Aztec Treasure

Colletta Grimes POV

White House, Oval Office

I’d arranged for a thirty-minute meeting with the President, requesting that she include only her Chief of Staff, the Attorney General, and the Director of National Intelligence. Frank and I had worked with our Pack lawyer, Ralph Emerson, on the plane. We’d printed the final copies out just before landing.

We passed through security and waited with the Chief of Staff for President Kettering to finish her meeting with Congressional leadership. “Any hints,” Lynette Johnson asked as we waited for the other.

“Not now,” Frank replied.

Attorney General Marisol Guttierez and the DNI, General Curtis Ripley, joined us. At our request, we waited until everyone was cleared out of the Oval Office before we entered and closed the doors behind us. “Frank, Colletta,” Laura said with a smile as she got up to greet us.

“Madam President,” I said. “We have a way to both uncover the conspiracy and strike back at the Sinaloa Cartel.”

“That’s outstanding,” Laura said. “Your shadow task force found something?”

“Not quite,” Frank said. “You have friends in our kind, and our Packs have reach and resources that law enforcement can’t duplicate. One of these resources made a breakthrough. Some of what they did will allow us to take legal actions against those responsible, while others must remain hidden.”

“This breakthrough of yours? You didn’t obtain it legally,” Marisol surmised.

“No,” I replied. “Frank is a sworn law enforcement agent; he had nothing to do with this, as we limited his purview to supervising our shadow task force. The people involved are talented hackers. Before we proceed further, I’ll need your signature on this.” I handed her the pardon letter, which absolved Spider Monkey and her fellow hackers, plus a half-dozen warriors and Arrowhead Pack leadership, from prosecution for specified illegal acts committed within one year of the signature date. The details listed in the attachment would remain classified, and the original signed document would return with me to Arrowhead. If no one ever figured out what they did, no one would know.

General Ripley read through the document, whistling when he read what they had been able to do. He looked at me in shock. “Do your friends need a job?”

“They are good where they are,” I said.

“At least you guys are paying taxes on the stolen money this time,” Marisol added as she set the paper down. “Seriously? You plan to steal a billion dollars from the Cartel?”

“It’s a simple plan,” Frank said. “We’ve identified one of the major conspiracy actors as the CIA’s Station Chief in Mexico City, Henry Consuellar. We need agents in place to raid his home, his Embassy office, and the CIA’s Safe House when our people tell you to go.”

“There are national secrets everywhere in those places,” General Curtis said.

Frank nodded. “Then send good men to secure them. You are bound to find evidence of the conspiracy in at least one of those places.”

I continued. “Our people will be following Henry around. We know from his account history when the Cartel cash comes into his off-books bank account. Within a few hours, Consuellar personally transfers it to their account minus his fee. He has to do that in the bank itself, at one of their secure terminals. When he goes into the account rooms, cellphone signals are blocked. That’s when you hit the three locations. Our people will pick Henry up when he leaves the bank.”

“Your people? Why not ours?”

“If you pick him up, he gets a lawyer and clams up. We have ways of making him talk before the other conspirators even know something is wrong.”

Marisol wasn’t convinced. “You can’t torture him; anything you say will never stand up in court.”

I knew they would say that. “Don’t worry about that. Henry will voluntarily give up everything before he enters US airspace. When my people have all the information from him, we’ll leave him at the airport for your agents to find. Our people will send secure text messages to a number of your choice with the names we uncover. As for probable cause for warrants, you can start with this.” I handed the Attorney General a memory disk. “On this chip are account activity statements for the CIA black account, the intermediary banks used with their data, and Cartel accounts. The transfers prove the CIA off-books account paid the lease of the black site prison, funded by laundering drug money for the Sinaloa Cartel. Henry Consuellar is one of three account holders and is primarily responsible for the suspect transfers.”

“The other two?”

“One we haven’t identified, the other is the deceased Deputy Director of Covert Operations,” Frank replied. “Oh, and we need you to place Henry’s family in protective custody. The Cartel won’t be happy with him.”

“It’s a profitable operation for you,” General Curtis said. “A billion dollars?”

“Before taxes,” I said with a smile. “The CIA funds get transferred to Henry’s bank account in the States, where you can immediately seize the money. Your agencies don’t have the authority or ability to seize this money before the Cartel transfers it out. The Mexican Government owns Banco Mexico but is a front for the Sinaloa Cartel. Our people can steal it out from under their noses, and you can announce a money-laundering investigation resulted in the confiscation of their funds. Your people don’t get specific on WHO took it,” I said with a laugh. “So, we need you to sign the paperwork.”

President Kettering and Attorney General Guittierez conferred briefly, then signed the agreement. “General Curtis, prepare the operation and coordinate with Colletta as needed to take down this conspiracy. Colletta, thank you for doing this. We will keep your names out of the official investigation.”

I returned the signed pardon agreement to my purse. “We’ll get to work.” With that, Frank and I headed back to the plane. Chase was already moving assets into Mexico in anticipation of the agreement. I texted him a short message. “It’s ON.”

Frank squeezed my hand as we waited for our car to come around. “Are we doing the right thing here?”

“I hope to Luna that we are,” I said. “I feel bad for Spider Monkey. She can never come home now.”

“I think she knows, but I’ll let her break the news to Vic. He’s going to have to keep her safe, and that means minimal contact with the Packs.”

“The money will help. Eventually, the Sinaloa Cartel will be no more, and then we can bring them back to Arrowhead.” We loaded into the car, and I leaned onto his shoulder as we drove away.

General Curtis let me know when he’d have teams ready, and Chase’s extraction team was standing by. Frank sent the go-time to Spider Monkey on the burner phone.

There was no turning back now.

I hope they get a video recording of Henry when he finds out the people he just confessed his treason to aren’t even Federal agents, and there was no plea agreement with the Justice Department.

Next time, ask for identification.

Spider Monkey’s POV

Ocean City, Maryland

The bed-and-breakfast was beautiful, and I spent a few hours napping on the chairs overlooking the ocean before our dinner arrived. Vic didn’t want me to go any farther than knee-deep in the ocean waves while I planned to spend a lot of time in bed with him.

I put Haley Donohue’s “Midwatch” down when the food was ready. Vic had set up the small table for us on the deck, the light ocean breeze swirling around my sundress. I kept the conversation light, but eventually, I had to come clean. “Vic? What I did today will have consequences for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could hack account data remotely, but I had to go into that branch and use their terminal to make the transfers. The security cameras are not connected externally, so there is a video record of me entering and exiting the room. Eventually, someone will use facial recognition or other technology to figure out I was the one who stole the Cartel’s money. They will come after us.”

He leaned back in his chair, running this through his head. “I thought the money was going to the Federal Government, and they would take credit.”

“The CIA black account money is already in their hands. The Cartel cash is different, Vic. The DEA can’t seize drug money without cooperation from the bank and the government, and Mexico wasn’t going to help. I took a billion dollars from them. I have automatic transactions set up; by tomorrow night, the money will go through six offshore banks and end up, legally, in the United States under a Pack shell company account.”

He drained his beer and opened another while he thought about it. “Did the Alphas know about this?”

I nodded. “We agreed that it was the only way to punish the Cartel for what they did. We can do a lot of good with this money, Vic.”

He turned away from me, walking to the railing and looking over the water. “And you didn’t tell me.” I could hear his anger in his voice.

“If I told you what would happen, would you have let me?”

“No way in HELL! You’re my mate, and you’re my LIFE, Spider! I won’t endanger you or our child for anything!” I let him be for a few minutes. When he started drinking his beer again, I got up and hugged him from behind. “I can’t lose you. I won’t survive it.”

“I’m sorry I had to hide this from you, Vic. The Alphas agreed with me that this was the best way to handle it.”

“I’ll be having words with them too,” Vic said as he shook with rage. It took a while to get him to sit down with me again. “Why would you go along with it?”

“Vic, what is our Pack rank?”

“Betas,” he said.

“As Betas, what are our main responsibility?”

“To support the Alphas and protect the Pack.”

“Exactly,” I said. “We’ve been on the run before. We have money, false identities, and the support of the Council and all the Packs. Keep me out of sight, Vic. Keep me safe.”

“I always will, my love. Right now, I’ve got to think,” he said. I watched him walk down to the water as I went back inside.