Operation Tropical Affair: A Poppy McVie Adventure (Poppy McVie Series Book 1) by Kimberli Bindschatel Page B

You said you aren’t cops.”
    “No. We actually make a difference.”
    “So you’re like some animal justice vigilantes?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”
    I smiled at him with eyes that said, that’s sexy, which it was. “Cool.”
    That was it. I was part of the gang.
    Isabella turned back to Claudia. “So how’d it go?”
    “We’re going to need a better camera. It’s just too dark in there.” She frowned at Noah. “I’m sorry. You did a great job distracting them. I had plenty of time.”
    So that’s what they’d been up to. In the U.S., it’s not uncommon for activists to try to expose cruelty and wrongdoing via videotaping. PETA has been quite successful with that approach, bringing some lawsuits or government action against the perpetrators. But in those instances, animals were being held legally. The video tapes revealed cruelty and abuse. Carlos’s activity was obviously illegal, so I wondered what exactly this group was planning and what they thought they’d accomplish.
    I nibbled on my cob of corn, trying to act interested, but not too much in the details.
    “We’ll get the footage,” said Noah. “We just need to be patient.”
    “We should storm the place, set ‘em all free, and burn it to the ground,” said Matt, the river guide.
    “Yea-ah!” said Jack. “Bring it on, baby!”
    Colette shook her head. “It’s a holocaust that’s never going to stop.”
    “They sell a product like any other business,” said Noah. “It’s all about the money. We hit ‘em in the pocketbook and they’ll take notice.”
    “Yeah, but how do we do that?” Amanda put her arm around her girlfriend. “Meanwhile, innocent lives are at stake.”
    “I know. I know,” Noah said. “We’ve talked about this. To beat them, we have to think like them. Find their weakness. Wildlife trafficking is big business, but it’s got to be volatile.”
    Claudia piped up. “You mean supply and demand. But every time we set some animals free, they just go back into the forest and trap more. Demand is the problem.”
    They nodded in shared frustration. Claudia frowned. Amanda hugged Colette tighter. Jack and Matt took chugs of their beers. I feared the conversation was fizzling. “So why the video?” I asked.
    “Sun Tzu,” Noah said with a grin. “Know thy enemy.”  
    “So you’re surveilling the buncher, trying to find a way to destroy his business, that it?” I said.
    Noah looked at me and smiled. “That’s the plan.”
    “But what might you learn from the video?”
    “Schedules. When they have inventory of what. To sustain a business with live inventory, they must be hedging somehow, probably selling futures, but that involves its own kind of risk. If they can’t deliver, they’ll lose their clients.”
    Interesting approach. I wanted to ask more about it, but it didn’t feel quite right to push any more than I already had right now. One thing was sure, Noah wasn’t a typical activist. He had significant intel and would be a valuable asset. There was more to him than I had first thought.
    “We could use someone like you on the team,” he said with a wink as he rose to his feet and brushed sand from his shorts. “Hey, throw me another beer,” he said to Doug, the actor, who was at the table getting seconds.
    Sierra spoke up. “As long as you agree, wildlife belongs in the wild.”
    I secretly thanked her. She had given me another opening to drive home that I’m one of them. “You say that, but what about Clyde?”
    Isabella answered. “He can no go back now. He never survive.”
    “But isn’t he your pet?”
    “No me.” She seemed insulted. “Carlos. He don care nothing bout him. I take care him.”
    “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”
    “You should meet him.” She gave Clyde a hand command and he leaped off Sierra’s lap and scampered over to me. “Go ahead, pick him up.”
    I reached down and picked him up like a toddler. He snuggled into my lap. I