There’s been quite of bit of activity going on down in the Carib League. The work is spread wide and covers every type of op our kind pulls, but a wide-angle lens shows that most of the current work is landing in three main camps: issues for the Batistas, efforts against Se- attle Governor Kenneth Brackhaven, and some whis- pering of a resurgent Komun’go with tempo ready for market. Only one of the three is what you’d expect to find here, but I think that’s why the other two are fo- cused down here. There are contracts on members of
all three camps and even a few being opened up by folks inside those camps to try and pull off some heat. The regular jobs are going both ways as well, and they stay closer to the streets.
The Batistas are still the criminals to know in Hava- na, but they’ve started to feel some pressure in the last month. Contracts are going out for targets across the organization, from soldatos to capos. The source is ap- parently softening the family for something, but I hav- en’t been able to figure out who’s calling the shots. The action seems street level, but the funding is definitely someone bigger, maybe a few someones. The whole thing seems a little off, since the Batistas have loyal guys who access these contract offers and have to be bring- ing warnings back.
The fact that they know isn’t slowing their latest projects. They’ve had quite a bit of contact with their northern relatives, and word from these meetings is to show support for positive trade relationships between the UCAS, CAS, and Carib League, including Cuba. That means going beyond the status quo; the efforts are po-
litically motivated and the families are hoping for extra results from Cuba thanks to their view on corporations. Success here will reveal itself longterm, but the immedi- ate results seem apparent as the northern families have moved some additional ordnance and personnel down to the CL that is being put to use.
With the extra support, the Batistas are pushing at Zobop operations on Cuba and all around the CL. They’re contracting some softening operations and hiring out for a lot of misdirection ops. The moves seem to be focused off Cuba right now, targeting other Zobop strongholds around the CL. It’s an interesting little island war because the dead aren’t necessarily out of the fight when it come to the Zobops, so the Batistas have special instructions for the work that comes across like a bad horror trid.
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This seems awfully bold. Cuba is not the kind of place that’s going to tolerate a mob war. Tends to frighten the tourists.>
All the more reason to stage hits around the rest of the Carib first. Stragglers and survivors are going to end up concentrated on Cuba. Once everyone is in one house, the Batistas knock down the house in a one hard strike. No long, drawn-out war to chase away the tourists.>
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The Zobops have way too many friends for the Batistas to take them out. Especially with the unique services only the Zobops can offer. There has to be something more.>
ThornWhile they go after the Zobops around the CL, on Cuba the Batistas are making friendly with the govern- ment by helping the local independent companies keep clear of the Revision and minimizing the risks of them losing that independence. Members of the Batista family have been avid patrons and visitors of local companies, especially when corporate meetings are taking place or when a well-known corporate executive happens to be stopping by for a chat. They aren’t everywhere, but they can respond quickly to word from the eyes and ears they have all over town. If the threat is too big, they some- times call in local teams if they’re nearby.
This leads nicely to a connection to the Batistas, topic number one, and Kenneth Brackhaven, topic number two. I don’t have the intel as to whether the move is a local choice or a decision of the Commission to cut ties, but the Batistas aren’t protecting KB’s assets around the CL, and Brackhaven Investments is having a rough month at the Havana offices. The family wasn’t the only protection Brackhaven had—money buys a lot of friends—but it’s one less group of friends he has in the Carib League.
Brackhaven’s problem is that right now he needs all the friends down here he can get because his invest- ments and holdings all over the Carib League are be- ing targeted by his opposition, a group that is growing larger by the day. Key investment analysts within Brack- haven Investments have been running into frequent trouble on the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba where the company has their main offices. Problems have run from muggings to home invasions, and even include numerous assaults. As of yet, there have been no fatalities. Whichever of Brackhaven’s enemies is co- ordinating these efforts wants chaos and disorder, not deaths. Dead employees can be replaced; scared em- ployees tend to let their fear detract from their work for a while.
Also in the crosshairs is the real estate owned by BI all across the CL. Some of the attacks are direct, but most of the jobs are hitting or hurting BI-friendly real-estate brokers and nearby properties in order to affect proper- ty values. The owners of these other properties, some- times rich individuals but often corporations disguis- ing themselves with shell companies, are being clued in on the streets as to why their places are getting hit
and Brackhaven is losing more and more support while building up some serious enemies who would rather see him take his business elsewhere. Since these jobs are fo- cused on devaluing his holdings, I’d guess they may stop as soon as Brackhaven Investments has their audit with the Corporate Court.
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The audit is going to be the least of Brackhaven’s worries very soon. One of the recent jobs was a home invasion on a property near Mantua. The team that was hired did the recon and felt they could subcontract cheap to some locals and walk away with the cash and no risk. Locals were overexuberant in their efforts to impress the runners and botched the job. They went in while the family was there and ended up killing four people. Among the dead were Capo Juan-Juan Vasquez’s daughter and his five- year-old grandson. While Juan is definitely going to go after whoever was behind the jobs, he’ll also be going after Brackhaven for bringing these troubles to his island.>
Traveler JonesAll of this isn’t because of Brackhaven’s troubles back in Seattle but because of his ever-emerging ties to the Human Nation. While the public is likely to never see any of that, the shadows are hot with jobs all over North America uncovering those ties, which are closer and more active than any of Brackhaven’s enemies dreamed. One particular revelation that recently emerged is an is- land investment that will surprise many, both for its con- nection to Brackhaven and the fact that it keeps popping up.
Meanwhile, just when people were starting to for- get about tempo, it’s re-emerging. While the huge ring may have been broken up, the drug is still popping up in sprawls across the globe, and prices are through the roof. Keen to make money, a very unlikely alliance formed between Chulsoon Gray Wolf and Brackhaven Investments. BI owns a series of plantations, all in very out-of-the-way locations, across the Carib League. The money has been going in, but nothing has yet been pro- duced. On paper, the plantations are producing coffee and grapes. Both are then supposed to be aged and pre- pared, turned to wine, roasted, and anything else they can list on paper to show a delay in release for sale in order to continue the charade. My suspicion is that Gray Wolf, who has been spotted visiting all of these planta- tions, still knows the secrets of tempo and is working with BI to make a big profit on its return. Gray Wolf also has quite a few former members of the Komun’go work- ing with him as his closest lieutenants. The last part of the puzzle, which seems to be what they are currently solving with visits to a wide array of captains and cor- porate executives, is distribution. With KondOrchid no longer an option, they’ll need a new way to get their product to market. And they’ll need a very quiet shipper before they flood the streets.