“And what is that?” I asked. Stealing things like that pointed to some element of terrorism but Ethan hadn’t mentioned anyone like that yet. Just The Chameleon.
Ethan held up his hands. “So far we only know of The Chameleon and Diego’s involvement in the scheme. It’s enough to establish that they have to be working for someone higher than them. We don’t know that part yet but anybody who wants blueprints like that and commissions a man like The Chameleon for a job can’t be anybody good. Xander, they have the designs to create something all-powerful that could obliterate anywhere they want. Hence this being classed as a global threat. This is serious and we need to get the prints back. That’s where you come in.”
Here it was. My part.
The job.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” With names like The Chameleon and Diego in the mix that called for much more than me.
“Intel suggests that Giovanni still has the prints in his possession. We just don’t know where he’s keeping them. We need you to find them and steal them back.”
I held up my hands and shook my head. Something didn’t make sense.
“What do you mean intel suggests? How the hell do you know he still has them? This thing went down two weeks ago. The Chameleon must have them off shore by now.” That was more his style. He wouldn’t leave things like that in the hands of a mobster.
“No. Intel says Giovanni still has them. Listen to this recording. We were able to listen in on a conversation an hour after the prints were stolen.”
He tapped a button on the computer and the screen filled with two vertical lines that jumped and spiked as the conversation began.
Giovanni : We got the blueprints, everything is secured and I’m taking them somewhere safe. How long until I hand them over?
The Chameleon spoke next in his thick Russian accent.
The Chameleon: We’re still planning. You have the means to keep them secured. I’ll arrange a meeting in a few weeks to relieve you of them and hand you, your payment.
Giovanni: Fantastic, Pleasure doing business with you.
The line disconnected and went dead after that.
Hearing their voices brought it all to life. Actual shit happening.
“We’ve had serious eyes on Giovanni since then,” Ethan said. “We haven’t seen any kind of meetings set up with The Chameleon or movement to suggest that the blueprints have been handed over. Giovanni is keeping them safe while whatever plan for them unfolds. They must still be in the planning stages but we don’t know what the plans are. There’s a team working on finding that part out. For us we are just focusing on getting the prints back. I don’t have to stress that our involvement means the government want to keep things quiet and resolve the matter while the prints are right here in this city. It means we can contain the problem. The minute The Chameleon takes them, that’s it. If we don’t know what the fuck’s happening outside of what we know, we for sure won’t know then. And you know that once he gets his hands on something that’s it. We won’t see him again. All there will be is destruction. The outcome.”
Wes brought his hands together and bit the inside of his lip. I could practically read his mind.
He was thinking that this was above us.
“This is deep shit Ethan,” I remarked on the edge of a sigh.
“It is. And I’m afraid it gets worse.”
“How much worse?”
“We’re not the only ones who knows Giovanni has the prints.”
I bit the inside of my lip. “Who else knows?”
“Again, we don’t know. Last week there was a raid at his warehouse facility in the desert. It’s where he does the usual transit of business. The place someone would look if they were looking for the prints. Four of his best men were killed in the event. We identified one of them as the guy who came up on surveillance when the prints were stolen, so it’s reasonable to assume that they could have all been in on it. Giovanni knows he’s being targeted for it, but like us, he has no idea by whom. So… there’s that to worry about. However, it provided the perfect opening for you because he needs replacements.”
I could see where this was going and I didn’t like it. Being a replacement to work for a man like that was no easy task. Giovanni considered himself the Vegas king and his men were like knights. Close to him in every way. The application for the position was some type of death match.
“You want me to become one of his knights?” I smirked glaring at him.
Ethan nodded. “Yes. It’s the only way. That’s the only way we’ll get close to getting the prints back. You’re the best person all round with the skill to go in undercover, blend in and infiltrate. We need a professional hacker to hack the fuck out of whatever enclosure he’s keeping the blueprints.” He paused for a second and I could see the worry heavy on his face and his good eye. “Giovanni shares his secrets with his knights. Becoming one of them means that you’ll know where he’s keeping the prints. They’ll be one hundred percent guarding the prints with their lives, it’s worth… Let’s just say it’s priceless. The type of nuke that can come from that is something the government officials won’t even talk about with people below a certain pay grade. We can’t allow the blueprints with the fucking step by step ‘how to’, to fall into the hands of people like The Chameleon.”
I groaned inwardly inclined to agree. There was that moral judgment pulling on me again. I did seem like the best person for this.
Best because of that fucking word again.
Thief.
I was a thief. Professional thief. None of these other pussies could do what I did. What I did came naturally to me. It came from years of living to survive and the art of manipulation. I could absolutely blend in. Walk the walk, talk the talk and use my brain for the rest.
“Xander, you know you’re the best person for the job. If you can do it just imagine the benefits.”
“And, if I can’t? You’re not talking about that part.” I’d never done anything like this before so I couldn’t guarantee anything.
“I don’t like to think about the negative. We just have to try.”
Try… Jesus. This didn’t feel as simple as just trying.
But I’d do it.
“Alright… I’ll do it.”
Ethan nodded his gratitude. “It’s not gonna be easy but it’s a window of a chance I want us to take. It means we can fix things before they get more out of control.”
“Yeah, I get it.” I sighed.
“One last thing.” He flicked the slide and the next image made everything fade from my mind.
The image before us was of a beautiful young woman.
Very beautiful.
White blond hair adorned her head in long graceful waves and piercing blue eyes looked at me with what I could only label as desperation. I wasn’t sure why I saw that. I was pretty certain most guys would be enchanted by her beauty and stop with that before they started reading into any emotions. To me though… that was what I saw.
Maybe it was because I’d lived my life feeling nothing but that.
Desperation and desolation.
“Who is she?” Wes asked. It was the first he’d spoken all evening.