Side Eighteen – Aliyah James – Black Wolf Company PMC

Side Eighteen – Aliyah James – Black Wolf Company PMC

I just wish I knew what was going on here. That fat swine is surely our target, all the intel we gathered and the data points towards him. So just who is this Akio guy? Aliyah reached for her glass, trying to focus her thoughts. Her body felt listless, a nagging ache in her skull. Fucking gas or whatever. I feel vile. Even alcohol isn’t helping...

Akio took a sip of his whiskey in front of her. Her sharp gaze that was focused on the fat sack of shit that was the cause of all her hardships picked up a sneer that momentarily crossed his face. At that moment Akio somehow tripped over his own feet, his elbow flashing towards her. What, so fast? An attack...? She tried to react but before she could the glass was struck from her hand, shattering on the expensive marble floor, spilling amber liquid everywhere.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I’ve been feeling weak for a while, my legs just went from under me.” He apologised, meeting her eyes, but his gaze was trying to convey something. You are spouting bullshit. You don’t look affected by the gas to me. Oh, and don’t think I didn’t see you checking out my cleavage then too... god, do men ever think of anything else?

Forcing herself to stay in character, she forced a smile. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Luckily you didn’t get it on my dress.”

“Yeah, it might be my medical condition acting up I’m afraid. I have Aether depletion. It’s very rare.” His eyes had flickered to the fat turd, it was subtle but he couldn’t fool her senses. He is probing him. He’s said several strange things, trying to feel out my target. Just who is this guy, and more importantly, who does he work for? He speaks flawless English so he could be one of ours, but this mission was passed our way. Did someone fuck up in the planning stages?

“Let me get you another glass, we shouldn’t ruin this toast.” The ball of lard said unctuously. Nah, I think I’ll pass...

“No, I think I’ve had enough actually. I’ll be carrying a lot of money back to my hotel, I’d best keep a clear head.” As she finished a hint of anger was seen in his eyes. Yeah, the drinks must be spiked and that guy noticed. Probably why he is now taking really small sips...

“That’s a good point.” The slug agreed, smiling falsely. “I should have thought of that, sorry. But I do hate the thought of a young woman such as yourself taking such a heavy bag home alone. Las Vegas is pretty safe, but if something happened to you... why I doubt I could forgive myself.” He turned to Akio as well. “As for you. That’s an awful lot of money. Feel free to leave it here and I’ll have it ferried to your hotel tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. Buck has already sent round someone to pick me up.” Akio lied. “I’ll be fine.”

Yeah, he’s definitely suspicious of the worm. Ugh, god I wish I was in a bar, drinking and looking at beautiful girls. Men are such... “Yeah, my brother is waiting for me. He’s a big guy, he’ll deter any muggers. So I’m good too.”

“Oh. Well that is a shame. Anyway, if I could prevail on you just a bit longer...” as he stalled, Akio tensed, and Aliyah also noticed the movements of the security change. Fuck. Looks like it’s time. My plan to infiltrate went way better than I could have imagined, but this Akio is a rogue element...

Tapping on her earpiece she sent the signal for operation start, and suddenly noise and chaos could be heard outside. Suddenly the sealed door burst open, and a security guard rushed in, panting. “Sorry boss, some fights have broken out on the floor. They’ve accused us of cheating. We could use more security to damp it down.”

“Fuck, now of all times.” The tub of shit scowled. Gesturing, he sent four of his guards out with him. As the door shut and the bolts within engaged, the remaining four guards were approaching slowly, trying to look natural.

“Well, this didn’t go as I wanted. You...” he glared at Akio. “You are responsible for foiling the dealer, aren’t you? Still, you were no match for me, here in my own castle. And you were overconfident. There’s a powerful soporific in that drink, you should already be getting dizzy. If you’d just lost like you were supposed to then I wouldn’t have to do this. I need money, as much of it as I can get, and I’ll do whatever it takes.” Towards the end he was raving, spittle flying from his mouth. Ugh, he’s third rate, blabbing his crimes like an idiot. Has he forgot I’m here? Oh well, if he’s this talkative now, we should get plenty of info from him later. Tapping the earpiece again she signalled for the next stage of the plan. Suddenly the lights and power went out, plunging everything into darkness. Aliyah moved, remembering where the guards and the fat bastard were from memory. Dropping behind the bar she hid herself from view.

The emergency lights then flickered back on to see that Akio had moved towards the back door during the power cut. Still, the four security guards had moved his way, surrounding him, two with guns, the other two producing long-handled metal batons.

“It’s such a shame. You are going to be found dead in an alleyway, your money gone. Las Vegas is pretty safe, yes, but... besides, I heard you talking to that Buck Kelly. There is no car. You think I’m easy to fool, here in my castle? I don’t need to be near you to hear you!”

“Yvoo von’t get avay vith ‘is.” Akio slurred, unsteady on his feet, the massive weight of the heavy bags of money he was carrying weighing him down.

“Oh, so the drugs are kicking in. About time. All right then lads, a bonus to the one that retrieves my money! Try and make it look like a robbery gone wrong, then dump the body in the back alleys.”

“What the hell is going on, sis?” Trey asked, seeing me strangling the jerk and four unconscious and wounded guys over by the now-open exit.

“Long story.” I replied. “But first do you mind slugging our target here? He’s annoyingly tenacious, who would have thought a corpulent shit was this tough?”

“Sure. You two, go out back and pull some of the vans round. We’ll load them in and take them away. They might know something.” Trey stepped up and slammed the fat weasel with a couple of pinpoint strikes to key points of his body, and he finally fainted, allowing me to let go. My arms were trembling from the effort of choking him.

“So, now that the situation is contained, what happened here?” he asked, surveying the chaos.

“First tell me everything is going to plan?” I retorted. Going behind the bar I helped myself to an opened bottle of whiskey and took a swig. That’s better. Fuck I feel like shit. I hate this place and this shitty job. Still, on the home stretch now...

“You have to have more faith in us, Aliyah. To be honest our part was easy, you had to infiltrate and make an opportunity. I’ve no idea how you pulled it off to be honest, I was expecting a hot extraction. Guess I shouldn’t underestimate you, sis. Anyway yeah, our guys are being thrown out by their security as we speak, tying them up, and we cut the main power circuit. The backup generators fired, but without a reset the security systems and cameras are down. We should get out clean.”

“Good.” Taking another swig she retrieved her holdall of money, which she tossed to Trey. As he unzipped it, surprised, she smiled. “I got third place. Over a million and a half in there. Not bad eh?”

“Oh shit Aliyah, not bad at all! That money was a sunk cost for the mission. Shit, drinks are on you...” as we talked more of our people had entered through the back door, dragging off the guards. We locked the door to the main casino and jammed it, rendering it inoperable, before bailing out of the back and boarding the van. As the doors slammed shut and we drove off, our target and his lackeys secured, I turned to Trey once more.

“Things got pretty complicated in there. I think other agencies are sniffing around, probably foreign. There was this Japanese guy, pretty sharp, took down those idiots over there.” She jerked her head at the fallen security, who were now tied up, thick masking tape used to tie their hands and legs behind their backs and gag them. “Fast and strong. He’d give you a good fight. He seemed to know something we don’t too, I got some coded language, like Material, Aether, misfortune field...”

“Shit, that’s not good. You reckon he’s part of a team? If so, they might try and extract the target?”

“No, I don’t think he’ll go for that. When he fled the scene I felt he was giving the target to us. I find it frustrating, but we succeeded. Still, we could really use what he knows.” I feel we only know a fraction of the bigger picture. Sure, we are only the hands and feet of the government, but even so...

“So, what do we know about this guy?” Trey asked.

“I’ve got a name. it might be fake, but it was so unusual I doubt it. Akio Moonstone Oshiro. From Japan. I also got his hotel. Plus... I reckon I could get more, if we needed...” Kelly’s Rest. If he’s laying low he won’t be seen in the open, but ... if he wanted to make contact with us...

As I pondered Trey asked if we should raid him at his hotel, shake him up a bit, but I shook my head. “No way. I’m not sure how true it is, but I heard he’s with his sister and some other girls, and they aren’t even old enough to drink. I know you wouldn’t be up for that. Shit, I’m not...”

“Yeah, I’m not down for collateral damage on kids. It’s not in our mission spec anyway. We got what we came for. We’ll pull out clean tonight.”

“Yeah, I’ll stay behind. Leave me one of the girls and I’ll follow my lead tomorrow. If I get any extra information, then all’s good. If not then I’ll count it as a reward for my hard work.”

“Sure, sounds good to me. You reckon you’ll have any luck?”

I remembered Akio as he left, warning me, seemingly genuine about not wanting me to get in trouble. “I don’t know, Trey. I don’t know. But...” I have a feeling our paths are going to cross again. And in this business, you always go with your gut, as those that don’t... well, they don’t live long, do they?