six months—but the other was a stranger, a gorgeous, ethereal woman with waist-length pale gray hair and striking otherworldly amber eyes almost like those of a werewolf. She was a tall pale-skin stunner in a brilliantly toned compact body, dressed in a simple black T-shirt with the words “Woman Up” across the front and simple black pants tucked into a pair of stylized military boots. Definitely not an analyst. This woman was a field agent.
They were followed by the big brass. Kelly and the unknown woman moved to the front of the room, and the big brass took a seat in the chairs against the wall.
Dodger glanced at 2-Stroke, and he and the woman locked eyes. Recognition flared in the woman’s, but just barely. She was a cheeky customer.
Dodger was more than intrigued. 2-Stroke was a private guy, and not many on the team knew a whole lot about him. He never talked about his family, ever, not even in passing. He also never talked about his childhood, other than the fact that he entered BUD/S right out of high school at eighteen.
“Hello, guys,” Kelly said with a tight smile. They weren’t the only ones looking like they had a bad morning. “This is DEA Agent Chrysanthe Steele.” Kelly pronounced the agent’s first name as Cree-san-thee. She picked up the clicker on the table and pulled up a slide of a city.
“This is Prague, capital and largest city in the Czech Republic. It’s a popular tourist destination, a cultural center, and the seat of the government. But this perfect postcard capital is also very popular with Balkan organized crime groups, namely Darko Stjepanić.” She pronounced it as Stepponitch and put up a picture of a darkly attractive, well-dressed man. “He’s the boss of the Stjepanić crime family. He’s established several companies in Prague, a favorite logistics hub for drug smuggling. They also participate in murder-for-hire, gambling, and money laundering.” She turned to look at her colleague. “Chry?”
“Besides the narcotics business, the groups use Czech territory for setting up companies,” Chry said. Her voice was as gorgeous as she was, smooth and melodious. “The crime groups, including Stjepanić, use the Czech Republic as a logistical base because their members can easily obtain residence by establishing a company. That company can be dormant for many years without the threat of any penalty, so it often serves as a smokescreen for actual activities or as an inconspicuous address for delivery. There’s a nice language similarity, and these groups prefer the country’s central location, which offers quality air and highway connections to the Balkans as well as the European Union.” She paused and clicked up another slide with a burned-out car on a residential street.
“The DEA has targeted this group for smuggling millions of doses of the club drug Ecstasy from Europe to the United States, namely LA. Working with the Czech police to bring the whole thing down, we stumbled across something of significance to the CIA.”
Kelly nodded and Chry continued, “This scorched hulk of metal was the vehicle of a Prague government liquidator, Jan Bakker. He was murdered with a car bomb. Because we had this particular company on our radar, we realized that Stjepanić was our number one suspect. We were able to get an undercover agent into his organization. He overheard a conversation between Stjepanić and Muhammad Angar Said’s agent about a heroin shipment. Not uncommon because a multi-million-dollar drug shipment goes through the Czech Republic into Germany just about every week. It appears that your number one HVT terrorist is in business with Stjepanić. Not only that, but the person who is handling the finances for Stjepanić is also handling them for Angar Said.”
She returned the clicker to Kelly, who then put up a photo of a salt-and-pepper-haired man in dark-rimmed glasses. “This is our HVT, Andrea Bendarik. He’s laundering Stjepanić and Angar Said’s money through his bank with numerous companies created by Stjepanić’s organization. The CIA wants to talk to him, so you’ll be snatching him.” She set down the clicker. “At the very least, we may shut down the routes Angar Said is using to get his heroin payday from, or we may even get lucky enough to pull him out of whatever hole he scurried into when he left Paraguay.”
The Commander said, “Okay, guys, you’re heading to Prague with wheels up in eighteen hours. Officer Sparks and Agent Steele will meet you there. We’ll be working out of the DEA’s office to keep a low profile.