Side Sixteen – Treyvon James – Black Wolf Company PMC
Watching my sister as she scowled at the sharply-dressed Asian who walked past us, I appraised him with interest. Not bad, not bad. I think he might be my type...
“Oh come on Aliyah. Why so frowny? You’ll ruin the effect of that dress. You are really quite something in it.” She certainly was. It wasn’t often I could get her in more feminine clothes, but the mission profile called for it, so she was wearing a party frock with a plunging neckline, making the most of her ample assets.
“I can’t help it.” She scowled. “He was totally staring at my chest. Ugh, Makes me fucking sick.”
“Harsh as ever, aren’t you? He didn’t look trained, his movements were unpolished, but my eyes don’t lie. He had good muscle under that suit. You never know, he might be your type if you gave him a chance?”
“Yeah, right. Projecting much, moron? No, if I was talking about my type, the girl he was with...” she licked her lips seductively, as she gazed over at the small blonde girl who was taking up a spot at a table, wearing a snappy suit. “... small and cute, it really gets me going. Maybe I could go up and...”
“No way. Mind on the operation.” I shot her down, sighing. The last thing we needed was more trouble when we had finally got a decent lead on our target. “I don’t want you causing a scene trying to hit on a girl. Maybe if we have time later...” She was adorable for sure, the sort of girl I bet would be fun to drink with, unlike my sister. Speaking of... Oh Lord have mercy, we are on mission!
“Go easy on the booze sis, I know we are trying to blend in, but we can’t afford to have you go berserk here.” she was quickly draining her whiskey, the ice tinkling in the tall glass.
“I know, I know.” She replied with a sigh. “We’ll have to hit the tables if I can’t drink, we have to maintain our camouflage. But that’ll be such a damn waste of money.”
“Yeah, no shit. The cheating in here is blatant. But even so, did you notice?” I asked her. “Even when there isn’t any cheating people seem to be losing way more than they should. It’s totally weird.”
“Sharp as ever Trey. If only you would put your brain into learning Russian and Chinese like you are supposed to, rather than stupid shit like this and hitting on worthless guys. Everyone seems so ... God, it’s like the opening to a zombie flick in here. Gives me the fucking creeps.” She swallowed the rest of her whiskey and let out an unladylike belch.
Seriously, acting like that you’ve no chance of getting a cute girl to pay attention to you. “Yeah, you got that right, Aliyah. You can see it in their eyes and the way they move. It’s like they are all under the influence of some strong drugs. And not the usual drugs people take at a casino. I’m starting to get a bit of a headache myself...”
Of course we did, a hundred grand is quite the chunk of change to wager on the off chance of running into the target, and whoever goes in will have to go without backup... “Yeah, there is a lot of security back there, and they are packing heat. Any attempt to secure the target would be risky...”
“Unless...” Aliyah smirked. “... we had someone else to distract them? I’m not sure how they’ve been doing it, but that guy and his cutie have been out-cheating this dump left and right. Like you said, there’s something really odd going on here, and I reckon that they know what it is. Best case, we can use them to flush out our quarry and distract the security. Worst case and I can just extract information from him directly. It’s a win-win.”
But a hundred grand... that’s a good chunk of our operating budget... “It sounds feasible, I admit. But why you sis? I’d feel better going in myself, I’m better at CQC if it comes down to trouble. You hit hard, but...”
“Oh come on Trey, you may have a good brain for spotting patterns, but your poker-face is shit. You always get cleaned out when we play with the guys in the barracks. Besides...” she crossed her arms under her ample chest, causing it to rise up alarmingly.
Shit, whoever makes her bras should get an award, that’s solid engineering.
“... You know most of the people in that tournament will be guys, and I have... ways... of distracting them. Besides, that Asian was checking me out too, so since he’s a secondary target now, all the better if I do it. I can get close and extract information with ease.”
True, and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact he’s with that petite girl... still, it makes sense. But man, a hundred grand...
“All right. But it’d sure be great if we walked out of this with any of this cash left.” I made a few hand signals discretely, and over the next few minutes various big guys brushed past, dropping envelopes into my pockets. Retrieving it I counted out a hundred thousand dollars in used banknotes. Passing them to Aliyah I asked her one last time to be cautious.
“I’m counting on you. The whole operation could hinge on this. Otherwise it’s an all-guns-blazing scenario, and I don’t want the fallout.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this Trey.” She boasted. “You just keep gathering info and make sure we’ve got the movements of security down. I’ll keep in contact, and if I see a chance at the target I’ll call.” She tapped the extremely discrete earpiece hidden behind her ear that we had sourced from a contact at DARPA. “Besides, I have other weapons in here than my chest.” She patted her side.
“All right then. Good luck and give ‘em hell!” with that I watched my sister stride confidently over to the VIP room at the back, and after a brief discussion she was escorted inside.
Damn, now I need a drink too, but I have to be fresh for possible combat black-ops. But my head and stomach hurt like a bitch. I’d love to know what tech is causing this so I can bust it up. Oh well, one beer to take the edge off of it can’t hurt...