Operation: Rigid

THREE

Rules of Engagement

I sat in my apartment staring at the wall while trying to decide if I was going to stay in and get hammered, or go out and try to get laid. Yesterday was still fucking with me, and I'd been on an emotional rollercoaster since Kincade had dragged my ass into that motel room. I wasn't much of a drinker, and I damn sure didn't use drugs, but I needed something to dull my thoughts and slow my whirling mind. My maternal grandfather was an alcoholic, and as I was growing up, I'd seen firsthand the devastation his chemical dependence caused. I'd have a beer or two, and I'd sometimes indulge in something harder if the occasion called for it, or with a friend, but my coping mechanism of choice didn't come in a bottle, tablet, or a needle. Normally I handled stress by having some hot chick handle my cock, but after yesterday, the thought of picking up a woman and fucking her was messing with my mind. I glanced at the cabinet where I kept my bottle of Jim Beam and wondered if that was the better choice for tonight.

When I'd stepped out of the motel's shower yesterday, everyone except Kincade was gone. After dressing, we'd just settled into her car when her cell rang, and she'd spent the entire drive talking to someone about oversight. I could tell the conversation was pissing her off, and she'd paused her conversation when we'd arrived at TTS just long enough to kick my ass out of her car, and to tell me she'd contact me tomorrow, which was now today.

This morning I'd gone to work like normal. It was a typical day. Two hours of classroom work in the morning going over emergency field medicine, then I'd spent most of the rest of the day with five other guys working with a professional driver to practice our car control. After the driving instruction was finished, I'd drilled on the firing range for an hour or so, and then I was done. I saw Alison briefly, but she was working with another group as they ran drills in the warehouse. We acknowledged each other with a nod, but we didn't speak or smile.

When I was busy and focused, I was fine, but when I had time to think, my mind kept returning to yesterday and the motel room. I had mixed feelings about Alison and the other women. I alternated between being annoyed that I'd been used, and being grateful for having the experiences I'd shared with them. Except for Camila. My feelings for her were very clear. I'd reached out to her after I'd gotten home yesterday to find out if we still had anything. She'd taken my call, but we only spoke long enough for her to tell me not to call her again. Her attitude pissed me off. I'd wanted to take our relationship to the next level, but

she

was the one that refused to commit. Then I found out that she'd used

me,

and now she was acting like what happened was

my

fault? Well fuck that... and fuck her too.

A sharp rap on my door pulled me out of my memories. I opened the door to find Kincade standing there. Yesterday she was wearing jeans, a casual shirt, and sneakers. Today she was wearing a dark grey suit with a tight skirt, a white blouse that hinted at the amazing breasts that I knew were underneath, and short heels. Over her left shoulder was a laptop bag.

"May I come in?" I stepped back without saying anything and closed the door behind her. She tossed the laptop onto the couch, unzipped a side pocket, and extracted an unlabeled manila folder. "You ready to get down to business?"

"Depends. Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on or are we going to keep playing games?"

"Trust me, this is anything but a game."

"That's not an answer."

She flashed a smile before she turned and walked to the eat-in kitchen. "I'll answer all your questions," she said as she tossed the folder onto my small, four-person dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

I followed, pulled out the chair across from her, and settled in. "Okay. First, tell me what the hell is going on."

"I told you yesterday. I want you to go deep undercover and find out who Toro is."

"Who's Toro?"

"Weren't you listening? I don't

know

who he is. Toro is the DEA's code name for the biggest heroin trafficker in Mexico."

I paused as I thought a moment. I remembered her telling me that she'd trained me for the mission, but I couldn't understand

why

, and what she wanted from me. "Okay, but what does that have to do with me? I have a DPT. Why do you think I'm the right guy to go after this Toro guy?"

"I think you know why."

"Because of my ability?"

"That's right."

"I don't understand. What has that got to do with anything?"

"Look, the DEA has sent in three agents to infiltrate the Toro organization over the past three or four years, and all three are confirmed dead. What they're doing isn't working. That's where I come in. As I told you, this is totally black ops. Other than me, only Anne Milgram, head of the DEA, and Merrick Garland, the--"

"The Attorney General?" I barked.

"Yes. Other than me and those two, nobody knows anything about this. The DEA is very good at their job, but three agents have been killed on this investigation and they've still got nothing. The Mexican government is worse than useless, and this is their final attempt to shut this asshat down and bring him to justice."

"Okay, great, but you haven't said why me."

"Toro is one sick bastard. We know he runs some kind of sex circus. Rather than--"

"What do you mean, 'sex circus'?"

She shook her head. "We don't know, exactly. We just know that it goes on. That's why I needed to find your limits, to discover what you would and wouldn't do. Because we're flying blind, we need you to be ready for anything."

I stared at her. "That's why..."

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm hoping if I put you in country, and you stir up a bunch of shit, Toro will come to you. You're not DEA, you have no connection to the DEA, and nobody at the DEA knows anything about this operation. You're totally clean."

"If you know this is going on, why don't you arrest him at the sex shows?"

"Because, Anders, Mexico isn't the United States. We have no jurisdiction there. These are powerful men with a lot of official, and unofficial, protection. We have zero evidence to connect them to the sale or transportation of drugs, and it's not illegal to host sex parties... or to protect your identity." She looked at me with her lips thinned. "We've tried to get the Mexican government to do just that, but they've refused until we can provide evidence of wrongdoing, which we can't."

"So you do know who they are?"

"We know who Toro's lieutenants are. Bautista Pico, Sergio Martos, and Diego Garcia, but we don't know who Toro is."

"And Mexico won't try to sweat that out of them?"

"Not without proof, no. As I told you, these are wealthy and well-connected men. We

know

they're pulling the strings, but until we can find out who Toro is, we can't tie them to anything illegal. He's the key. Once we know who

he

is, we can use that to get the warrants we need to gather the evidence to tie what we do know to individuals... assuming Mexico will play ball."

"So, what is it you want me to do, exactly?"

"First, I want you to get yourself noticed. If you agree to do this, I'm going to send you in as part of a security team for PerforMex. You'll rotate in as part of their regular security. I want you to fuck every

Señora

and

Señorita

you can get your cock into. Don't just fuck them, fucking

wreck

them. Hopefully, if you stir up enough shit, and cause enough trouble, that will bring you to Toro's attention. From there, I'm hoping that he'll... add you to his stable for the lack of a better way of putting it. Once you get inside, I want you to learn everything you can. Find out who he is, what his habits are, where he goes, who his contacts are, everything."

"And once I do?"

"Then you get your ass out of there and report back to me."

I held her gaze for a long moment. "So you want me to go to some Mexican shithole, fuck as many women as possible, get invited to a drug lord's sex party, find out who he is, and then just walk away with that information. That's your plan?"

She grinned. "That's it. Brilliantly simple, isn't it? I call it Operation: Rigid."

I snorted out a laugh. "Operation: Rigid?"

She continued to smile. "Yeah. It sounds better than Operation: Hard On or Operation: Stiff Cock, don't you think?"

I rolled my eyes. "You still haven't told me why me? Surely there are people better qualified for this than I am."

She half-shrugged. "To be honest, when I first came up with this idea, I recruited some porn stars, both male and female. They were up for the fucking, but they were useless in every other way. They'd be dead within a week. The DEA has already tried regular undercover, but that got them nothing but three dead agents. Then you popped up on the radar."

"Because of the study I was involved in?"

"That's right. This assignment is perfect for you. You don't have to inject Alprostadil into your cock to get it up, and yesterday you proved you can fuck for days, so you're even better than those swinging dick porn stars for the fucking. Even better, after a little training, you're a serious badass as well. Now, if shit goes sideways, you have a fighting chance of getting out of there alive with the information."

"How'd you know?"

"Know what?"

"Until TTS picked me up, a little plinking was all I'd ever done. How'd you know I could learn to handle a gun and stuff?"

She shrugged again. "We didn't, but we took a gamble. You played third base and were a running back and receiver in high school, so you must have at least some physical skills, you were going for a Doctorate in physical therapy, so you clearly had brains, and then when you were the subject of that study, that took care of the fucking. We decided to give you a shot."

"We?"

"Uri and me. Nobody can learn to keep their dick hard. You either can or you can't. You can. Uri said while he couldn't teach you to be smart, he could teach you to shoot and fight... and he did."

"So Uri is in on this?"

"No, not really. He trained you to my specifications, but he doesn't know why."

"Alison, and the rest, they're not in on it either?"

"No. I selected them because of their... interests. Like I said, I don't know what goes on inside Toro's freak shows, so I tried to cover all the bases. With Uri's help, I steered you to each of them, and then let nature take its course." She grinned at me. "You're quite the open-minded guy. Other than Alison, you hardly blinked at what the other ladies wanted to do." Her smile spread. "The only thing I couldn't get you to do was fuck another guy."

"You tried?"

"Yeah, I tried. Twice."

I was quiet for a moment. "That guy at the bar, the one that hit on me so hard and wouldn't take no for an answer, that was you?"

"Big guy, with the bear paw tattoos on the back of his hands?" I nodded. "Yeah, that's one." She continued to grin at me. "I told him you were my baby brother, bi-curious but reluctant, and while you were interested, he'd have to push to convince you. I was sure if you were even remotely interested, you'd go for him because he was hot as shit."

"Do you know how much shit I took over that at work?" Her smile only spread. "Who's the other?"

"Doesn't matter. You didn't bite."

"How'd you find all these people? How'd you know about Alison?"

"Alison was easy. In case you hadn't noticed, she isn't exactly shy about what she likes. She'd already tried to get some of the other guys into fighting for her, but they all got cold feet once she started getting kinky. Best of all, she was already in place. Uri made a passing comment, and you took it from there. As for the rest, how do you find anything these days? The internet. You'd be surprised what you can find out about someone with a little digging on social media, and I have access to the best researchers there are. In a city the size of Houston, you can find someone for almost anything. After that, with Uri's help, I set up the various scenarios for you to meet the women I wanted to use to test your limits. Some of the women needed a little nudge, but most were more than willing."

"And you paid them?"

She bobbed her head side to side. "Not all of them. Alison and Beth were easy. I just pointed them at you and turned them loose. Camila I asked to do me a favor in exchange for some juicy inside information on a series of local drug busts." She shrugged again. "The other three required a little more... subterfuge."

"Like telling Misty she and I were part of a study?"

"Yeah. Misty and Lori thought they were being paid as part of a research project, and I told Karen I'd pay her to fuck you in public places so I could secretly film it as part of a new series of amateur porn videos I was producing." She grinned at me again. "Remember the Astros game? She was all

over

that."

"Yeah, she would be, but if you didn't pay Camila, what was that comment she made about keeping your money?"

"I told her, all the women, that their work was done, but I had a final job for them, if they wanted it, and to meet me at the motel. For doing so, I said I'd give them five grand each."

"So before that, they'd never met?"

"Nope. Each of them thought they were the only one, unless you told them, until I contacted them and offered them the final job."

"What about Beth and Alison?"

"Uri told Alison what I wanted, and I called Beth. I offered her the five to come fuck you in front of me. Neither needed much convincing.... especially Beth."

I sat blinking at her, trying to wrap my head around everything she'd said. She'd played me like a Stradivarius, and had since college. "Even Camila?" She nodded. "Something doesn't add up."

"You're wondering why she gave you the brush off when you wanted to take the relationship exclusive?" This time I was the one who nodded. "I never asked her to sleep with you, but when you two started getting serious, I warned her off. I told her not to get too close because it was only a matter of time before I was going to send you out of the country, and she'd never see you again." I could feel the anger coming back, and I guess Kincade saw it in my face. "I'm sorry, but I need you for this. I couldn't have you settling down and making babies."

"Goddammit," I muttered. "Why all the skullduggery? Why didn't you just tell me what was going on?"

"I told you. Nobody knows this is going down. I didn't want you, or anyone else, blabbing it all over the place until you were committed." She paused as she held my gaze. "It's likely someone at the DEA is leaking. If this got back to the DEA, and if the leaker caught wind of what I was trying to do, if you were lucky nothing would happen. If something did happen, you'd probably wake up one morning with your dick down your throat and your balls up your ass. Toro doesn't fuck around. The three dead agents? They weren't just killed, they were tortured."

She opened the folder and tossed a dozen photos on the table. They were all pictures of men, three men who'd died violently. One was missing his genitals, another's eyes had been gouged out, and a third had large sections of his body gruesomely burned as if by a torch. The two men who hadn't been burned had

DEA

branded onto them, one on his chest and the other on his face. My stomach churned as I examined the photos. It was obvious the men had died in agony.

"Fuck..." I muttered as I slowly thumbed through the photos.

"Yeah. God only knows what they gave up before they died." She paused and nodded at the photos. "I'm trying to protect you from that."

"That's why nobody knows about this project?"

She nodded. "Nobody. I'm literally the only person that knows about the project

and

the details... until now."

I stared at the photos again, my stomach roiling in disgust. Anyone who would do that to another human being needed to be stopped. "Tell me exactly what it is you want from me."

She pulled the photos back, arranged them, and put them back into the folder. "As I said, I want you to go in and learn everything you can about Toro, I don't care what it is. He's a total black hole right now. Any information you can collect on him will help put the pieces together."

"But ideally, you'd like me to learn who he is?"

"Ideally, but I'll take what I can get."

"How long do I have?"

"As long as it takes."

"And I feed that information back to you how?"

"You don't. I can't take the risk of someone learning you're a mole."

"Okay, so once I learn everything I can, I contact you and you extract me?"

She held my gaze. "Not exactly."

"What do you mean, 'Not exactly'?"

"Once I put you in country, you're on your own. Black ops, remember? There is no extraction."

"Then how the hell am I supposed to get out?" She held my gaze but said nothing. "Fuck..."

"I'm sorry, but this is the way it has to be. If the DEA sends in an extraction team it could be a death sentence for you. Not only that, this isn't being coordinated with the Mexican government for obvious reasons. As you can imagine, having a foreign police operation on their soil, without their knowledge or consent, will cause some issues. If you're caught, as far as the DEA and the US government are concerned, you're nothing but a civilian spouting off shit to try to save his ass."

"So basically, I'm on my own?"

"Yes."

I shook my head. "Tell me again why I should do this?"

"You'll never see your name in the papers, nobody will ever know you were involved, but how'd you like to be the guy that almost single handedly takes down the biggest drug kingpin in Mexico? How'd you like to put a

serious

dent in the flow of drugs into the country and the crime that comes with them? How'd you like to stop playing around with paintball guns and put all the training you've received to good use?"

"Will I get paid?"

She smiled. "You get back with good intel, I think you'll find a nice little nest egg in your account."

"How much?"

"Enough."

"How much?" I repeated, my voice firm.

"How does two-fifty sound?" She paused a moment. "If the intel is good."

"And if I can't find out anything?"

"Then you're getting paid for being part of the security team on the rig."

"So, I'd get nothing?"

"I'm not paying you to fail."

I stared at her for a long moment. She didn't say anything, but she didn't look away either. I thought about what she said. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having my cock sliced off, being branded, or worse, but if this project was as dark as she claimed, how would anyone know? If all I had to do was keep my eyes and ears open, there shouldn't be a lot of risk in that. If shit did start going down, I could always haul my ass out of there before it got too deep.

"So get in, get noticed, find out as much as I can, and get out?"

"That's the plan."

"And nobody knows who I am or what's really going on?"

"You and I are the only two that have the whole picture."

"Won't the security company wonder who the new guy is?"

A smile flashed across her lips. "That's why I brought the laptop. You didn't know it, but you've been employed by ORSS--she pronounced it 'or S'--for the past two years."

"ORSS?"

"Oil Rig Security Services. They're completely legit and have been providing security to PerforMex for years. They have security contracts with oil companies all over the world. You've been working at a site in Ecuador for the past year."

I held her gaze. "What if I say no?"

She shrugged. "Then you're not the man I thought you were."

That stung. "And if I get killed?"

"What do you want?"