Thiago "El León" Pérez watched silver wisps of moonlight sparkle on the surface of the ocean. He stood on the porch of his small, plain beach house and tilted a glass of Flor de Caña rum to his lips.
Wind parted nearby palms, and The Lion gazed at rogue grains of sand as they were swept along the private beach by the breeze.
One of El León's lookouts had called half an hour before, informing him of an assault taking place at Senator Roberto Casillas Costa's seaside villa.
He kept a stress headache at bay with painkillers and eyed the rum in his glass thoughtfully. Painkillers and alcohol were not an advisable mix, and yet at the moment, he almost didn't care.
Almost.
El León dumped his rum out over the porch railing and set the glass down.
Things were happening almost exactly as he had planned.
His men had been at the hotel for days trying to ensure that the secrets there stayed buried and hidden from construction and aid workers who were assisting on-site to clean up the rubble.
It was all a show. Thiago Pérez wanted the world to discover it all. It was his men, in fact, who had mounted the terrorist attack at Hotel Ceuta days ago in the first place; no one could trace it back to him, of course.
He hadn't counted on the entire damned lobby splitting apart at the seams. The man still hadn't the faintest idea of what had happened... the voices of his men shouting about a ghost or phantom still puzzled him.
It was more than puzzling. It was troubling.
El León leaned against the porch railing and looked to the glowing moon. He wondered how Costa was holding up - if his "business partner" was able to escape whatever the hell was going on at his villa.
He knew something was amiss. Whoever these black ops people were, they were certainly raining down hell all over Ceuta. People on both sides of the law were dropping like flies, disappearing completely.
Thiago had made his move. He had been biding his time for months. He could have made an attempt to betray Senator Costa far sooner, but the money got better over the years.
El León spat at the beach sand beneath his porch. Enough was enough. The Senator and his friends in the shadows had committed atrocities that rivaled that of the Santa Blanca Cartel in Bolivia.
When the cartel had been dismantled, El León's power backing from his cousin, El Sueño, disappeared. He found himself on the outside looking in. Everything at home in Bolivia was suddenly falling apart, which meant that El Sueño's friends in the Spanish government were no longer getting paid.
Without incentive to shield Thiago's operations from law enforcement, and the power of Santa Blanca's influence fading from existence, the cartel's friends in Spain turned on Thiago. Rather than imprison him or have him killed, one keen politician recognized the opportunity knocking at the door.
Senator Roberto Costa saw the money to be made off of Thiago's Santa Blanca business. He convinced his other powerful colleagues to allow El León to continue operating on Spanish soil.
After all, they needed someone to take the fall in case their dirty, vile secrets ever came to light. What better man to be a scapegoat than a drugs and arms dealer with roots in Bolivia?
Thiago Pérez had been under the thumb of Senator Costa and his entourage, fattening their pockets in exchange for protection.
El León was not a good man. He was educated and cultured, but ruthlessly violent, in addition to being a murderer. There was no telling how many people had been killed by his men over the years. Hell, he couldn't count how many he had killed with his own hands.
YOU ARE READING
Rainbow Six: Bloodlines
Fanfiction"Bloodlines" is a fan-fiction epic based on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege by Ubisoft Montreal. Spanish authorities in Ceuta request Rainbow's help in dealing with a hostage situation and potential bomb threat at a hotel. It should be a routine ope...
