The Investigators, Inc. The Panama Case. Chapter 2. The Traitor.

Snakebite did go directly back to Rico and told him about his meeting with Aari and the Jaguars. “He claimed to be from Europe,” said Snakebite. “Hey Calvin,” said Rico, “check on these Jensen Jaguars from Europe.” “Shall do Rico,” he said. It didn’t take him long to get the information Rico wanted. “They are for real,” said Calvin, “estimated to have 100 or more men, home base in Germany, deals in drugs, extortion, kidnapping, jewels, said to be a tough bunch, eating up more territory all the time.”

“Hmm, more territory means more drugs,” said Rico leaning back in his chair, “and that means more money for us. The more money I have, the quicker I can be number one in this organization.” “Once they pay for that Sienna gal,” said Snakebite, “you will have more than enough money to take over.” “Yep, and I will be sitting in Honduras and you can have number 2 spot looking after things here,” said Rico smiling, “has that gal settled down any?”

“Yeah, I convinced her that yelling and screaming and breaking stuff will not help her,” laughed Snakebite, “and I only had to hit her 6 times.” “Good, but take it easy for now,” said Rico, “we need her to talk each day so we get that money. Did you put her on the third floor like I said?”

“Yeah, she’s in that corner room, the one that faces east,” said Snakebite, “but I don’t know why you’re worried, no one can get into that mansion of yours without us knowing about it. Do you really think they are stupid enough to try anything like that?” “You never know with wealthy companies like that,” said Rico, “they got the money to pay some outfit to do it, so I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

“Okay Rico,” said Snakebite, “now, what about that Aari guy?” “Set up a meeting,” said Rico, “they got a nice restaurant in that hotel, make the meeting for lunch at 1pm, tell him 2 each.” “Right, I’ll call him now,” he said. Meanwhile, back at the hotel. “We got the meeting set up Aari,” said Cal.

“Good, things are working out nicely,” said Aari, “plus, we know where they are keeping Sienna, though I’m sure it won’t be easy to get in there.” Aari then called me and let me know what they had found out, so now we start going to work. I told Aari the name of their main rival cartel and a little about how they operate, especially the way they like to kill people.

This is not something we would normally do, but this is not a normal case and these are not normal people we are fighting with either. And, if possible, we would like to start a war between these two rival cartels. That will help keep them busy and more focused on that, rather than being focused on all the new strangers in the city. Namely us.

The ‘business’ meeting between Aari and Rico went nicely and they agreed on a preliminary purchase. This was just to see how the process works. Meanwhile, back to us. “Obviously they have that mansion well guarded and they will see if a plane or helicopter flies suspiciously around their place. And most likely even a drone would be noticed, so we can’t take chances on such things.

We also discovered they have 2 lookout towers on the property, plus one on the roof of the house. From those towers they can see easily about 10km in any direction, and he has a private road to his house that is 15km long. That means we can’t get anywhere near that place by car. Our ghosts could get in, but it would be a long walk, although we might be able to make it shorter for them.

However, if I just send Sky and Angel, then Courage could carry Sky in and carry Sienna out. Still, we would have to time things just right. And there are alarms to deal with, and even our ghosts need an open door, they can’t walk through walls. I will have to think this through a bit more before we make any firm decisions. We still have lots of time yet. Roger

talked with Sienna today and he said she sounded fine, so Snakebite must have beaten her after the phone call. I will make sure he realizes his mistake in doing that. It will soon be getting dark, that’s the time that Jaguars come out to hunt. At least our Jaguars do anyway. I told Aari that Manuela’s cartel is the one that quietly fights with Rico’s cartel.

Nothing major really, but they both do some killing of each others people now and then, a token of their not so friendly friendship. Word has it that both would like to destroy the other to take over their territory. But, Rico has the largest cartel and is backed by his brother and cousin. That puts Manuela at a disadvantage. However, we will try to level things a bit for Manuela.

Aari had made a preliminary purchase from Rico worth $100,000 US. Cal, Trapper Lance, Tim and Oskar met Snakebite and some of his men at 10pm and paid him the money. Snakebite then gave them directions to find the location of their drug purchase, which was quite a distance away.

They went to the site, which was a bus shelter and Oskar picked up the bench inside while Cal took out a bag that he was tossing around like a balloon. “Something wrong Rico,” said a man, “I’ll tell you in a minute.” Cal then emptied the contents out, which was just popcorn. All the man were visibly angry, but Cal was the most angry. He then called Aari and told him what happened.

Meanwhile, “There was nothing in that bag but popcorn Rico!” exclaimed the man, “I thought it looked too light. I don’t understand it, no one came here, I have been here watching the whole time, right since Snakebite put the bag in the hole.” “After they leave,” said Rico, “go check the spot, maybe they missed the real bag.” Shall do Rico,” he said, “they are leaving right now.”

He then went to look, but there were no drugs in that drop. “No sign of anything Rico,” he said, “someone on our side made a switch.” “Yeah, and we know who did that switch,” said Rico, “since Snakebite would notice the weight difference right away. Obviously he did the switch, or he is working with someone else.” “Look at this Rico,” said Calvin, “it’s a copy of Snakebite’s bank account.

Each week for the last 3 weeks he has deposited an extra $10,000. That’s payoff money.” “Yeah, it sure is,” said Rico, “and we know who he’s working for too! Tell the ‘doctor’ to come here.” Then another man came running into the room. “Hey Rico,” he said, “we went looking for the two guys that were with Snakebite earlier since they hadn’t called in on time.

We found them sitting in their car, both were stabbed, and both had the emblem of Manuela’s cartel scratched into their forehead.” “Well, well, everything is fitting into place quite nicely,” said Rico, “though I’m sure Snakebite won’t agree…”

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod