The Desert Lion's True Colours (13 page)

As Leon opened his car door Jay walked over to him waiving some papers in his hand.

‘Yo, we got ISSUES BRO!’

Jay’s tone was urgent however Leon calmly replied ‘Issues… ? What issues?’

Jay was a little taken aback by Leon’s
-
I don’t care attitude
-
but he waived it off and said ‘Yes nigger… We got issues! Someone is trying to mess with us and it’s not anyone in the streets.’

Smiling Leon said ‘Is that it?’

‘Wah da fuck! Did you not just hear what I said? I SAID…

‘Yes, I heard!’ Leon interrupted. ‘And I know.’

Confused Jay asked ‘What you mean you know? What do you know?’

‘Not out here.’ Leon said looking over his shoulders.

Passing Jay on the way to the front door Leon noticed the upstairs curtain above the front door move. ‘Kerry’s home’ He thought

Jay closed the door that was left open by Leon and walked towards the kitchen. Looking at Leon opening the refrigerator Jay said ‘So what do you mean you know? You don’t even know what I have to say yet.’

‘Aight, that’s true.’ Leon paused and looked over Jay’s shoulder towards the hallway as if he was waiting for someone to come down the stairs.

‘What… What is it?’ asked Jay, ‘. . . Kerry’s home?’

Leon nodded his head to which Jay raised his eyebrows, indicating he understood the situation and then in a far quieter tone said ‘Yo, get this. When I left you with that idiot Carter, I went over to see one of my girls in Operations…’

‘Which one, Sabrina or Lauren?’ asked Leon curiously.

‘Lauren…’ Jay said with a smile. ‘. . . The Chief told her any information that came into the office from New-York should be copied and passed over to him directly.’

‘Go on.’ Leon goaded.

‘Well, after the Superior arrived today she received three sets of papers from New-York, which needed to be filed away as Classified, Section-8 (above top secret). The only reason she paid more than the usual attention was because
YOUR
name was on the heading of one of the papers.’

Leon was a little surprised by what Jay had said but not much. Going by the Superiors speech earlier that day and learning of his father’s involvement with the FBI meant his name being attached to some classified file was not that farfetched. Stopping Jay in the middle of his sentence, he handed Jay one of the beers he had taken from the refrigerator and said ‘Yo, hold on a minute.’

Wanting to avoid a re-enactment of what happened earlier that morning
-
with Kerry turning up in the middle of his conversation, Leon motioned to Jay to follow him to the other side of the kitchen and through an open doorway that lead into the living room. Leon took residence on the three seat sofa on the left of the room opposite to the 60 inch 3D T.V that hung on the adjacent wall. After Leon turned the T.V onto ESPN, Jay joined him on the sofa. Finally opening his bottle of beer Leon said ‘Go on dawg, she won’t be able to hear us now.’

Jay was about to suggest that they leave the house and go somewhere else but he thought if Leon was cool, then he was ok with it too. Pointing to the papers in his hand Jay said ‘I’m guessing we were only shown part of the information in the Chiefs office today because we were not shown this.’

After waiving the papers in his hand Jay threw them onto his friends Lap. Leon was not sure what he was about to read however he had a good idea it was going to prove his hypothesis even further. The first page held one photograph of his father sitting in what looked like a cafe. He was holding a cell phone to his ear however Leon could see his father’s attention was clearly focused on the women sitting to the opposite right of him. Her face was slightly turned to the left so he could she had a light complexion but due to her back facing the camera it was not possible to make out her face. Just long curly black hair. With no magnifying glass, Leon raised the paper closer to his face to get a better look but nothing stood out. Putting the picture to one side, Leon turned the page and came across another photograph. This time the picture was taken while his father was exiting the cafe’. This picture was much better. Leon could see his father’s face clearly. While Leon was what some would call the tall, dark type. Kilo Brown was a short man,
-
5'9 at best
–
with a reddish, light brown skin tone and freckles that faintly ran across his nose and cheeks. They did not look like each other in the slightest however Leon thought his father looked fairly good for his age. Despite the slight patch of grey hair, the frown lines and a few wrinkles around his eyes, Mr Brown Senior did not look bad at all. He was sporting a gold-tee and a low neatly trimmed haircut. He was wearing a long black coat, black gloves and a grey scarf.

“Wherever
the
picture
was
taken,
it
was
cold”
Leon thought.

Jay, got up off the couch and watched the different questions, and emotions register on his friends face.

‘You ok?’ He asked.

Leon did not answer; he just kept on reading in silence. Leon turned one more page and halfway down he looked up at Jay with his eyes wide open.

‘He’s alive.’ He gasped.

Jay lowered his eyes and nodded.

‘It gets even crazier. You better keep reading.’

Leon took a deep breath and returned to the paragraph he was on.

It read:

Subject
–
‘Special
Agent
Daniels
A.
Aaron’
–
aka
Leon
‘Kilo’
Brown
Sr
.

Last
known
location
–
February
14
th
/
New-York,
New-York:-

Subject
visually
verified
at
06:35am.
Seen
at
‘Nero
Cafe’
343
E.
10
th
Street,
on
February
14
th
.
Per
informant
Intel,
-
(
the
name
was
blanked
out
)
-
Subject
believed
to
have
been
at
the
above
location
to
make
a
money
exchange
with
Arif
Karim.

-
STILL
NOT
CONFIRMED
-
Due
to
‘Special
Agent
Aaron
Daniels
leaving
same
location
after
8
min
without
speaking
to
anyone
in
person.
Subject
spoke
on
his
phone
the
whole
time.
Subject
managed
to
shake
surveillance
in
the
crowd.

Leon stopped reading and just stared into blank space.

‘You gonna be ok?’ Jay asked again.

‘I… I think so.’ Leon replied still in shock.

His head was in grid lock. Not only was his father alive but he grew up not even knowing his father’s real name. A mixture of emotions riffled through his body, one of them being his feeling quite stupid for changing his name from Leon Brown to Nathan Ferron when the Surname,
-
Brown, was never his to begin with.

Looking back down at the papers in his hand Leon read out loud ‘February 14
th
.’

Jay interrupted, ‘Exactly! That was only 3 months ago.’

Leon forced a smile however Jay could tell the news about Leon’s father was not as great as he initially thought.

‘Well say something then.’ Jay insisted.

Looking up at his friend Leon said ‘I think I know what’s going on but if we don’t act quickly he won’t be alive for long.’

‘What? I’m not following you dude. What you saying?’ replied Jay, slightly confused.

Leon cleared his throat and broke down the whole situation as he saw it. His father did work for the Marine Corps Secret Black-Ops Unit,
-
which they both new were known for undertaking covert operations.

Leon got up and went back into the kitchen to get the other folder he was given earlier. When he came back he had the relevant page open and handed it to Jay.

‘
Several years before I was born my father was assigned a mission in Belize. Some parts have been blacked out so I can’t say for sure but for some reason he refused to comply and rejected the mission. He was then given dishonourable discharge and thrown into prison for dissention. We both know that doesn’t make any sense. I mean come on, dissention?’

‘So what you thinking?’ Jay asked curiously.

‘I’m thinking the old man came across something that was above his pay grade and when he tried to do something about it they through him into prison, only to have the FBI release him in order to work for them. A simple trade really. He gets let out of prison in exchange for the continuous supply of information. Jay was listening closely but all he could come up with was ‘Damn!’

‘That leads me to Black.’ Leon said nodding his head in agreement to Jay’s exclamation. ‘. . . I have a gut feeling Black always knew my father was undercover. The other night he said,
“Things
would
be
real
different
if
my
ole’
man
wasn’t
around”
. It didn’t mean much at the time but if Black and my father were really up and coming drug dealers
-
He had to have known where my father was getting his money, especially if he had just come out of prison.’

Surprised Jay cut in. ‘Whoa! So you’re saying not only was your ole’ man being funded by the FBI but Black was a part of the Feds too?’

‘Well I wouldn’t go that far…’ Leon replied, ‘. . . but my gut is saying the story the Superior tried to feed us today was a load of shit. My father was never an informant. Sure, he was working for the FBI but as a straight up Agent,
-
like us. What my father didn’t know was that they were also dealing with Black on the side. I’m guessing, just like before my father found out what they were doing and wanted out. Only this time he threatened to talk. The Agency got scared and instead of throwing him back into prison they told Black to handle it…’

‘Only for the old man to escape.’ Jay interjected.

‘Exactly’ Replied Leon.

Jay went over his friends explanation in his head for a while, then said, ‘and you’re thinking they’ve been looking for him ever since?’

‘Yup… !’ Leon replied. ‘. . . only for the old man to turn up in broad motherfucking day light three years later. The old man disappeared and we were brought in knowing I would want to get some answers and hopefully find him for them. The problem is, he has now turned up so the initial reason for our call up has been fulfilled.’

‘Ok. So what happens to us now? Jay asked hesitantly.

Leon shook his head. ‘I’m not sure…’ He said, ‘. . . The other night Black kept on asking me about my piece.’

‘What… ? Your weapon… ? Why?’

‘Well, the funny thing is, when we were put on this case I was given the same pistol as you. A standard 9-millimetre Berretta but the day before I attended the funeral the Chief gave me this one. Said it was the same kind my father carried.’ Leon paused while he removed the P-266 from his waist, then said ‘Black asked me how I got my FATHERS piece. I didn’t answer him, but the truth is if he really thought it was the old mans, I’m sure he would have put two in my head right there and then. Because that would mean I was in contact with my father.’

Jay stared at Leon with a confused look on his face. Seeing he would have to explain his findings another way Leon said ‘Think about it. I haven’t seen Black OR my father since I was nine. So realistically how would I have gotten my father’s gun?’

‘So what you saying?’ Jay asked.

‘I’m saying, with me turning up with a gun that looks exactly like the one my father carried was a test.’

‘A test’ Jay repeated.

‘Yeah, on one hand if Black saw the piece and freaked out, the Agency would have known he was in on my fathers’ disappearance and they would have moved in on him quick.’

‘But Black didn’t freak out.’ Jay exclaimed.

‘Exactly! He kept us around. For three years!’

‘Hold Up! Are you trying to tell me, Black knows who we are? I mean, really knows who we are?’

‘Yes.’ Leon replied bluntly. ‘He’s known all along. We’ve been used from the very beginning. All the Intel we were giving over to the Agency was stuff Black wanted us to hand over. We were put in undercover, to keep an eye on Black in hopes he would lead us to my ole’ man. I’m guessing Black knew that from the outset. I would bet my life that everything we learned about Black was stuff the Agency probably already knew. All we are are hired guns. Commissioned by the government and sold to the highest bidder,
-
who in this case turns out to be Black. Only now, ole’ pops appearance threatens to break up the whole deal. Neither one of them can afford to have him walking free around the streets of New-York.