Abandoned Treasure

Nathan Storm’s POV

Alameda, California

Monday, December 14, 2018

The Oracle network lit up shortly after the raid on the Oakland clubhouse. Jade was busy answering the phones; coded messages kept flying overnight as the Club tried to figure out what was next.

The Cartel wasn’t happy. They sent a four-word order over our coded message board. “Find out what happened!”

It took Jade some time to verify her suspicions. I sent the reply right before she had to leave for work. “Raid came from DC office. Locals kept in the dark. Arrests of local assets have started. VP flipped on the Club, gave Feds everything.”

“How bad?”

“Not recoverable. DEA has enough to make RICO is a slam-dunk. Murder, drug trafficking, money laundering on a platter. Expect some to flip on you to avoid life in prison.” I knew what the result of this message would be. I was counting on the Cartel doing whatever it took to protect themselves.

It took a few hours for the Cartel to make the decision. “Send the Emergency Meeting code. Noon tomorrow. Inform us of any changes.”

The Cartel had set this up shortly after they started using the Oracle as a go-between. I started making the calls to the Presidents of each chapter. “Grandmother is sick. You should visit soon. Tomorrow, for lunch.” The code phrase told them the Cartel bosses needed to see them in the mountains north of Santa Cruz. They would travel alone to the border near Nogales, slip into Mexico, and gather at the Cartel safe house.

I sent a confirmation when I’d spoken to each Chapter President. I didn’t hear from the Cartel again by ten that night, and that inaction wasn’t enough for my purposes.

With the leadership gone, I had to ensure the rest would do what I wanted.

The Sons used the Oracle to relay orders. They wouldn’t question a message they thought came from their Chapter President. I composed a message using the book of code words we used with them. The call would sound innocuous, but the Vice Presidents and Master at Arms for each Chapter would understand what it meant. “I heard Samuel Baker is coming over soon. He’ll be wearing a blue shirt and bringing fireworks. Gather everyone for the surprise party, but don’t let him in the house.”

The Club would understand the Steel Brotherhood was coming. They’d look like cops and would be heavily armed. They were to get everyone to the Clubhouse and keep them out at all costs. I added the code for the Chapter President with another word that meant they shouldn’t call back.

With all the intelligence we’d provided Spider Monkey, the Feds should have no problems getting warrants. My message would gather everyone in one place. The DEA and FBI raids would quickly follow.

I had trouble falling asleep as I thought about what I’d just set into motion.

Federal agents were going to die because of me. The Sons of Tezcatlipoca would never surrender and would die in a pile of brass.

The Cartel would take out the leadership, but I needed the Feds to eliminate the rest of them. I had to make them Public Enemy Number One. I wanted the dead to feel lucky; the Justice Department wouldn’t have a need or political will to cut any deals. The losses would force them to throw the book at the survivors, handing out decades in prison to anyone who owned a cut. The RICO statutes would break the club, confiscating all Club property and any remaining money.

Jade woke me shortly after her alarm went off in the morning. “It’s begun,” she told me.

I clicked on the television in our bedroom. “RAIDS ON BIKER GANG CLUBHOUSES” was across the bottom of the screen. The news stations were struggling to keep up, as SWAT teams had raided fifteen clubhouses at six AM California time. The DEA had arrest warrants for every member of the leadership and many of the members. News helicopters and local reporters showed the damage from fierce gun battles with the dug-in outlaw bikers.

As I feared, the raids were not without costs. The Los Angeles raid was a joint operation between the DEA and Los Angeles County SWAT. The Sons held them off for a few minutes, killing two Deputies and wounding four others before the tear gas overcame them. Three more officers died in Houston and one in Phoenix. In every raid, many Sons of Tezcatlipoca members fought to the death. Over forty were reported dead already, with more in the hospitals.

The Oracle got a call just before Jade went to work in the morning. She got on the headset. “Identification code?”

“Jaguar One Five Two Delta.” That was Manuel Correria.

“Voice match. How may I help you, sir?”

“Summary status.”

He asked about the raids, so she gave him the bad news. “All units have checked in from alternate locations. Primary locations are all under hostile control.”

“Rat status?”

“They brought in outside teams, and the locals we owned are compromised. Frank Grimes was the source and ran the Oakland and Los Angeles raids. Raids on the Chapters were due to bank transfers linking them to the operation.”

“Anything else?”

“No.”

Manuel gave her directions. The first was a message to pass to the chapters about helping the Los Angeles chapter members heading to Minnesota. The second was to have the Bay Area chapter members hold the rat for him. Manuel gave her a new phone number to reach him at before he hung up.

“What do we do with this?”

I looked over at her as she stood up from the computer. “I’ll take care of it.” I kissed her as she headed off to work, then made the calls. I tried reaching Spider Monkey, but it went right to voicemail. I left a message for her about ’guys from Oakland showing up unannounced at her friend’s cabin on the North Shore. I hoped that would be enough because I wasn’t calling the Arrowhead Pack directly.

I sent a message to Ten Taco, one of the senior men from Oakland still at large, to keep the rat alive until Alejandro could question him. I updated Manuel’s phone number but didn’t pass it to the Feds. They were meeting with the Cartel soon, and I didn’t want to lead them to the ones I needed to eliminate the senior leaders. Lastly, I sent word to the leadership left in each chapter to rally people to Duluth and wait for orders. If they didn’t get caught along the way? They’d be in one place for disposal.

The reporting was wall-to-wall the entire day, but the focus soon shifted to the ones the Sons had co-opted to secure their drug pipeline. Cops, Federal Agents, Customs personnel, prosecutors, and others were perp-walked past the cameras while graphics counted off the totals. Most arrests were in the Bay Area, but the rot extended to Washington, DC.

Jade and her group were in the middle of the mess. Computer experts from the FBI and NSA were in the office with her, preserving data and breaking into phones. I’d gotten one call from her early, saying she wouldn’t be home until late.

I was glad the Sons didn’t trust us with their network of informants and enablers. None of their payout records or orders went through the Oracle, so we were safe from the coming scrutiny. Unfortunately for them, the list of people and payoff amounts was on the President’s computer. Jade gave Spider Monkey a copy of the file the Feds used to get the warrants.

The calls to the Oracle had dropped to almost nothing as the day went on. Those requesting safe houses or reporting their locations got nasty surprises when the cops arrived. I’d been tipping off police of their names and locations using untraceable phone numbers.

I had a roster of the entire Club on my desk, organized by chapter and with the Jaguars in bold print. As the information came in, I highlighted dead members in green and those jailed in yellow. By the end of the day, less than twenty percent were unaccounted for.

The Chapter Presidents weren’t in custody yet, and the Feds were not forthcoming about their whereabouts.

I didn’t hear about them until the late-night news. The Cartel had taken care of business with their customary efficiency. They hung their heads like Christmas ornaments from the border fence near San Diego.

I highlighted sixteen more names on the list in green, all Jaguar Shifters. That left only one werecat member left alive, Dallas Master-at-Arms Julio Salazar. He'd been captured trying to head north and was in Federal Prison now.