“He absolutely gorgeous. Tell me you are not sleeping with that sexy bastard?” Elsie exclaimed.

“You already know that I am.”

“Damn it all to bloody hell. Why can I never catch a break?”

“Wrong place, wrong time?” Margaret queried playfully.

“Fucking-a, mate. That’s definitely my problem.”

Smiling indulgently at her one-time friend, she pointed out, “Elsie, babe, you’d have to get your ass out of the cockpit every now and then to catch some action.”

Running her hand reverently over the side of her nice plane, she replied, “Well, that sure as fuck is not going to happen anytime soon.”

“Get Aerial Diving to hire you a nice cabin boy.”

“What the hell is that?”

Frowning, Eagle Eye mumbled, “Isn’t that what they call male stewardesses?”

“You’ve fucking lost your mind, mate. They used the word stewardess in our lifetime. However, they’re all called flight attendants now. Anyways, I don’t see that happening. The cheap ass bastards are duct taping parachutes together these days to save a dime.”

“That sound incredibly dangerous,” she responded.

Then, whistling through her teeth, Margaret waved over the large group of approaching men. “Nowhere near as dangerous as these bad boys though. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

Dark, who had been silent up until this point asked quietly, “Are you sure she’s competent to fly a plane?”

“It’s actually a jet, Mister Tall, Dark and Deadly.” Jerking her thumb to her pert breasts, she asserted angrily, “And, I’m the damn best pilot flying. I can fly this nice jet, a twin engine, a black hawk chopper, or even an air lifeline chopper. I’ve airlifted shit all over the globe, so don’t think that because I’ve got tits that I can’t get the job done.”

“Shit, Dad, what did you say to the nice redhead that got her so pissed?”

Glaring at him, Elsie barked, “And who the hell might you be?”

“I’m Darkness. I don’t know what crawled up your ass, beautiful, but you’re gonna need to cool your jets. We don’t need you drawing all kind of unnecessary attention to our situation right now.”

“Because a bunch of leather-clad dudes who look like they just jumped out of a rock video wouldn’t draw any attention at all, right?” Elsie snarked.

“We can’t help how we look, but we can moderate our tone, so pipe down,” Darkness retorted.

“Bloody hell, you’re pissing me off.”

“You always calm down in the pilot’s seat. We need to get in the air, Elsie. ASAP. It’s what’s best for you and me,” Margaret interjected.

Capitulating, she shook her head, “Fine, get the sexy fuckers in the jet and I’ll start countdown procedures. I want them all strapped in like good little boy scouts, too.”

Darkness asked casually, “Can I kill her once we land? ‘Cause that woman is annoying the shit outta me and I just met her.”

Flying him the bird without looking back, Elsie yelled, “I heard that, choir boy.”

Dark shot his son a disapproving look. “You’re losing your touch, boy. That’s the second woman this week who totally blew you off.”

Grabbing his duffel bag, Darkness grumbled, “Yeah, I’m starting to think whatever charm it was that got me this far in life, has totally abandoned me.”

Shooting Dark a worried look, his father grinned a toothy grin back.

Landing, Margaret bid her farewells to Elsie who had agreed to stay on standby at a local airfield. They’d traveled light, so they could move fast. Each man was only carrying whatever he could fit in a small streamlined pack on his back. They were all wearing various types of long coats to hide their weapons. Margaret wore a long black leather dress coat. Dark had opted for a black streamlined pea coat.

They put the security feed on a loop and disconnected the internet and phone lines before filtering into Dragonfly at the crack of dawn. Following the plan exactly as it had been drafted, they easily replaced the front receptionist and diverted each employee as he or she entered. Since they were still sorting friend from foe, they neutralized each person and put them under guard with their hands zip tied behind them. The three-person team of directors walked in together.

Their faces morphed into shock when Margaret and Dark stepped out from either side to give them an unwelcome escort up to the executive offices. Marching them to the office, Darkness gave them a little two finger salute on the way past.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, Henson, but it won’t work.”

“Donovan, how have things been in merry old England?”

“You’re going to get yourself killed pulling a stunt like this.”

The elevator opened to the penthouse suite and they passed several of Dark’s men.

Sitting them in a conference room, Donovan looked furious. “You’re screwing up a very good thing for all of us.”

Shrugging, she said matter-of-factly, “For you maybe. I’ve been held against my will for coming up on a year. In any event, there will a changing of the guards at Dragonfly.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Dark leaned over the table on both fists. “It means you’re now under new management. Now, shut the fuck and open your ears.”

“You can’t intimidate me...”

Slapping the man across the face so hard he fell from his chair, Dark stated flatly, “Look, pretty boy. That was me smacking you like a little bitch. Want a reenactment with my fist?”

“Not particularly, mate.”

“Then sit the fuck down and shut your mouth.”

Margaret stood up and walked to the front of the room. “Dragonfly is no longer a Townsend enterprise. Mr. Townsend made some poor decisions regarding his US operation and a powerful mafia family has decided to take their retribution in blood. He’ll be lucky if all they do is put a bullet in his head.”

“Bollocks. The Townsend I know is not quite that stupid.”

“Trust me, he is. It seems he was interested in acquiring the mobster’s gunrunning operation and underestimated who he was dealing with. This situation, like most others, has a silver lining. Dragonfly will be acquiring the gun running operation.”

“And this mobster along with it.”

“Don Carlo’s son will become acting CEO over the next few days and he will expect your full cooperation.”

“Fuck this.” One of the executives stood up and reached into his jacket pocket. “Andrew, no...”

A thud later, the man was laying on the floor leaking blood all over the carpet from a rather large hole in his head.

Dark lowered his weapon, even as a small wisp of smoke snaked out of the silencer attached to the barrel. “That was a stupid thing to do.”

Margaret sighed, “Dark is correct. That was a stupid thing to do. He could have left with his pension and benefits intact and maybe even a large separation bonus. We’re not here to shoot the place up. We’re just to facilitate a few changes related to the new management.”

Donovan’s head snapped up from his co-worker’s dead body to look Margaret in the face, “You’re offering to keep us on?”

“Keep you on with double your current salary and benefits. In fact, under the new structure, you would have more flexibility in the jobs you take. The Carlo family will expect you to protect their investment here, and you will be making weekly reports on all aspects of the London operation, but they aren’t planning to micro manage the international divisions.”

“Under such circumstances, I suppose you will require access to our finances and such?”

“Mr. Carlo will drain the company coffers, so we need to plan accordingly. The good news is, that he’s promised a one million-dollar bonus to every top-level executive, one-hundred grand to every operative and a ten thousand-dollar bonus to every member of the support staff. It will be paid to the everyone in the London office in British Sterling.”

“That is a generous offer. If any of it’s true, I’m in. I’m not sure how to say this, so I’ll just come right out with it. We’ll need verification that Townsend is no longer functional.”

“I’m told we’ll get video footage illustrating that point to everyone’s satisfaction by the end of business day today.”

“Do you mind if I ask where my employees are?”

“All our employees have been neutralized and held in a rather large conference room on the second floor. We didn’t want any interference with the initial transition.”

“That makes sense.”

“I was told to make it abundantly clear that if you sense there is a power vacuum that you might step into with the untimely death of Mr. Townsend, you are very mistaken. I’d personally hate to see you fitted with the same punishment about to befall our former CEO.”

“Understood. Being the man in charge of London affairs, I choose the stability of our operation here over petty power grabs. I’m certain my vice president, Corel Summers, agrees that our employees and clients come first at a time like this.”

“Yes, of course,” The woman responded promptly.

“Then if I could get you to speak to them, allay their fears and stress the importance of full cooperation. Once we are finished speaking with support staff, we’ll begin calling in operatives.”

“We have employment contracts in place.”

“Get your lawyers here. We’ll draft new ones to reflect a new set of rules and small salary bump. Our attorneys in the States drafted out the legal language. Your attorneys just need to plug it into the existing contracts.”

“It seems that Mr. Carlo has thought of everything.”

“Mr. Carlo is fifth generation mafia. He runs a similar operation Stateside, so this probably isn’t quite the stretch you imagine it to be for him, Mr. Donovan.”

“I’d sure like to meet him sometime.”

“He’s married to my sister. I’ll make the arrangements myself.”

“I see, you’re part of their family and this is the new family business.”

“Something like that. They probably don’t think of families the way you do, Mr. Donovan. It’s my understanding that mobsters are highly organized, structured individuals. They have a prodigious death rate, usually at the hands of co-workers who didn’t like how they were conducting business. Since most of the co-workers are extended family...” She trailed off, allowing him to put the pieces together.

“I certainly do understand, now that you’ve been kind enough to spell it out. We’ll be expected to stick to official protocols, and get permission before deviating from what they expect.”

“They have a short tolerance threshold for a bunch of grade school excuses about how the dog ate your homework, and you little sister spilled milk on your math problems. Just execute your duties as you always have and things will be fine.”