Chapter 1 | Deep Cover
Standing on the corner of 8th Avenue, Lance Baldwin raised his arm, flipped his wrist, and noted the time. 6:55pm. Five minutes before the most important meeting of his life. The people he was waiting on were punctual, deadly, and extremely difficult to meet.
Dressed the way he was, he stood out. He wished he didn’t, but anyone standing in front of Al’s Liquor store in a black suit and tie with a red rose affixed to the lapel was going to stand out. 8th Avenue at night looked like Grand Central for the homeless. Some of them pushed shopping carts full of crushed aluminum cans, while others wrestled with the rats over the trash bags left on the curb for pickup. The stench in the air was so awful, Lance pulled his jacket over his nose to keep from gagging. This was no place for a suit, but he was following instructions. Being where he was told to be, wearing what he was told to wear. And nothing was going to stand in his way of keeping this appointment.
Lance had worked himself up the ranks from ghetto star selling cocaine by the ounce in rundown tenements to moving enough weight to where he had to score five kilos a week just to keep up with the demand. His sudden rise caught the attention of Giancarlo Del Toro, the right-hand man and key contact for a mysterious Columbian drug kingpin known only as El Cazador, Spanish for the Hunter. If he missed this opportunity, he might never get a second chance.
Straightening his jacket, he inched closer to the curb and made himself visible to the oncoming traffic. At six two and standing under a bright streetlamp, it’s not like he really had to worry about that anyway. Lance’s light complexion could be spotted a block away. Nervously tapping his foot, he gazed over the skyline past the skyscrapers and into the gloomy horizon. Storm clouds rolled in, accompanied by the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning. The night sky looked as ominous as he felt. When another sea of cars came to a stop at the red light in front of him, Lance’s keen eyes scanned the window of each and every one. Is this the one?
