Abandoned Treasure

Nathan Storm’s POV

Alameda, California

Friday, December 18, 2018

The Council meeting wasn’t open for broadcast to all of the Packs, but you couldn’t hide the blowback from it. “Holy shit,” I said as I read the notice. “Alpha Henry Millner is dead, killed in a dispute during the meetings.”

“Who do I send the thank-you note to,” Jade asked.

“Coral Sexson is the new Alpha.”

Her eyes got big. “Coral? Beta Coral?” She leaned back in her computer chair. “Good for her. The Omegas up there have to be thrilled.”

“There’s something weird about it. Coral couldn’t make a formal challenge for the Alpha position and have it resolved so quickly. Millner must have done something stupid at the meeting.”

“Like what? I thought you said the host Alpha guarantees the others will be safe?”

“He does, but if Henry tried to attack Chase Nygaard? Coral would be within her rights to defend him, even to the death.” I kept reading the notice. “Coral’s already got a challenger, Henry’s old Beta. He’s out of the Pack while the Council sets up a vote.”

She snorted. “How much of a typical Pack is Omega level?”

“Somewhere between thirty and sixty percent, I guess. Arrowhead is an outlier because they started with almost all Omegas.”

“And you need how much support from the Pack to have the Council recognize your Alpha Challenge?”

“Two-thirds,” I said. “They set the bar high. It’s rare for a sitting Alpha to face a challenge because of that, but Coral is new.”

“She’s a hero to every Omega and every female wolf,” Jade responded. “There’s no chance of a challenger meeting the threshold without some Omega support, and they won’t get a single one to vote against her.”

I thought about it before concluding she was right. “That doesn’t mean they like this turn of events. I bet the Council is shitting bricks over having FOUR Packs under the control of the Nygaard clan. None of them agree with the old ways from what I’m hearing.”

“Good. The Council needs new blood. Maybe someday, they can get some leadership we can work with.” That was the long-term goal for those like us outside their Pack system, but it wouldn’t happen with men like Chairman Coffey in charge. She went back to her computer while I kept poking through the Council’s website. “This is interesting,” Jade said a little later.

“What?”

“The DEA is watching Director Frank Grimes after his suspension. You’ll never guess where they tracked him and who he was with.” I didn’t have a guess. “He’s at Arrowhead.”

“He must have been working with Chase against the Sons,” I figured. “We know he was the lead on the drug bust and the raids on the clubhouses.”

She snorted. “With the information Spider Monkey and I dug up, an idiot could have taken down that club.”

“He probably told the DEA that Chase was the agent, so maybe he’s cultivating his asset?”

She shook her head. “The Feds wouldn’t let Frank anywhere near an active informant. They suspended him because he might have tipped off the Los Angeles chapter about the raid. They lost multiple officers that day while the leaders escaped. And it doesn’t explain why he was holding hands and chatting it up with Colletta Nygaard on the flight to Duluth on Wednesday.”

“Luna Nygaard? Chase’s Mom?” Holy shit. How did they even meet? She wasn’t in Orlando.

“Yep. The Task Force doesn’t know what is going on. They are digging into the Nygaard family big-time now that the Sons are mostly gone. Rori, too. Nobody knows where she got the money to build Arrowhead, and big chunks of her life are blanks.”

Federal attention was the LAST thing the Packs needed. Too many bodies lie buried on their lands. “The Council won’t like the scrutiny.”

“Maybe that is why Colletta Nygaard is in Washington meeting with Homeland Security,” Jade said.

I just about shot Coke through my nose at that. “WHAT?” The Packs NEVER dealt directly with the Government.

It wasn’t until that night that we figured out their play. The Justice Department and Homeland Security had reached a deal with Luna Colletta. The Task Force Commander got direct orders to stop investigating Arrowhead and focus solely on wiping out the Sons of Tezcatlipoca.

The remaining bikers were doing a fine job of that on their own. The group gathered in Duluth fought it out with the FBI and local police on Saturday night, putting most of them in the morgue. Fewer than a dozen members remained at large, and they were in hiding. As an organization, the Sons of Tezcatlipoca was eliminated north of the border. From our perspective, it was as good an outcome as possible.

On Sunday morning, we got a message that made my gut drop. It was from the Cartel. “A ticket on the Alcatraz Island tour is at the will-call window. Be at Pier 33 in San Francisco for the two PM ferry. It is under the name Nathan Storm. Enjoy the park!”

The Cartel wanted to speak to me in person, and they knew who I was, and they WANTED me to know that they knew. “We have to get out of here,” Jade said in a panicked voice. “They are cleaning up the mess, and we’re next!”

“They could do that with a hit team or a bomb,” I countered. “This is too public. They want to talk to me, so we’ll talk.” I switched to our mate link. “Watch what you say.They might have surveillance on us already.”

“We can’t trust any of them!”

I took her in my arms and pulled her tight. “They know who I am and where I live,” I told her. “I’ll handle the meeting since they asked for me. You need to keep the kids safe.”

“I’ll have Dahla take the kids to Idaho with Mom. They can stay there until we know it’s safe.”

That made sense. Art Dreyfuss had disappeared without a trace, but we knew the Council had killed him. Using the Oracle, we transferred his property to a shell company so we could use it as a safe house. They’d never find us as long as we were careful. “Pack them up and leave, but drive separately from Mom and take a different route. Make sure no one follows you.”

“No. I’ll stay here with you.”

“I need you safe,” I pleaded.

“I am the Oracle. You need me here, or the Oracle is useless to them. If they want to talk? We need to remain an asset to them.”

I didn’t like her staying in danger, but Jade was right. We said goodbye to Isra, Dahla, and the kids after lunch. Jade remained in the computer room while I rode my motorcycle to the City.

I picked up my tickets and boarded the ferry for the 15-minute ride to Alcatraz. No one talked to me, so I stood at the rail and took pictures like any tourist. I was an hour into my self-guided tour when a young, attractive Hispanic woman approached me while I was looking out over the cellblock. “Hello, Oracle. Don’t look at me or change what you are doing.”

I could pick her up in my peripheral vision. She was Hispanic, in her twenties, and quite attractive, with glossy black hair down her back. “How can I be of assistance?”

“Give me your assessment of the Sons.”

I shook my head. “As an asset, they have nothing left to offer you,” I told her. “Almost all the senior leadership is dead, along with most of the foot soldiers. The ones that remain are in jail or heading to jail. They are a liability now.”

“How so?”

“They are facing decades to life in prison, and the threat of retaliation only exists from the Club members alive in Mexico. The Feds will get around to them soon enough. Most don’t know enough to hurt you, but a few could be a problem for your organization.”

“Who?”

“The Vice President of the Oakland chapter is already in witness protection.”

“We have that problem under control. Who else?”

“Julio Salazar. He’s in prison, but he knows about the drug trafficking and the Cartel connections.”

“What about Chase Nygaard? He’s caused us a lot of trouble.”

“I wouldn’t worry about him and the Brotherhood. They don’t care about you or the drug trade. It was a personal beef that went bad. With the Sons gone, the Steel Brotherhood ceases to be a problem.”

“His people penetrated the Sons and their computers. They even stole their money.”

I nodded. “The Brotherhood has thousands of members and significant resources, including some talented hackers. Manilo was a fool to take them on. Let the war die with the Sons, and they will leave you alone.”

“What about the money they took? That was ours.”

I shook my head. “I’ve seen the information their hackers uncovered and gave to the FBI. They are damn good, and you don’t want their attention shifting to you. My advice? Focus on establishing a new distribution system.”

“The Sons have a strong organization in Mexico. Could they expand north of the border? Reestablish the network that way?”

I laughed. “No way. My advice is to let the DEA and Mexican authorities handle them if you can’t.”

She handed me a piece of paper. “My bosses agree with your assessment. The remaining leadership is gathering here tomorrow. Can you get this to people who can eliminate the problem?”

I pocketed the note. “I can get it to someone who can feed it to the CIA liaison on the Task Force.”

“Good.” She took off her backpack and set it on the floor between us. “When this is over, we will need your help with other matters. The computer people you used are of particular interest to my organization. They succeeded in penetrating places we cannot. We want them working for us, Nathan. Figure out a way to make that happen.” With that, she walked off without looking back.

I waited a few minutes, then picked up the backpack. It was heavy, so I took a peek inside.

It was full of cash.

I headed back to the ferry and drove home.

Jade passed the information to Spider Monkey. Late Monday, the news broke of a drone attack on the Sons of Tezcatlipoca leadership in Mexico. From the video, I doubted if anyone survived the airstrike.