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Part I: Rebirth
Chapter 1 ::
Chapter 2 ::
Chapter 3 ::
Chapter 4 ::
Chapter 5 ::
Chapter 6 ::
Chapter 7 ::
Chapter 8
Part II: Reunion
Chapter 1 ::
Chapter 2 ::
Chapter 3 ::
Chapter 4 ::
Chapter 5 ::
Chapter 6 ::
Chapter 7 ::
Chapter 8
Luis Garcia, the manager of the First Florida Savings and Loan, was a seedy little man with greasy black hair. In his shiny grey polyester suit and pink silk shirt, he looked more like a sleazy used care salesman than a bank manager, and he was just about as honest. So when he saw Castillo, Costas and McClary, he was nervous, and he became even more nervous when they walked into his office, shut the door and identified themselves. It only took a little bit of gentle persuasion and the threat of a full IRS audit to convince Garcia to co-operate. He agreed to having surveillance bug his office and phone and to setting up a meeting with Fuente.
When they left, Garcia pulled the bottle of tequilla out his bottom drawer and took a healthy swig. He was caught between a rock and a hard place and he knew it. If the IRS did an audit, they would find all sorts of irregularities -- Fuente hadn't chosen First Florida at random. And if Fuente found out what he was doing or slipped through the trap, he knew he was a dead man, and he knew it wouldn't be a pleasant death. He looked out through the one-way glass in his office wall and into the bank. A few customers had wandered in, but the only one he really noticed was the man in the business suit just inside the doors. McClary left a man there to make sure that Garcia would indeed provide his full co-operation.
At about the same time at the safe house, Zeke showed up with a pickup full of the computer equipment -- everything Billy had asked for and a few extras that he threw in for good measure. Between the two of them, it didn't take long to get the system up and running. First test was to call up the message board, and there it was, an entry from "Huey", the online code name that Billy had given Ricardo. He called Rico in. Rico was amazed. Like Sonny, he used a computer for work, not pleasure, and he had never really experienced the power of the world wide web.
"Is that really him?" he asked. "How can you tell?"
"It is unless someone else just happened to come up with the same handle on the same board. By the way, yours is "Duey". Open the message and see what it says. But don't be surprised if it doesn't seem to say much. I told him to keep it simple and quick just in case Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee get suspicious."
The message read: "Went for a long walk on the island today. The weather's great here. I'd like to stay for a while, but I might be leaving with some friends in a few days."
"Sounds like he's still on the island and everything's okay. But if they leave that island, he may not have access to a computer and we could lose contact.
"Can I really send him a message like this? He'll get it? You're sure he'll know it's from me?" Rico had a hard time believing that he could actually communicate with Ricardo this way.
"Go ahead, and don't worry - he'll get it."
Rico typed in a message, and signed it "Duey".
"Are you sure Fuente won't think Ricardo did something with the money?"
"That guy's computer illiterate almost -- just knows the basic stuff, mostly about moving his money from one account to another. He'd never dream that anyone, let alone Ricardo, could do what I'm about to," Billy pronounced with the arrogance of youth. "Now the quicker you ladies leave us alone, the quicker the Zeke man and I can bait this trap."
Billy worked through the afternoon and into the evening. Lost in the cyber world, he barely came up for air let alone food. He only took a break when he ran the code breaker to get passwords for secure sites. There were a few difficult ones, especially in the Bahamas, but the for the most part, the security in Caribbean banks was less than adequate to provide any form of protection against a seasoned hacker like himself.
Zeke stood by in amazement, watching the young man's hands fly across the keyboard, unlocking files that supposedly could not be opened and manipulating them with ease. By nightfall, Zeke left, but Billy, still living in cyber space, worked right through the night. This was his adrenaline rush, getting in, making the changes and getting out before the security systems were alerted and shut him down. By daybreak the next morning, he had transferred most of Fuente's funds into the account in First Florida, and, in the electronic signature database, Mario Fuente did not exist. Now all they had to do was wait.
It didn't take long for Fuente to bite. By the next day, Garcia had received a phone call from Fuente. Fuente wasn't very happy, and Garcia was very nervous. But with an FBI agent at his side, and knowing the the phone was bugged, he played along and convinced Fuente that he had no knowledge about what had happened - that there must have been some sort of "computer error". He convinced Fuente that he had to come in person to Miami to fix up the paperwork and set things straight. Fuente was furious, but he finally agreed and said he would get back to him with the details. He reminded Garcia that he had people in Miami, who would be watching him, and made it quite clear what would happen to him should anything go wrong.
The FBI didn't want to scare away their prey, so they kept a loose tail on Garcia but maintained a tight electronic surveillance. When Fuente called Garcia at home later that night, the telephone bug picked up the details. The meet was set for the next night. Fuente would arrive in a chartered fishing boat at an isolated spot upriver. McClary was ecstatic -- at last they'd have him! Castillo and Costas were a bit more reserved, Castillo because that was his way, and Costas because they still didn't have anything the DEA could work with. Ah well, maybe they'd get something after the FBI had him in custody. Castillo and Costas went to the safe house to give Crockett and Tubbs the news.
Sonny smirked but said nothing. The thought of seeing Fuente again brought back painful memories and he felt the anger building inside him, but he knew he had to keep his feelings in check. And he had to remember that he wasn't a police officer any more. The last thing he wanted was to see Fuente walk on a technicality. Crockett might be on contract to the DEA for now, but there was no evidence relating to contraband -- not yet at least -- and it didn't seem as though he would have any part to play in the take down itself, but he'd be there anyway.
Rico had mixed feelings. He wanted more than anything to bring down Fuente, but he was worried about Ricardo. Fuente still had his son and he didn't know what he was planning to do with him. There had been no further messages on the board. Did he suspect Ricardo? Would he bring him to Miami? -- use him as cover when things started to go down? Rico had only just discovered his son was alive, and had only a few hours with him before giving him back to Fuente. Rico was going to be there to make sure that Ricardo was looked after. He didn't want to lose him before he even got to know him. He had lost Angelina. He wasn't about to lose their son.
Castillo's next words rocked both of them. "You two are staying here. You won't be in on the take down tomorrow night."
"What the ..." they started together.
But Castillo interrupted them before they had a chance to finish. "You're both too personally involved. We've decided that you two will stay out of it. No arguments -- the decision's final."
Sonny heaved a deep sigh, threw his arms in the air and stormed out of the room. "Of all the stupid, hairbrained ideas!" he shouted to no one in particular as he left. They'd see. If Castillo and Costas figured he was going to sit on the beach for this one, they had another think coming. He'd show up anyway -- it was a free world. What were they doing to do -- lock him up? But then he realised that Castillo had not told them the time or place that Fuente was supposed to be coming in. "Damn!" he thought. "How are we gonna find that out?"
Rico was not as demonstrative in his anger as Sonny, but he was a lot more vocal. He let them know in no uncertain terms that he was not pleased with this decision. But in the end, he couldn't change their minds and had to accept that there was nothing he could do about it. He too realised that he didn't know where or when the bust was going down.
As Castillo and Costas left, they reiterated to Sonny and Rico that they were to stay out of it. Crockett and Tubbs stomped out of the house together, through the patio doors and over to the seawall. They commiserated about the situation, but both had to admit that without the time or location, there was nothing they could do.
There was a message on the board the next morning. "Leaving today," was all it said. It only served to increase Tubbs' anxiety. Did it mean that Ricardo would be coming with Fuente? What would happen to him when the feds broke up the party? Would the cops think he was one of Fuente's men and take him down too? He had to get hold of Castillo -- let him know that Ricardo would be there. It should be him there looking out for his son, but he knew he'd have to trust Castillo to watch over him. When Castillo made up his mind, nothing could change it, and he knew that there was no way that Castillo was going to change his mind about telling them when and where it was going down. He had tried to get the information out of Trudy, Gina and Stan, but they wouldn't give him or Sonny anything -- Castillo had shut all the doors.