17. - Jason -
Chapter seventeen
- Jason -
I ’m locked into all CCTVs, and I have eyes on the ship,” Archie said into Jason’s earpiece. “I estimate docking in fifteen minutes.”
The wind was whipping around the dockyards furiously as Jason waited by his bike, his helmet hanging in his hands. Site security had already done a sweep of the area, making sure Jason would be the only one in attendance when the shipment arrived.
“Roger,” Jason said back.
“Tac Op is on standby at the permitter with the EP team. I’ll send in EP when the boat lands.”
“Roger,” Jason repeated.
Archie was the Cyber Intelligence Analyst and IT Security Expert for Alpha Moneta, but he basically did everything for the twins, including surveillance, intelligence and crisis management. Without Archie, Jason and Kayden would be fucked. Archie had a relationship with tech that was unexplainable. He could influence anything with wires, a gift like Jason and Kayden's receptive telepathy. Having known Archie for almost two decades, Jason trusted him not only with his own life, but with Kayden’s life too—the only other person he could rely on to always be on their side, to always look out for them.
Jason watched the container ship roll into the port. It was exactly fifteen minutes when the massive ship hit the dock.
“EP team dispatched. Tac Op remains on standby,” Archie said, and Jason could hear them as they approached.
Most of the team was former military and law enforcement personnel. Their training was top-notch, and they were highly focused. Their thoughts bounced around rapidly as they closely surveyed the dockyard, looking for any signs of disturbance.
The ship’s crew darted around, securing the vessel, and the dockworkers drove the heavy machinery to unload. The Afghani drug cartel producing this shipment had dealt with the bill of lading, and it was their own freight forwarder that was handling the cross-ocean transport of the container, so Jason was confident that the shipment would land. However, once his order landed on North American soil, it became his responsibility.
Jason pushed away from the bike and made his way over to the shipping containers, now stacked on land.
“Ali Reza is your point of contact, the Afghani man with the beard and grey turban.”
Jason found the Afghani representative that had made the journey with the shipment and went over to him.
“ Janab Haeven, khudaai paaman .” He greeted Jason respectfully, bowing low. He identified himself as Ahmad Ali Reza. “Your shipment is in this container.”
Ali Reza motioned to a blue shipping container and made to walk towards it. Jason vetted his words against his thoughts before following him.
“Transport truck pulling up,” Archie said in his ear.
“There are four metal crates in here that are yours,” Ali Reza confirmed .
The transport truck backed in, and the transport security hopped out of the cab, opening the back of the truck. Ali Reza pulled the shipping container open, and four men unloaded the four metal crates. Jason carefully scanned through all the noise, ensuring everyone followed the correct procedures.
Ali Reza motioned to one of the crates. “For inspection, Janab Haeven.”
“Who packed the crates?” Jason asked.
“I did, Janab Haeven.” Truth .
“How many pounds?”
“205 pounds between the four, weighed and weighed again.” Truth .
“Do you know what’s in the crates?” Jason asked the man.
He shifted on his feet before responding, looking uncomfortable for the first time. “Yes, Janab Haeven.”
Jason searched through all the background noise, fixing on Ali Reza’s thoughts. He personally supervised the packing of the crates, ensuring everything was as ordered. Jason had increased his supply order, necessitating an additional shipment, and after some persuasion from Jason, the Afghanis had obliged.
Ali Reza seemed to know all of this. From everything running through the man’s mind, Jason was confident that the raw opium was in there.
“Load them up,” was all he said, and the transport security got to work, while the EP team stood at the ready.
Everyone was on edge.
“Please, Janab Haeven, you don’t want to look?”
“No need.” Jason said to the man, offering him a smile that was the opposite of comforting. Ali Reza swallowed thickly but did not protest further.
“I transferred the nine million,” Archie told Jason.
Jason repeated this to Ali Reza, who took out his own cell phone and made a call to confirm.
“ Zama har kha , thank you,” Ali Reza said to him.
“ Shoma hazar beshid .” Jason used the man’s language.
Ali Reza bowed low, and Jason nodded his head.
Archie gave directions to the transport security, the Executive Protection team, and Tactical Operations. Jason ran through the transport security team’s thoughts, finding nothing to give him pause, and made his way to his bike. He put his helmet on and started up the bike.
Jason followed the transport truck out of the dockyards, driving close enough beside the driver’s side that he could monitor any nefarious intentions. No one knew what was in the crates, but they were guessing. The amount of security hired for the transaction indicated that it was high value.
The transport truck pulled into the empty parking lot of an obscure warehouse, Jason hot on their heels. The EP team pulled up behind them.
Jason got off his bike and went to the truck. He opened the back doors and got in, closing them slightly behind him so he was the only one in the trailer. He opened one of the metal crates. As expected, it was filled to the brim with the dark brown, gummy substance—pounds and pounds of raw opium.
Jason closed the lid of the crate and got out of the truck.
“The second transport truck is arriving.”
Jason waited for the second truck to pull up so that his team could load the crates from the first truck to the next.
The new truck had just the one driver. Everything had been meticulously prearranged between him and Archie earlier in the week. It was the regular protocol. They switched security companies often, to ensure no one got too much information on the routes and process. For the second transport, they always used random truck drivers sourced through databases, trying to find drivers with criminal records or criminal association to ensure that they could eliminate the threat if Jason felt any sensitive information had been compromised.
Archie circulated more instructions, dismissing everyone .
Jason waited for the transport team and the EP team to leave. He waited for the “all clear” from Archie before giving a burner phone with the coordinates to the trucker.
“I’ll be following on my bike.” Jason told him. The trucker's thoughts kept returning to the shipment, his interest piqued.
“Just you?” the trucker asked Jason, sizing him up. Jason flagged the plan that was unravelling in the man’s mind.
He opened his leather jacket with a savage grin. All his weapons—knives, guns and even grenades—were on proud display.
“I’m all I need,” Jason warned the man.
It was enough for the trucker to abandon his immediate intentions.
“You’ll follow the map on that phone to the coordinates I’ve given you. No detours, no stops. Is that clear?”
The man nodded. He had a large eagle tattooed on one side of his neck and the American flag on the other, which stretched and contracted with his submission.
“Good.” Jason put his helmet back on.
He followed the trucker through the country highways to the next warehouse. The one they had just left was empty and abandoned, scouted after their previous exchange point became compromised. They had several warehouses in secure locations, never keeping all of their stock in one place, just in case.
Arriving at one of Alpha Moneta’s warehouses, Jason shut off his bike and headed towards the truck. Archie had automated the warehouses completely. An electric forklift truck made its way to the trailer, remotely operated by Archie. Jason opened the doors, hopped in and loaded one crate onto the lift before the machine left and another took its place.
The muscles in his arms protested against the load. After his workout this morning, his biceps were feeling particularly sore. He ignored it, stacking another crate on the next lift, doing it two more times before the truck was unloaded .
Once the lifts were back in the warehouse, the thick metal garage door secured itself by Archie’s long-distance command.
Jason rounded the truck to the passenger side of the cab and got in.
The trucker looked at him, and Jason analyzed him—his hideous tattoos, his pockmarked skin, his gnarled hands.
“What are you doing after this?” Jason asked.
“Uh… going home?” the man said, confused by Jason’s question. His answer was true.
“And where’s home?”
“Listen, buddy, that’s none of your business.” But Jason already knew where home was for him.
“Do you know where you are?” Yes, he did. “Do you know how to get back here from where you live?” Another affirmative. “Will you come back here?” Jason pressed on.
“No, of course not!” Lie.
“Who’s waiting for you at home?”
“My girlfriend.”
“You got kids?”
“No.” Truth.
“Tell me about your girlfriend.”
“What are you going on about?”
“You like your girlfriend?” Jason asked.
“Sure, of course I do.” That fucking complaining bitch , he thought.
“She complain too much?” The trucker looked nervous—over the comment, the continued questions.
“All bitches are good for his wetting your dick and cooking a meal, you know what I mean?” the trucker said, chuckling awkwardly, trying to lighten the mood. But he believed his words, thought about how he would get blasted and fuck his girlfriend, Lucy , whether or not she wanted it. From what Jason heard, it seemed like it was mostly not. A string of demeaning and cruel thoughts about Lucy, and women in general, continued to pass through his head.
“She going to miss you when you don’t come home?”
The trucker’s eyes went wild. He cracked his knuckles, gearing up to fight, but Jason already had the bear taser pressed to the man’s chest, doling out 100,000 volts of electricity.
No, she's not. She’s probably going to be real fucking pleased if she never has to see me again, was all the man thought as he screamed.
He was shaking violently from the electric shock, but Jason kept pressing it into him until his heart stopped. On autopsy, it would look like the man had a heart attack, since that technically was what had happened. Jason had just induced that heart attack.
“I need the lift,” Jason asked Archie.
“Coming right up,” Archie responded through the earpiece.
Jason took the man from under his arms and hoisted him over to the passenger’s side of the cab, the smell of burning permeating the space. He got out of the cab and went to the back of the truck, opening the trailer doors while the forklift secured Jason’s bike and brought it up into the cab. Jason closed the trailer as the automated forklift once again moved itself back into the garage.
“Can you check the truck for a GPS?”
“Sure thing.”
Jason took the earpiece out of his ear and placed it against the truck. Unlike Jason and Kayden’s abilities, Archie could manipulate tech through the phone. As long as the pieces of tech were physically connected, it was like a chain of conductors leading back to the earpiece Archie had in his own ear.
Jason put the earpiece back in.
“All clear. I’ll send the location to drop the truck through the burner. ”
Jason started up the truck and drove to his next destination, finally getting some peace and quiet. He rubbed his left eye, trying to settle the muscle spasm from saturating his brain in noise for the last few hours.
His brain needed some music to calm down. He searched for the trucker's iPhone, finding it locked and asking for a facial ID. Reaching over, Jason used the guy’s slack face to get access to the phone. He pulled off one of his leather riding gloves, found Spotify, and put on Bring Me the Horizon. Jason put his glove back on and wiped the face of the iPhone down on his pants.
The pounding drums, guitars and electronic synths washed over him, calming his mind and helping him breathe.
The location Archie had given him was a shoulder off a country highway. Night was falling, and Jason dragged the body back into the driver’s seat, pocketing the burner phone before going to the back of the trailer.
Jason opened the doors, pulled out the retractable ramp, and guided the motorcycle down. Then he closed the truck up and got on his bike. The music was still playing from inside the cab, drowning out the lazy buzzing of the evening crickets.
“All done,” he said to Archie. “Can you let Kayden know, please?”
“Of course, and I’ll stay with you for your ride home. You’re about two hours out.”
“No, man, it’s okay. Go enjoy what’s left of your night.”
“It’s all good, Jase. I’m just finalizing logistics for tomorrow’s transport to Zantek.”
Jason sighed, not looking forward to another day of this shit. He pulled his helmet on and sped away on his motorcycle.
By the time Jason got home, his head was pounding. He leaned against the kitchen counter, pouring himself a generous amount of whiskey and gulping it down while he heated the leftover curry.
He checked his phone. A message from Kayden told him they were up on the rooftop .
Jason was exhausted. But if it meant Kayden got to stay home and enjoy himself, if it meant Kayden was safe, Jason would keep running this show on his own for as long as necessary.
Jason pulled a shopping bag from his backpack and unloaded the new running shoes, headphones and iPhone he’d bought before he’d gone to the dockyards.
He connected the phone to their Wi-Fi and downloaded Spotify.
As he ate, he saved all his favourite songs and albums onto the phone, scrolling through different metal artists he loved, downloading full discographies of popular artists and more obscure artists.
After finishing his food, he made himself a protein shake and ate an extra protein bar for good measure.
He messaged Archie and asked him to disable the new iPhone so that it could only play the music that had already been downloaded. Once Archie confirmed it was done, Jason went to the guest bedroom and left the phone and the headphones on the side table, and the new running shoes by the closet door.
Then he took himself upstairs, looking forward to a long, hot shower to wash the day away, and to some deep sleep.