Abandoned Treasure
Jaguar Zero Zero Seven X-ray

Jade Storm’s POV

Arrowhead Alpha Home, Minnesota

Thursday, May 2, 2019

I could see the disbelief in their eyes as I told them I planned to take on a Mexican drug cartel. Chase spoke first. “You want to WHAT?”

“I want Sinaloa destroyed before they hurt my family. Look, the Cartels are all about money and territory. I need Spider Monkey to help me take their money away, and I’ll need the cooperation of law enforcement to put pressure on their operations. It’s just like you did with the Sons.”

Vic shook his head. “Except the organization is a hundred times as large, and it isn’t in the United States! What makes you think you can do the job the DEA can’t? Taking them on would be suicide!”

“Not really,” Spider Monkey said. “It would be difficult and risky, but no organization is immune. Once enough blood is in the water, the governments and the rival Cartels will finish them for us. We have to give them a big and public bloody nose.”

“And if you fail, you put a target on yourself and anyone you work with,” Chase replied. “My conflict was with the bikers, not the Sinaloa Cartel. Why should I risk my family to save yours?”

“The Cartel is not your friend,” I replied. “They were the ones who compromised the agent at the Marshal Service and informed Jesus Correria about Sean Ryder’s true identity. They knew Jesus would go after him, even though it was decades ago when he was a Federal agent. They knew he’d kill his family, even the daughter who didn’t exist when he was undercover.”

“Wait,” Chase said. “You just told me you had nothing to do with that attack.”

“I didn’t. I found out from Midiam at the dinner in Mazatlan. She told me the Sons that Jesus fucked up by not waiting until the whole family was home. ‘They’d had years to plan, and they screwed it up,’ were her exact words. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t involved later. I helped with logistics like safe rooms and transportation and passed messages. Like I said, we didn’t have a choice. If they needed something, it was our responsibility to replace someone to provide it.”

“You’re not giving me a warm fuzzy about your people,” Chase warned.

“And I’m not thrilled to be asking your people for help,” I replied. “You Pack wolves have a nasty habit of killing things that aren’t a threat to you. Ask Vic how many rogue wolves the Enforcers killed who did NOTHING to threaten you. I won’t even mention the cats you kill for sport.” That hit home with Vic, at least. “I know I’m flawed, Alpha, but so are the Packs. We’ve both done immoral and illegal things in the name of survival, and we have to move on from that. We want to live our lives openly, just like you do.”

“Multiple felony convictions for hacking and money laundering won’t help us with Federal officials,” Vic objected.

“Please,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “If Spider Monkey isn’t plundering five systems right now, I’ll jump in the lake.” I looked at my friend, who shrugged and held up ten fingers.

“What do you need from us,” Vic asked.

“The Cartel employs skilled people. They use the latest communications and encryption equipment. I don’t have the skills to pull this off alone,” I told them. “Tracing the money through multiple banks and accounts is incredibly difficult. Intercepting their communications is damn near impossible. Spider Monkey is the best, so I need her help. Alpha Teri and Beta Steele won’t help unless she asks them.”

“And that draws attention to our doorstep. If we involve ourselves in this? We put the Council’s negotiations with the President at risk, and face Cartel retaliation. We can’t do it,” Vic concluded.

“We can’t sit here and do nothing,” Spider Monkey replied. “They killed my friends.”

Chase talked mentally with Alpha Rori. “What do you propose, Spider?”

“Let me help her access the systems without getting directly involved. We don’t use our network or any of my computers,” she said. “There are some people I know who would help. I can refer them to Jade and vouch for her.”

“Can you do that without leaving traces that can tie back to us?”

She nodded. “Hackers do it all the time.”

“Pass on anything you need the Feds to take action on through Frank Grimes. Spider, you can give her contact information.” He stood up, so I did as well. “I’m sorry I can’t do more, but I wish you luck. If you change your mind about asylum, let me know.”

There was zero chance of that, but whatever. We shook hands and left their office. Vic had to work, so I walked Spider Monkey to her office. “I wish we could work together again.”

“Me too. I’m worried about you, Jade. There is nothing those animals won’t do.”

“I know.” We talked into the night, and it was great seeing her again.I shared the systems I needed to compromise, and she gave me tips on how to do it. “Thank you,” I said as we approached her bedtime. The pregnancy was taking a lot out of her.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll go home and keep working,” I replied. “Being the Oracle is a full-time job. My family needs me, and I need to recruit ten people just in case.”

“Can you do that?”

“I think so. A few Werecoyotes might do it for the money. It’s just hard. I know how once the Cartel has their hooks in you, it’s forever. I don’t want that guilt on my conscience.”

She laughed. “You’ll hack governments, banks, and companies to steal secrets and money, and that’s what your conscience is worried about?”

I shrugged. “Do you feel guilty about taking money from the Sons?”

“Nope. When I transferred the money in the offshore bank accounts to the victims of the Orlando shootings? That was the best thing I’ve done as a hacker.”

It was time to bait the hook. “The Cartel has BILLIONS, Spider. More than we could ever spend. Imagine how much good that money could do for our people.”

“It’s fun to think about, isn’t it? Better than hitting the Lotto.” There was a knock on the door. “This man will take you back to your car. Stay safe, Jade.”

“I will.” I drove away from the Pack, wishing things were different. I’d love to live and work here, but Nathan would die if they knew his background.

I took my time going home. I stopped in multiple cities to meet other werecats and hackers.

Julio Salazar got back in the news in a big way when he kidnapped the First Husband for ransom. Like most of the country, we watched the coverage from the airport where the exchange was to take place. We were as shocked as anyone when he showed up outside Arrowhead with a jaguar bite, but my family recognized what would happen. “He’s a dead man,” Nathan said.

“This is bad. Coffey exposes us, and Salazar makes the nightmare real. Watching him die will turn the country against us,” Mom said.

I got a text from Spider Monkey later that night. “Gathering unmated females at Arrowhead to try and save FH. Send all you can ASAP. Alpha Chase declared a truce. Will reimburse airfare.”

Damn. When a rogue showed up at Pack lands, most Alphas would kill them on sight. I showed the message to Nathan. “Chase did right by you, and Rori isn’t like the old-school Alphas. I’d send the message.”

I put the request on the bulletin board and sent messages directly to eligible females. Dozens of females responded, and eight females found mates, though two got rejected.

Julio Salazar almost killed the President when she arrived in Duluth on Air Force One. There was nothing the Packs could do. Andrew Kettering suffered and died, and the country was furious. The obvious questions began. Questions like, “How did an escaped Federal prisoner get access to Stinger missiles?”

I knew the answer. The Oracle facilitated the meeting between the Cartel’s people and Leonis Woodley. I didn’t know that Leonis was working with Julio Salazar. I didn’t know the meetings were to turn over military man-portable rockets, either. I set them up because my Cartel bosses told me to, and facilitating things is what the Oracle does.

That made us accessories to the attempted assassination of the President.

Julio would have killed them all if not for the courage of a fighter pilot escort.

Nathan and I barely slept after watching the coverage. I was an American, and I was shocked at the attacks. I wanted Julio and Leonis dead, but what could we do?“ Let’s say we go to the FBI right now,” Nathan said. “What do we have to bargain with? We don’t know where Leonis is. He has to call in again to get a message. He could be anywhere, calling from any number. We don’t know who met with them or how they obtained it. All we can do is implicate ourselves in a crime with a Federal Death Penalty.”

He was right, of course. “And the Cartel still owns our asses.”

“Yes. We can’t be free until the Cartel is gone. We have to do what they tell us until then.”

We had a plan when he called again.I answered the phone, which bounced around the internet so much you’d never trace it. “Identification code?”

“Jaguar Zero Zero Seven Xray.”

It was Leonis. “Voice match. How may I help you, sir?”

“Arrange a meeting with our friends to thank them for their presents. Somewhere in the upper Midwest within a day.”

“Call back in two hours.” I relayed the message to my Cartel contact.

“What do you recommend,” the man asked.

“Cut them loose,” I replied quickly. “They are a security risk.”

He didn’t listen. “Set the meeting in Tomah,” he said before giving me the location and time. “We are taking a big risk here. Remind them of what we do to those who fail us.”

“Understood.”

He called back on time. “Our associates are not pleased with your recent failure.”

“Then they should have given us three or four instead of just two. Our goal hasn’t changed. She can’t hide forever.”

“Leon Cemetery, about a mile south of Sparta, Wisconsin on Highway 27. By the maintenance shed at ten PM tonight. Bring an enclosed van or truck and be ready to head east. Will advise on next house at the meeting.”

“Understood.” I hung up and destroyed the phone, dumping it at a McDonalds on the way out of town.

Nathan’s idea was simple. We would call the tip line anonymously and provide them with the time and location of the meeting. They would give us a number we could use to claim the reward later. The FBI would arrest them and trace the supplier to the Sinaloa Cartel. We’d keep quiet, not even claiming the reward. If we got swept up in the investigation, the tip number would be our ticket to freedom.

We called at dinnertime. The FBI agent took the tip, gave us a number, and promised to follow up. The problem was that the tip line agents were busy answering hundreds of calls an hour, and ours got lost in the shuffle. It was two days before the Madison office took any action.

Thanks to a teenager in Ohio, President Kettering’s assassination squad was dead. The shock to me was the CIA supplying the weapons, not the Cartel. “We’re fucked,” Nathan said a few days later. “If we can’t draw a line from Julio to Sinaloa, we may as well buy plane tickets south.”

“Not just yet,” I said as I looked at the message. “Spider Monkey wants to know if I can help her with an important job for a few weeks.” The Alphas and the Council were strong allies of the President. Right now, President Kettering is surrounded by enemies inside and outside government.

“Go,” Nathan said. “Find the evidence on the Cartel, and the President will do our work for us.”