison. It sounds like you and Logan have hit the jackpot with this one. I just got your email with the names from Perez's Smartphone. There is gonna have to be some high level Senate enquiries going on into this dammed soon. Looks like some serious cover-ups have been going on for years."

They walked quickly to Jinks' Cadillac.

"What time are you due at the FBI?" asked Jinks.

"It was meant to be 9.00am sir" replied Hayes "we decided we weren't going to be rushed and I'm grateful you provided the plane for us. Your IT guy was great in getting that data out."

"Yep. Nathan sure knows his stuff – I do worry about his sanity though!" laughed Jinks.

As Jinks drove them from the airport back into Washington center and up to the J.Edgar Hoover building, they briefed him on everything they could think had happened over the past forty-eight hours.

"I think we should go in via the south entrance" said Hayes, still troubled by the prospect of another Perez-style take down on the steps of her own office.

"OK" agreed Watson "And I think we need to book-in these suitcases to somewhere safe after all this, the last thing we want is to lose $10million!"

Jinks drove up to the quiet entrance and then said.

"OK. I'm gonna wait down here for you till you tell me everything is OK. If you need anything you just call me".

"Thanks" they both shouted as they grabbed all their bags and cases from his car and hurried into the building's entrance

Everything seemed quiet and they swiped in through the security barriers. The Bureau was on a reduced staffing level on a Saturday afternoon, so not too many folk were about.

Hayes led them up a series of back stairwells and onto the fifth floor. They walked past their own office briefly saying "Hi!" to a couple of duty agents but not stopping until they reached Konchesky's office.

By now their heart rates had quickened and their throats were dry.

"Are you ready?" whispered Hayes and Watson nodded.

She knocked purposefully on the large oak door and a voice said politely "Come in"

As they went in both agents saw Konchesky behind his desk and instantly scanned for Salvez – who wasn't there.

"Have a seat please folks" said Konchesky smiling and gesturing to his conference table.

"I've been expecting you."

He looked very weary and stressed and by the large bags under his eyes, Hayes guessed he was lacking sleep. An empty bourbon glass on his desk indicated to her that he had steeled himself for a difficult day with something stronger than mineral water.

The three moved over to the conference table, where Hayes got out her iPad and a printed copy of their end of assignment report. She hesitated, wondering if to start to say something. Konchesky had in front of him the MEX1 report, a large manila envelope that was face-down, a fresh glass of water and his hay fever pill box.

Konchesky spoke first in a decisive and clear tone; this was the Konchesky that Hayes remembered and had once admired.

"Let me start first please people and I'll answer your questions later. I read your report yesterday, and again today, in great detail and I want to congratulate you on an excellent piece of investigative work, handled very professionally. Your mini-team has delivered exactly what was expected when Operation Marlin was first discussed and planned with White House officials and I hope the other teams can deliver as efficiently and effectively as you two have demonstrated."

"The objective of either the Kill or Capture of Miguel Perez has been achieved, along with the arrest of the Lombardi brothers. You have recovered a substantial amount of cash and helped to prevent the purchase of illegal chemicals for a probable future terrorist attack on the US or its allies."

"That is highly commendable work and, in my capacity of Head of Operation Marlin, I have today written to the office of the President of the United States to record your efforts. I suspect both your careers will really flourish from this point on."

He paused, drew a deep breath and avoided any eye contact before continuing.

"I am also aware that certain other matters have come to your attention during this operation and I would like the opportunity now to explain some things to you. I owe it to you both and it may help for the enquiries that will inevitably follow after your reports are published."

Hayes and Watson both tensed inside and wondered what he was about to say or reveal.

"Let me start by taking you back to the mid-1980s" started Konchesky.

"I served in the 3rd Battalion of the 8th Marines back then with Major Juan Salvez, the man you know as Steiner. I loved my time in the army and was fortunate to serve with some very brave and patriotic men - including Salvez who had served his county with distinction in Vietnam. We were both decorated and we received the Silver Star. Our battalion was led by another patriot you will have heard of before - Colonel Oliver North.

When we left the army we were both honored to be asked to work at the National Security Council.

"Both Major Salvez and I strongly shared Colonel North's views on the importance of defeating the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua."

"We were part of a team that repeatedly travelled covertly to Honduras and Nicaragua for discussions with rebel forces on the best way to supply the latest guns, missiles and ammunition needed to overthrow the Sandinistas. Our contacts down there pointed us in the direction of a young Mexican who was already highly skilled and experienced at smuggling drugs, arms, people in fact any commodity you could think of throughout Central and South America.

His name......Miguel Perez."

Hayes and Watson sat in complete stunned silence as this remarkable confession and abuse of Government position was unfurled.

"In late 1984, through local contacts a dialogue with Perez started. Salvez and I were introduced to Perez in a late nite meeting in a disused barn outside Matamoros. There were several Sicarios present guarding Perez and the atmosphere was very intimidating throughout. Several times during the meeting the guns swung round and pointed at us - I truly thought we would die down there."

"We spelt out the deal we were offering to Perez - transport these crates of AK47s, Stinger missiles, hand grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition from a food distribution warehouse in Tulsa through to Nicaragua and you will be paid $1m cash in a US Government briefcase."

"This money would come from a series of hidden bank accounts in Washington - funds that were set up to evade detection and that I know were in contravention of the Boland Agreement."

"Even at a relatively young age then, Miguel Perez was a hard and tough negotiator. He laughed off our first offer saying it was "an insult". Much haggling took place and after an hour of discussion, Perez laid out his three conditions for safely delivering the weaponry anywhere we wanted in Nicaragua:

A cash fee of $3m - half payable in advance, the rest on delivery of the consignments.

No Customs checks on importation of his other "goods" into Texas or Florida through agreed entry points for 12 months;

An American passport for ease of entry into the United States in future.

"We refused at first and tried to negotiate with him but it was soon obvious that he wasn't going to deal with us on any lesser terms. We made calls back to our senior contact in Washington and eventually got the agreement to deal with Perez on his terms. We drank some Tequila with him to seal the deal and we returned to Mexico ten days later with the cash and details of the first consignment of weapons."

"Perez is a true professional smuggler and he delivered everything we asked of him – on time and no hassles. We returned to Mexico to pay him the outstanding balance of his fee in cash and gave him his US passport. We opened the doors of our country to the wolf and we welcomed him in."

He said the last sentence with a clear sense of regret before continuing.

"We kept communication channels open with Perez and over the years he assisted Salvez, in the CIA, and me, in the FBI, in various clandestine operations in El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Chile, Somalia, and Sinai. There are times when urgent action is needed - not lengthy discussion. Politicians talk too much, time slips by and opportunities are missed. That is why we felt it was necessary to utilize Perez covertly. It was a means to an end and actions speak louder than words."

"Our problems arose when Perez became more and more greedy. As time went by he wanted bigger cash fees for dealing with us and other requests such as passports for his friends and even asked for a Lear jet to be made available whenever he needed it. We stopped dealing with him and discommunicated him as it was becoming harder to keep things silent and meet his demands. He threatened to leak details of our previous dealings with him and hinted at extortion."

"When we found out he was involved with Middle East terror groups we knew we needed him removing. Operation Marlin came along at the right time and that is why I wanted - and I needed to be involved."

At this point, he paused to take a long sip from his glass of water.

Hayes could hardly believe her ears. This was the man who had so carefully mentored her, nurtured her career and gained her complete trust. Now she was finding out that he had pursued the most undemocratic, underhand and unlawful behavior. His arrogance astonished her.

Watson too was astounded. He had always been a believer in democratic law and following the rules, so he found Konchesky's behavior repugnant.

Konchesky continued.

"I truly believe that what we tried to do at first with Perez was in the best interests of the United States of America. I have, and always will be, a patriot who loves his country. I have always wanted to see America and her people defended and secure."

"However I do now acknowledge that the actions Juan and I took were unauthorized, unaccountable and wrong. I have abused my position to implement my own political views. I have felt immense personal guilt at my involvement in allowing a known murderer and wanted drugs fugitive to become a US citizen and continue to import illegal substances into the US, whilst I continued to work for a proud Bureau trying to prevent such activities."

"Perez was once useful to our interests but he then became a huge problem to us. I hoped that Operation Marlin would see him arrested and sent to jail for the rest of his life, taking with him all the past."

"I want to make it clear to you that I played no part in the take-down of Perez and felt that was utterly wrong when Juan told me that was what he had authorized. I now realize that he always intended for Perez to be killed and to take any details about our dealings with him to his grave. I truly mean it when I say I didn't want you two put in any more danger than you already were."

"I have struggled to keep myself going particularly since my wife died last year. I spent long periods of time away from her whilst on Marine service and then again in my job. I regularly cheated on her and I feel racked with guilt at my deceptions. Guilt has caught up with me all over the place and there is nothing I can really do to put things right other than confess."

"I now find myself in an untenable position and have written my resignation letter to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with a full statement of case. This will be delivered to his office today."

He picked up the large envelope and loosely waved it.

"I also fully expect that you will be indicting me for various offences."

The room was completely silent for several moments as Hayes and Watson digested the magnitude of the self confession.

Watson was still bugged by many questions, particularly where Salvez currently was.

"Mr. Konchesky. Where is Juan Salvez now please and how did he know so much about Perez's movements?"

Konchesky sneezed and then opened up his hay fever pill box, before taking out a large tablet that he stared at for many moments, lost in his own thoughts.

"He doesn't know about your final report or crucially that you have recovered Perez's phone. He knows that you have suspicions about him from your outburst yesterday but he thinks that there won't be any evidence to indict him."

"Any claims Perez made about US agency involvement would be easy to dismiss given that Perez was a wanted fugitive across the world, trying to barter for his freedom. The claims would need to be supported by hard evidence and, as far as Salvez is aware, there is no evidence."

"Those claims would therefore be dismissed – and they can't be made anyway now he is dead. The only other person who could have substantiated Perez's claims and given them credence before now - is me. And until now I have remained uncomfortably silent."

"However the ball game has changed dramatically since you became involved, spoke directly to Perez and acquired his Smartphone. The evidence is now available and I just can't do the silence anymore. Even though Juan has been a close friend for over thirty years, I am not prepared to keep quiet any longer – my conscience just won't do it anymore. I feel let down by the way he put FBI agents in danger by his actions."

"Logan, in the top drawer of my desk you will find my Blackberry. My PIN unlock code is 4858. Salvez's contact details are stored under the name "El Encubierto" \- it sounds like a Spanish restaurant but it means _covert._ That's how I usually make contact with him – by Blackberry Messenger. He comes to the South entrance or I meet him in the underground car park. I provided him with a security swipe card to gain entry to the FBI campus"

"He is expecting a message from that phone this afternoon to invite him here for an update from me. I won't be doing that now.... but of course you are now able to use that phone for whatever purpose you choose."

He stopped then and had a sip of water allowing them the opportunity to digest his breathtaking announcements. Both Hayes and Watson realised he was also offering them the chance to draw Salvez into this office or building. Konchesky then continued.

"Salvez had a contact who worked on El Alcatraz, called Javier; he was the ship's cook. Javier was involved in a secret homosexual affair that Salvez found out about locally. He blackmailed Javier with photographic evidence into providing information on the ship's activities, with the threat that he would tell Javier's wife and the local community. He was also paid for this knowledge transfer"

Hayes was next to question Konchesky.

"Mr. Konchesky, who was it that actually took Perez down at Key West?"

Still fiddling with the large tablet and continuing to avoid eye contact with either agent, Konchesky replied.

"Salvez has access to a pool of what he calls "Federal Ninjas" but you would call them mercenaries. They are very skilled CIA non-classified operatives who are highly trained and well paid to seek out and find the whereabouts of opponents of the United States and if ordered - to kill them. They operate unnoticed anywhere in the world and I was not surprised to hear that nobody was found at Key West. Whoever shot Perez would be able to just disappear into thin air."

"Their training exceeds that given to a Navy SEAL - like that guy who helped you on the ship. These "Federal Ninjas" helped to find some of our country's worst enemies like, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden. I guess Salvez must have mobilised one of them when he heard that you had captured Perez and were bringing him in to Key West. I want to stress again that I played no part in authorising the killing of Perez."

"What about the press release?" asked Watson.

"Salvez had that done. I warned him that was a mistake but he said it was vital to get the message out quickly to confuse and unsettle those who worked with Perez . He specialises in mis-information."

By now, Konchesky had swivelled his chair around and was looking out of his office window as he spoke again.

"Madison, I have also recommended to the FBI Director that you are promoted to Interim Assistant Director to oversee the rest of Operation Marlin at this end. I am sure that you will also be able to gain consent to extend the secondment of a very capable DEA agent."

He turned round and now looked straight at Hayes. She noticed his eyes were full of tears and she watched as he popped the large tablet into his mouth, washing it down with a large gulp of water.

"I am sorry again for my deceit and that I have let you, and so many other good people down. I hope you can understand at some point in the future. Goodbye".

His last word startled Madison who edged towards his chair in alarm. Within seconds, Konchesky was spluttering and gasping for air. Hayes looked into his mouth, saw a white froth and recognised the smell.

"Sir, sir....cyanide! He's poisoned himself - Logan - get the paramedics" she shouted.

Watson dialled central reception and summoned medical help explaining the situation.

He turned around to tell Hayes that help was on its way but could tell by the look on her face that it was too late.

"I gotta let some people here know what has happened here. I'm gonna phone the Director first" said Hayes frantically picking up the phone.

"OK. I'll let Jinks know what's happened too" said Watson.

She found the FBI Director Jarvis Levin's home number from Konchesky's desk index book, which was underneath his car key, and rang him. His wife answered and put the Director on the line when Madison had identified herself.

"This is Agent Madison Hayes from Special Investigation team. I'm very sorry to bother you at home sir but you need to be aware of a very serious situation. Assistant Director Joel Konchesky has committed suicide in his office at the J.Edgar Hoover building. He appears to have taken a cyanide tablet after making a confession into his association with the Mexican narco-terrorist Miguel Perez, who was shot dead yesterday."

Watson couldn't hear what the Director was saying to Hayes but guessed he was now on his way into work - probably in a panic. He phoned Frank Jinks and asked him to come into the building to reception.

Hayes got off the phone and confirmed that the Director was headed in and wanted to speak to them.

"He said he had received an email this morning from Konchesky confirming the success of the MEX1 operation but he had no idea that anything was wrong."

"OK. By the way can you sign Frank Jinks into the building?"

"I sure will. Hey Logan, you'll need somewhere to stay in DC again. You are welcome to stay at my apartment if you like – that'll be better than the motel you were in! I reckon all this is going to take a few days to sort out so you'll be needed here" she smiled, momentarily taking her mind away from the immediate problems.

"Thanks Madison \- that sounds great to me" he replied trying not to sound too delighted.

They signed Jinks into FBI headquarters and briefed him on what had happened over the past hour. He too was stunned and spoke to Watson.

"Logan. I reckon you are gonna be needed round here a bit longer now why all this mess is unpicked. I'll stay around now until the FBI Director has been and hear what he wants to do and I'll also brief our own chief" Jinks said.

If he did have any private pleasure in hearing of the mess the FBI were now in, Jinks certainly did not show any inter departmental satisfaction.

Paramedics removed Konchesky's body from his office and took him away for a post-mortem.

Chapter 21

Saturday 14 August 2012, 15:30pm FBI Headquarters Washington DC.

Jarvis Levin, the FBI Director arrived about twenty-five minutes later. He was a tall distinguished looking man in his late forties and despite it being a Saturday he wore a shirt and tie. For him there never was "off-duty".

He recognised Hayes, whom he had met briefly before, and was introduced to Watson and Jinks, whom he had also previously met. As they walked up the stairs to the Director's huge office, Hayes handed Levin a printed copy of their report along with the package containing Konchesky's resignation letter and confession. Watson was carrying the suitcases laden with dollars. Levin unlocked his office door and showed them to a massive conference table which dwarfed Konchesky's.

Portraits of the previous FBI Directors hung from the walls and the office had a somewhat Presidential feel about it. Watson thought to himself that it really should have been oval shaped.

"Please take a seat folks – I've got some refreshments on the way up here. Listen before we get into discussing this tragic business though; let's start off on a positive. I read Assistant Director Konchesky's email to the President's office a little earlier and I'd like to personally thank and congratulate you two agents on a tremendous piece of work. Well done guys!"

"Now I've got a feeling the rest of this business is not gonna be too pleasant to learn about." Levin said solemnly, as he started to read the MEX1 end of assignment report.

Before joining the FBI, Levin had served in the US Navy as an officer, completed his law degree before rising to be a senior partner in a New York law firm. Public office beckoned and he was encouraged into becoming the District Attorney for Washington, where he gained respect from all quarters. The lure of a very high profile post at the FBI was too great for him to resist and would help him to achieve his ultimate political ambitions.

Hayes had heard on the FBI grapevine that Levin had a real ability to assimilate a lot of information very quickly and was exceptional at speed reading.

She watched fascinated as he flew through their report, occasionally nodding his head and at other times shaking it. At important parts of the text, he made a marking in the margin for later questions. Whilst Levin was working his way through the report, Watson laid the cases on a spare table, unlocked them and opened the lids.

In what seemed like no time at all, Levin had finished that report and opened up Konchesky's envelope. His face looked very grim and troubled as he read through the resignation and statement, again marking important references.

Eventually he put the papers and his pen down on the table, before putting his face in his hands and rubbing his eyes. For the first time, he noticed the dollar laden cases opened in his office and his eyebrows rose in astonishment at the neatly stacked piles of dollar bills.

"Well I'll be darned. I've never seen so much money in one place! All these years and I had no idea that that son of a bitch Konchesky was double crossing" he said, almost thinking aloud.

"It goes without saying that this matter will now be classified as Top Secret. I'll need to speak to the Secretary of State for Defence and probably the President himself. But I can see straightaway that there are still some immediate and unresolved matters here - I am thinking of Mr. Steiner or whatever his name is."

"To have any chance of making this whole thing right, and providing assurances to Congress that the FBI is not rotten to the core, we need to bring him in – alive." He added the word 'alive' with great emphasis given the Perez outcome.

Levin was very clear and decisive.

Logan spoke next. "We have an idea for dealing with Salvez, sir. We think Mr. Konchesky actually wanted to help us as, just before he took that tablet, he gave us his Blackberry and the PIN. That was the device he used to communicate with Salvez by Blackberry messaging and he hinted that is what we should do to lure Salvez here today."

"Salvez hasn't yet seen the final report yet and he is not aware that we have recovered Perez's Smartphone. Of course he won't know about Konchesky's death yet. He suspects that we know something about him but not what that is or how much we know. The element of surprise lies with us."

Levin's face visibly cheered up. "OK. OK I get it. We send a message to Salvez under the pre-text of it coming from Joel Konchesky and take him cleanly here in a good old fashioned FBI sting?"

He thought for a moment and his brain gave approval.

"Yes, yes...I like it. Right people let's do this and I wanna be fully involved in this sting. What sort of language style did Konchesky use when he communicated with Salvez? I know my kids use slang that I am clueless about!"

Watson opened up the Blackberry, and found the last few messages sent to El Encubierto.

He read a couple out to those assembled:

MEX1 taken P. Shot but alive. Need meet.

P on route to KW. Due 06.00am EST.

"Salvez uses the same brevity in his messages" said Watson.

What time at KW?

"That was the message that got Perez set up" said Jinks instantly.

"And here is Konchesky's next one after the shooting" added Watson.

WTF happened?

Levin worked out that message himself without needing any explanations and then summarised.

"Well now we know that the communication style is brief and to the point. Does anybody know where Konchesky's car keys are?"

"Yes sir. The key to his Mercedes is in the top drawer of his office desk" replied Hayes.

"Right, here is what we are gonna send. Can somebody type this is please?

MEX1 got P phone. Need to meet. My car 18.00pm." ordered Levin clearly and positively.

Hayes typed in the required text, as she was quicker than Watson at navigating the Blackberry keyboard, and then read back the message to everyone.

"That's fine – fire it!" said Levin and Hayes clicked the send button before putting the Blackberry down on Levin's desk.

Now it was just a matter of waiting now to see if Salvez took the bait. Just then the refreshments arrived and that gave everyone a welcome break.

"My wife and I were due to go to a dinner party tonight with a couple of Senators that may have proven a little dull. I'd rather be involved in a mission like this trying to bring in a bad guy! I am sure there will be plenty of time ahead for me talking to Senators, trying to explain all this." joked Levin.

As Levin passed the food plate around, and Jinks poured the coffee out, Konchesky's phone suddenly vibrated on the desk, indicating a text message had been received.

Everybody seemed to freeze before Levin calmly and politely said

"Agent Hayes, can you see if that is from our friend Mr. Salvez please?"

Hayes unlocked the phone and clicked the message.

"Yes sir it is from Salvez and it reads:

"OK Good. I can get it hacked fast _"_

"Well the shark has taken our bait and now we need to land him. Here is what I want to do. I am about the same build as Konchesky so I will become him" said Levin.

"I'll be in Konchesky's car sitting in the driver's seat. We'll wait until Salvez gets to the passenger door and then both FBI and DEA agents will close in and take him. I want him cuffed straight away. But most importantly I want him clearly photographed as we take him."

"I want you guys, armed and hidden behind other cars, with your FBI vests on and everybody miked up. This will make a great picture for the front page of the Washington Post and then perhaps the FBI can start to make the ascent from the deep hole we currently find ourselves in. I am assuming that we can rely on the assistance of our friends over at the DEA. Does that sound good to you people?" he asked them all but looking directly at Frank Jinks.

"That sounds good to me Jarvis" said Jinks "but with the exception of the FBI vests. It wouldn't look too good for us if a DEA agent had an FBI vest on! I've got some DEA vests in my car." he laughed.

Watson shot a wry smile at Hayes.

"I'm OK with you guys wearing DEA vests then!" smiled Levin.

"Rest assured too Jarvis that the DEA team will help our FBI colleagues and that this matter will not be discussed outside of this team" added Jinks in true entente cordiale fashion.

"I suggest you also have a bullet-proof jacket on as well Mr Levin" said Watson.

"And we also pull in the two duty agents to give us six guns in total" said Hayes.

"OK – you guys do more of this kinda thing than me so I'll buy that!" said Levin.

"I think Konchesky's coat and cap are still in his office. Do you want me to go get them?" said Hayes.

"I reckon that is a good idea Madison and we should also check-out the parking lot positions too. We got a bit of time before 6pm" said Jinks.

The four of them went down to the car park, with Konchesky's keys and moved his Mercedes into a darkened space with two cars a bay away on each side - one of them Jinks' Cadillac. This gave perfect cover for two agents to hide behind. A large FBI response van was parked diagonally opposite and that gave cover for further agents with the ability to dazzle Salvez by switching on the headlights at the right moment.

Levin put on Konchesky's coat and cap and when he sat in the driver's seat he did look just like Konchesky Hayes thought to herself.

It was agreed the Jinks would make the team call for Salvez to stop by shouting out

"Armed Agents put your hands up above your head!"

"I'll shout it real loud and then nobody damage my car!" he joked trying to relieve the tension.

Back in Levin's office the duty agents were briefed, as were the FBI press team.

The trap was set.

Chapter 22

Saturday 14 July 2012, 17:30pm J.Edgar Hoover Building, underground car park, Washington DC

Everybody was in position by 17:30pm just in case Salvez arrived early. The security teams had been briefed to immediately ring Hayes mobile number when Salvez's security card was swiped and he had entered the car park lot. They would see the card ID details appear on the computer system log files.

Hayes was positioned behind the Cadillac to the right of the Mercedes with Jinks alongside her, whilst Watson was behind a Dodge van to the left. The Duty Agents, Franklin and Taylor, were in the cab of the truck.

At 17:57pm, and with true precise military timing, Salvez swiped on at the car lot entrance gate. Hayes phoned buzzed moments later.

"Ms Hayes - target has arrived on-site" said the security operative.

Hayes switched channels on her headset and she spoke quietly and clearly to advise the other agents and Levin.

"Salvez has arrived and is headed into the car lot"

Again she felt a wave of nervous excitement and adrenalin sweep through her body as she kept crouched down behind the Cadillac's hood, peering through the semi gloom of the underground car park towards the stairwell.

Footsteps could be heard as somebody walked across the concrete floor towards the Mercedes. The footsteps paused for a moment, as if to check something and then continued to walk on. Watson had a clear view of a small figure with a dark zipped jacket and a baseball cap pulled down walking towards the black Mercedes. His Glock was primed and ready and his pulse was also beating fast.

As the man got close to the passenger door and his hand reached out towards the handle, Jinks voice bellowed out.

"Armed Agents put your hands up above your head. Move, Move, Move!"

Salvez was taken completely by surprise and simply stood there hands down by his pockets looking confused and bewildered.

"I said hands up asshole!" screamed Jinks, who had moved out from behind the Cadillac pointing his gun at Salvez. There were various cries of "Hands Up!" as FBI and DEA agents streamed from everywhere and the truck's headlights were switched on completely dazzling Salvez.

Jinks was joined by the other four agents who formed a semi-circle around Salvez, each of them pointing a weapon at the bewildered CIA man. He glanced into the Mercedes looking for support from Konchesky, only to see a stranger behind the wheel of the car who too was now pointing a gun at him.

Realising he had been tricked, Salvez slowly lifted his hands up above his head.

Jinks and Hayes got to him first and kept their guns pointed at his head.

Watson, Franklin and Taylor were right behind with weapons drawn. Watson frisked Salvez who was carrying a small pistol inside his jacket. Salvez was quickly cuffed and the press photographers were called to the lot.

Levin climbed out of the Mercedes and took off his hat before saying to Salvez

"Juan Salvez you are under arrest on suspicion of accessory to homicide, fraud, embezzlement and violation of the Boland Agreement. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."

Levin proudly put on an FBI vest whilst Jinks sported a DEA vest as they stood either side of the dejected Salvez, with weapons pointed at his head a little theatrically.

The photographers quickly arrived and arranged people's poses for the most potent photographs that tomorrow would fill TV screens and the front pages of America's newspapers.

Salvez became agitated.

"What the fuck is this? A high school prom? Just get on with it. I want my lawyer – this is entrapment!"

"Please remain calm Mr. Salvez" replied Levin coolly. "You'll get plenty of time with your lawyer whilst you explain what you have been up to."

After a barrage of skillfully posed photos were taken and studied, Salvez was taken down to the FBI custodial room for fingerprints and DNA samples. Levin turned to the small team and said

"I will undertake the interview with Mr. Salvez myself a little later on. I haven't done a witness examination for quite some time but I got a feeling this will make my guts feel a whole lot better!"

"But first I'd like you folks to join me in my office for a quick celebratory drink to mark a new era in joined-up working and another American victory in the war on drugs and terror!"

Chapter 23

**Saturday 14 July 2012, 18:** 15pm **J.Edgar Hoover Building, underground car park, Washington DC**

With everybody feeling elated, they moved back up to Levin's office each recounting their own experiences of the evening's events. Levin's drinks cabinet was thrown open to all and several members of the FBI press team came in to enjoy a drink - and a briefing session. Levin, drinking a fruit juice only, pulled Hayes to one side where nobody could overhear their conversation.

"Agent Hayes. I have been very impressed with your conduct and logical thinking during this operation and I have had the opportunity to see you in action myself today. I have a key vacancy I need to get filled pretty quickly now with somebody I can trust and rely upon."

"I know you are on the FBI Graduate Fast-Track development program and I think you are now ready to step up. I want to see more of our capable younger agents, like you, promoted into senior positions within the Bureau and given the opportunity to perform."

"To cut to the chase, I want to offer you the post of Assistant Director of Law Enforcement on an Interim Basis for the next six months, with a view to a permanent appointment if all goes well – which I am sure it will."

"I need somebody I can rely on to oversee the rest of these operations. It looks like Konchesky made some bad decisions in his life but selecting you for this work wasn't one of them. He was right to recommend you for progression. You can think about it over the weekend if you like and let me know on Monday."

"Thank you very much sir. I don't need till Monday as I am happy to accept your offer now. There are two things I would like to ask you for your help with Sir" she replied confidently but still in elation.

"Go ahead and ask" replied Levin, who was both delighted and relieved that she wanted to remain involved.

"Firstly I want to get Special Agent Watson's secondment to the project extended as he has been outstanding and a pleasure to work alongside. My second request is that when this work is completed, I am allowed to pursue scientific investigations into that unidentified tapeworm that Bachetti hosted. Whatever it was, it needs classification and analysis in case it poses a significant health risk to Florida residents."

Levin didn't need long to consider the requests.

"I agree that you have worked well with Watson so I'll speak to Frank Jinks now while he is here. I am sure that I can get him to agree – particularly as all those photos will feature a DEA boss prominently!"

"And yes you can investigate the tapeworm matter with the Scientific Division once the drug problem is done" he added with a smile.

He offered his hand and Madison shook it warmly.

In the other corner of Levin's office, Frank Jinks had pulled Watson over to one side and they were deep in private conversation.

"Hey Logan, I really enjoyed getting back into action here today and it reminded me just why I joined up in the first place! And it was great busting Salvez alongside the FBI Director. This whole operation has ended up being a real good result for everyone - but in particular the DEA. The DEA have clearly shown here that we can work with other agencies and support them through difficult times – thanks mainly to your efforts."

"What our Director wants us to do now is to continue to build on and maintain those good working relationships with the other key US Agencies and play a leading role in these types of high profile operations. In the long term, this will be good for us in our relationships with everybody - but in particular the DoJ and White House.

"I spoke to the Director earlier on to update him on today's outcomes and the level of our involvement now and in the future. He was mighty impressed with your work here and he wants to offer you a newly created post as the DEA Senior Drugs Liaison Agent based here in Washington DC. He has been planning this job for some time and just needed to wait and see how things turned out here. You've certainly delivered".

"This post will keep you close to the FBI team and being at the heart of the political landscape here in Washington, is a good place to be. You seemed to have got on real well with Agent Hayes and you are the sort of guy that most people like, respect and will co-operate with!"

"There will, of course, be a raise in salary for you which I am sure you will welcome! Have a think about it over the weekend Logan and ring me next week. The Director will want a personal chat with you too."

"Sure Frank. It sounds like a great opportunity and thanks for looking out for me" replied Watson trying to contain his delight.

The impromptu drinks party came to an end, as Levin wanted to prepare himself for the forthcoming lengthy interviewing of Salvez. He had to brief the Secretary of State, who in turn would be briefing the President later that night. Hayes suspected that Salvez would soon be run into knots by Levin's razor sharp mind and legal skills and his arrogance would un-do him.

A carefully prepared press release with just the right amount of spin had to be drafted, approved and issued. Many challenges lay ahead, particularly when the press and the Senate got their teeth into the dark background of Perez-gate, but the FBI would ultimately emerge stronger and cleaner from this episode.

Jinks said goodbye to everyone and promised to have regular dialogues with his new "buddy" Levin. The aim of joined-up agency working was now being achieved.

Hayes moved over to Watson with smile on her face.

"Hey Logan! This has turned out to be a great day and what a result! Director Levin just asked me to become the Interim Assistant Director for the rest of Operation Marlin. He wants me to give it six months and then review where we are. Then he is gonna let me investigate the tapeworm in Florida!" she looked thrilled.

"I want to give it my best shot but I told him I needed to continue to work with the other agencies and in particular the DEA where there is a very capable agent on a secondment that needs to be extended!" she laughed.

"Well if you mean me I am gonna have to decline the extension of the secondment" said Watson with a deadly serious face.

Hayes was really surprised and her heart fell.

"Oh... I kinda guessed you were enjoying it here and would want to carry on."

He looked into her eyes, again with a serious face before saying.

"I'm sorry Assistant Director Hayes my secondment is finishing. I have just been offered a new post in the DEA."

"Oh" was all that she could muster up in a disappointed reply.

Watson couldn't keep it up any longer.

"Hey Madison! They are offering me a permanent job here in DC as the DEA Senior Drugs Liaison Agent to work with the FBI and other agencies. I have a few days to think about it but I kinda like working with you and it sounds like the chance I have been waiting for!"

Madison's face lit up and she hugged him.

"Come on let's go! I really wanna cook for you tonite back at my apartment. I was thinking Seafood Linguini with a chilled white wine. But then I remembered you are a chilli-burger, fries and Budweiser sorta guy – I'm cool with that too and I'll make that for us!" she laughed.

"Hey both sound good to me! Madison this has been a real different type of Break Night for us - a lucky Break Night!" said Logan laughing.

"I'm no great orator or anything like that but I can't help thinking there was some real symbolism in this case. For me, Bachetti represented the people of the United States and that white serpent represented the evil of cocaine. A bit like the serpent in the Garden of Eden! When Bachetti puked it up that was like decent Americans saying "No - we don't want drugs!" Does that make sense to you?"

"It sure does! Unfortunately though the serpent thing is still about and we haven't got it under control yet – like narcotics. But I reckon you should think about taking up philosophy in your spare time cos that sounded really good! I just gotta put some papers and stuff back in my lockers" said Hayes.

They walked back along the quiet corridors and almost deserted offices back to their own office.

As she was putting her iPad and papers back into her lockers, there was a knock on the office door.

Hayes turned round and saw Eddie the mail room guy.

"Ms Hayes? I gotta a FedEx special delivery package for you and I need a signature please! It's been bomb-scanned and is safe."

"Thanks Eddie!" she replied, signing the delivery book and taking a small padded envelope from him.

She looked at the address on the front which read exactly the same as her business card:

Madison C Hayes,

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Pennsylvania Avenue

NW Washington DC

There was no clue as to who had sent the package so she opened up the envelope and took out an unmarked jewel case with a DVD inside.

"I wonder what it is?" she thought aloud, opening up the case and putting the DVD through the office malware scanning drive machine – it was all clear and by now she was very intrigued.

"I gotta see what it is now! It won't take a minute" she said slipping the DVD into her iPad. The machine whizzed away and very quickly a high definition film auto loaded on her iPad screen.

"Hey! It's the tapeworm clip from El Alcatraz!" shouted Madison, very excitedly as Logan watched over her shoulder.

Sure enough, the DVD was an enhanced version of the playback they had seen on Viper's camera and screen device. This time the images were overlaid with all sorts of digital measurements and 3D modeling projections that were clearly designed to profile the unknown creature. The DVD contained no other footage from the operation \- the background behind the worm had been blurred so the location remained unknown and the only sounds included were those that came from the creature itself.

"Viper must have been really troubled by what he saw back in the Gulf of Mexico. He must want us to look into this and I guess he isn't the type of guy to use Wiki leaks!" said Madison.

"Yeah! Didn't he say at first that he couldn't share anything? You must be right as the only thing that seemed to really bother him on that boat was that didn't know what that thing was! He seemed totally convinced it was a snake" said Logan.

"Yeah but all that can wait for the time being" she said quickly, as she safely hid the DVD in her locker-safe.

"I've had a perfect day – now let's go back to my apartment for something to eat, relax and have a perfect night!"

*****

