LUKA URBAN'S EX, JULIA CABRERA IS A CON ARTIST WORKING FOR DEPENDENCY
By L.M.Taurus
4/3/0029 UWC
2 hours after headline
Luka, Arlo, Fyn and Yelena arrived at the port of Haiti to be greeted by Esme. It was late and dark.
Fyn ran to Esme and gave her a big hug, lifting her from the ground. "Hey cuz, long time no see."
Esme tapped him on the chest. "Good to see you too, golden boy." Fyn gave her an annoyed look. Esme went to Yelena and gave her a hug. "Welcome to the shit show."
"This is the first time in years that our squad are all in the same country," said Yelena.
"Are we sure Celeste is in Haiti as well?" asked Esme.
"I thought you would know."
"I lost touch with her at the same time as Fyn."
"So you haven't seen her out here?"
"No. Why did you think she was?"
"Because Julia was seen out here," said Luka, handing Esme today's paper.
Esme read the headline and saw the picture of Julia with the Agent of Dependency. "I'm sorry, Luka," she said.
"Me too," said Luka as he walked past them.
"He's taking this really badly," said Arlo as he followed Luka.
****
Everyone was gathered around a conference room and Luka was the last one to arrive. The room went quiet when he entered. He walked over to the table and sat down between Arlo and Yelena.
"Good morning, Luka," said Kara. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." Luka looked around the room and noticed some of his squadmates were giving him sad looks. "Let's not do this. Don't pity me. Yeah, it sucks my business is out there for everyone to read and yeah that's annoying but I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. So enough with the pitying looks. All you're doing is pissing me off."
"That paper was way too harsh," said Leonie. "They shouldn't have blamed you for what she did."
"No," said Luka. "The article was right. I'm a world military leader. I should have realized she was a con artist. I'm sorry for letting you all down."
"Don't do that," said Esme. "That wasn't your fault. She played you. It's her fault. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Let's just move on. Why are we here?"
"We're here to talk about all the enemies we have here in Haiti," said Esme.
"And there's a lot of them," said Kara.
Yelena stood up and went to stand next to Esme. "Do you have anything I can write in?" asked Yelena.
Esme pulled out a large chalkboard. "Will this work?"
"Perfect," said Yelena as she grabbed a marker. "We have multiple enemies in Haiti. How many groups?"
"There's Dependency," said Luan. "Brodie Noble is the Agent of Dependency."
"Really?" said Arlo. "I thought you said he wasn't part of Dependency. Now you're telling me he's their leader."
"Yeah, I got played too."
Yelena wrote Dependency down and Brodie Noble equals Agent of Dependency.
"Actually, we got intel that a woman is their leader," said Fyn. "I believe her name was Liilian Danti."
"Who's that?" asked Luka and a couple of people nodded their heads wondering the same thing.
"We don't know," said Yelena as she wrote Lillian Danti under Brodie. "I've tried searching for her, but I can't find her anywhere."
"Where did this intel come from?" asked Arlo. "Are we sure it's reliable?
"It is," said Esme. "It came from Celeste. She's been undercover inside Dependency. She's the reason we've been knocking down all of these Agents of Dependency?"
"Is she still with Dependency?" asked Luka.
Esme hesitated to answer this. "Yes, but we lost contact."
"Should we be worried?" asked Ji-hun.
"You know Celeste. She can take care of herself."
"Yeah she can," said Ji-hun. "You can add the Kallstrom siblings under Dependency."
Yelena wrote Mercy and Otto Kallstrom under Dependency.
"There's also the female Agent of Dependency," said Luan.
"That's Celeste," said Fyn.
"Wait," said Arlo. "The one who attacked me when investigating McKnight."
"The very one," said Esme.
"What the hell, Esme," exclaimed Arlo. "She hurt me that day."
"Not too bad and she was forming her cover. How better to do that than to beat one of us up and save one of their major members."
"You should have told me."
"The less people that knew, the better."
"I didn't even know," said Kara. "I'm just finding out right now as well."
"I guess that's it for Dependency," said Yelena.
"Write down Julia Cabrera," said Luka. "She's also working with them. She also provided them with my arm-cannon and who knows what other information."
The room went quiet after that statement. Yelena hesitated, but wrote Julia Cabrera under Dependency. "Next group?"
"Jacmel and what remains of his squad," said Cairo. "They killed a bunch of protesters and they need to be brought down. His comrades' names are Renz and Bessy."
Yelena split the board into four squares. The square next to Dependency, she wrote Jacmel Saint and under him wrote Renz and Bessy.
"If anyone gets into a confrontation with Jacmel, don't underestimate him," said Cairo. "He is ruthless and won't hesitate to kill you. Jacmel is an angry individual who has lost a lot. I think he is capable of killing one of us if we get in his way."
"Jacmel Saint is a Haiti native and has been killing Dependency members and portesters alike," said Esme. "There is a good chance that when we move in to finish off Dependency, Jacmel will interfere."
"That's two groups," said Yelena. "What's the third?"
"The Haitian girls with their own armor," said Kara. "They have a similar belief as Jacmel Saint, but have a more powerful weapon than him. I think they're more dangerous than Jacmel because of their weapons."
Yelena wrote down Armored Haitian Girls. "Does anyone know their names?"
"Their names are Calixte, Allegra and Lovelie," answered Leonie. "They're not bad people. They're just tired of the injustices done to their people and don't believe what we're doing is enough."
Yelena wrote down Calixte, Allegra and Lovelie. "Anything else we should know about this group?"
"It's more than just the three of them," said Kara. "They have a small community that are living off the grid. Esterline seems to be their leader."
"Esterline," said Luan. "I got to know Esterline back in Canada. She also seems like a good person. Did everything she could for her people. I can see her being their leader."
Yelena wrote down Esterline. "What are the chances we get into a confrontation with them soon?"
"Good," said Esme. "We already got in a confrontation with them during one of the protests. They attacked Dependency, Mexico, and were after Brodie Noble before we knew he was part of Dependency. Luan got in a fight with one of them."
"Allegra," said Luan. "I got careless and she had a chance to kill me."
"I'm assuming she chose not to, considering you're still with us," said Yelena.
"Only because Esterline talked her down," said Luan. "I don't know if she would have taken the shot if Esterline wasn't there."
"So these girls are dangerous and possibly a bigger threat than Jacmel and his group," said Yelena.
"Correct," said Esme.
"Alright and are we on to our final group?" asked Yelena.
"Correct, which is Mexico," said Esme. "Delfina is probably our biggest threat and I don't think she's leaving Haiti anytime soon. She's here to wipe out Dependency and I believe she'll take out the armored girls as well."
"I'm confused," said Luka. "I know that if Mexico takes out Dependency and the armored girls we look bad, but should we really be putting them on the enemy list?"
"President Delfina Cordero is the enemy," said Esme. "She's been stealing from the Haitian people which caused the hostility of the armored girls."
"I also believe she's the one that injured me last year," said Kara.
"What?" said Luka. "How?"
"I can't prove it, but the person who attacked me did it from the back. They threatened me, called me princess and told me to retire. I feel if the attack was from Dependency, they would have killed me. The person who did it was a professional and knew what they were doing."
"You think it was Delfina?"
"I think it was Aracely on Delfina's orders."
"Delfina has been hostile towards us from the get go," said Esme. "And now they're breaking the law with what they're doing in Haiti. We're going to have to arrest her but the moment we do, her royal guards are going to try to stop us."
"You really think the royal guards will oppose us?" asked Ji-hun.
"I do. They've shown they have more loyalty to Delfina than the world military." Esme turned to the board as Yelena wrote down Mexico, Delfina and Aracely. "I think from all of the groups up there, Delfina might be the most dangerous."
"We shouldn't move in on Delfina," said Yelena. "Not before the other three groups have been dealt with."
"I don't think we're going to have a choice. Everyone is in Haiti right now and a confrontation between everyone on that board is coming. Delfina could use the chaos to attack us as well."
"Like she did with me," said Kara.
"We have to be prepared to fight her," said Esme. "Or I'm afraid she will get some of us killed."
"Understood," said Yelena. "Do we have everyone of importance up there?"
"I think so."
"Then I'll start coming up with some plans on how to deal with them all," said Yelena. "We'll gather again later once I have something."
"Then that's it," said Esme. "You guys can go get some rest. We'll reconvene later."
****
"Luka," called Yelena as she saw him about to go outside. She ran to him. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," said Luka. "Please stop asking."
"I'm sorry but I wanted to talk to you about Julia."
"I really don't want to talk about her." Luka was about to go out the door.
"Wait, I had looked up Julia when you two starting dating."
"So you knew she was a con artist?" Luka's body tensed up.
"I know she had a shady past and had to do a lot of things I'm sure she wasn't proud of, but from what I could tell, she did them to survive. It's the reason I never said anything. I didn't think she was a bad person."
"Well it seems you got that wrong."
"I'm not so sure," said Yelena. "I don't know if Fyn told you but while Celeste was undercover, she protected Julia in that last battle where Lin Crespo was killed."
"You're talking about the battle where Julia killed a world military soldier with my weapon."
"It might have been self defense. There has to be a reason Celeste protected her."
"Probably for the same reason you are defending her. You feel bad for me and don't want to see me get hurt over her death or something. Julia committed a big crime. She killed someone and who knows how many more people are going to die because of the weapon she stole from me. Don't defend her. Just do what you have to do. Arrest her or kill her if she resists. We already know she's capable of killing us."
Luka opened the door as Ruby was about to knock. "Ruby, what are you doing here?"
Ruby raised yesterday's newspaper. "I heard what happened and that you went to Haiti. I thought you might need a friend."