THIRTY YEARS AGO

“Did we really just pull that off?” Markham was driving the SUV with Barry and Les in the back. He was so excited at the success of the operation they’d just ran. “Brother, you were so convincing back there too. You f*cked the sh*t out of that sex doll!”

Barry laughed and responded, “With the way my girl’s been locking me out, that’s the closest I’ve come to smashing in months. It did feel real though. These people know what they’re doing in the sex toy industry.”

Les was a little less excited than the other two. “Do you think they’ll believe the security camera footage we put in? We did have to heavily edit stuff.”

Markham made sure they were out of town and parked on the side of the road. “Les, all they’ll see is three masked men torturing a man’s wife to death, and then f*cking her dead body. The sickness of it all will keep them from seeing or thinking anything else. The only person we really need to worry about is Hermes, cos that motherf*cker has zero emotions. We have to trust that Ken and Lily will be able to execute their part of the operation so we can get rid of that monster and break up the syndicate. Hell, we might even become the syndicate and make all the money in the world! No one’s gonna know about today, boys. Don’t worry.”

“You think the little girl is ever going to find out though? We just sedated her, but she might have questions when she grows up.”

Barry’s excitement was tempered by his concern, which Markham quickly addressed. “The syndicate’s got someone for that. Its some real mindf*ckery that they do, but they can replace memories with whatever they want. They’ll send her to the Godfather, but she’ll never know who he really is. It’s all worked out already.”

Les, also worried, pushed back. “What if they fail? I know Ken knows what he’s doing, but Lily? That woman looks like she’s never so much as lifted candy from a store in her life.”

Markham smiled. “You remember Flytrap, our op where we used hookers to set up politicians and blackmail them? That was all Lily.”

Now Barry was surprised. “You mean to tell me that Lily’s part of the syndicate?”

“Lily is royal blood, Barry. Her maiden name was Haskell. As in Beau Haskell.”

It took Barry and Les a second, but they finally got there. “The founder of the syndicate, Beau Haskell?”

“The very same one. Lily is also who actually commissioned this op. She’s Athena.”

Barry and Les exchanged looks of pure confusion while Markham smiled and put the car back in gear. “Now, boys, let’s get to getting before we’re late to the rendezvous point.”

*****

PRESENT DAY

Agent Bowser walked into his office and saw a note on top of a brown folder on his desk. He opened it up, saw the contents, and his face went dark.

He picked up the phone and called his wife. “Honey, I’m going to be late today. I know I don’t believe in whatever god you pray to, but I need you to pray to him for me tonight. It’s about to get real heavy around here. Love you.”

He put the phone down and looked at the note again. There was a black dot with the number two below it, and then a red dot with the words, “You Are The Cheese Now. HH.”

He’d seen that before, when chief Barry first brought him into the fold. He picked up his office phone and dialed one. “Mary, get me Spencer in my office now.”

*****

Spencer walked into Bowser’s office a few minutes later, and Bowser pointed at the note. “The syndicate? Must be very serious if they were this obvious.”

“You would know; you’ve been with them pretty much since childhood. This is my first time getting that. The only other person I saw have that was chief Barry.”

Spencer examined the note for a second. At first it looked new, but then the realization slapped him in the face. “Oh! I know what that is.” He went and made sure the door was closed, and then he took the note back to Bowser. “The black dot is a timeline, usually in days. The red dot is either an update or a charge. So, you have two days to do whatever it is you’re supposed to do, but you’re the one in charge of whatever it is now.”

“What exactly am I supposed to do though? Wait, the note was on top of this folder.” Bowser opened it up and immediately understood.

“It appears the Soumane case is now fully mine, along with the Greene case. I’ll take these files, you take…”

Spencer was already at the door by the time Bowser started trying to share the files. “What, you don’t want in?”

“When they assign a case, they don’t intend for you to get help on my level. Its yours and yours alone. Two cases means you might have a seat at the table. Godspeed. Hail Hermes.”

Spencer didn’t even wait for a response and disappeared.

“Coward.” Bowser began to look through the files. The van from Thomas’ kidnapping was there, Sukuyaa’s face was also there, and there was a picture of Thomas in there as well. These were all old pieces of information so far.

“So much for help.” He kept looking through the rest of the documents and one sheet of paper stopped him. It said ‘Do Not Go Any Further Unless You Are Alone.’ Bowser went to lock the door and then came back and continued.

The first document after the warning was a copy of a picture of Sukuyaa and Mina.

“I guess there really is more to you, grieving widow.” 

*****

FIVE YEARS AGO

Lucas got home and found Mina ransacking the storage closet.

“Honey, I’m back. And I see you’re turning my house into a zoo.”

Mina said nothing and kept looking through documents, her hands trembling the whole time.

“Mina, a little hello from you, maybe? I just got back after two weeks of travel.”

Mina kept looking.  Lucas finally clocked her trembling hands and went over to her. He stopped her and turned her to face him, and then he saw the tears running down her face.

“Hey, hey. What’s wrong, baby? What happened.”

Mina lost control and bawled her eyes out on his chest, weeping loudly. He picked her up and carried her as she cried, and settled in the sofa with her. She curled up like a baby in his arms and continued to weep.

Hours later, after she’d cried herself to sleep in his arms and woken up, she began. “I went to Givens’ place for our annual tradition, and then I asked him about Jenkins the morning after. He said he doesn’t know the guy.”

“That can’t be true,” Lucas scoffed, but Mina continued.

“Turns out it is. When I first got into the airforce academy, Givens gave me a 50-cal Smith and Wesson. It was my father’s first weapon. He told me that they’d bought it at a store called Ellis Road, but then my dad could never remember the name of the store. But, because of how much he loved that gun, he named it his Ellis Rose. He went on to use more sophisticated weapons, but whenever he killed anyone, they were said to have received a kiss from the Ellis Rose. That term lasted so long that I came to meet it, and it became exclusively mine out of respect for my father.”

“During one of the ops we ran while I was with the investigative unit, we found out that Ellis Road was a front for the Bell Syndicate, a ruthless shadow organization with fingers in every evil pie. One of the things they were masters at was covering up crimes. They would go as far as creating whole scenes to give cover stories and alibis to their operatives. They would sometimes commit big crimes elsewhere to create a distraction, and then commit a small but important crime that brought them millions. We tried everything to identify members of the syndicate, but no one knew them by name or face. So we gave up and I got summoned into active combat duty.”

“I completely forgot about that part of my life until Givens gave me a book as I was leaving his house that morning. He said to me that he got it from the same store as the Ellis Rose. I asked if he was sure and he said yes. He was trying to be tough, but I know him well enough to know that he knew at that moment that his days were numbered. I came home and looked through the book, and guess what was in there? A photo album with the guys who were in the police force at the time my parents were murdered.”

She reached over to the center table, where the book was, and opened it to a bookmarked part. “Look at that picture.”

Lucas took a look and saw the name. “Herman Dawson?”

“Apparently, he was transferred there from some bumfuck place far up north specifically for this case. And when he left, no one could find the case file. There was no trace of any of the evidence, the reports, or anything to do with that case. He vanished into the wind and only resurfaced a year ago. I don’t know his name now.”

Lucas put the book down. “If Givens couldn’t tell you all this and he had to give you a book, then he’s being watched in some way.”

“Which is how I know that trouble is on its way to us.”

Just then, Mina’s phone rang. She had to look for it, but she found it right before it stopped. It rang again and it was Givens’ secretary.

“Hey Steph. Wait, slow down. What’s happening?”

Mina resisted the urge to yell as the tears came back flowing down her cheeks. “Okay. I’ll be in shortly.”

She hung up the phone and looked at Lucas, who sensed what was coming next. “Tell me.”

Mina slumped back into his arms, more tears falling from her eyes. “Givens was shot dead in a home invasion last night.”

Man, this really is a lot to process, it really is. Since that insane discovery, everything’s turned upside down…