The other names made no sense until you got to the abbreviations. AFP stood for the Australian Federal Police, and DEA was the Drug Enforcement Agency. Uncle Sam? Nicholas meant they were making it look drug-related, so he warned Cyprian about potential investigations into Caroline’s activities. I was glad I didn’t have to clean THAT mess up.
More information came through as we maintained our vigil. Monique asked if she could relax a little since it had been hours already; I agreed, provided she kept the entrance open and didn’t leave the room.
I kept an eye on the Australian news websites, and it was late afternoon when the first headlines started. “CARTEL WAR COMES TO SYDNEY,” one headline blared. There was little concrete information for a few hours, just the initial reports of decapitated bodies found stacked like cordwood in Bradley’s Head Park, plus an unidentified baby found in a running SUV nearby. A little later, ‘confidential sources’ confirmed two of the bodies were Australian Federal Police agents, and some of the bodies were Americans. “In what appears to be a drug deal gone bad, the bodies of six men and three women were found in Bradley’s Head Park on Sydney’s north harbor this morning. Two of the men were members of the Australian Federal Police, while several other victims had United States passports. Police recovered a large amount of cash at the scene near one of the victims, and drug dogs found cocaine residue in the car. The child, a months-old boy, was taken to the hospital as a precaution. More updates as they become available.”
Yep, Cyprian had a mess on his hands.
It was five-eighteen in the afternoon and just after sunset when I called the alert. A car pulled into the drive, dropping off two males a few houses short of the townhouse, then parked across the street. “CODE RED Coming in from the front, four men, one vehicle,” I sent to the team. “Monique, get safe. Four and five, start walking towards the house.”
“In and locked,” Monique sent back a few seconds later.
I pulled out of my parking area and crossed the road. I could see the men kick the door down, and the four went inside with guns drawn. “Team Three, go,” I said. We both arrived in front of the house at the same time. The four of us leaped out and ran for the broken door, smelling the werewolves preceding us. “Four, Five, GO!”
Eight men entered the home from both sides, leaving the attackers had no chance. I put two into the chest of a man in the living room, while my partner took out one in the kitchen. I could hear the suppressed shots from downstairs, followed by the crashes of furniture breaking. My partner and I headed down the stairs while the other two checked the rest of the floor. “UPSTAIRS CLEAR, TWO DOWN,” Team Three reported
“DOWNSTAIRS CLEAR, ONE DOWN, ONE INJURED,” Team Four reported.
“Stabilize him and tie him down.” I entered the bedroom to find a young woman lying on the floor as one of my men applied a battle dressing to the gunshot wound on her thigh. The leg was lying crooked, so the bullet had broken her femur. “Back one of the cars into the garage and start loading bodies and cleaning up,” I told the men.
I started a video camera for the interrogation. The prisoner didn’t look at me or beg for mercy. Instead, she was crying over the man with a bullet through his temple. “Your mate?” She nodded her head. “If you cooperate, I’ll make your end clean and painless. You got shot with silver, so you know what that means.” Her eyes got wide; silver poisoning was a bad death. “What Pack are you with?”
“We aren’t,” she said. “We were Stillwater until the Alpha died, and Alpha Ivan made us rogue.” The previous Stillwater Alpha was into some bad stuff, and Ivan cleaned house.
“Who told you to kill him and why?”
“Timothy Lords,” she said through gritted teeth. “He promised us money and a spot in his Pack in Australia.”
“Timothy died a few hours ago,” I said. “Who should I contact about your bodies?”
She gave me the name of a relative, then looked away. I put a round into her head, ending her suffering. A few minutes later, the bodies were gone, and I told Monique to open the safe space. “Alpha!”
Tyler reached for me, and I picked him up and held him to my chest. “Don’t look around, Chum, we’re going to my house.”
“I can see the sharks?” He looked up at me with wide eyes.
“Of course you can, Tyler. The sharks miss you.”
**********
Nicholas Corcoran’s POV
We arrived back at the casino at three-thirty in the morning. Becky pulled into the private parking level for residents, turning the SUV into Alessandro’s reserved spot. I carried my sleeping mate in my arms to the elevator, where we headed for the 70th floor. The Coven headquarters had a dozen bedrooms, and Becky showed us to one. I took Vicki’s clothes off and tucked her in without her waking. I walked back to the living area overlooking the harbor, spotting Becky out on the balcony. I went through the door, marveling at the view of the city and its waterfront. “What now?”
“Once I have you settled, I will hack the security footage to show you arriving at midnight and going straight to bed. I’ll loop the video in the garage and elevator to make up the time,” the redheaded vampire told me.
“The police will track their men back to us; we are their last known assignment,” I said.
“True. A group of your mermaid friends arriving chartered a tour boat last night in Sydney Harbor. The police officers dropped you off at the King Street Wharf at six. You boarded the Starship Sydney with your friends, eating and drinking until you fell asleep in the corner at nine. I picked you up when the tour boat returned and brought you here about midnight.”
It was a lot to do. “How is that going to work?”
“Alessandro will be at the tour boat this morning and speak to the Captain and crew. They will tell the police they remember seeing you, but no details. Maribel has already spoken to her people, who will swear you were on board. There are no security cameras on the tour boat, and the cameras providing good visibility of the dock will have technical issues. Keep your answers general; they care about what the officers did after dropping you off.”
“And Alessandro’s involvement?”
“He worked through a private company to provide security for VIP guests up in Queensland. The two men clocked out last night with their superiors, just before they drove you to the electrical supply house. As far as the security company is concerned, the men completed their assignment and were off the clock last night.”
I wasn’t sure. “How is all this possible?”
Becky just laughed. “Planting a vague memory is easy for a Master Vampire, and all that is required is that they remember you were on their cruise boat if the police ask. The surveillance is all on computers. If it’s a computer, I can get to it. As for the security company, who do you think owns it?”
“Alessandro?”
“Close, but it’s Rick. Our Coven splits ownership of various investments and companies among us for tax and other advantages. A security company gives us access to law enforcement, weapons, and equipment we couldn’t access legally without it.”
It was a slick setup. There were advantages to never aging and never having to sleep. I didn’t have those advantages; it had been a long day, and I was fading fast. “I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight, Becky.”
“You and your people did well tonight, Nicholas. I’ll make sure our secrets stay that way.” I closed the door behind me and walked back towards the bedroom. I took a shower to wash the rest of the blood and seawater off, then tucked into bed. Vicki rolled towards me; her skin was cold, so I gathered her into my arms and went to sleep.
I woke to a knock on the door; looking at my phone, it was eight AM. Vicki was still out cold. “Yes?”
“It’s Consuela. I’m here to check on Vicki.”
“Just a moment.” I woke Vicki gently, as she was SO not a morning wolf, then pulled on shorts and went to open the door before going to take care of my morning routine. When I came out of the bathroom, Consuela had finished her examination. “How is she doing,” I asked.
“I just want to SLEEP,” Vicki said.
“She’s anemic and dehydrated. She needs fluids, food, and rest in that order,” Consuela told us. “She’s on bedrest today. Go, bring your wife her breakfast.”
I quickly dressed and went into the hallway, following the smell of bacon to the kitchen. “Good morning,” I said to Oksana, who was cooking up a lot of food. “Is someone else coming?”
“Just the two of you, but Consuela said you needed lots of food. I don’t get to cook often, so I volunteered,” she said. “Bring those trays over.” The trays each had large glasses of milk and orange juice, and one had butter and syrup. Each had two plates. I handed them to her when directed, and she heaped on scrambled eggs, bacon, and a steak on two of them. I set those down, and she took the other two and filled them with thick pancakes topped with strawberries on the other two plates.
“What are these,” I asked.
“Syrniki, Russian cheese pancakes,” Oksana told me. “My mother used to make them for me on special occasions like my birthday or the Tsar’s.”
You never ask a woman her age, but that was a hint and a half. I carried one tray into the bedroom, where Consuela had brought over a folding table next to the bed. Vicki’s eyes widened at the sight of all the food. “Steak AND bacon?”
“Get your food baby going, and then you can sleep,” I told her. I set the food before her before going back to get mine. My wife wasn’t shy about eating, and she’d made a dent by the time I returned. We both liked the Russian pancakes.
Becky came in and verified the surveillance tapes matched our story, which she went over with Vicki. Vicki was a little unsteady on her feet, and we’d just washed up when Alessandro joined us. “It’s all over the news,” he told us. “I’d expect the first detectives to call you in the next few hours.”
“Becky briefed us on everything,” Vicki said.
“I’ve delayed the talks on the Council until tomorrow morning so you can rest,” the Master Vampire told us. “The mermaids are taken care of; there’s plenty for them to do at Bondi Beach.”
“I should call and see how the meetup is going,” Vicki said as I tucked her in.
“I’ll find out. You go to sleep.” I kissed her forehead as she turned on the news, then followed Alessandro out to the living area. He gestured me to a chair by the windows. “How bad is the blowback going to be?”
“Manageable,” Alessandro said. “We had a few hours to work before the police found out, and that gave Cyprian and Becky a chance to plant some evidence. It’s enough to lend credence to the drug angle without casting suspicion on the rest of her operations.”