Page 100 of Always Been Mine

“You’re denying that you’re bossy?”

“You don’t listen to me anyway, so I can’t be that bossy.”

“We’re such a pair,” Beatrice said. “We’ll never be a boring couple.”

Suddenly, he had a vision of him and Beatrice, older and with graying hair, walking along the neighborhood of Old Town Alexandria holding hands.

“What?” Beatrice’s question interrupted his thoughts.

“Nothing.” Gabe grinned at her. “Nothing at all.”

He liked that vision of them very much.

The crates were unloadedfrom the tractor trailer. Inside were boxes of canned ground coffee from Colombia, except three of the boxes contained cocaine. Three of those cans were the ST-Vyl virus in powder form.

Frank Wilkes nodded to a skinny, bald man wearing spectacles.

Dr. Devlin, or Dr. D as he was known, was the brilliant scientist who created the Berserker serum and now the ST-Vyl virus. Soon, the D in Dr. D would be known as Death for there was no question of how lethal this new virus could be.

The Russians would be pleased and could settle their war in Ukraine once and for all. The internal wars within Syria and Iraq with ISIS should be the focus of the CIA, but the mess in Ukraine was taking away much needed resources.ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) was a new jihadist terror group known for its extremely brutal methods.

Dr. D lifted the marked cans from the box and transferred them to a biological containment chamber that resembled an incubator. Using gloves attached to the chamber, he lifted the plastic cover and punched a hole through the cylindrical container to retrieve a sample. As he was conducting the efficacy tests on the virus powder, Zach Jamison strode into the warehouse. He was followed by Domingo Ventura and his men.

When Zach reached Wilkes, he said, “All done. We’ve amended the record of this shipment on the manifest, eliminating the three boxes.” He inclined his head toward the Fuego leader. “Ventura will escort the cargo back to the destination warehouse. Everything is settled there, too.”

Ventura would get his drugs and everyone would be happy.

Dr. D turned to the three of them and gave Wilkes the thumbs up.

Wilkes looked at the Fuego boss. “You understand we can’t do business for a while. With Jamison out of the senator’s office, there is not much we can provide you now.”

“I understand. This shipment should last us a while,” Ventura replied. “It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Wilkes.”

Ventura ordered his men to re-seal the open boxes, returning them to the crate. After loading them back into the semi, the truck pulled away from the warehouse. A roar of motorcycles joined the rumble of the transport outside as the shipment of drugs and coffee left the vicinity.

“How soon can you manufacture the virus?” Wilkes asked Dr. D.

“It should take me a day to set up my new laboratory and another two days to produce the samples.”

“You’re still going ahead with the auction?” Zach asked.

“I told you, Zach, the auction needs to happen,” Wilkessaid. “In exchange for getting rid of Porter for you, you’ve agreed to oversee the transfer of the virus vials to the bidders.”

“Why do you need the auction sales? I thought the Russians are buying the whole lot of them.”

“It’s a million dollars and they can spread the news on the Black Plane about the availability of this bioweapon. Once Dr. D can synthesize ST-Vyl, we will have infinite opportunities.”

Zach didn’t say anything.

“Are you backing out, Zach? Don’t you want to avenge Crowe?”

“Of course I do,” Zach snapped.

Wilkes raised a brow at his outburst. The other man lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry, sir. What about Sullivan and Porter’s daughter?”

“Sullivan could still be a problem, but if I could get rid of the admiral, I’d have no use for his daughter any longer. I’m not a mindless murderer, Zach.”

“Well, you have the location of their safe house,” Zach said. “It was easy enough to put a tracker on Doug Keller’s car. So when are we going to do this drop?”

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