Dino by Jaime Lewis
Prologue
Arianna Roland knew something big was going down when a couple of men in suits showed up in the FBI cyber department to speak with her boss. It wasn’t exactly an odd thing that agents came to meet with her boss. It was the fact that the meeting took place at five o’clock in the morning when the majority of the staff didn’t start until nine. Well, except for her. Being an FBI Forensic Accountant, she worked tirelessly in front of a computer all day to identify criminal activity and uncover hidden assets. Her expertise would assist in tracing transactions to their source. In the six years, she’d been contracting with the FBI, she helped solve crimes from cybersecurity and counterintelligence to organized crime and terrorism. It was a good-paying job, and she got to work independently, meaning she didn’t have to interact with actual humans to do her job. Because of that, she could make her own work schedule. As long as she put in a solid eight hours a day as required by her contract, her boss didn’t care when she worked. Her preference was to start work in the early morning hours and then get off in the early afternoon giving her time for other activities or just to chill out at home. It also helped her avoid rush hour traffic. That was a nightmare all on its own.
As she scrolled and clicked on the following line of numbers, she tried to ignore the two agents and her boss as they held their little pow-wow. Still, it was difficult not to take a glance every so often, considering they were in the glass-walled conference room directly across from her workstation. Judging from her boss, Sam’s, sour expression, it didn’t seem to be a good conversation.
A few minutes went by when she heard the click sound the door made when it was opened. She struggled not to look up, but then Sam called her name though it was muffled because she had earbuds in. “Arianna.” She looked up and removed her earbuds. “Can you please come in here?” He asked.
She bit her lip. Why would two agents and her boss want to speak with her? She wondered if she had done something wrong. She felt her palms begin to sweat. She had that feeling when she was back in high school and had gotten called in the principal’s office.
She got up and walked over to the room. Sam held the door for her. When she walked in, the two agents, both tall, one with dirty blonde hair and the other with dark brown, stood and extended their hands, and she shook them.
The one with dirty blonde hair spoke first. “Hi, Arianna. My name is Special Agent Chris Hurts, and this is Agent Russ Callen.” He gestured to the empty seat across from them. “Please have a seat.”
She looked at Sam, wondering what was going on. Again, he looked like he was either mad or annoyed. She couldn’t tell which, but either way, it gave her a bad vibe that she wasn’t going to like what these agents had to say. She took the seat that was offered to her then Sam sat down next to her.
She couldn’t take the suspense any longer, and she looked over at Sam. “Sam, what’s going on? Am I in some sort of trouble, or did I do something wrong?”
His hardened face softened a smidge. “No, of course not. You’re one of the best employees I’ve got working for me. In fact, I wish you’d take the permanent job that is opening up with George leaving.”
She scrunched her eyebrows together. “Is this what this meeting is about? To offer me the permanent full-time job?” She loved what she did and had waited patiently for a regular spot on the team to open up.
“Not exactly,” Sam said, expressing his disappointment.
Special Agent Hurts’ voice pulled her attention in his direction. “Arianna, we have an assignment that we need help with, and we believe that with your background, you would be a valuable asset to the team.”
“What kind of assignment?” She asked, clearly confused at what was happening.
“Undercover.”
Her eyes widened, and she looked over at Sam. Again he looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek, but he kept quiet and let the agents talk.
She turned back to Special Agent Hurts. “An undercover assignment? You do realize that I’m not an actual agent, right? I’m just a contractor who looks at numbers all day.”
Hurts nodded his head. “We are well aware of your qualifications, as are the directors overseeing this operation. They have given us the green light to recruit you for the agency and have you go through all the necessary training needed to complete the assignment.”
Her hands were in her lap, and she twisted her fingers. “What is the assignment exactly? I mean, what would I have to do?”
The other agent spoke. “Because of the nature and confidentiality concerning this assignment, we cannot disclose any details until you fully agree to the assignment in writing.”
Well, that was a red flag right there. How could she agree to something when she wasn’t even sure what she agreed to?
She again looked to Sam. “Sam?”
He blew out a deep breath and ran his hand down his face. “Look, Arianna, I’ll be honest with you. When these guys first told me what they were planning, I was totally against it. I’m still not fully sold on the idea. However, after listening to them plead their case, I have to agree with Special Agent Hurts; you would be a valuable asset.”
She looked at all three of them. “How do you expect me to agree to something when I don’t even know what it is? I mean, I could be signing my death sentence and not even know it. I could be agreeing to you putting me in a gang or shacking me up with a drug lord or something.”
“Arianna, your part in this assignment has minimal danger involved.”
She stared at him. “Can you guarantee that I won’t die?”
He smirked, and she knew the answer that was coming. Nobody could guarantee anything in life. “No, I can’t guarantee that, but I can guarantee that you will have a team of professionals watching your back around the clock.”
“Would I be working for the two of you?” She asked the two agents.
“You would be under my direction,” Agent Hurts told her, nodding his head. She looked the guy over, and he seemed like a likable guy. Trustworthy? That was too soon to decide, but something inside her told her she could rely on him to have her back.
She was all about setting out on new adventures. This would indeed be considered an adventure for sure, but what could it cost? Her life, maybe? Ahhh...decisions…decisions…
“When do you need an answer by?”
Everyone looked at one another, and she rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. You want it now?”
“Because of the urgent need to place someone on the inside, yes, an answer is needed now.”
She didn’t know what to think or even say. How could she decide on something like this in a matter of minutes? Or judging from Agent Callen’s tapping of his finger, maybe seconds. She would normally talk to her dad about this, but she guessed that was out of the question.
“What about my family? What do I tell them?”
“You can tell them that you’ve accepted a job with the FBI and that you’ll be out of contact for an unknown period of time,” Sam explained to her.
“Unknown period of time?” She asked.
“Nobody ever knows when an assignment will end when they go undercover.”
“I have all the documents right here. All we need is your verbal acceptance and your signature.” Agent Callen pushed as he pulled a file out of his bag, opened it up, and slid it across the table to her.
She smirked. “You came prepared. You must’ve been a Boy Scout.” She picked up the pen.
Agent Hurts chuckled. “I like you already. You’ll fit in just fine.”
“I haven’t signed yet,” she countered as she flipped through the documents reading and trying to decipher what a lot of the legal garbage meant before she signed it. She had hoped something in the stack of papers would have given her a clue as to what she was getting herself into.
When she signed the last page, she slid the folder over to Agent Callen. Agent Callen flipped through each page. Once he confirmed she had indeed signed in every spot she was supposed to, he nodded to Agent Hurts.
Agent Hurts looked her in the eye. “Welcome to the FBI, soon-to-be Agent Roland. Your training starts in two days. You’ll report to this address at o-seven-hundred.” He wrote it down on a piece of paper and slid it across the table to her. “I’ll meet you there.”
She took the paper, but her gaze never wavered from his. “So, now can you tell me what I’ll be doing?”
“Ever heard of Demitri Barros?”
She had. Demitri Barros was famous in many ways, both legally and illegally. She nodded.
“Great, because your ultimate goal is to infiltrate his business and seek the evidence that we need to charge him with trafficking women.”
Her eyes bugged out of her head. “How am I supposed to do that?”
Agent Hurts smirked. “You are going to be Europe’s newest lingerie model.”
Holy fucking shit! What in the hell have I gotten myself into?
