Weston Securities-WITSEC Program

Chapter 3-1

Luke walked through the night club, his eyes constantly scanning the occupants. The blaring, pulsing music grated on his nerves and wasn’t helping his headache in the least. The strobe light wasn’t helping with his vision but he ignored it all. He’d been trained in some of the harshest conditions. Learned to push through distractions and pain. He focused on a single goal. Locate Djokovic and the buy site. Obviously it wasn’t going to be in the middle of the dance floor.

All he had was an address the cab dropped Djokovic at. Even Greg’s contact verified the address. Good thing it was close by or they’d never have enough time to get there before the buy went down which was in less than five minutes.

Luke studied the layout briefly before entering. There were three floors with a basement. The main level was the night club. Gambling was upstairs and suites on the top floor.

Logic said that the illegal stuff was upstairs rather than the basement. There were three entrance and exit points around the building. Jack was covering the back. Carson and Rob were covering the side entrances. Lastly, Barry was doing surveillance from a van just down the street. All the entrances were covered.

Luke knew Greg was somewhere in the building. They’d made sure to arrive separately so they didn’t draw attention, but he couldn’t spot him through the massive crowd.

“Wanna dance?” A woman asked appearing in front of him wrapping her arms around him like a boa constrictor.

“No thank you.” He politely declined, disentangling himself and walked around her.

The last thing he wanted to do was dance. He wasn’t a bad dancer. Far from him. Not to toot his own horn but he was a pretty good dancer even with a busted up leg, but there was a time and place for it and now wasn’t it.

Luke went to the main bar that had the best view point of the club. “Scotch on the rocks.” He ordered. He would look out of place if he didn’t at least look like he was a patron.

The bartender nodded and few seconds later slid the drink to him. Luke paid what he felt was highway robbery for a simple drink but forked it over. He turned back to the crowd looking at faces instead of the bumping and grinding happening on the floor.

He’d never understand people and that thumping, annoying music. There weren’t even words to it. Just noise. If he had to listen to just music, he preferred jazz to this racket. He couldn’t wait to get out of this place. The middle east in the heart of Taliban territory was better than this.

“Report,” He said before he took a sip.

“No activity on the East door.” Carson replied quickly.

“No activity on the West door.” Rob reported.

“Nothing in the back.” Came Barry’s reply.

Luke checked his watch. Five minutes to the buy Either people were waiting for the last minute or they were already in the building.

“Do you see anything, Greg?”

“No,” Greg’s voice came over loud and clear through the ear piece. “I’m making my way to check the basement.”

“Are we sure this is the right place?” Luke asked trying not to sound as irritated as he felt.

“My contact verified this address as the buy spot.” Came Greg’s response.

Which meant Djokovic was still here, but where?

“Barry, can you see Djokovic on the security cameras?”

“Negative only the main level and the gambling area have security footage.”

Luke spotted someone head toward the stairs that went up. They showed a thin black wristband to one of the bouncers and they were let up. “Looks like some activity could be upstairs. Need a wristband to get up there. A good place for buyers to be waiting. I’ll check it out. Greg head that way after you sweep the basement.”

“Copy.”

Now he just needed to find someone with a wristband.

Two men walked up next to him talking in low tones. How they could hear each other over the din Luke didn’t know. There was something about them that seemed out of place for the night club.

Luke had been in this business too long to spot people like this. These weren’t night club patrons, but here for something else.

It was a nice night club and most wore dress shirts and slacks but these guys were in full suits and they didn’t appear cheap looking but tailored. They were about the same height, about six-foot. One had a buzz cut and the other was completely bald.

The bald one ordered a drink. His hand reached out and Luke caught sight of a thin black band. This guy was his ticket in.

Luke took another sip of his scotch while he leaned back causally against the bar, appearing to be looking out at the crowd. His ears strained to hear the conversation next to him.

“We need to get upstairs, it’s about to go down.” The buzz cut one said.

Luke had a feeling what it was. The buy.

“In just a minute, I’m waiting on my drink.” His friend said casually as if he had all the time in the world

“We’re going to be dead men if we don’t get there before it happens.”

“Relax, they’re already bringing my drink.” The bald one said unphased.

“You dumb s**t,” The man hissed. “If we miss the buy we will be killed.”

The buy. That was all the confirmation that Luke needed.

Luke tossed back the rest of his drink took a step before stumbling back into the bald guy causing him to spill his drink.

“What the f**k man.” The bald man snapped.

Luke rolled his shoulders forward and stooped to make himself look smaller and harmless. At six-foot-six that wasn’t an easy feat. He made sure to lean to one side, practically using the bar to support himself.

“Shoory,” He slurred, sounding like he’d had too much to drink. “Wasn loogin where I washe goin.”

The guy looked at him disgusted. “f*****g drunk. This is going to stain.” The bald guy used his drink napkin to wipe off his jacket.

“Le me help,” Luke used his hand but the man batted his hands away as if afraid Luke could give him cooties.

“You’ve done enough.” The man growled and started stomping off.

“Where are you going now?” His partner shouted.

“To the bathroom to clean up.” Baldy cast a ‘duh’ look over his shoulder

“But we have…” He looked at Luke realizing they weren’t alone and was practically yelling. “We have somewhere to be.”

“You go on ahead. It won’t take both of us.”

The buzz cut guy didn’t look happy but stomped off heading for the upstairs. Now was Luke’s chance. “In pursuit of a possible suspect. Wait one.” He followed the bald guy to the bathroom. The music was muted back here. His ear drums were thanking him for the reprieve. His gaze scanned the spacious bathroom. Luckily, they were the only two in there.

The guy was near the door using a wet paper towel to wipe off his shirt. He glared over at him when he heard the door open. “What do you want?”

Luke stumbled forward. He needed to get close to the guy.

He eyed Luke suspiciously when he kept coming forward. The guy turned to face him fully and tried to puff himself up. “Leave while you still can, pal.”

Luke held his hands up in surrender still appearing small and feeble. “I came to apologize.”

“Oh yeah, for what?” The guy taunted.

“For this.” Luke unfurled himself to his full height as he brought his fist up and clipped the guy in the jaw. The guy fell like a sack of grain.

He dragged the guy to the farthest stall and set him on the toilet. ‘Let’s see who you are.” He patted down the guys pockets, not shocked to find a gun. He was shocked to find zip ties and a blind fold.

Why would this guy have these for a drug buy? These were tools for a k********g not a drug buy. The guy didn’t even have more than a hundred dollars on him. Not near enough money for a d*******l. Things weren’t adding up.

Luke took a picture of the guys driver’s license and sent a text to Barry. “Barry, I just sent you a text. See what you can dig up on this guy.”

“On it.” Came Barry’s quick reply.

Luke found the guys phone. Turning it on he saw that it was fingerprint protected. Not a problem. “Hope you don’t mind if I borrow this.” He grabbed the guys right thumb and put it over the sensor. “Hope this is the right one.” He muttered to himself.

He sighed in relief when it opened to the home screen. Luke hadn’t wanted to waste time he didn’t have trying to pick the right finger.

He opened up the messages icon. Luke’s eyes widened seeing the laded of information at his fingertips. This guy believed in the power of the fingerprint lock holding all of his secrets. Everything was in here. He pocketed the phone and pulled out his knife for a souvenir. He didn’t have time to go through the phone now and he wasn’t sure if Barry would be able to open it again.

He removed the wristband and put it on himself.

Leaving the bathroom Luke made his way back through the crowd headed for the stairs. His steps faltered when he saw the buzz cut guy standing on the bottom stairs next to the bouncer looking toward the bathroom.

What were the chances he’d recognize him? Luke had made his presence known. He was going to have to find a way to sneak past him. And he needed a plan quick. He was out of time. Hopefully Greg had found someone with a wristband and was already up there and in position.

Luke grunted in shock when he collided with a woman. His hands reached out and grabbed her before she could fall to the ground and pulled her close. Even over the dim of the people shouting and the music he heard her sharp gasp. A sound that went straight to his c**k.

His hands tingled where he touched her bare skin. He tried to ignore how soft it felt. Like satin. She was just a few inches shorter than him. A rarity for his six-foot-six frame. He bet she had legs for miles. The club was too dark to see what color hair she had. It looked blonde but it was hard to tell for certain. He hoped it was, he was a sucker for blondes.

His fingers curled as he imaged stroking his fingers through the silky looking strands. What the hell was wrong with him? There was a d*******l about to go down and he was salivating after a woman. One he hadn’t even seen her face yet. But he could smell her. He inhaled a deep breath. Jasmine.

The woman looked up at him and it was like being punched in the solar plexus with a two by four. Stunning didn’t even come close to describing her. High arched eyebrows, wide eyes, a cute button nose and pouty big lips that he imaged claiming as his own.

“Are you alright?” He asked, looking her over head to toe. She looked damn fine to him. He was surprised he wasn’t salivating.