It was the second day of spring of 2013 that I found myself with my girlfriend, or rather my ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend Carlos Cruz in an abandoned office in one of Miami’s high-rise office buildings planning our next move.
Carlos, a bounty hunter, had spotted what he thought was a fugitive that had skipped bail not realizing it was one of Miami’s top drug warlords tied to the Russian mob; now his whole mob was out looking for Carlos. To make matters worse, the drug warlord recognized me as a spy from the time I spend overseas many years earlier. I had recently been assigned the task of locating this same individual since he was suspected of trading U.S. technological secrets for drugs throughout the Middle East. With tensions building in that region of the world, the last thing the U.S. government wanted was our technology secrets leaked.
If I could manage to successfully apprehend this individual not only would I be saving Fi’s life, but also calm the nerves of my new boss, Andrew Strong, who had reluctantly taken me as a new team member. He has been riding me hard and just maybe this would restore some confidence in my ability to be an asset to the agency once again.
The room only contained a small table with two office chairs. Fi sat at the table staring at the computer screen monitoring different locations throughout Miami. Fortunately, the power and phone system had not been turned off so we were able to set up shop. After Jesse hacked into Miami’s network of surveillance cameras we were able to locate a half dozen places to monitor the whereabouts of the mob members.
Carlos and I had just returned after having an altercation with one of the members leaving us each with a black eye. Once again an old cut had broken open from the punch sending my Bluetooth earpiece flying which left blood trickling down my cheek and into my mouth, but the good news was that mob member wouldn’t be rejoining his gang anytime soon. In fact, he would be visiting the morgue as soon as his body was discovered.
When we returned to the room Fi instantly assumed Carlos and I had duked it out with me trying to reclaim her as my girlfriend. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. By now I was used to this ‘on again off again’ relationship, as recently deceased Agent Jason Bly would have called it, with its ‘thorny relationship issues’. These thorny relationship issues now were more like barb-wire rather than a spiky rose branch.
Fi and I had been down this road once before. Last time she hooked up with Campbell, but that didn’t last long before he had to point out to her that I was her boyfriend. I knew it was just a matter of waiting it out until she realized she still had strong feelings towards me or this Carlos would figure it out for her. Then back into my arms she would come. In the meantime I would need to maintain a poker face while seeing them together. I could manage that as long as I stayed focused on the task at hand.
I stood starring at the board where I had been laying out various ideas wishing Sam was there instead of Carlos. Sam had rejoined Elsa after being released from Federal holding. Their relationship still remained strong, but tension existed between them due to Elsa’s concern that they had not yet seen the last of the C.I.A. interfering in their lives.
I had decided to leave Sam out of any future missions with the government. I was determined to go it alone this time and not involve my friends or family members. If the C.I.A. wanted me back that was all they were going to get was me, and not my team. My team had been through enough. If I was going to regain their trust once again I was going to have to let my friends lead a normal life once again, if they even knew what that was like.
I also secretly wished I was back at my loft restoring the interior after we had set it ablaze to get away from the clutches of the C.I.A. It was all I had left. My mom wanted me to move back home, but it had been decades and the memories from my past still lingered each time I saw my old bedroom. No I was an adult used to living on my own, and that would remain the case, at least until Fi decided to rejoin me.
The seventy-eight degree day with a slight breeze and bright blue skies dotted with large white clouds was the perfect weather to be working on the interior of the loft. Soon the hot humid days of summer would return making restoration more difficult. Maybe this time I will add air-conditioning to the joint just to satisfy Fi when she returned. I owed her that much.
The image of Carlos with his circular beard wouldn’t leave my thoughts. I often thought of those days overseas where I let my beard grow to blend into the area. But now was different, I was with the agency and needed to maintain a certain image to be taken seriously. Some men look regal with their beard, not me, I looked scruffy and laid-back, not the professional look I wanted to portray.
Returning to the question at hand I was reminded how much this Carlos annoyed me. He sat in the only remaining chair constantly talking. It was hard to concentrate. You’d think since I refused to look or answer him he would get the hint and just shut up. But no, if he wasn’t barking orders then he was telling us how to do our job. He was an amateur capturing Russian mob members, where Fi and I were the professionals. But I grit my teeth while trying to maintain a smile. I had been down this same road many times before.
“Michael, I think we have something here.” Fi pointed out.
Carlos jumped out of his chair almost knocking me over as we both approached the computer monitor to take a look.
After examining the activity on the screen we decided to make our move and exited the room to join Jesse on the other side of town.
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