Ch1 – Turning Bourbon Street into Tequila Street
"I sometimes envy you for having such clarity…as to what you want your life to be!" James said and turned on his heel to leave Finch's office, when the man's voice made him stop and turn back.
"And you don't have that? It's quite bothersome…if it affects your mission!" Finch even rose from his desk, turned to the small bar behind him and coked his head at James: "A shot for the road?"
"No, thank you!" James felt his posture being stiff, not because he was talking to his 'superior' but because his last sentence had slipped and to the mind reader Finch, it showed a crack in James's carefully constructed and maintained mask.
"Have I told you that busy hands ensure a quiet mind? You need to work more…like lead your own team on the next mission and you won't have time to doubt what you're doing!" Finch drank from his glass and handed James another one, which he had poured anyway. Then he added: "Since when hsve you been having doubts about going to missions and doing the work?"
James drank a sip and said: "That's not what I meant! I have no doubts about the work per se...Anyway, I have crystal clarity about what I don't want my life to be!"
"Which is?" Finch's voice was levelled.
" The life of a hired gun!" James said just as flatly.
Nine months of training and going on missions in Finch's company, a CIA contractor, had taught him a huge number of new things, but his mind had never been at ease as to the way he had been forced to leave Teresa, without telling her the truth. He had no closure; but he wasn't sure he needed one as he dreamed of going back to her and their operation, just that the scars of her mistrust were still on the surface...and were very very visible.
Besides, all he had been able to gather in these nine months was that Finch and the CIA wanted Teresa's business to grow and as much as the missions he was sent to seemed like everyday cleanup all over the globe, he had noticed a special effort to clean up the US East Coast from small gangs, all the way from Miami to Vermont.
"You are pissy because this assignment is in New Orleans, I know!" Finch stated without letting James speak. "And I know we agreed you aren't working there after the last time you and Perez did reconnaissance, but my two other snipers are in South America…and I got no desire to request a loaner from another unit!"
James had been sent to NOLA once for three whole days and had seen two huge black SUVs stop in front of a bar downtown. He had not been able to hold his anxiety and had gone in himself to check them out. He had regretted his move ever since as he had seen Teresa speaking to the jazz player of the band in a manner that had seemed too casual. Finch had honored his request to never sent him to NOLA again. That had been two months ago.
Finch kept talking: "The man's name is Hickson…an aspiring drug dealer…molly and concocted dirty chemicals and such…Intel is that he works with a local judge by the name of Lafayette! Make it clean, keep it short and sweet! Don't linger and be back on your way!"
"Is the op detail loaded on my profile? "James asked flatly.
"Should be!" Finch ran a high-tech operation. "I know he'll be at this reception at a hotel downtown...I wish I could just blow the place up...and get rid of so many of them in one shot...but no one will sanction it!" He finished his drink and sat behind his desk again.
"Will Teresa be there?" James wrinkled his forehead.
"I have no such info...It's her competition...So, not really expected!" Finch turned to the monitor.
James nodded and turned on his heel as Finch said: "The new snipers arrived yesterday. Get yours and shoot a few. All the new gear is…precious toys!"
James hurried to the lower floor as the new gear, or the new software, or any new gadget for that matter, was one of the few things that made his life easier and actually brought some excitement!
His mission was to eliminate one Shane Hickson, an associate of the New Orleans Honorable Judge Cecil Lafayette, and by all the intel provided this man seemed to be in competition with Teresa. Not in the coke field, but in the sense that he provided alternatives to her product.
Perez and he had done reconnaissance on a small coke operation importing from Colombia when they had been sent to NOLA the last time. Later James had found out that a team had been sent to remove said small coke operation and now they were removing the supply of molly and ecstasy off the market.
So, the moment his shooting practice finished, and his hands were not caressing his new gun anymore, his mind went back to wondering what Finch's end game was. To James it seemed like the purpose of it all was ensuring Teresa Mendoza had no competition, direct or indirect, on her way up.
"Do you want me to get on a plane, Patrona?" Javier was looking at her with anticipation.
"No, it's too early!" Teresa said. Javier's favorite phrase, when he was urging her to act, was becoming bothersome as he had said it for the third time today. So, she decided to give him more work to make him feel like he was contributing: "See that we get invited to this reception! Not just me…Get several invites…See if Kelly Anne doesn't know any banker or lawyer who can get a few of us in!"
"Why not ask the Judge himself to invite us?" Pote had walked in, belly forward, moustache perfectly groomed.
"I suspect he won't because I might get in alliance with this guy Hickson, the same way I did with Marcel!" Teresa almost stifled a laugh. The Judge was keeping his pawns far away from each other, but Hickson's molly was upsetting Oksana's sales and Teresa had been asked to get a 'feel for the playfield".
"Marcel should be able to get us in, Patrona!" Javier said and pulled his phone out.
"After I refused to help his Atlanta connect with his Oksana problem, he might not be so inclined to do me favors! But you try him and let me know!" Teresa said and headed for her office.
Marcel had not been helpful as he himself had not been invited by Judge Lafayette, which spoke volumes about how upset the Judge really had been with the alliance Marcel had made with Teresa. Oh well, she could not make everyone happy, and the Judge would not be happy no matter what she did!
She was still trying to run her business 'the better way', but the other players, starting with the Cuban El Gordo and finishing with the Judge, had made it impossible. She had made many decisions that had backfired, but as much as she raked her brain, she could not see what she could have done differently. And she slowly had started to think less and less about any decision whereby her hand had been forced. It had just gotten easier!
Teresa had been sipping her coffee at her desk, deep in thought, when her cell pinged. A text from Oskana came in with the details that her banker had secured a table for her, Teresa and their security detail at the reception held by the Judge's charity. Teresa smiled to herself. Oksana had turned out to be more reliable than any of her associates! Well, with the exception of James!
She hated it when her mind would wander to the memories of him. He had been gone for nine months now and three months ago she had started seeing her piano teacher by day, jazz player at a club by night, who still had no idea who she was or what she did for a living. The presence of a man in her life had not put an end neither to the dreams where James would show, nor to the thoughts that invaded her daily if he somehow had come across the knowledge of her ascent from Phoenix to New Orleans and up the East Coast.
She wanted to invest in legitimate businesses, she wanted to build a future for her team, and her heart kept telling her that if James was somehow closer, he would approve! But no one had been able to provide any information on him for the long six months she had spent searching.
As a sign of her legitimate success her tequila brand was served in all bars on Bourbon Street these days, alongside the precious American bourbon, and as a sign of her illegal business success her coke was the only product south of Atlanta and a major contestant north of the city and up the coast.
And with the way things were, Teresa reasoned that that had to be enough!
