7. April 10, 2023
Demon
A flurry of excited barks flooded the hallway outside the conference room, and the men around the table were grinning and shaking their heads.
Last year, Nemo had rescued a street dog off the streets of Sallum, and she’d had two puppies.
Prince Ali Ababwa, the one Kubrick had demanded upon his return, was in the building today.
When Waters walked into the conference room where the four deadmen waited, a slobbering puppy flew into the room on his heels, greeting everyone there with yips and kisses.
The Total Terror, as TB called him—mostly because Flame had demanded custody of the other puppy, now named Jasmine—finally ended up in Demon’s lap, where he went completely belly up begging for pets.
Normally, when Kubrick needed a babysitter, the dog went and stayed with Flame so he could have his sister’s company.
He wondered, since she was going to be gone for twelve weeks, if Waters had asked her to leave the dog with him.
Maybe because he needed something of Kubrick’s close while she was gone?
Waters whistled, and the dog’s head snapped in his direction. Pointing to the chair, he ordered, “Ali, sit!”
Everyone around the table chuckled as the puppy gave a quick, high bark as if to say, “Yes, sir!” and then jumped from Demon’s lap onto the conference table, scattering papers everywhere and knocking over coffee cups with the big feet he’d yet to grow into.
There was a lot of good-natured grumbling as Ali, blissfully unaware of the havoc he was creating, hopped down into Waters’ chair, turned in circles twice, and sat down looking all cute and innocent, complete with head cocked and ears perked at the shouting of his name.
More shenanigans were likely to begin soon and keep up through the entire meeting, as they always did when one of the dogs visited.
One of them was a tornado, but if both of them were here, it was a storm of epic proportions, as they both had their mother’s goofy personality, and everyone spoiled them rotten.
Glancing once more at the puppy, Demon knew for a fact that the dog’s devious mind was already in motion because he was hyperfocused on the folder in Waters’ hand that moved naturally when he spoke.
He expected at least one report was going to need to be reprinted, and somebody’s shoelaces were going to need to be replaced because Ali loved to chew things.
Demon had already lost a flip-flop to the little monster the last time he was at Tribe.
Waters redirected everyone’s attention from the dog. “All right, people, let’s get to it. Midas, Nemo should be on the line in two.”
Out of his peripheral vision, Demon noticed the tension that appeared in the cyber specialist. He was still recuperating from the loss of his brother, a man he hadn’t been apart from since they were in their late teens. It went without saying that the older twin was still salty about the defection.
Apparently, Midas wasn’t the only angry one in the group today.
By the way Waters threw his folder down and stabbed the starfish controller in the middle of the table to begin the security lockdown of the room, it was clear he was in a mood.
He also looked like he was running on no sleep.
Not surprising. Kubrick had left in the wee hours of the morning for China and would be gone for twelve weeks.
They’d likely been fecking like rabbits for the last two to three days.
The men, including their big boss, God, had already placed their bets on how long their team leader would last before he “asked” God for time off to go see her.
God predicted five days. Steel, the resident Nostradamus with betting, said the man would make it the whole twelve.
Steel was rarely wrong, but this time, Demon couldn’t help but wonder if the sniper had overestimated the man’s willpower.
“Mythos online.”
Shaking his head with mild disgust, Demon internalized his snorting response. However, the eye roll was unstoppable. The man couldn’t even say his own brother’s name.
“ Goeie m?re !” Nemo greeted them as he came up on the screen.
Since the teams couldn’t share where they were when on projects, he had come up with the idea to say hello and goodbye in the native language of the country they were in as a way of updating them.
By his greeting, he was back in South Africa. “How’s the weather?”
“Seventy, smoggy. Same as usual,” Waters replied. He hit another button on the starfish, which piped in their boss. “God is online. What have you got for us, Nemo?”
“You want to head southeast and get your Kwéyòl on. Gem was on a nature hike in the Caribbean and found photographic evidence of the elusive species, Kentus Leechus, known in the familiar as Ka-Bar, at a beachside café in Soufrìere. Pictures should be to you already.”
“If this Mythos gig doesn’t work out, that girl’s got a job with the paparazzi,” TB muttered.
Nemo affirmed, “All that gorgeous tininess and spectacular thieving makes her good at being places unseen.”
Midas muttered, “As opposed to some people who call all sorts of attention to their presence. ”
The men exchanged glances. The older twin really needed to get over his mad.
Ali’s head popped up from where he was lying.
Hearing Midas grumbling, the puppy sensed he needed to calm him, so he jumped onto the table, disrupting everyone’s paperwork and coffee.
When he reached Midas at the head of the table, he threw himself into the computer programmer’s lap.
There wasn’t really room for him, but Midas wiggled around to make space for him, one hand rubbing the dog’s ears while he worked.
Nemo grinned. “Hey, Ali! Looking good, dude. Your mama says hi.” There was a gentle woof on Nemo’s end of the call, and Scheherazade poked her head up from where she sat at his side.
She cocked her head, looking for the source of the snuffling sounds she somehow recognized as her child.
Midas reversed his screen so that she could see her wayward pup.
The mother and son looked at each other.
She gave a huff as if to say, “Behave yourself!” and then she sat back down out of sight. Midas put the screen back to normal.
“Any idea what he’s doing there?” Waters asked, redirecting the conversation.
“Officially? Not yet. However, he was meeting with two men with military haircuts and posture, but they were trying to look like they weren’t military.
These are new players to us, so we’re working to identify their names.
Feel free to give it a go yourselves, and let us know if you find out who they are. ”
“Nothing like doing your work for you,” Midas mumbled under his breath. He gave an emphatic bang to the Enter key on his laptop.
Nemo’s face didn’t change, but Demon knew the younger twin must have heard both of his comments.
Why Midas was being such a piss whistler—Kubrick’s nickname for him since Nemo left—was beyond him.
You’d think after fifteen-plus years of looking after the shidiot—Kubrick’s nickname for Nemo—he’d be glad for the break from having to bail the man out of one scrape after another. That was Gem’s job now.
Midas put the pictures on the screen, and the men studied them .
“How old are these pictures?” God asked.
“Yesterday afternoon. We’ve had our systems working on a higher-priority issue, which is why we haven’t had time to figure out who his lunch guests are.
They might be dressed like tourists, but they’re overdoing it.
Pictures we took will show the one guest coming in with a string backpack, but when they left, Ka-Bar had it. ”
“The guy on the right is American,” Steel said. “Former military. Henry Kroll.” He looked at Waters. “Used to work in Nicaragua at Site 66.”
The team leader grunted. “That could be awkward if he sees you.”
“Considering I technically drowned in a river of shit at Site 66? Damn straight. Dude was bad news then and as crooked as a fishhook. Several individuals met creative ends while under his watch. Not surprising he’s hooked into something like this, especially if it means earning more money.”
“And I know the guy on the left,” TB added.
Muttering to himself, Midas continued to punch in the information on his keyboard. “Why am I even here if everyone can identify everybody?”
TB continued, “Portuguese born, Emiliano Carvahlo.” He looked at Waters.
“Former Sistema de Informacoes da Republica Portuguesa , better known as SIRP. He went rogue in 2009 and disappeared. Did some work for him in my early days as The Collector. Last I knew, he was working out of the Central African Republic. He’s a contract killer who accepts any target.
Rumor has it he took a job on three children and their teenage nanny. ”
“ Jesucristo ,” Steel whispered. “Just the type of shitweasel the Salieri might hire in case their men can’t take care of the women and children of their members.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Waters acknowledged. “Midas, confer with TB and search out whatever info you can find. We might pick up nothing, but then again, if we can find something, it might lead us to a lower-level Salieri member we could use. ”
“Already on it. If there’s something to find, I’ll find it,” Midas promised.
Steel focused on Waters. “Need me to track these pendejos ?”
God spoke up. “Not yet. We go where Ka-Bar is. That’s the project. Let Mythos handle the other shit. Besides, as far as we can tell, Ka-Bar is the contact between the Salieri and outsiders. Or one of them. Any sightings of the Kaders?”