A/N: Today's chapter is for all of you who read Betrayal every day and don´t have time to review.

Betrayal

Chapter 22

A Spy´s Tale

or

The Life of Stephanie Plum

The Final Act

Betrayal

Part 2

The first fourteen months were extremely frustrating for me.

I found nothing that connected you with the gun deals and the money.

Our data-analysts found more of those bogus accounts with a deposit of a few thousand dollars. All transactions made were under $ 1000011 to fly under the radar. But all accounts added together we came to quite a figure, just under a million dollar.

Problem was I had no idea where the money came from. Every deposition was made in cash and was made to long ago to get a video footage. And don´t even ask about eyewitnesses. Either they couldn´t remember or they described everyone and their brother. Let´s be honest none of you guys is easy to forget.

Once a deposition was made the account was dead. The money just lay there and waited to be found. At least that was what I suspected.

So following the money was a dead-end. And when money is a dead-end, it is usually a set up.

The only question was did you made the set up or were you set up.

My gut told me it was the later, but sadly my superiors gave me shit about my gut, because they wanted cold, hard facts.

I did everything in the book to find something that would point me in one direction or another.

I started to tail you, Ranger and those you met with. Whenever you went in the wind for government business I knew about it. I knew everything. What. Where. Who. Why. How.

I received your reports and a copy of the debriefing.

Whenever you went in the wind on RangeMan business I had you tailed.

I don´t have to tell you that we came up empty handed.

I went through your past with a fine toothed comb, repeatedly.

Nothing stood out.

I did the same with you Bobby and you Lester and Tank of course.

I went forwards, backwards and sideways through the whole of RangeMan.

I found not a single thing that connected RangeMan with anything illegal.

Eight months into the investigation you were arrested for carrying conceal by Gaspick and went FTA. When Vinnie told me that I wanted to strangle you, and then Connie told me you were additionally wanted for questioning concerning the death of Homer Ramos, I was ready to commit murder.

It was just the thing `The powers that be` needed. I had already the order to bring you in on my desk when I got home. They were sure that as soon as they had you and confronted you with the "evidence" you would break. Yeah, right. You withstood torture of Columbian drug lords and Nigerian war lords and whatnot but they thought they could break you. Dunderheads.

It took some serious convincing to stop them.

~~~~~oooo~~~~~

"Babe?" Here we go again. I cannot string two sentences together without being interrupted.

"Ranger?" I can do those annoying one word sentences, where you always have guess what he means, too. By now I can probably write a dictionary; Ranger-English, English-Ranger.

"How did you convince them to leave me alone?" Who says you can´t teach an old dog new tricks.

"Let´s just say everyone has the one or other skeleton in the closet. And not everyone is very meticulous to keep them hidden."

"Blackmail, Babe?" I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Nah, I prefer to call it a friendly reminder that the Spy in charge determines the course of action."

That got me an outright laugh from Ranger.

"Babe"

"Okay I have to admit the guy, my team leader, I had to…remind, was new in the Black Unit. He hadn´t fully grasped at that time that we handle things a bit differently in the B.U. We don´t play by the usual rules, we play by our own. But he learned that, fast. From then on I reported solely to Director of the B.U."

"I always knew you came from a long line of scary women, Babe." Was that pride I saw in his eyes?

"You have no idea, Ranger. No idea at all." I gave him my most threatening smile and with satisfaction I saw him shiver.

~~~~~oooo~~~~~

After this mess was sorted out I was nearly at my wits end. Short of breaking into your offices and the apartment you had on Hamilton there was not much more I could do. And breaking in was something I would rather not do, at least at that time.

So I changed my approach. Since trailing the money directly didn´t work I changed my perspective. I concentrated on criminal activity in Trenton, Boston, Miami and Atlanta and the surrounding area, the money had to come from somewhere. I got access to the files of the PD´s, FBI, ATF and DEA. I looked for a heightening of activity, change of players and arrival of new ones. Again nothing.

I even spied on the Families here and in New York. Looking for something anything that would lead me to you or whoever was behind it. Nothing, nada, nichts. Well, nothing that would help ME. But I got a bunch of intel for my colleagues.

"Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor! und bin so klug als wie zuvor."12

And then Julie was kidnapped. In some perverted kind of way without her being kidnapped, I might have never figured it out.

As soon as I knew about the kidnapping of your daughter, I set every available men of the B.U. on the hunt for her in addition to the normal FBI. And after I gave them Scrogs name and they retraced his movements they we were successful. Albeit not in finding Julie, but in finding out the real culprit. The man who was behind everything.

Ranger, you remember how Scrog demanded my presence? When I drove to the rendezvous point I received a text message.

Dupree & Scrog in cahoots.

Dupree instigator of the

kidnapping

Scrog unstable

Dupree wants kid dead

Plan A cancelled Omega on

BEWARE

~~~~~oooo~~~~~

An inhuman roar sounded through the cave.

11 In Germany the Banks don´t report transfers of less than 10000 Euro to the taxes. I have no idea if it's the same in the States, so for the Storys sake we will assume it's the same.

12 I am German and it would be a sacrilege for me to translate one of the greatest German poets in a story. For those who aren´t familiar with German poetry, the quote was from Faust from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And here, poor fool, I stand once more

No wiser when I was before (transl. from dict dot cc by Walter Arndt)

A/N: In Betrayal Tanks real name is Pierre Dupree just so you won´t get too confused will I continue calling him Tank. But occasionally I will also refer to him as Dupree.

On another note, I have already groveled at Tanks feet and begged for forgiveness for making him the bad guy. He says he understands and isn´t mad at me. He also says it makes perfect sense to turn the best friend and right hand man of Ranger evil, after all the story is called Betrayal.

And I have promised him to be exceptionally nice to him in all stories I´m going to write in the future! I´m rather fond of the big guy.