The Monster Hunter Ch. 31-40

Ch. 35

Angel was in no mood to cook dinner when she returned home. Instead, the four of them ended up eating pizza and getting drunk and naked in the hot tub together. Amber was more of a free spirit, and it was rubbing off on the older Angel. She'd never have considered going without a suit with her brother around. Now? Daniel was playing with her nipples just under the bubbles, while her brother might well be fucking his girlfriend as she sat quietly on his lap. They were on their third bottle of wine.

The alcohol eventually allowed Angel to talk about her afternoon as she leaned back onto Daniel's chest. It was a good thing they had all been drinking all night because Michael was ready to find Ken right now. "I should have broken his fucking arms," he muttered to himself. "I'm going to kill that fucker!"

"You can't do that," Amber said. "You can't drive, and I'm not bailing you out on your last night with me. Let the FBI do its work. If Ken was the one who did it, he's going to pay the price."

"She's right," Daniel said as he ran his hands down Angel's arms to calm her down. "Don't throw away your life over an idiot. Assaulting an FBI agent could put both of us in jail for a long time, no matter how much he deserves it."

"Both of you?" Angel turned back so she could see his eyes.

"He hurt you, Angel. If I saw Ken right now, I'd beat his ass too. Your brother and I won't let him get away with it."

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me, Daniel. You have a career, and your Naval career would be over. As for ass-beatings, you guys can get in line behind me. Michael already proved he's a better fighter, and I'm just as dangerous."

"It's true; we both win our share," Michael agreed. "She could go pro if she wanted to. If not for my size and strength advantage, I wouldn't win any of them."

"I doubt if Ken will agree to a spar after what you did to him, though. I trust Dan Robinson will get to the bottom of this. I'll wait to see what happens through official channels before I do anything on my own. Amber is right; there's no point in ruining Michael's last night."

Daniel pulled her back to him with both arms, hugging her tight to his chest. "All right. If you need his ass beaten, you let me know. Nobody hurts the woman I love and gets away with it."

Angel's eyes started to tear up; she still considered herself broken and could not understand how a man like Daniel could love her. She turned a little so she could kiss him, then reached over to refill her glass of wine. "How am I ever going to show my face at work again?"

"You already did it once, sis," Michael answered. "It came out that you are a child abuse victim, and you were brave enough to tell everyone in the office about it. Those who care about you know it wasn't your fault and supported you, right?" Angel nodded, thinking of the people who had embraced her and expressed their support. "This fucking meme isn't your fault either. No one you care about will do anything but get mad at the person who made it and the people that laugh at it."

"I don't think I've ever seen my boss that angry," Angel agreed.

"Someone targeted an agent in his command. Add in that a man in his command did it? If I were him, I'd be fucking pissed at the betrayal. I'd know it reflects on my leadership that I didn't stop it. My chain of command wouldn't be happy with me, either. They would wonder what kind of climate I created that allowed this shit to happen," Daniel said. "A shitstorm just opened up, and he's in the middle of it. Honestly, he'll be lucky to survive the week."

Amber reached her arm across to touch Angel. "I hope it all blows over before you go back, Angel. No woman should face harassment like this. Can you sue over this?"

"My lawyer is going to watch to see how the Bureau responds to this. To sue the FBI, I must prove they created a hostile work environment and failed to act on complaints. From what I've seen, they're going after this hard. If it WAS Ken, I could sue him personally for sexual harassment and emotional distress." Angel shifted around, sliding over Dan's legs until Das D was where she needed it to be. "I can't enjoy my time off when I have this all hanging over my head. I guess I'll get all the projects done around the house."

"I'm sorry I'm leaving you like this," Michael said.

"You have your job and your life, Michael. I'm a big girl. I'll get through it."

"I'll be here for her," Daniel promised. They spent a little more time in the tub before the heat and the wine made Angel too sleepy. She told Michael and Amber goodnight and led Daniel upstairs to bed.

The next morning, Michael's cooking woke them all up again. "You didn't have to do this," Angel said as she stumbled into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Amber has to head back to Gettysburg for work in an hour, so we had to get up early," Michael said. "Take a sandwich." She grabbed an English muffin stuffed with bacon, cheese, and egg off the counter and walked over to the table to join the others. "How do you feel this morning?"

"Hung-over," Angel and Amber both said. Angel ate quickly and took Daniel down to the gym so Michael could have private time before Amber had to leave.

Once she was gone, Michael pulled her aside. He went through where to find his will and other papers if anything happened to him overseas. "I modified my will, so it includes Amber. I want her to finish school and get her Masters without having to work at the same time."

"You've gotten close to her, haven't you." Angel couldn't remember anyone he'd gone out with for long, although it could have happened during the years he spent overseas. If it did, he'd never talked about it.

"She's a breath of fresh air in my life, Angel. You know I love you, but I'm happy knowing you are safe. With her, it's like I need to see her so I know she's happy."

Angel smiled; maybe both of them were closer to happiness than ever before.

She hugged him as she dropped him off at the airport with his luggage. "Be safe out there, Michael."

"I love you, Angel." He walked inside, not looking back as Angel drove away with Daniel.

The lovers spent the rest of the evening together, leaving Angel satisfied and exhausted when he finally headed home at ten that night. She woke in the morning with nothing to do; no job, no hearing date, and no news. She decided to spend Monday deep cleaning the house, starting with the bathroom shared between Michael's room and the bedroom she used as her office on the second floor.

As she scrubbed the floor around the toilet, she noticed a soft spot on the floor near the wall to the adjacent shower. "This can't be good," she said as she removed the baseboard and peeled back the vinyl flooring to expose the rotting subfloor. The damage wasn't coming from the toilet, so Angel took off the wall's access panel. "The FUCK?"

She could see the green deposits on the piping from the damp, poorly-done solder joint leading to the shower handle. The moisture traveled down the pipe to the floor, keeping the wood wet and allowing the rot to occur. That wasn't why her eyes were wide, or her mouth was catching flies.

She reached down into the wall cavity, grabbing at the plastic edge that shouldn't be there. It lifted out without resistance; about fifteen inches long and about three inches square. The first package got set aside as she grabbed three others, her heartbeat racing as she looked for more.

She could see two more packages above the shower valve; when she pulled one out, another would drop in its place. When Angel finally convinced herself the rest of the wall was empty, she had nine of them.

Each package was vacuum-packed in heavy plastic and contained multiple bundles of $100 bills. Each wrapped bundle was ten thousand dollars; each package held nine bundles.

She was looking at eight hundred and ten thousand dollars in cash, all hidden in her bathroom wall.

Ch. 36

Michael met the rest of his team at London's Heathrow airport, where they ate and talked while waiting for the next flight. The oil fields were in a remote desert region, not exactly a tourist hotspot. The group would first fly Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, arriving late Monday. Tuesday, they would board a company supply plane and fly across to the northeast corner of the Caspian Sea and land at Tenghiz Airport, which served the oil fields.

Their employer was the Chevron Corporation. To understand why a multinational oil company with internal security services would hire a military contractor, you need to understand the region's history and politics.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and is the eighth-largest country in the world, the size of Western Europe. It is the world's largest landlocked nation with Russia to the north and west, China to the east, and former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan to the south. Only 18 million people gave it one of the lowest population densities in the world. Kazakhstan's climate goes from Western Siberia's plains to the Kazakh Steppes (arid grassy region) to Central Asia's deserts. Nomadic peoples lived there throughout history. The Russians subjugated it starting in 1920, ruling it as a Republic until it became the last to declare independence in 1991. During Soviet rule, the Communists used it like Siberia to relocate troublesome populations. Russians, Germans, and Jews all fed the multicultural population. It is officially a democratic, secular Constitutional Republic, though human rights abuses remain common.

Like many former Soviet states, it is rife with corruption. The country has vast natural resources, including large deposits of natural gas, oil, and uranium. The Soviet-area infrastructure was crumbling, and oligarchs and foreign companies rushed in to take advantage of the new government.

Kazakhstan has extensive oil reserves but little refining capacity or pipelines; despite the amount of crude oil and natural gas they extracted, they had to import gasoline, diesel fuel, and natural gas from surrounding countries. Russia controlled the pipelines heading to Europe, and China's growing economy was hungry for resources to the east. Both took advantage of geography to keep them from selling at market prices.

The Kazakh economy is dependent on oil and gas. In 2016, Chevron signed an agreement with the national energy company to invest $37 billion into developing the Tengiz onshore oil field. The company expected that by using modern Western drilling and recovery methods, the oil fields would boom. They could push Kazakhstan into the Top 10 of oil-producing nations.

So why would Chevron be interested in developing oil fields that would benefit Russia and China? Simple. The company was also part of a project to build an oil pipeline that would span the Caspian Sea to terminals in Azerbaijan to the southwest. From there, it could go to the Black Sea or Mediterranean pipelines supplying Western Europe. It would bypass Iran and Russia, ending their stranglehold on the country, and provide a supply not dependent on Middle Eastern oil or Persian Gulf supply lines. Russia, China, and Iran all opposed the new pipeline and the presence of Western oil companies.

All three were known to eliminate people who get their way.

That wasn't the only threat to Western oil workers. The national oil company was corrupt, and kickbacks and bribes were common. Millions of dollars a month ended up in the pockets of those in power. The corruption created resentment among those who paid the environmental price but didn't share the economic benefit. Add in environmentalists and radicals, and there were plenty of reasons for Chevron to worry.

All of this was on Michael's mind as they unloaded their gear from the plane in Tenghiz. Despite the humidity from being near the Caspian Sea, it was a barren desert. "Another shithole," one of his men said as they walked to the waiting transport.

"If it were a garden spot, they wouldn't pay so much for us," Michael replied. "Load up."

The remote area was devoted solely to the oil field equipment and its workers, with camps and facilities lining the road north from the airport. Michael saw fenced areas with rows of barracks and support facilities alternated with warehouses and parking areas, making it more like a military post in Iraq than a city. The transport truck passed through an Army checkpoint, then another by Chevron security forces, before entering a secure camp. An eight-foot wall topped with barbed wire, the same car-bomb resistant construction he'd seen in Iraq, surrounded the camp. Michael got the guys settled in their barracks then went off to meet with the SecuriTech project lead.

"Welcome to the 'Stan," Curtis Campbell said as he reported to his friend. Curtis was a former SEAL Team Leader, a black man who stood five-foot-nine but was one of the most dangerous people Michael had ever met. They'd worked a few assignments before, and Curtis has specifically requested him for this job. With him was Seamus McKnight, the leader of the Tengiz Chevroil Security Division. That was the name of the consortium developing the oil field and pipeline.

Over the next hour, Curtis explained what Michael's group would be doing. A high-level Chevron contingent was coming in for talks with the Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan governments regarding the pipeline construction, and they'd received multiple threats. "They want Secret-Service level protection, not just bodyguards, and that's why you are here. Our group will provide close personal protection to the Chevron Vice-President and his staff for the next four weeks. The five VIPs arrive here tomorrow for three days inspecting the facilities and meeting with Tengiz Chevroil leadership and political officials. They will then fly to Nur-Saltan for a week of meetings, returning here before flying back to the States. Inside this perimeter, the VIPs are Chevron's responsibility. Outside the fence, your team has primary with Chevroil supporting."

"What support will we have in Nur-Saltan?" The Kazakhstan capital city was in the northeast portion of the country.

"I'm leaving today with three men as an advance team. I'll make sure we have armored vehicles waiting, plus I'll liaise with local police and military units tasked with guarding the government officials. We have permission to carry weapons in-country, but the government would prefer they aren't visible."

"So MP-5's and pistols?" Heckler-Koch MP-5 submachine guns were standard equipment for the DSS and Secret Service, and his team was very familiar with them. They fired 9mm pistol ammunition, which didn't have the stopping power of rifles but had a high fire rate and are effective at short range. "Grenades?"

"Only smoke and flash-bangs," Curtis replied. "We'll use security forces for overwatch."

"Wonderful." Michael's training wanted to control as much as possible, but that couldn't happen in a foreign country where you didn't have diplomatic immunity. If they shot someone who didn't deserve it, they could all end up in prison. Better to focus on getting the primary and secondary targets out of there.

"Draw your weapons from the armory, and Seamus will take you to the range. After dinner, you can start your planning. Seamus has all the details of the locations in Nur-Saltan, and I'll call you tomorrow with an update."

"Understood." Michael left with the Scotsman, grabbing his men to gear up. The weapons were in good shape, and they spent some time at the range making sure they worked properly. The team was issued Glock 19 pistols and combat knives as backup weapons.

Michael was extremely busy over the next week as he focused on protecting his charges. His personal cellphone stayed in his barracks room, not even turned on. He didn't see the text messages Angel sent to him, nor did he watch any news from the United States. The negotiations were going well for the company as they entered their fourth day, not that he was paying attention. While they were in the talks, he stayed in the back of the room with one other team member; another two were in the hall, two by the entrance, and the rest waited with the armored cars. They always used pairs because it allowed for bathroom breaks and checking out suspicious activities without leaving the post unmanned.

When it was time to leave, his team worked like a well-oiled machine. Michael led the group of executives out, his partner taking the trail position. Once they left the room, the two men outside took spots on either side. They waited near the door with the third team until the armored SUV's were ready, and Michael verified with Overwatch that they were clear to move.

They were halfway down the stairs, a few steps from the open car doors. Michael saw it first. "Grenade!" The rocket-propelled grenade streaked out from an open window in a building across the street, and it would take less than a second to arrive.

Reacting without having to think, the team surged forward with their charges towards the waiting vehicles. Michael grabbed the Vice-President's belt from behind and ran for safety. The RPG round landed a few meters from where they'd been standing, sending shrapnel and stone fragments in a deadly circle. The blast hit him in the back, knocking him forward as the team threw the last VIP into the SUV.

His team didn't wait for him; they closed the doors and got the principals out of danger. Michael lay motionless on the sidewalk as security forces opened fire on the attackers.

He lost consciousness before the shooting stopped.

Ch. 37

Angel took the cash bundles and put them in the large safe she kept in her bedroom closet for now. The packets didn't have a name on them, and the possibilities ran through her head. She wasn't the original owner of this condominium, but it wasn't likely previous owners had moved and left the money behind. The most likely answer was that Michael had stashed it there, but when and why? How had her brother come into that kind of money while working in private security? They were paid well, but not in cash, and not in those amounts. She looked at the two bundles of hundreds, twenty grand in cash, that she'd taken out. They looked real, including all the anti-counterfeiting strips and watermarks.

That was the kind of money that came from illegal activities. Angel sat on her bed, thinking back to all the clues and behaviors Michael had shown since he left the DSS. He worked maybe four months a year, leaving plenty of time off. He would disappear for weeks sometimes, riding his motorcycle and visiting friends. The more she thought about it, the more drugs made sense. Did Michael bring heroin back in diplomatic cases during his time in the DSS? Is that why he suddenly gave up on his career, because they were getting too close to finding out?

Or maybe he was involved in counterfeiting? The Secret Service worked overseas to fight the currency copiers. Maybe Michael made connections that way?

It made her head hurt to think her big brother could be a drug trafficker. The only thing lower in her mind was a child rapist, and Michael could NEVER be that.

"First things first," she told herself. The bathroom needed to be repaired, with the rotted wall and floor replaced before mold and rot spread further. Angel used her phone to look up handymen. She figured that short of a full bath remodel, home improvement contractors wouldn't bite on a small job. She found a man nearby and called him up; he even offered a cash discount and would stop by in an hour to give her an estimate.

Angel took a flashlight and inspection mirror from her crime scene kit and made one last check of the wall, finding nothing but sawdust left in the wall. Returning to her room, she grabbed her phone and sent Michael a text. "Pipe was leaking by the shower handle in your bathroom. What a mess! We may have to replace the wall and part of the floor. Call me." She prayed she was wrong as she hit send; if Michael had hidden the money, the text would freak him out. If not, he'd tell her to get it fixed and offer to help pay for it.