Tuck waited at the elevator door, rubbing his clammy hands together, before finally giving up and pulling his handkerchief from his pocket and rubbing them dry.
Dammit, he’d been out of the military getting on for twenty years, and yet the thought that there was a two-star general and a Marine Colonel on their way up to see him was like flinging him back thirty plus years to his first day of basic training.
Brigadier General Brian Nichol, and Colonel Kip Jones had been at his training camp the day he’d stepped off the bus, Kip having been in the seat two rows in front of him.
Little did he know then that both men would become lifelong friends, even if the thought of General Nichol in his office did still almost have him hyperventilating with nervous anxiety!
As the elevator door opened, the General’s booming laugh could be heard all down the corridor.
“She told me to get my ass out of her kitchen or I could cook my own damn dinner!” Brian Nichol guffawed as he stepped out.
“Good to hear Mrs Nichol is still keeping you in line, General.” Tuck smiled, before snapping to attention and effecting what he thought was a pretty damn fine salute.
Considering the General was dressed in cream colour pants and a khaki polo shirt, he thought it might be overkill, but Nichol seemed to appreciate the effort.
“At ease, Major. We don’t want you throwing your shoulder out. You’re not getting any younger, you know.” Brian Nichol smiled. “And if my memory serves me correctly, I told you to call me Brian at least five years ago, and a dozen times since.”
Tuck relaxed, holding out his hand to shake the General’s, and welcoming the two men he was so pleased to see.
“Yes, General.” He grinned.
“Ryan, good to see you.” Kip smiled at him. “I was hoping to find you fat and bald by now, but I guess that lovely wife of yours is keeping you in shape, huh?”
Tuck snorted.
“Listen, these boyish good looks and slim waist are purely down to good Tucker genes and a lot of hard work.” Tuck protested. “That and the fact that Candy is a damn fine cook who likes to keep her husband’s cholesterol to a moderate level.”
“So, are you going to keep us standing in a hallway, or have you got an office somewhere with your name on the door?” Brian glanced around.
“Oh, I have an office with my name on the door.” Tuck assured them. “But I also have a conference room where a bunch of people are waiting for this meeting to start. Follow me, gentlemen.”
Tuck led the way down the hall, past the office door with his name on a shiny brass plate, where he glanced back at Kip and sniggered, before heading into the large conference room where close to twenty people were already waiting for them.
“There’s coffee on the side table, gents, so just help yourselves. We rarely stand on ceremony here.” Tuck took his seat at the head of the table, and waited while the newcomers relieved themselves of bags and jackets, poured a coffee and took the empty chairs at the table.
“Ok, gentlemen. Some of your faces I recognise, and some I don’t, so I suggest that we start by doing a quick round-robin of names and organizations, so we all know who’s in play.” Tuck suggested. “I’ll start by introducing my team. I’m retired Major Ryan Tucker, CEO of Stalwart Security, with a short background in the CIA. With me are my wife, Candy Tucker, former Naval Intelligence and FBI, my nephew, Zach Tucker, formerly with the US Rangers, and Captain Jon Thornton, or JT, British military with Alpha Company, a special forces team, now a director of Alpha Company Security in London. Hannah Simons is the wife of another Alpha Company director, and is a certified genius when it comes to all things computer related.”
Tuck sat back as the rest of the men present introduced themselves. In addition to the Marines, there were agents from the CIA, ATF, and DEA. Cole Arthurs represented the FBI, along with a guy Tuck knew to be his boss, and the Philly Chief of Police sat next to him.
When they were all done with the introductions, Tuck sat back.
“Thank you all for taking the time to be here, especially in view of the fact that I gave you very little by way of information with your invitation.” He glanced around the room.
“To fill you in on the story so far… Stalwart was recently approached by the Russian industrialist Gregor Diminov, to recover his daughter, Sophia, who was missing in Colombia while travelling with a group of doctors. By the time we got involved, a small group of Marines had been dispatched to affect a rescue, led by Alex Morales, my step-son. Obviously, we knew nothing about Alex’s whereabouts other than that he was overseas on a mission.” Tuck explained. “Well, to cut a very long story as short as possible, we sent a team down there, found Sophia and Alex, and got them the hell out of there as fast as we could. We also managed to rescue around forty females who’d been kidnapped and held as sex-slaves.”
Kip whistled slowly.
“Busy couple of days, huh?” He asked.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Tuck nodded. “Although, for my part, I co-ordinated most of it from Philly, while Candy, JT, and another dozen of our team were the ones who flew down there on the mission.”
Tuck watched the men from the various agencies look at Candy with renewed interest, seeming to re-evaluate her capabilities as she suddenly morphed from being the ‘boss’s wife’ to a serious team player.
“Unfortunately, we picked up a couple of injuries right at the end of the mission, when Luis Castille managed to shoot Candy’s son Alex, and Drew Dixon, an Alpha Company director, but thankfully neither injury was life-threatening. Both will make a good recovery.” Tuck explained. “That was what prompted my wife to carelessly lose half a dozen bullets from her gun.”
He tried to keep a straight face, but it was quite difficult.
“She lost her bullets?” Brian Nichol frowned in confusion.
“Yep, but there’s nothing to worry about.” Tuck reassured him. “The post mortem has recovered all of them from Luis Castille’s skull.”
A few of the agents chuckled as they realised what he meant.
Candy, on the other hand, was blushing furiously.
“I’ll have you know that not one of my bullets was lost ‘carelessly’!” She insisted. “Every one of them ended up exactly where they were meant to be.”
“Nice work, Mrs T.” Mike Parks, one of the DEA agents nodded. “I don’t think there’s one of us in my unit who wouldn’t have liked to take on that job.”
“Anyway, as I said, our team and the hostages managed to get out of there a couple of days ago, and our people came back to Philly, while we transported most of the hostages to somewhere in Colombia where they could be properly cared for, before being returned to their families.” Tuck explained. “We managed to wipe out Luis Castille, his nephew, Rafa, most of his men, and a large drug shipment. What we hadn’t had time to finish, our Russian back-up team finished for us, after we left.”
“Sounds like a good job, well executed.” Brian Nichol nodded. “So where do we come into things? If the job is done, and the good guys won, why have you invited us in for a pow-wow? It’s not in your nature to boast about your successes, Ryan, so obviously that leaves me wondering whether something didn’t go quite so well with your mission.”
“Everything went as I described. Apart from the two injured men, everything was textbook with the extraction.” Tuck assured the General. “But what few people knew prior to this week, was that Luis Castille had a child. One Luciana ‘Lucky’ Vega. One very pissed off daughter!”
One of the ATF guys sat forward.
“The same Luciana Vega that’s married to Hector Vega? You’ve gotta be shitting me? She’s Castille’s daughter? Man, that explains where that bitch got her ruthless streak from! She’s as mean a mother-fu…..” He stopped short of saying the word, as if remembering there were females present. “I mean, she’s the meanest woman you’ll ever meet.”
The agent might have stopped short of the description he wanted to use, but everyone knew what he’d intended to say.
“It’s the same woman.” Tuck confirmed. “And apparently, she knows about Gregor’s involvement from some big-mouthed Russians, and is looking for revenge.”
“How do we know that?” Kip asked. “You said that you only found out yesterday that Castille had a daughter.”
“That intel came from my team.” Mike Parks leaned forward. “The DEA have managed to get someone into Hector Vega’s cartel. He’s been under for two years, and has the ear of Hector’s brother, Jesus. Apparently, Jesus isn’t exactly a fan of Lucky Vega, but while his brother is still alive, and she’s still making the cartel richer by the day, there’s not a damn thing he can do to get rid of her.”
“And your agent knows for certain that Senora Vega is looking for revenge?” Kip clarified.
“Up until yesterday, we weren’t aware of the connection either. But Luciana lives by the old adage of keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Mike explained. “She knows Jesus would put a knife in her back as soon as look at her, but for the fact that his brother would have him skinned alive if he ever touched her. But what that does mean, is that with our agent being one of Jesus’s lieutenants, he sometimes gets to spend time sitting at the Senora’s table, listening to her lunatic rantings. Apparently, yesterday, when she found out about her father, she went on a rampage, destroying furniture and shooting up the place. Three of her own people got killed by stray bullets.”
“So, what’s to stop Luciana getting rid of Jesus, then?” Candy asked, curiously. “I mean if he’s a thorn in her side, why doesn’t she just arrange for him to have an ‘accident’?”
“Oh, he’s a thorn, make no mistake.” Mike smiled. “But he’s as clever as she is, and he never does anything to arouse suspicion that he’s anything but one hundred percent supportive of her. He makes out that he’s her number one fan, and of course, that makes Hector happy. Plus, he’s got a lot of supporters who don’t think a woman should head up a cartel. They accept her while Hector is alive, but should anything happen to him? Luciana’s in a Catch 22 situation. She knows he wants her dead, but can’t prove it. But she can’t get rid of him, as the men wouldn’t stand behind her.”
“Ok, so, do we know anything about how she’s going to exact her revenge?” JT asked. “Or when?”
“When she calmed down yesterday, she told Jesus that she would be going after Gregor herself, and wanted some of his men to accompany her.” Mike confirmed. “Since then, I’m guessing our guy has had his hands full, as he hasn’t been able to get a report out.”
“How often does he report in?” Tuck asked.
“As often as he can.” Mike shrugged. “If nothing big is going down, he just checks in once a day with a text message to say he’s alive. It literally might be a letter ‘A’, and nothing more. If something is happening, he tries to get us updates whenever it’s safe for him to do so.”
“What can we expect if she comes after Gregor?” Tuck frowned. “Is she the sort to send her men to deal with this, or come herself?”
Mike smiled in a way that Tuck thought sinister, and not at all reassuring.
“She’ll come herself, without a doubt.” Mike confirmed. “She may bring an army with her if she feels the need, but she’s going to want to deal with Gregor personally. And she’ll do it sooner rather than later. Lucky Vega isn’t known for her patience. Unfortunately, our guy is unlikely to travel, even if Jesus goes with her, as he has jobs that he’s responsible for when Jesus is away. So, we might get word about when they leave, but that’s as far as it goes.”
“We’re going to have to let Gregor know what he’s up against.” Candy looked at Tuck with concern. “He may need to move Tulli and her sisters somewhere safer.”
“What can we do to help you?” Brian Nichol asked.
“I’m not sure yet.” Tuck frowned. “It all depends on what plan Vega comes up with. I know there are rules about what you can be involved in on US soil, but do you think you can have some men on standby, just in case she starts a war?”
Nichol turned to Kip and grinned.
“The men are always looking for new ways to train the teams. I’m sure we could come up with something that will give us a reason to post a team near Gregor’s location.”
“What about the other agencies?” Cole asked. “The DEA have got their agent inside, but the rest of us are completely out of the loop.”
“Once we know that Luciana is headed for the border, we’ll need a multi-agency taskforce to keep track of her.” Mike explained. “She’s not actually wanted for anything on US soil at the moment, so our best plan is to let her enter the country, and arrest her in the act, so to speak. There’s no point stopping her coming into the country, as she’d just resort to plan B and send someone to do the dirty work for her. That could be anybody, and would be much harder to stop.”
Tuck looked at the DEA agent with due regard. The guy knew what he was talking about.
“Ok, well, if my team goes about protecting Gregor and his house-guests and family, I’ll leave the agencies to monitor Ms Vega’s movements.” Tuck nodded.
“If someone would like to get hold of her current location, and the cell-phone numbers of Lucky and a few of her people, I can work on tracking them electronically.” Hannah confirmed. “At least we have good satellite coverage here in the good old US of A.”
Tuck smiled at her.
“Sacha, my assistant has put together packs of contact details for everyone.” He explained to the assembled agents. “If nothing has happened by tomorrow morning, could I ask that each agency send a representative and we’ll reconvene at ten o’clock?”
The various agents nodded their heads in agreement.
“I’ll be in Washington in the morning, but Kip can attend and keep me informed.” The General agreed.
“Then can I thank you all for coming in today. I think, one way or another, we’re all going to be working together over the next few days to protect Gregor Diminov, and get Lucky Vega out of our hair.”
Tuck watched the team he had assembled stand and take their leave, until only the Alpha-Stalwart members were left.
“I’ll arrange to send half a dozen people with Sophia and Alex.” He saw the relief on Candy’s face. “And if possible, I think we should get the Mazur sisters out of Gregor’s house. Maybe bring them over to ours?”
Candy nodded.
“I think that’s a good plan. Sara can keep an eye on them at our place as easily as at Gregor’s.” She agreed. “Should we have Gregor to stay as well?”
“I don’t know if that will work.” Tuck shook his head. “He needs to stay at his house where it’ll be easier to lure Vega in.”
“That’s a dangerous plan.” JT frowned. “Necessary, I think, but risky, nonetheless.”
“We need to get over there as soon as possible to get a head start on moving non-essential people out of his house.” Candy warned.
“We’ll head over now.”
Tuck stood and walked to the door.
How was it every time they had a victory, something always happened to fuck it up?