"So, what have we got?" Jack asked with his arms crossed in front of their white board that was packed with green, red and black writing, photos of Louis and members of the lys rouge, maps, and all of the paperwork that was taken from the lab. "Sue? It's your case, so take it away."

Sue finished writing 'date?' and 'time?' on the white board before turning around and confronting the team in front of her. "I talked to Louis this afternoon, and with a little bit of convincing from Bobby, he confirmed that he is still in close contact with the lys rouge leader, Alexandre Moreau. He is in even closer contact with their second in command, Alain Alarie. After Louis' tip to leave the lab because of the FBI's involvement, both Alexandre and Alain didn't take too kindly to Louis, but since he 'killed a member of the FBI,' he has now gained back his credibility and their trust."

Dimitrius raised his hand. "Do Alexandre and Alain have current knowledge that he's in FBI custody?"

"No," Sue said, "we got him to make a supervised phone call to Alain to announce that I'm dead, and where they will be having a meetup."

"Woah, woah, woah," Dimitrius said, "Louis is still in this operation?"

"...yeah."

"He almost killed you guys," Dimitrius said with a little more force.

"I know, but he's the only one who can get the information we need without sacrificing and building trust with one of our own. With him, we cut out half of the work."

Bobby added, "But the paperwork should be enough for a warrant."

Sue shook her head, "No, it's not. Louis said since our investigation at the lab, all dates, times and locations are now redundant. The map with the red circles were the locations of other labs in the city, and now those are redundant as well. We had some other agents go there already, and like the one Myles and I investigated, they took everything and left for good."

Bobby questioned, "So, your informant knows where Alexandre is?"

Sue answered, "He's in a warehouse somewhere…somewhere in the Wilmington area."

Dimitrius raised a brow. "In Delaware?"

"Yes," Sue said, "But he doesn't know what warehouse it is. He will find out for us at the gang meeting he set himself up with just outside of Brookside Gardens tonight."

Tara said, "I can't believe you're using that untrustworthy informant."

Jack said, "It's her investigation, it's her call."

"Like we keep saying, he tried to kill you, and almost killed Myles in the process!"

Sue let the peanut gallery calm down for a moment before continuing, "As I said before, by 'killing me', Louis has gained Alexandre and Alain's trust again. Jack and I went over this, but we suspect they will be asking for proof, so we are going to make a fake obituary that will be searchable on the internet. When he has proved that I am in fact 'dead', he will be able to gather the intelligence we need and pinpoint the exact location of that warehouse containing fentanyl and illegal tobacco. Once we find out the location, Louis will give us the date and the time of their biggest transaction with their best client. Once that transaction is made and recorded, we will go in with SWAT and make our arrests."

Bobby raised his hand.

Sue said, "Yes, Bobby?"

Just like Tara and Dimitrius, Bobby reiterated, "Sue, how can you trust this guy again after what he did to you and Myles? What if he goes in, takes off the wire, ruins the entire operation, and escapes with the gang forever? And then we have to start over."

Sue answered, "We are giving him an ultimatum. Also, the gang knows that he had conversed with the FBI after tipping them off and they painfully removed his fingernails for it. We told him that if he ruins the operation, we will make ourselves known, and the gang will kill him, so if he prefers to not be killed prematurely, he needs to cooperate with us. In truth, we can't trust him…but you can trust me…and trust me when I say that this plan will work."

The team was quiet after that statement. Then, Dimitrius gave Sue a warm expression. She convinced him. "Okay, Sue. I support your decision. What is step one?"

"Jack and I will fake my death, and then come up with a bogus cover story with Louis. I also want to implement a backup plan in case lys rouge's major client backs out at the last minute. Once we've laid everything out perfectly, we will make plans for initial contact."

Tara then asked, "Okay, but one thing…what if - hypothetically - Louis goes to the most recent meeting, but gets a bullet put through his head immediately?"

Sue said, "Like I said, we will need to have backup plans, but…I think we will chew that food when we have to. Let's get to work. The meeting is at 11:30pm tonight."

Jack watched Sue as she went back to her desk. He then approached her with a proud expression on his face. "Good work. That was a fantastic presentation. Not bad for your first time leading a mission on your own."

Sue smiled. "Well, I had some help, but…thanks. Now, let's make a plan, and then you and Bobby can go through it with Louis. Remember, I'm dead."

At five o'clock, Bobby and Jack were in the interrogation room with Louis to go over their bogus story. Everything had to be perfect in order to get proper information and to keep Louis alive. Louis frowned. "Where's that lady?"

"She's dead," Bobby said, "you killed her, mate. She's been dead since Tuesday."

At first, Louis was taken aback, but then realization quickly hit. "Ohhh - you want me to believe that she's dead, so that I can be more convincing at the meeting." He then smiled at that thought; both Bobby and Jack wanted to punt him across the room.

Bobby continued, "Yes, we need to make things more real, so that you don't mess up this operation. Sue and Jack will be coordinating everything behind the scenes. We plan to get you situated back into lys rouge, but we need to give you a couple of things. We will be providing you with a cover story, and proof of Sue's death. If they ask you anything about the FBI, you say that you had no contact with us since you went to the office, you disappeared from your home, moved to a new location, and that it'll take a few weeks before the FBI finds you again…so hopefully, you can get a push on the transaction."

"And how am I going to get a push?"

"Well, we are 'friends' of yours, and our office is located in Atlantic City…and we want to buy fentanyl off of lys rouge. We are big players and we have big money."

Jack said, "Here's my card."

Louis grabbed the business card in front of him, and looked at it. It looked quite professional for something drawn up by their design and printing department in thirty minutes. It had Jack's first and bogus last name on it, his fake office number, and fake office address. Jack added, "Since we are your 'friends', this is a way of us stopping you from becoming expendable to lys rouge. They will want our money, and they need you to get it."

Bobby grabbed the paperwork from the lab. "Now, when you find out a date, time and location of their transaction with their biggest client that was supposed to happen on August 9th, you give us a call asap on a cellphone we will provide for you, and give us everything that you know. Then, just blend in with the crowd until we raid."

Jack said, "Do not try disappearing. If you disappear on them, they will suspect something, kill you and make changes to their schedules again. Got it?"

Louis nodded.

Jack finished, "Okay, let's go through it again, but in more detail. This needs to be perfect."

The following night, in the distance, Jack, Bobby, Sue, Tara, and Dimitrius were in their truck, watching the many cameras as Louis impatiently waited for some members of the lys rouge to show up for their brief meeting. At first, the team was going to get Sue to read their lips to avoid wiring Louis, but Tara decided against it, because they were probably going to speak French; so, they wired up Louis with the tiniest microphone and camera they had on hand. He was already on a fine line with the gang, so if he got frisked, they wouldn't be able to see or feel the recording equipment on him. The agents didn't trust the man, but they had to trust that he wouldn't blow their cover or say something stupid that could get everybody killed if they had guns.

Just then, the gang showed up and met up with Louis. Judging by the photos they had hanging in the Bullpen, the leader of the team looked like it was Alain. He was middle aged, blonde, had round facial features, bore a frown that defined his wrinkles, and was as tall as Otis.

"Bonjour," Alain started. Then, he continued their conversation in their home language.

Tara knew it; they were speaking French. Out of everybody on the team, only Myles knew French fluently, and he wasn't here, so they'd have to translate it back at the office. Hopefully, Louis would get all of the information they needed.

"It's good to see that you've been kept out of jail."

Alain ignored that statement. He said, "You're not in jail yourself, so I'm assuming that you successfully completed your reinitiation by killing that FBI agent and getting away with it?"

Quickly, Louis opened up his phone, and displayed a picture of Sue's obituary. He gave the phone to Alain to read. Yes, she was dead. "Dead as a doornail," Louis commented.

"Good…Alexandre and I are pleased. You're in, but if we see or hear that you are conversing with the FBI again, we will have you killed. And it won't be a pretty death; you will be wishing for death."

Louis swallowed. He nodded in understanding. "Yes, sir."

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I have friends in Atlantic City who are wanting a large stash of fentanyl to distribute to their own clients. They are big players."

"Big?"

"Yes, they have money. About $20,000,000 dollars worth that would go straight into yours and Alexandre's pocket."

Alain hummed, "That seems too good to be true."

"I have proof."

"How?"

Louis gave Alain Jack's business card. It looked legit with Jack's fake name, title, office number and address. "Is it possible to add them to our list of clients? Would they be able to get a stash delivered to them in two weeks?"

"Two weeks is no good," Alain said, "Our biggest shipment is going out at that time."

"Oh, really? When and where is it? Isn't it next week?"

"Well, due to your tip my men's stupidity on leaving the paperwork at that lab, we moved the date and time to August 16th at 9:00pm."

Louis then asked, " The last time I talked to you guys, I was told that the location of the warehouse was in Wilmington. Is that still true?"

Alain squinted. Did he find something that Louis asked suspicious? "Just outside of it. If you take highway 13 south from the city, then turn east, you'll come across our warehouse." He then thought for a moment before saying, "You know what? I'll put in a good word for your buddies in Atlantic City. If they give us their order, payment, and location, we can have their share of fentanyl out on a plane that same night."

Louis nodded. "Sounds good. Just give them a call when you have a chance." Before Louis could turn around and leave the premises, Alain said:

"The FBI knows where you live. How are you avoiding them?"

"I moved to an apartment in the north end of the city. I cut off all communication, and they won't be able to wiretap me. Believe me, it'll take months for them to find me again."

Alain said, "Okay, I believe you. Meeting adjourned."

And with that, Louis turned around and went to his car. Once he left, Alain and his henchmen talked amongst one another before getting into their car and following him.

Jack rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted. "Alright, we have everything recorded; video and sound. Whatever they were talking about should be in our system now. Let's go back to the Bullpen and translate their conversation."

Chapter 10 is next...