Blackstone - The Temple of Trials

Miami

I hate werewolves, I thought to myself as I circled through the fancy party carrying my tray of champagne. It was bad enough that I had to wear this demeaning low cut black cocktail dress, but being pawed by a bunch of slobbering werewolf drug lords definitely made this into the mission from hell.

I stepped up to a fat dude wearing a gaudy suit with a gold chain and two bleach blonde bimbos on either arm and offered a glass of champagne with the biggest fake smile I could muster. He eyed me up like I was a leg of lamb.

"Where they been hiding you, princess," the fat dude said with a giant smirk on his jowly face. The blonde bimbos giggled and looked at me dismissively.

"In the back with the port," I answered in my most innocent sounding voice. Man, I wanted to feed this guy to the Wend, but the mission specifically called for taking as many of these guys alive as possible. It was rare that the biggest drug dealers in the Western Hemisphere all got together, and Colonel Nash gave specific orders that she wanted them all unharmed. Easier said then done.

"Well, keep up the good work, beautiful. Here's a little something to remember me by," fat dude said and tucked a hundred dollar bill into the straps of my dress.

I graciously nodded, pivoted away before he could do anything worse and went back to circling the party.

I looked out the windows of the massive luxury yacht and saw the lights of Miami in the distance. We were about five miles offshore and completely cut off from help. I was flying solo for this mission which was a great honor. I had just graduated from Blackstone last year and for a first year Ranger to be given a mission of this importance said loads about what Colonel Nash thought of me. I headed for the back so I could refill my tray of champagne.

"Eliza, are you there?" a familiar voice spoke into my ear. I smiled to myself. Thomas sounded a bit nervous. This was a big mission for him, too.

I touched my ear to activate the nano mic that was next to my eardrum and slipped into a small supply closet.

"Yeah, I'm here, Thomas. What's the scoop on Esteban? I don't see him."

"We've got him in his stateroom. He should be making an appearance soon. Just stand by and he'll be out soon."

"He'd better be. The full moon's about to rise and I don't want to be here dealing with a yacht full of werewolves. I've got to get to Esteban before they all transform." I said and looked out the window at the horizon. The moon wasn't up yet, but I didn't have much time.

"The champagne's been laced with an anti-transformational agent. It should give you some extra time," Thomas said.

"I hope so. Grant out," I said and tapped my ear again. All right, it was time for part two of this grand plan.

I reached into the black bag that I had stowed in the supply closet and pulled out my photon belt. I attached it around my waist and touched a button on it. The air around me shimmered and the holographic image of an older man dressed in a tuxedo enfolded around me. I stepped out of the closet and looked at myself in a nearby mirror. Excellent, the smug image of Congressman Randall Thompson gazed back at me. I headed off to find Carlos Esteban.

Carlos Esteban was the biggest drug lord in the Western Hemisphere. He had his hands in everything from cocaine to meth, but his drug of choice was Z. Z was 100 times worse than meth and four times as addictive. It kept you up for days and made you feel like you were King of the World but there was one small side effect. If you used Z long enough it turned you into the living dead with a voracious appetite for human flesh. Z gangs had terrorized the major cities of the world for long enough. It was time to end this modern plague at the source. If we took Esteban and all of his cronies out of the picture then it would certainly cripple the world's supply, but we needed to capture Esteban alive to find out his connections to the Grimm. That's where I came in.