Zuri walks into the office and steps up behind her boss who not once acknowledges her presence. She peers over his shoulder and she sees him furiously clicking away on his mouse as he toggles between different websites. She doesn't know what exactly he's looking for but he is intently looking for something. He doesn't even look up when she asks him what he's doing. He is usually more aware of his surroundings than this.
"Something on that computer must have you very interested, but if it's porn I will be killing you," Zuri comments forcibly.
"You're not as quiet as you think you are. I heard you the second you opened the door and walked through it. And for your information, I am not looking at porn. But I am on a mission, a mission that's going to eliminate our problem with the Texan. I have an idea in mind but I'm going to wait until I can locate what I'm looking for before I give you any information."
Zuri knew that once her boss put his mind to something he wouldn't stop until he was finished with whatever it was he was looking for. She had known him for quite some time and when he latches on to an idea or thought he never lets go and can be very dangerous in the process. But on the other hand, she can see this leading to something they're both going to regret.
About three hours after he had shooed her off he appeared at her side.
"It wasn't my intention to make you mad at me Zuri, but I was in the middle of trying to locate something very important to our cause. As you know our partner Mr. Vales is right now residing in San Antonio Texas temporarily. He gave the excuse of visiting his mother. If you remember correctly he gave us the order to eliminate detectives Beckett, Slaughter, and their resident consultant Rick Castle. He also said that anything that became collateral damage while taking them out, well he would not worry about that too much. The internet search I was performing earlier bore fruit. We are going to turn the tables on Mr. Vales, and I for one will be finally rid of a loose cannon."
Zuri looks at her boss as if he's lost his mind. She knows that he was giving the order to eliminate the cops but he has made no effort to do so. She rises from the chair behind the desk grabs him by his forearm and forcibly moves him into his own office. She sits him down where she can sit across from him and gives him a knowing look. The look that says spill your guts or I will shoot you where you sit. Knowing that she is serious, he starts talking.
"I have a plan and I'm going to give it to you now."
After a couple of seconds of silence, Zuri becomes agitated because he is not saying anything to explain himself.
He can see the look in her eye and he knows he is pissing her off. He can't let her lose her cool so he starts talking.
"You are aware that we were ordered to eliminate the detectives of the 12th by our new partner. I plan on sparing their lives only because Vales has gone off the deep end. And I'm not particularly fond of being incarcerated for murdering a pair of detectives with the NYPD. He is certain that the detectives who were investigating the mayor's daughter's murder were bringing the heat down on him and his operation. That simply isn't true. You see our partner has become very lax with the security of his day-to-day operations. It seems that he can't keep his dealers quiet. They're the ones who are going to be the thorn in his side."
"Are you saying that he has leaks within his organization?" Zuri asks.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Not only does he have a leak but he has people who are talking to the other side. I know this because people from our own organization are in tune with his, covertly I might add. And this happened long before he decided to have the merger between us."
"That is none of my business. I am here to provide you security for your well-being but I am gathering that his leaks will be his own downfall and for that, he deserves what he gets."
"I do appreciate that. You have done your job above and beyond." Simmons tells her.
"So tell me, what have you been searching for so feverishly on the internet?"
"There was an NYPD case a couple of months back that had Detective Beckett and her team trying to solve the murder of an astrophysicist. She was imploded from the inside out. She looked like she was injected with so much water that she looked like a stuffed sausage. I remember this because of the pictures that were posted on the internet. Some eager journalist sent a photographer to stake out the morgue and get some images. She did but before she was arrested for trespassing, they were posted to the net. It wasn't pretty. They solved the case but they had trouble identifying what was used to murder her. After a lot of research on my part, I found out that it was an industrial vacuum packer. It removes all the air and liquid from your body and then injects a preservative into the item that your vacuum is packing to preserve it."
"All right I understand how it works, just don't know how we're going to use it to our advantage?" Zuri asks.
"That's where it will involve a lot of planning on our part."
"Vulcan I don't understand why we need to plan anything. I am loyal to you until the bitter end but if that be the case, I don't think putting ourselves at risk is the way to go."
"Zuri, you and I have been together for quite some time and you should know by now that I am never one to move forward without having some sort of plan in my head. Now I'm going to give you the preliminary plan of what I know. I know that there is a Joint Task Force between four government agencies and the NYPD. The person I have watching these people are planning to intercept Vales at the airport before he reaches the city. We will beat them to the airport and take our 'partner' and in not so many pleasant terms eliminate him. I'm not doing this to take over his real estate or empire because I can guarantee someone will take his place and it might be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but Vales will be one sick puppy we won't have to deal with anymore. I'm willing to roll the dice to see who takes his place but I can guarantee you this it will be someone who we will control."
Zuri looked at her boss and could tell the gears in his head was already spinning at warp speed. She knew what he planned on doing and if she knew him as she did Vales would suffer a very painful and slow death. The pain would be the last thing on his mind as he thought about how his partner had thrown him under the bus.
"You do know that if any government agency is involved in this it's going to be hard to get your hands on Vales. But I'm supposing that you have a way to get around what they have planned out already."
"I do. Tomorrow Vales will get a phone call from me telling him that the detective and her team were eliminated. There's going to be an issue with his people and he's going to need to come back a day early. We both know that he can't resist being in charge."
"What are you going to use to get him to return from his mother's side so early?" Zuri asks.
"We both know that he can never pass up the lure of making money or even losing it. But when it comes to the product he sells he knows that I supply eighty percent of his merchandise. We're going to tell him that the last shipment was intercepted by the DEA. I haven't quite figured out how to broadcast this information so it seems as if it's a credible news story but I'm working on that."
"Whatever store you come up with is going to have to be a very good lie."
"The lie is the easy part, selling it is where it becomes a problem."
"This should be interesting. I don't know whose ego is worse yours or his!"
The rest of the afternoon fades away as Simmons has all but located a machine that they can use. Before he can make the phone call to Vales he needs to check in with his spies watching One Police Plaza and the 12th Precinct. He knew that there was going to be a major meeting between many government agencies and he wants to see the progress that his spy has made. He decides to call the 12th Precinct spy first
"So you're telling me that they plan to arrest Vales for the murder of the mayor's daughter?"
"That's the plan yes. They have devised different methods to accomplish this feat but they plan on putting the plan into effect when he gets back from Texas on Friday." Simmons' spy tells him.
"I'll get back to you. When I call again be prepared to update me." Simmons orders and then ends the call.
"Zuri, we're going to need to move up our timetable." Simmons looks at his watch before continuing.
"We have to get Vales back to the city before Friday. It seems that the little group of merry men and women who work for the government have decided to arrest him on Friday. His plane will be met at the airport where he will be placed under arrest for ordering the mayor's daughter to be murdered."
She looks at him with hardened eyes.
"Well then I guess we need to get planning, don't we?" She replies.
They had tried planning so many ways to get their hands on Vales that they were starting to see polka dots in front of their eyes. Nothing they thought of was working out. They had the means but they just didn't have the opportunity. Vulcan had decided that the call will be made to Vales on Wednesday afternoon and he will tell him that there will be an urgent matter here in New York and he needs to return immediately. Of course, he will appease the man by telling him that the detectives and the writer are no longer roaming the Earth. That in itself might get him to return earlier than expected.
The second problem he was having was getting the vacuum packer set up and operational in less than twenty hours. He was able to locate one and he needs to have a location that won't raise suspicions from his partner. Vales is a very cautious man. He knows that he has to sell this as if his life depended on it. Telling him that the detectives and the writer are no longer here will be easy because he wants them dead himself but he knows that it would bring more heat than he can handle upon him.
Zuri, after doing a lot of research on real estate availability had given him a location that should work. They had decided that a new distribution center would be where they would put the machine and lure Vales to. It isn't their distribution center yet, it's just an old abandoned warehouse that they're going to play off as being real estate that he might think about buying for a new distribution center. He has no plan on buying anything.
Now that they had the location (and it was ironic that it was right in the middle of Vales' territory) the machine was to be delivered to the warehouse later this afternoon, they needed a way to get Vales to the warehouse without raising suspicion.
Simmons knew that the Texan was a gentleman from his upbringing. So what he decided to do was play a trick that he used to play on his old man when he was a kid. The old wind-up palm buzzers that were popular with small children in the '60s and the early seventies would be the way that he incapacitated his partner. But there would be a catch what he would have in his palm wouldn't be a windup buzzer, it would be a pressure-sensitive needle that injected a very quick-acting sedative that would take him out of the game in less than thirty seconds. And now that they had that all worked out they needed to make it a very important phone call.
"Cesar, I'm telling you the DEA intercepted the last shipment from the submarine. My submarine had delivered the shipment to the dock on time and then the truck that was loaded with it was swarmed by DEA agents less than three minutes later. This was the first shipment that had mixed methamphetamines with fentanyl. There were over 24 kilos of it. And now that has gone up in smoke."
"I want the bastards to pay! This was going to be one of our biggest shipments to date. It was valued at a little under three million to us and roughly about 5.7 million dollars on the street. There is no excuse. So to make sure that there isn't, I will be flying back from Texas later on tomorrow afternoon. Meet me at the airport and we will talk in the limo on the way back to the city."
"But I do have a bit of good news that might bring you a little relief. The two detectives and the writer that you wanted to eliminated are now at the bottom of the Atlantic somewhere. They were taken out yesterday." Simmons added.
"You're right this does bring me a lot of relief. Now I can return back to the city with my head held high knowing that they cannot move forward and question me for the death of the mayor's daughter. Thank you my friend you have exceeded all my expectations.
As Simmons hits end on his cell phone, he knew that the bait had been taken. There's no way that Cesar could resist returning to protect his interests. Now it's just a matter of carrying out the rest of the plan. He hoped that he could pull this off…