It was a tight ship to maintain; with the teetering Montgomery Group... Whoever controlled the company would be directly impacting most of the deals.

“Has anyone contacted Russia to offer a bounty on Haines?”

“You’d probably want to offer the same in Venezuela. One of ours split and is hiding out somewhere. Get his name and picture out, offering a nice cash prize to whoever delivers him first.”

Cigar smoke and corruption were held in the safe confines of the poker room on our compound. The biggest names in the world came to play to keep a stranglehold on the world.

And I was just a busboy at the restaurant.

“More liquor, boy,” The Dictator held up his glass, signaling for me to do my duty.

Just continue taking orders.

I’ve been in these rooms for a while and had a working knowledge of how things operated and had the confidence that I could contribute positively to the conversations and operations. He just didn’t want me to do so.

Like how I know Romania was always willing to negotiate better terms to outshine the Balkan territories. No one gave them any mind despite them having better access to arms to move out and an easier time doing so. The government was cooperative–for money. Other places required some clandestine operations.

“We have information on Jason Haines letting a woman lead his operation.” Reaper busted into the room with a file folder. “But I have suspicions that it’s something else.”

The Dictator looked surprised to see him waltz into the room so carelessly, but he shouldn’t have been. Reaper was a wild card and he wore a cover that showed none of his face with an expensive suit to boot. The rest of the men turned to see what was going on.

“Do tell.” He puffed his cigar and kicked his feet up.

The file was opened and spread out across the poker table in a way that said ‘fuck your poker game’ and Dave came in behind him–face uncovered. “We’ve been trailing this deal for a while. Each time, this same woman has been there doing the deals. One of the times we staked them out, she executed Haines’ drivers like it was nothing and replaced them with other men. We still have a missing Nicholas out of the country with insider information to our operations.”

Everyone leaned over the table to take a look at the file.

Dave continued where Reaper left off. “We spotted Haines last night. He’s hiding out and keeping his head low with only two men at his side. It smells fishy for the large name he’s made for himself over the last eight years. This woman has been seen with him for the last five or six years and pokes her head out more and more as the timeline continues.”