"Profitable Little Pageant"

Mardi Gras in the Big Easy is usually a party, but this year, the air smells more like tear gas than celebration. My mission should be a straightforward hit on Elliot Warren Caldwell, a defence-tech billionaire who turns human misery into profit by building off-the-books detention centres deep in the bayou. But between volatile protests in the French Quarter and the alligator-infested swamps of the Louisiana backcountry, nothing about this job is simple. Navigating the chaos means working with Marc Baptiste—a local contact who’s been on Jane’s payroll for twenty years and knows how to keep a secret almost as well as he knows how to handle a gas mask. Together, we have to infiltrate Caldwell’s private fortress: a “disposal system” where the music never stops and the guards stay drunk enough not to ask questions. The swamp handles the rest. When Caldwell decides to arrive early for his appointment with death, I have to decide whether to stick to the plan… or turn this job into something far messier than Jane ordered. Profitable Little Pageant is a razor-edged assassin thriller set against the chaos of Mardi Gras—where corrupt men burn, secrets surface, and freedom comes at the end of a blade.