Chapter 07

Getting on with Life

Mary, Peg, and I concentrate on college while Bron and Cadi work hard at high school. However, whenever we go outside the estate we all continue to move with some of the security guards, mostly the retired Deputy US Marshals. A couple of nice apartment complexes are built for the staff: one for singles and one for marrieds with family. The estate now has plenty of living space and the buildings make up three sides of a square with the open recreational areas in between them. This increases the security a lot because it’s now almost impossible to see into the open recreational area from anywhere off the estate, except by helicopter.

On advice from the new senior security officer the walls are getting detection upgrades and reinforcing. The fourth side of the main open air recreational area is getting a building for our vehicles, a workshop, and two gyms: one for workouts with equipment plus one for general exercise and martial arts. The aim is to make the estate as independent and self-contained as possible. When all of the work is finished the only reasons to go off the estate will be education, work, to buy things, and major entertainment because we’ll be able to do our basic relaxation and entertainment on the estate. The work also includes some exercise tracks for people and horses inside the estate but outside the inner compound area. The estate now has some nice landscaping to help with security and it has sensors all over it.

To keep up the proper appearances I continue to go gambling on a regular basis, adding quite a bit to the corporate revenue. I knew I’d won a great deal in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but I hadn’t totalled the winnings for the year until I get a summary sheet from the accountant; over seven million dollars income for the year.

Operating costs are up a bit when I insist we give all administrative staff a good bonus each to have an even amount to distribute. By the time the taxes and operating costs are taken out we’re left with five million to distribute. That’s half a million each for Mum and Dad with a quarter of a million for each of the girls, while I get three and a half million, plus the four hundred thousand per diem and wages. Plus the interest on my existing bank balances gives me a total income of four and a quarter million for the year. Then I’ve the one and a half billion from The Group as undeclared income too. I don’t think I’ll have any cash problems for some time.

With the interest collected to date Cadi has almost half a million waiting for her to turn eighteen. Bron is staggered by how much she’s getting just for being my sister and part of the company, but she’s not going wild with it. Sure she’s buying herself some nice clothes, but she’s also getting some good advice on how to invest most of it for when she starts working. She gives herself a reasonable allowance which she spends cautiously, so her money isn’t showing that much because she tries to live off only a part of the interest.

Bron hasn’t made up her mind about what to study in university and she’s talking about taking a year off to work first, it’s not as if she needs a scholarship to go to university when she wants to. She thinks some real world work experience will help her work out what to study. I agree with her. We all pass our end of year exams well.

They Won’t Give Up

Major Erwin rings to let me know there’s some trouble brewing for the casinos in our area. They’re all owned by various Native American Indian tribes and there’s some pressure being applied to them, both in Congress and financially. On his advice I make an appointment to talk to someone in their management structure. A meeting is set for the next Saturday morning that includes representatives from all of the casinos.

We meet at the Sandia Resort and Casino, in a nice medium sized conference room they have. The representatives from each of the tribal groups affected tells us about what their problems are and Major Erwin explains what his people have found out. In summary, a section of what is left of The Group are applying pressure to get control of the casinos because they see this as a way to improve their chances of kidnapping me. I apologise to the people present for my troubles overflowing on to them, and we set about sorting out how to protect everyone.

After a long conference we come to a set of arrangements. For the near future I’ll stop visiting the local casinos to take more trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City to work the casinos controlled by The Group. Also, if any get into real trouble they’ll let me know and I’ll help them. Otherwise they’ll just ride this out while they see how it develops.

A Few Weekend Trips

I don’t visit any casinos for a week while I make arrangements to be away from home for the next weekend. I plan for just Mary, Peg, and I with some guards. On the Friday afternoon we head south.

Soon after we leave the estate we’re told a number of vehicles are following us. We head south on Highway 25 and just after we pass Isleta Pueblo most of the following convoy speed ahead. It must be clear to all we aren’t going to a local casino. I smile when we take the turn off near Belen to go to Alexander Municipal Airport with only one tail car on us. At Alexander we get out to board a nice fast business jet to fly out while Mark takes the car home. When we board I notice the one trail vehicle that stayed with us has a person talking on the radio.

After a good flight we land at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. Captain Collins is there to meet us with some armoured cars plus extra security staff. It’s a short ride to the casino hotel we booked. We’re fairly certain The Group knows of our arrival within minutes since we’re booked in at one of their hotels under the name of Manning because Peg made the arrangements. We’ve the whole of the top floor: the penthouse.

During the course of the weekend the girls enjoy the shows and love watching me take the casinos owned by The Group for all we can. I make the biggest bets I can get away with as I know they can’t ask me to leave while they’re very busy trying to organise to kidnap me on short notice. We make a point of not having any food or drinks supplied by the hotel, except what we buy as still sealed pre-packaged items.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but the security people later tell me they had to deal with some intruders on Saturday night. They did it the easy way when they sent them back downstairs via the balconies.

We leave just after lunch on Sunday after paying our bill and getting a detailed receipt. I stop on the way out to deposit cheques for eight and a half million dollars. Not bad as I’d been limiting myself to about one hundred thousand a week at the Indian Casinos and I’m now doing millions on a weekend, nice. I also spread the winning about too.

When we leave the casino our jet leaves McCarran for Henderson Executive Airport where we meet it and board. I’m later told there were some very odd road works between the casino and McCarran Airport. It’s a heck of a shuffle game we’re playing, but it’s all to ensure our safety while giving us a chance at identifying the current opposition players.

Second Trip

The next weekend Bron and Cadi join us when we fly out of Sunport Airport by business jet to North Las Vegas Airport. The jet drops us and flies off to Arizona. Captain Collins takes us to the same casino, this time the penthouse booking is in his name.

A repeat of last weekend and we leave after I bank ten and a half million dollars. We drive south to Henderson Executive Airport to board a different business jet that lands just as we get there, so we board and leave straight away. We land at Sunport Airport and go home.

Third Trip

The following weekend Mary, Peg, and I depart Sunport Airport to Atlantic City Municipal Airport to visit the casino I went to after my last trip north. This time Captain Weinberg heads the security team put in place during the week to protect us over the weekend.

After a fun weekend I bank just over twelve million dollars and we go home. Captain Weinberg tells me about a terrible bus accident near Great Island where two buses crashed and killed over seventy fit men. The police are very interested because they had a lot of unlawful guns on the buses, with many of them being military grade weapons.

We leave the shore as if going to Atlantic City International Airport but we go south on the Garden State Parkway. Leaving it at Somers Point to meet the jet at Ocean City Municipal Airport to fly to Sunport.

We keep using Sunport Airport because we already have great security there and we want to establish a pattern of our return flights in the minds of our opposition.

Fourth Trip

Figuring they’ve the majority of the airports covered we decide to play mind games with them. On Friday afternoon we drive north to stop at Casino Hollywood in San Felipe for a nice early dinner. After dinner we leave the casino to head north again to meet our jet at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport. We land at McCarran and go to the same major casino as the last time, with a booking for Cartier this time.

We enjoy another good weekend and I walk off with fifteen million of their bank account money mid-afternoon Sunday. We head south from the casino to depart from Boulder City Municipal Airport for Sunport. I figure by now they’re getting very pissed at us for the way we keep avoiding their traps and the costs of maintaining so many troops around the country. The casino losses aren’t helping them, either.

Fifth Trip

This time we drive out of the estate for Double Eagle Airport at mid-afternoon on Friday. We arrive just as our jet is taxiing in to pick us up, and fly out. At the North Las Vegas Airport they drop us and leave. Back to the same casino penthouse. In our earlier visits we left a few surprises, so we’ve no trouble using our surveillance cameras to find theirs. I leave Collins to debug the suite while I head to the casino for an early start on the tables. Like in the past few weeks, when I take a short break I ensure people on the other tables are winning big too.

About three in the morning on Saturday I’m woken up and I wake the girls. We all slip into military quality body armour and helmets, full coverage gear. Then we wait. Our outside people saw them setting up.

Ten minutes after we’re ready they hit. Attack teams come through the stairs, the supposedly locked off elevator, and they crash through the windows. They open fire with sound suppressed automatic weapons to kill all of the security staff on duty - they think. They just shot the hell out of a bunch of life size blow up dolls sitting in our places. When they move in to check on the kills we open fire from hiding places with shotguns and the AA-12s soon rip them apart as well as the penthouse.

Fire teams hiding on the ground and roof soon deal with the attackers left watching over their vehicles and ropes. I wonder where they keep getting the skilled fighters as one hundred and fifty-six are killed in this raid. They’d hit every part of the penthouse at the same time by using what they thought was massive overkill. They were wrong! If they’d caught us napping they might have been right.

The police are quick to respond to the sounds of the gunfight. The guns of the attackers are sound suppressed, but our shotguns aren’t. The hotel management isn’t happy at having to relocate us to another floor, but the penthouse isn’t liveable and it’s now a major crime scene while the police will be a long time removing bodies and evidence. I later learn the repairs to the penthouse are over seven million dollars which the insurance company won’t cover due to negligence by the hotel staff in regards to leaving high security locks on the roof, stairs, and elevator unlocked. No one can prove they were involved, but they can prove they were negligent in regards to the security.

When I leave late Sunday afternoon I bank cheques for twenty-one and a half million dollars. I also hear one of the staff say they’d paid out cheques totalling over one hundred million on the weekend. I didn’t get much sleep because I was very busy rigging games for other people.

We leave the casino heading toward Henderson Executive Airport but cut toward Boulder City then down 95 to cut across to Bullhead City to meet the jet at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport to fly back to Sunport Airport. Laughing all of the way.

Captain Collins keeps sending us updates on the surveillance of their strike teams while they rush around all over the place. They try to set up to hit us at Henderson Executive Airport, Boulder City Municipal Airport, and Hoover Dam, just outside Arrowhead Junction, and just before Golden Valley, but we keep side stepping their traps.

Sixth Trip

I take some time off from my studies to sneak out with two guards on Tuesday night. Using a light plane we fly to Mesquite Airport to meet up with Captain Collins in a nondescript armoured mobile home to take us to Las Vegas. We park near the target casino and three of our men go in to make big bets on the craps tables.

The men watch a fourth for signals on what to bet on and Collins tells him what to signal through our micro radios. I stay in the back of the mobile home telling him what to say. Between their bets, one every couple of minutes, I influence the other tables to give the high rollers good wins with plenty of the low rollers riding the percentage bets wins as well. After a few hours they come out with two million dollars each so I’ve Collins bank it in the Dragons’ Welfare Fund which is a registered charity that helps the families of those killed and the troops who are hurt too bad to work. Because the cheques are made out to the men they get to have the receipts to write it off as a tax deduction too.

Since the casino is open twenty-four hours we’ve men rotating in every few hours for the next day and a half while I stay awake on coffee. By the time I’m ready to call it quits the Welfare Fund is up by seventy-five million dollars and the casino pays out over two hundred million dollars to various winners.

We reverse the trip to go home while I wonder how well the casino is handling such high losses. At home I sneak back in and I have a good long sleep.

Seventh Trip

This time we set them up for a quick hit. Mary, Peg, Bron, and I travel down together as they’re all on the payroll for this weekend. We take a jet from Sunport Airport to Henderson Executive Airport mid-afternoon on Friday. After checking in at a hotel close by we head for the main casino as their penthouse is still being fixed.

We all stop at the same table and get ready to place maximum bets on the same result. When the time comes the four of us place bets of twenty-five thousand dollars on the shooter rolling twelve. The person on the table is new and he doesn’t know me, so he thinks this is an easy win for the house due to the odds involved. Before the Pit Boss can do anything the shooter is throwing the dice. All of the senior casino staff turn very green around the gills when the dice come up as two sixes, one hundred thousand dollars at thirty to one gives us a payout of three million dollars on just one throw of the dice.

We very kindly take the four cheques and hand them to one of our security staff to run across and bank for us with money to pay for an immediate clearance. We wait a few minutes before we bet for a two on another roll. Another set of cheques for three million. The Pit Boss tells us he’s refusing any bets by us for any of the top five payouts.

Our next set of bets is for a shooter to make his point of six the hard way at nine to one odds. Another easy nine hundred thousand dollars. When the upset Pit Boss steps forward we step back from the table and smile at him. We stand and talk for a few minutes while I set up major wins for people on all of the Craps tables in the house.

We leave the immediate gaming area to change coats with some of our security who’re the same build as us. At another table I’ve Mary and Bron joined by two of the security people while Peg and I watch from a little distance. On my signal all four place maximum bets for a roll of twelve, and we earn another three million. Before the Pit Boss can get over to freak out I get them to bet on it again on the next throw. So by the time the Pit Boss arrives to scream at us he’s got to write out cheques for another six million dollars. The girls are laughing when they leave while I stand in a corner to work the tables for wins all over.

After causing some major wins for people we head back to our hotel for a late dinner. The girls are laughing about the wins because we got twelve million and nine hundred thousand dollars. They each won a quarter of that and are getting one percent as their pay. So they earned thirty-two thousand, two hundred, and fifty dollars in a few hours. We retire for the night. I spend half of it awake while causing payout havoc.

The next morning we return to the casino and front up at the tables. New crews and we’re dressed in different clothes. We alerted a few of the television news crews of something about to happen at the casino. Alerted by our people they watch us front the Craps table to place our bets, winning another easy three million dollars. The Pit Boss races over to order us out, but not until we get another roll of the dice in and the news teams get it all. We leave with another six million dollars.

Once outside the casino we stand as a close group with the casino name very prominent in the background. The news crews see our placing and they get the right angles before they ask us about what they just saw. I say, “We arrived last night and made five maximum bet wins before they kicked us out, now they kick us out after two winning bets. So we got lucky on seven bets and they had to pay out just on nineteen million dollars to us. The fact they’re kicking us out because we win big makes me wonder if they’ve enough money to operate properly. Maybe the Gaming Commissioners need to check their books, because I can’t see any other reason they may object to winners.”

One of the news crews is smart enough to ring the studio bosses who ring the Gaming Commissioners, and the interview is broadcast within a few minutes of being made. Within the hour the Commissioners are at the Casino to investigate it with a full check of their books and recent events.

While this is going on I’m sitting in a car outside and I’m causing more heavy bets to win at the Craps tables. The tables are soon closed for investigation, and are found to be clean.

The stations show our interview with film of the Commissioners checking the casino, so attendance at the casino is very low later in the day. That night the place looks empty. After a few heavy losses on the Craps tables they close them. Which causes most of the people present to leave the casino and to go to other venues.

The big news on Sunday morning is the Commissioners cancelling the licence for the casino until after they complete a thorough investigation because the company owning it isn’t as financially secure as required by the state laws. The loss of over one and a half billion dollars in the last year has weakened their financial stability.

In the early afternoon on Sunday we depart for the Boulder City Municipal Airport after the girls talk about the trip to the airport while they’re shopping during the morning. Just after we turn off to Veterans Memorial Drive we’re stopped at some road works.

When we stop the whole area comes alive with gunmen shooting at the security vehicles and our driver. We check the doors are locked then we sit tight. These aren’t our normal armoured cars with civilian permitted armour as these are special tactical field combat vehicles for military use in a combat zone and they have heavy duty armour. They’re imported from Australia by the Dragons: they look like long wheel base Land Rovers with six wheels and are a lot more civilian looking than the US military Humvees but they’re much tougher then the US military Humvees, especially after the Dragons beefed up their armour.

A moment after the gunmen open fire we spot helicopters rise from Boulder City Municipal Airport and head our way. In a few seconds we hear the snarl of the machine guns on the two Apache helicopters when they open fire on the gunmen. They’re soon joined by the snarl of the heavy machine guns mounted on the side of the two Black Hawks. The four helicopters fly over the area blasting everything they don’t like the look of. While the Apaches make another run over us the Black Hawks land to discharge their fire teams.

After a five minute wait another of our cars arrives and we swap to it for the rest of the airport trip. The Dragons wait for the police and to help them with the clean up while we fly home to Sunport Airport.

Later Major Erwin lets me know the attack force was two hundred and fifty mercenaries with full military grade weapons. I wisely don’t ask about the helicopters or how they got them.

The member of The Group that owns the casino ends up having to sell it at a loss because its physical assets are undervalued with no ’good will’ worth talking about and now it has no licence. This news makes me very happy. The girls are very happy with their pay of forty-seven thousand, two hundred, and fifty dollars each and they’re busy planning on what to buy with some of it.

Clean Up

Major Erwin stops by to tell me between the various attacks and the little clean up opportunities his people had taken the enemy are now short over six hundred mercenaries. Also, the word is out on the streets The Group doesn’t research their jobs well or arm the troops properly and they just send them out as cannon fodder in the hopes they can score a win. The result is now very few people are prepared to listen to the recruiters hiring for The Group. I tell him of my decision to stop the gambling visits and he sighs with relief because they can now use the troops the decision frees up in other operations. I tell him to thank them for me. And he thanks me for the money for their welfare fund.

Having created a gambling revenue of eighty-six million and nine hundred thousand dollars for the year I decide to stop gambling for the rest of the year. I tell the accountant this and he starts to process the end of year accounts. Expenses are high due to all of the jets, and we end up with an estimated sixty-five million to distribute by assuming the other costs for the year are as normal. Mum and Dad are very shocked to learn they’ve got six and a half million dollars each, Cadi has three and a quarter million dollars, while Bron’s payout is three million and four hundred thousand as taxes ate a bit of her special work pay, while I get forty-five million and nine hundred thousand dollars.

What’s real funny is the looks on the faces of Maggie and Matt when we tell them Mary and Peg earned one hundred and forty thousand dollars each on the weekend away. The accountant is able to cut down on their personal tax by putting it through the company books and absorbing much of it that way, but not all of the taxes. The girls invest most of the money wisely. We’ve more fun when Matt says, “Well, I now know their education is definitely taken care of.”

Peg says, “But, Dad, didn’t you know Ani paid for all our fees up front when we first signed up at the uni?” Neither he or Maggie had been told by me because I naturally assumed the girls would tell them and the girls assumed I’d tell them both. So they’re both stunned again.

With me stopping the trips for gambling we’ve a lot more time to spend together on the weekends, and do so. It’s also harder for the enemy to organise to get at us.

Things settle down and are quiet for a few weeks.

Brilliant Bronwyn

It’s a nice Saturday morning in mid October when Cadi and I head into the mall to do some shopping. Last month I found a job working sales at a jewellery store and today we’re going to buy some jewels to wear on a fancy evening out, so we’re heading to where I work to buy some jewellery. This is my first Saturday off since I got the job, so they’ll be very surprised to see me.

We get out of the car at the mall entrance with three of our security detail at just after ten in the morning. The car drives off while we walk in the entrance. We just walk in, chatting, forming a lose group with me in the middle, nothing intentional, just how it is. About four metres inside the front entrance we’re hit by a wave of men. They’re too close for us to use our handguns so we’re immediately down to fists.

Cadi wades into the men nearest her so I hear their necks snapping straight away as I hear many more bones breaking where the three women guards with us fight the men. Because I’m in the middle of our group I’ve got a bit more time to react than the rest. Instead of going for my Glock I pull out the two Bond Arms .410 calibre Defender pistols I’ve got hidden in my belt while I say a prayer of thanks to Ani for getting them and his insisting I learn to fire them well with both hands.

Holding one in each hand I raise my left hand to head height and I push it between the two guards on my left. After turning my wrist a little while I slip the safety off I fire the short-barrelled mini-shotgun. I’m very surprised and happy with the result. The three men closest to it lose significant parts of their heads and a few behind them scream when the pellets pepper their necks and faces. After angling back a bit more I trigger the second shot for a similar result.

With the breathing space this creates on my left the security team pull out their handguns to start shooting the rest on their side and the front in rapid fire.

Turning from the action on my left I see a man now has Cadi from behind and is turning to drag her away. I step toward them to point my second Defender at the three men he’s turning toward. When I’m ready to fire the back of his head is almost beside my hand when I slip the safety off and squeeze the trigger. I grin when he shivers just as a small section of the back of his head vanishes at the same time as the faces of the other three become bloody messes. I turn to point the Defender at the group of men in front of our third security guard. I squeeze the trigger and a few faces vanish while a few more get big red holes in them.

I slip the Defenders into my dress pocket while I take out my Glock to open fire on the rest of the men while aiming for the very top of the chest, above where their body armour should end. When I’m about to fire I jump when Cadi opens up with her Defenders. Two rounds to the side and two rounds behind us, and we’ve next to nothing left to deal with on this side.

What’s left of the attack team are pulling back when we all open up with our handguns to have a short exchange of fire with them. The last four break and run, until we shoot them in the upper thighs to slow them down. They all fall to the floor and the hit knocks their handguns loose. Mall security are quick to dart out to retrieve the weapons.

We don’t blame the mall security people for keeping back because they’re unarmed. They all know us so they don’t see us as a threat.

I stand there and look around at the bloody mess. For about four or five metres in a circle around us is a ring of blood, gore, and bodies. I give up counting after I hit thirty. Later the police tell us the attack team had fifty men: two escaped, three survived their wounds, and the rest died in the fight, many from the shotguns, with only a few from the hand fighting.

While we survey the mess I pull out my cell phone to call Ani. He answers on the second ring and I tell him what happened. After that I ring Captain Matt, then Mum, telling them both what happened.

The police arrive while I’m on the phone. After hanging up I show them my licence and I take time to reload all of my weapons. They take a lot of photos before they move a few bodies so we can walk out of the mess with ease and safety. They take our statements.

I’m feeling a lot happier when Captain Matt arrives. He walks over as he slowly shakes his head while he surveys the mess. He’s about to speak when his phone rings. He answers it, and his face goes very pale. Apologising to us he has one of his men stay with us, and he races off.

About twenty minutes later we’re free to go. We’re not feeling like doing any shopping at the moment so we go home for a long rest. Cadi calls our driver and he comes back to the entrance for us. We get in and go home.

It’s been a very busy day, and it’s only just going on lunch time.

Magnificent Mary

About twenty past ten on a nice Saturday morning in mid October Peg and I exit the small mall near the estate. We’ve had our hair done in a different style and we’re walking back to the car with our guards when some cars near us burst open and a lot of men come at us.

Three of the security team are quick to pull out their handguns and fire at the attackers because most of the men have guns in their hands. The fourth guard starts to rush us to the car, then some emergency exits behind us burst open when another group of men rush out of them. Peter is soon down with a knife in his side, but not before he breaks the necks of three of them. Peg and I aren’t that well trained in fighting and such, so we’re soon overwhelmed. I do manage to get one of the Bond Arms mini-shotguns out of its concealed holster and into my hand.