Tempest - Kris Michaels Page 0,81

the operation."

"Where is everyone else?" He glanced around the comms room.

"Asp went to get food for everyone. Go figure. Moriah and Lycos are heading down to the docks to get Smoke."

"Is his specialty needed?"

Bengal shrugged. "Don't know. I'm in charge of this area. I don't go into the field unless absolutely necessary." The man pinned him with a stare. "If you need me, I'm there. Make no mistake, however, I prefer to do this these days." He held his hand up and circled it, indicating the comms room.

"Understood completely." He extended his hand and Bengal shook it.

"Get next door. If your last mission is discovered before we are set up, all hell is going to bust loose."

He nodded and headed to the next room but heard Bengal's woman squeal and spin around. The woman clapped her hands and literally bounced in her chair as Bengal removed the laptop and three hard drives which Sierra team had found at the residence. Damn, the woman was definitely a computer geek.

He found Fury and Anubis staring at tablets. "Bengal has the equipment."

Anubis looked up and nodded to a seat across from him. "Perfect. Now let's get down to brass tacks. Have a seat."

He took the proffered seat and extended his legs in front of him. "How are you planning on removing the body of this serpent?"

"With the information we've deciphered from the coded emails and the information found from following the information provided by Pilar, we've been able to positively identify sixteen in the organization."

"Are these people with Stratus or are there more in the organization that spawned the Fates?" He retracted his legs and leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees.

"To our knowledge there are only three Fates. The organizational structure of Stratus appears to be a compartmentalized mess until you understand the reporting structure." Fury flipped his tablet and pointed to a graph.

Anubis added, "It appears each Fate had direct lines of responsibility. Francesca was the one who oversaw expansion. Her duties included moving and planting new layers of Stratus in different countries. She sent intelligence back to Regina and Nadia and directed which local leadership would be eliminated and designated the families to be kidnapped and tortured to ensure the foundations of their organization received no pushback. The woman is responsible for a vast cartel expansion in Colombia and Venezuela. Her role was to seed and monitor the newer organizations, but it appears she's also provided funding through the illegal drug trade her new organizations took over.

"Nadia was in charge of eliminations. She directed what appears to be a sizable squad of personnel who terminated anyone she, or the other Fates, needed eliminated. Normally these people were killed by incidents which were miraculously classified as accidents. Of course, most of these ‘accidents’ befell the individuals in jurisdictions which were controlled or manipulated by the last Fate, Regina. Those accidents which didn't happen inside friendly jurisdictions were covered up with bribes and eventually other murders.

"Then we can focus on Regina. From what we can tell, her role was oversight of the other two. She was called One, and according to the emails we've deciphered so far, she is neck deep in political blackmail, bribery, and individual replacement as necessary. We have the email which was sent to Nadia instructing her to set the murder of a New York Senator, two sitting judges, and a Representative from Virginia. Each of those women agreed on each operation. There are votes which are recorded in code and show each agreed in turn to every crime committed."

There was no doubt about the depravity of each of those women. His mind flitted to Pilar. "The sixteen you've identified?"

Anubis put his tablet down. "Seven have been coded. Six if you don't count your next mission."

"What about Nadia's army of... hell, are they assassins?" He glanced from Anubis to Fury. "I'm thinking she has access to several that are fairly skilled, Lobo, Raven, Akuma."

"Which is strange. Lobo has been out of the game for a long time." Fury rubbed his chin as he gazed across the table.

"Maybe someone else is using that name?"

"They're a fucking fool. That old wolf will hunt them down and make sure they don't do it again." Fury shook his head. “That is a discussion for another time. We have coded personnel to go after."

"Almost one for each of us," Anubis agreed.

Fury leveled a stare at him. "Pilar isn't one of them by the way, although she was mentioned recently in the emails."

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