The Formidable Stranger (Trilogy)

Jamaican Fever

The first night went by with a few drinks at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, the gang had a few bottles of the local favorite; Red Stripe Beer.

"Not bad," Drew said as he toasted to his best friend, they all sat by the pool on beach chairs with Tammy sitting in her lover's lap and Cas wetting his feet. Cipher was in his own zone drifting away on an inflatable bed in the pool and that was probably the first time they saw him without some form of tech.

"Hey buddy! You okay over there? Not seeing you with your life support machine attached" Cas jeered at him

"haha very funny my friend, I'll have plenty of time to hack around Jamaica and find your drug smuggling ex-girlfriend" Cipher responded

"You mind keeping your voice down you ugly swan"

"Oh come on, this is Kingston! Nobody cares.."

Tammy laughed upon hearing this and said "And just what do you know about Jamaicans Cipher"

"Easy.. They love smoking pot and praises Vybz Kartel, everybody a bad man! A nuh nothing if me talk about Penelope and Red Dragon mon" Cipher responded with an awful interpretation of the Jamaican patois dialect.

Everyone laughed at him and enjoyed their one evening as actual tourists before they got down to business. Casper glanced at his phone as he heard it vibrating like it would break the glass table with all the beer, it was a video call from Sophie.

"I'll be right back guys," he said as he took up the phone and began walking alongside the pool before he swiped up to answer it.

"Hey you, I take it you landed safely.." she said as he opened the call

"Hey Soph... yeah I'm settling into a hotel for the night, should be getting down to business as soon as I'm fully settled though"

"Great, so... about last night.." she began saying as he looked at her blushing through the video "Last night was wild.." Casper picked up.

"Yeah it was, I hope you don't feel weird around me at work"

He smiled at her "weird? Nah... Besides, you get a couple of days without me to sober up."

They laughed and talked a little longer before they were interrupted by another incoming call.

Grandmaster Ming appeared on the screen, no doubt he had some new information to give on the whereabouts of Penelope Shanae, "Hey Sophie I'm getting another call from this client, I'll talk to you in a little while okay"

"Oh sure" she responded as they ended their conversation, he immediately answered the voice call from Ming and placed the phone on speaker while walking back over to the team.

"You kids ready to do some actual work and leave the pool to the tourists?" Ming said opening the conversation.

"How'd he know we were by the pool?" Cipher said as he rowed himself in.

"Ears of a ninja Mr. Cipher" Ming answered "Anyway, my connections in Jamaica say Penelope is still there, she's supposed to meet a local drug dealer by the name of Michael"

"Michael? Okay that helps a little, any idea where we can find them or when this meeting is gonna happen?" Casper asked being anxious.

"Patience Casper, your forgetting the fundamentals of being a shadow... Michael lives somewhere called Portmore.. and the meeting is tonight at midnight"

"Portmore?" Drew said "I've overheard some locals mention that place, apparently it's famous for two things; a blazing hot sun and mosquitoes that bite like vampires"