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Thank you for sharing in another Veritas adventure!
Chandler Steele’s Veritas Series
CAT’S PAW
KILLING GAME
BROKEN DREAMS
Acknowledgments
This confidential Veritas mission report regarding the collapse of the Buryshkin drug cartel was compiled by:
Chandler Steele (www.ChandlerSteele.com), archivist.
Mollie Traver (www.mollietraver.com) who supplied the editorial and copy-editing expertise.
Lily Elliott, who served as our Russian translator.
Clarissa Yeo (www.yocladesigns.com) who created the striking cover design.
Dianna Love (www.authordiannalove.com) who offered critical and timely input to ensure the accuracy of this mission report.
Veritas deeply appreciates their assistance—and their discretion—in this matter.
Mission Notes
Before Veritas undertakes a mission, a comprehensive background dossier is created to get the “lay of the land.” Such was the case for the Buryshkin Crime Syndicate mission, code name CAT’S PAW. Here are some interesting items from that dossier:
The Italian mafia, under the direction of Carlos Marcello (a Sicilian), ruled the streets of New Orleans from the 1940s through the early 1980s. As one confidential informant explained, business back then had strict rules of conduct, gentleman to gentlemen, despite the fact they were managing the drug, gambling and prostitution rackets. Once Marcello died, the Italian mob’s control diminished, a vacuum eventually filled by others, including the Russian mafia.
Since New Orleans is a popular convention destination, prostitution is rampant, and the FBI has made arrests related to human trafficking. In 2015, after the police launched an undercover investigation code named Operation Trick or Treat, five French Quarter adult clubs lost their alcohol and tobacco licenses because of prostitution, lewd activities and illegal drug sales.
An informant revealed that when prostitutes were no longer of value to their bosses, some would be taken into the Gulf of Mexico, just into international waters, and thrown overboard, weighted down by chains. Louisiana’s coastal waters, swamps and bayous have long served as a convenient dumping ground for corpses.
Cocaine is frequently diluted with everyday substances such as talcum powder or milk sugar to stretch the yield. In 2011, the DEA found that over seventy percent of street cocaine was cut with levamisole, a drug used to kill parasites in humans and livestock. Levamisole has a number of side effects, including plummeting white blood cell counts. It also increases the “high” which is why it is a popular additive.
* ~ * ~ *
After review of the background dossier, it was verified the Buryshkin Crime Syndicate presented a significant danger, and not only in terms of their drug and prostitution rings. Certain internal sources warned of a power struggle within the organization, one that might herald a city-wide mafia war.
Based on the information gathered, the mission was approved and Morgan Blake was assigned to lead it.
Chandler Steele
Published by
Steele Romance
P.O. Box 1126
Norcross, GA 30091
This work is a novel of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Cat’s Paw
ISBN: 978-1-941527-05-4
Copyright ©2016 Chandler Steele
Cover Image/Art: Yocla Designs
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
Thank You!
Chandler Steele’s Veritas Series
Acknowledgments
Mission Notes