|
Audio version of Jacklyn Taylor Stories
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Jack returned to the restaurant after the morning briefing with Carl. His thoughts revolved around the upcoming operation, but the work at the restaurant demanded focus. The cover remained a crucial part of his mission, and the events in the dining hall could provide valuable clues.
Midday, two new visitors entered the restaurant. A man and a woman, who looked like typical tourists, browsed the menu. The man—tall, slightly unshaven, dressed in jeans and a shirt. The woman—slim, with short blonde hair, in a simple dress. Their glances lingered on everything around them, as if they were memorizing every detail.
Jack immediately took note of them. Their movements were too coordinated, their mannerisms betraying military training. When they ordered a table, Jack decided to serve them personally.
“Good afternoon,” he said with a smile as he approached their table. “Welcome. Is this your first time here?”
The man looked at him with a faint smile.
“Yes, but we’ve heard a lot about your restaurant. We’d like to try your dishes.”
“I recommend our signature rosemary roast,” Jack suggested, pointing to the menu.
The woman nodded, but her gaze lingered on Jack longer than necessary.
“Great. We’ll have two,” she said.
When Jack returned with their order, the man asked a question that confirmed Jack’s suspicions.
“Are you, by any chance, Jack Carter?”
Jack tensed but maintained a calm expression.
“Yes, that’s me. And you are?”
“We’re American colleagues,” the woman answered quietly. “Can we talk after your shift?”
Jack nodded, realizing there was no avoiding this conversation.
Later, after the restaurant had closed, Jack met with the pair at a corner table. The man spoke first.
“My name is Leon, and this is my partner, Stella. We’re with the CIA.”
Jack raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“We’re working on a case connected to your syndicate. And it seems our paths have crossed,” Stella continued. “We have information that one of their key operational points is a brothel owned by a woman named Alina.”
Jack tensed at the mention of the name. He already knew about the existence of the brothel but hadn’t expected it to come into focus so soon.
“Alina is the mother of a girl named Leia,” Leon added. “She runs the brothel, which serves as a meeting point for syndicate members.”
“Leia?” Jack repeated.
“Yes,” Stella confirmed. “She’s a key witness. She might have information that could help us expose their entire network.”
Jack pondered. If Leia truly held valuable information, finding her became the top priority.
Later, sitting in his office at the restaurant, Jack reviewed the information provided by the Americans. Leia turned out to be Alina’s daughter, who had owed the syndicate a significant sum of money. To pay her debt, Alina handed her daughter over to their control. Leia served only syndicate members, and her drug addiction made her even more vulnerable.
Jack realized this girl could be the key to their next step, but reaching her would be far from easy.
The next day, Jack headed to the area where the brothel was located. The building appeared abandoned from the outside, but men, recognizable from Jack’s surveillance of the syndicate, were constantly entering. Ensuring he wasn’t spotted, Jack found a hidden spot to conduct reconnaissance.
Through a window, he saw a middle-aged woman dressed provocatively for her age. This was Alina. Her voice echoed through the hall as she gave commands. Leia sat in a corner, her frail body and glazed expression revealing everything.
Jack felt the tension building. To extract Leia, he needed a way to bypass Alina’s people and the syndicate’s security. He understood the odds were slim, but there was no alternative.
Later that night, Jack met with Carl and the Americans.
“Leia is there,” he said, laying out photographs on the table. “But she’s under constant watch.”
“We have a plan,” Leon replied. “We can create a distraction at the main entrance so you can extract her.”
“It’s risky,” Carl objected. “If we’re spotted, the operation will fail.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Jack said firmly. “If we miss this chance, we may never learn what she knows.”
The time for planning the operation was running out. Jack, Carl, Leon, and Stella discussed the final details. A map of the brothel was spread out on the table, marking key points: guard posts, exits, and the rooms where Leia and her mother might be.
“We’ll distract the guards at the main entrance,” Leon said, pointing at the map. “Two teams will approach from different sides. Your task is to enter through the back door, Jack. Leia is in the western part of the building.”
“What about Alina?” Jack asked, glancing at Carl.
“She’s not a priority. Our target is Leia,” Carl said firmly. “But if we can get both, it would be an advantage.”
Jack nodded. The plan was risky, but there was no other way.
Night fell. The brothel’s neighborhood was eerily quiet, interrupted only by the occasional sound of passing cars. Dressed in dark clothing, Jack took up his position behind the building. Leon and Stella were already at the main entrance, ready to create the distraction.
The signal came over the radio.
“The guards are distracted. Go in,” Leon said.
Jack carefully opened the back door and slipped inside. The place reeked of cheap cigarettes and alcohol. The dim lighting worked in his favor as he moved quickly, avoiding cameras and guards.
On the second floor, he found the room where Leia was. She was alone, her hands trembling, her eyes glazed over. Jack entered cautiously and shut the door behind him.
“Leia?” he whispered.
The girl lifted her head, but her reaction was slow. She tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.
“I’m here to help you,” Jack said, moving closer. “We’re getting you out of here.”
He checked the door to ensure no one was coming, then draped a jacket over her frail frame to conceal her thinness. She could barely stand, but Jack supported her.
They were almost out when a voice stopped them.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
Jack turned to see Alina standing in the corridor with a gun in her hand. Her face was twisted with anger, but fear glinted in her eyes.
“She’s leaving,” Jack said, raising his hands. “She’s not your property.”
“Leaving?” Alina laughed coldly. “Do you think they’ll let you just walk away? She means more to them than you can imagine.”
At that moment, Leia, summoning her last strength, stepped forward.
“You sold me, Mom,” she said quietly. “You gave me to them.”
Alina lowered the gun, her hands trembling.
“I… I was trying to save us both,” she said, barely holding back tears. “You don’t understand what they’ll do if they find out I let you go.”
Jack seized the moment to step closer.
“They won’t find out,” he said firmly. “We’re leaving. And you can come with us.”
Alina hesitated but then nodded. She knew this was her only chance.
The group exited through the back door, where Leon and Stella were waiting. They quickly loaded Leia and Alina into the car and headed for the base.
On the way, Jack noticed Leia slowly coming back to herself. She stared out the window, as if seeing freedom for the first time in ages.
“Why did you risk so much for me?” she asked quietly.
“Because you have information that could save lives,” Jack replied. “And because you deserve a chance to start over.”
At the base, Carl greeted them with relief.
“It was risky, but we did it,” he said. “Now we need to learn everything Leia knows.”
Alina, sitting nearby, looked frightened, but Jack could tell she was ready to talk too.
“They use the brothel for meetings,” she began. “Deals go down there, and I overheard them talking about something big. Something that will change everything.”
“What exactly?” Jack asked.
“The Dyla Project,” she said quietly. “It’s a spy program that can hack any system. They want to use it to control everything.”
Those words made Jack freeze. Dyla had been a legend, but if this was true, the syndicate represented a far greater threat than they had imagined.
After Leia and her mother were brought to the base, the atmosphere grew tense. Carl immediately recognized that the information they had obtained could completely change their approach. Jack, on the other hand, felt that this step only increased the tension. Who was Leia really? And what role did she play in this dark puzzle?
Jack watched Leia through the glass partition in the interrogation room. She looked exhausted, but her eyes shone—a mix of fear, defiance, and something else Jack couldn’t quite decipher.
Carl entered the room and stopped beside him.
“Is she ready to talk?” Jack asked.
“Maybe. But she’s holding back. She’s not just a drug-addicted girl they exploited. There’s more to her,” Carl replied.
Jack nodded and stepped into the room. Leia looked up, meeting his gaze.
“You want to know what I know?” she asked before Jack could open his mouth. “Then you’d better prepare yourself. The truth won’t make you happy.”
Jack sat across from her, studying her reaction.
“I’m ready. Tell me what’s going on.”
Leia smirked, but there was no joy in her smile.
“You think you know who’s behind all this? You have no idea. Mickey is just the beginning. The real threat is Li.”
The name hit like a thunderclap. Jack felt a chill run through him. He had heard the name before but had never paid it much attention.
“Li? Who is that?” he asked, trying to keep calm.
Leia looked at him as if gauging how far he was willing to go.
“She’s more than just a person. She’s a shadow. She controls everything while staying invisible. Mickey is afraid of her. Everyone is.”
Carl, listening to the conversation through a speaker in the next room, frowned. The name “Li” wasn’t in their databases, but it sounded too ominous to ignore. He turned his attention to Alina, who was sitting in another room.
“Alina, who is Li?” he asked.
Alina flinched, but her voice was steady.
“Li is the end. She knows everything. She uses people to get to those she needs. Mickey is her puppet.”
Carl stood and left the room, heading toward Jack.
“We need to learn everything Leia knows about Li,” Carl said as he entered the room.
“I worked for her,” Leia interrupted. “She made me do things I never wanted to. I was her eyes and ears in the brothel. She used me to control everything around her.”
Jack felt the tension in the room rising.
“And what does she want?” he asked.
Leia froze, her face turning pale.
“She’s after Dyla. A spy program. But that’s not all. She wants control. Over everything.”
Jack and Carl exchanged glances. If Li truly intended to take hold of “Dyla,” it could jeopardize not only their mission but the safety of the entire world.
Late at night, Jack stayed at the base, reviewing information on Li. Her name had surfaced in several reports, always as a shadow without concrete evidence of her existence. She was linked to operations that ended disastrously for their enemies, yet she always remained above suspicion.
The next morning, Jack decided to speak with Leia again. This time, he was more assertive.
“If you want to help, you need to tell us everything,” he said, looking her directly in the eyes. “We can’t stop her without your help.”
Leia hesitated, then spoke quietly.
“She’ll reveal herself. But only when she’s sure her plan is near completion. She’s playing with us, Jack. She makes everyone move according to her rules.”
Jack studied Leia, trying to understand her motivations.
“You say Li used you,” he said. “But why you? What made you useful to her?”
Leia took a deep breath, her hands trembling.
“I was inside the system. Her people would meet at the brothel, discuss deals, plan shipments. I knew who worked with whom, who would betray, and who was loyal. But I didn’t choose this. My mother…” Leia trailed off, avoiding Jack’s gaze.
“Your mother sold you,” Jack said gently. “But that’s not your fault.”
Leia nodded, her eyes welling with tears.
“She thought she was saving us. But everything only got worse. Li knew how to manipulate people. She promised us safety but turned us into her servants.”
Jack could see Leia’s sincerity.
“You mentioned Dyla. What does Li want to do with this program?” he asked.
Leia looked at him, her face turning serious.
“Dyla isn’t just a spy program,” Leia said. “It can hack into anything: financial systems, military bases, even satellites. Li wants to use it to control everything she needs. If she gets her hands on it, no one will be able to stop her.”
Carl, standing behind the glass wall, listened intently. He immediately sent a signal to Stella and Leon, instructing them to start tracing any possible leads on Dyla. The time for deliberation was over.
Later that night, Jack returned to his office at the restaurant. Despite his exhaustion, he couldn’t allow himself to relax. Li was too dangerous. Her shadows stretched across the entire city, and Jack could feel her network tightening around them.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed. It was a message from an unknown number: “You think you’re close? This is just the beginning. Watch closely.”
Jack froze. Li knew he was looking for her. She was toying with him, like a cat with a mouse. But what was she planning?
The next day, Carl called Jack to the base. Stella and Leon had brought new intel.
“We’ve found one of the warehouses Li uses to store data,” Leon said. “But it’s fortified like a fortress.”
“We have a chance to break in,” Stella added. “But we need to act quickly. If we make a mistake, Li will erase everything.”
Jack nodded. He understood this might be their only chance to get to the truth.
The operation began the following evening. The team split up: Carl and Leon handled distracting the guards, while Jack and Stella moved inside.
The warehouse looked abandoned from the outside, but inside, it was equipped with cutting-edge technology. Jack noticed cameras, lasers, and automated locks. This wasn’t just a data storage site—it was a hub tied to something much larger.
When they reached the server room, Stella began downloading the data. Jack stood guard, expecting security to show up at any moment.
“We don’t have much time,” Stella said, her eyes fixed on the screen. “There’s more here than we expected. This isn’t just Dyla. It’s the key to how Li runs her entire network.”
“Just keep going,” Jack replied, checking his weapon.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed in the corridor. Jack took position by the door, preparing for a confrontation. Three guards emerged from the shadows, their faces tense.
“Who are you?” one of them shouted, raising his weapon.
Jack fired first, taking down two of them. The third tried to run but was quickly neutralized. Everything happened too quickly, but Jack knew they were running out of time.
“Done!” Stella shouted, pulling out the flash drive. “Let’s go!”
They exited the warehouse and headed to their vehicle. The data was secured, but Jack felt this was only the beginning. The flash drive contained information that could lead them directly to Li. But at what cost?
When they returned to the base, Carl immediately connected the data to his computer.
“This is incredible,” Carl said, staring at the screen. “There are routes, contacts, even recordings of her conversations.”
Jack stepped closer, his eyes landing on one of the recordings.
“It’s Li,” he said. “Now we know where she is.”
