Chapter 35

That night, walking along the waterfront near the casino, we came upon a vicious mugging in progress. Edward leaped into action, taking on the two biggest perpetrators, and I put the third one down with a hard blow to the throat, followed by the sound of bones breaking as I twisted both arms so hard they snapped.

When the fight was over, the victim was very dead. She had been stabbed, and we would have had no chance to save her, no matter what we did. Still it hurt to see such a young life taken for no reason at all. Winnie took it the hardest and searched the muggers, then dug about the crime scene trying to find anything that would explain what brought it on.

When one of them awoke, he very quickly wished he hadn't, because Winnie hurt him far worse than we did, making him confess. Due to his injuries and the unusual skill Winnie possessed, it didn't take long.

It seems they were hired by two non-descript men, to find a hooker and force her to approach the people in the big yacht. When she got their attention, she was to take them all to bed and get their guard down. It looked like they were prepared to board someone wearing a suicide bomber vest and blow us up.

That scared us.

Edward called back to the boat, alerted the crew, and ordered extra bodyguards to escort us back.

Winnie drew her pistol and held it down along her side, ready to use it on anyone that approached, no matter how innocent looking. We put Regina between us and moved quickly to the relative safety of the boat. Edward's men collected the assailants and got them safely onboard.

While Edward and Winnie went off to brief their bosses, and I broke out some of our toys, in case we got unexpected, uninvited guests. The night dragged along, and we gave up on any further attacks. The three hundred and sixty degree cameras showed no activity, and our motion and thermal imagining units backed them up. When we turned in, it was all quiet on deck.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I decided it was time to stop waiting to get killed. I needed to take the fight to the people who were trying to kill us. Edward gave me a sadistic smile when I told him what I'd decided.

He 'just happened' to have the three muggers in our cargo hold, undergoing extensive questioning, and begging for jail, if it would get them out of the clutches of our interrogation specialist. When Winnie found out we had them, she left us and joined in.

Several hours later Winnie showed up in our bedroom and announced, "We have a suspect."

Several hours after discovering the information, we assaulted a lone condo, well off the beaten path and away from the water. There, Edward and his men captured five members of the Russian Mafia, who quickly chose to confess to avoid torture.

It almost worked.

Right after they confessed to avoid torture, they were tortured to see if they were telling the truth.

That didn't go well, and two of the five failed to thrive. They had to be disposed of, while two gave a treasure trove of information, and one held right up until he didn't.

Edward has some very mean friends.

With fresh intel, we moved to attack a fortress like house, high above the city. It went like taking candy from a baby. Their guards were so lax; one of our guys walked right up on him, asked for a light, and put him down before he knew what hit him. The other five weren't any more alert. In thirty minutes we had complete control of the estate, all the persons of interest in cuffs, and were separating them for questioning.

By morning there was nothing left for them to tell us, unless it had to do with some coed with whom they used to swap spit. Our intel uncovered another player in the Destroy America First club, and we shared the details with the Judge in real time. His people worked tirelessly, getting us up to speed, and ready to move on their main leadership.

The Judge sent reinforcements, and ordered Winnie and me off the assault. Our job, as far as our Russian enemies were concerned, was done. We'd accidentally stumbled on a thread, and by pulling it unmercifully; it unraveled enough to show them the way. Obviously the Judge was having a cow over the rich intel we'd sent over, and our original targets were still in play. We resumed life as usual, and were seen by them at regular intervals.

At the four-week mark everything started to happen at once.

Colleen was leading an uprising from the home front. My girls wanted us home. They also seemed very keen to have a look at Regina.

The Judge was having conniption fits about the rich intelligence they gathered off of the assault on the Russian Mafia estate. He was knee deep in multiple missions that were loosely bound, but very separate.