Page 79 of Doubts of the Egoist (Egoist #3)
“Whatever, just don’t cry when you get bitten,” Tobias snarled, glancing under the desk to make sure the rodent was gone. Then he took the chair and got back to work.
Surveying the small hideout, Yugo thought about Mio’s trip to Afghanistan and how challenging it must have been for him to sleep in the car with his frail constitution and health issues.
He felt responsible for that, for all of Mio’s actions that seemed like direct confrontations, cries for attention, or calls for help.
He wished he could help, but he didn’t know how, especially now that Mio was so out of control.
He let go of the bedsheet and turned toward his people. “How did you find this place?”
“Connection issues, impatience, and Mio’s passion for baked goods,” Greg summarized, surveying the room with bright, eager eyes like a puppy shown a ball.
He pulled out his phone, checked something on it, then pointed to a portable Wi-Fi router.
“I guess it doesn’t work well underground.
I only get one bar, and it drops every ten seconds.
Mio was probably short on time, so he logged into his email at the internet café down the street.
All that was left was to ask around.” Greg nodded at the brown paper bag.
“A waiter at the bakery remembered Mio and said he was hanging around the closed station.”
“Motherfucker…” Tobias muttered under his breath, then jumped to his feet and kicked the makeshift table.
The round plywood tabletop crashed to the floor.
The tires collapsed with heavy thuds, the top one rolling toward Yugo.
He stopped it with his foot. The impact caused a metal box hidden inside to fall out.
“Ah, what do we have here?” His outburst of anger died as quickly as it had risen, and Tobias crouched down to pick up the box.
The lid of a tin cookie box bore a lithographed hunting motif. It looked vaguely familiar and certainly old. Its hidden location suggested great importance to Mio, so Yugo snatched it from Tobias’ grasp before he could investigate.
“I’ll handle this. Thank you, Tobias, you can get back to whatever you were cursing at.
” Yugo carefully opened the box and found a few photos, a nostalgic smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
Some were from the past when Mio was young and innocent.
The others were new and a bit creepy because they’d been taken without his consent.
Yugo quickly stashed them in his inner pocket, away from prying eyes, and found, beneath them, a pack of fake IDs, bank cards, and money stuffed in the box.
Growing concerned, he flipped through the IDs, reading one false name and nationality after the next. But while the names were different, the photo was the same. Holograms overlapped the photos, and the lettering was clear and included the owner’s credentials, making the IDs appear legitimate.
“Is he playing a spy?” Ignoring Yugo’s request for privacy, Tobias scoffed, craning his neck to look into the box.
“Find out who made these, and what else they made for him.” Yugo thrust the box at him, then crouched down to inspect the tire.
He pulled out a cloth bag and carefully unwrapped it.
Inside were a few boxes of Factor VIII, alcohol wipes, and a tourniquet.
Yugo stared at the medical kit for a moment, then carefully put the cloth back and reassembled the improvised table. “Leave everything as is.”
“Not happening,” Tobias said. “I need to know what the hell is going on, so I’m taking everything.”
Yugo wavered. He wanted to give Mio freedom of action and see what he was capable of, but Tobias was right. Whatever the brat was up to, it didn’t look good.
Encouraged by the lack of argument, the blond turned to his men and gestured toward the hardware. “Take this to the office, and be careful.”
An ear-debilitating hail of phone calls and messages bombarded Yugo’s phone even before he arrived home. The unsettling news made him glad he’d already fixed his broken tooth because his jaw was too tense to relax.
Four of their trucks got stuck in the desert, surrounded by the Al-Amin militia.
The drivers hadn’t been threatened or harmed yet, just stopped.
Simultaneously, all the Al-Amin lines went dead at once, leaving Yugo floundering in an information vacuum filled with anxiety and disjointed fragments of information.
Even the stoic Greg became a nervous wreck.
Jittery and jumpy, he drove with his left hand while answering messages with his right, eyes more on the screen than the road.
His forehead glistened with sweat from concentration, and his eyes were red from strain.
When Greg ran a red light for the third time, Yugo told him to switch seats.
The rest of the way, they drove in tense silence, broken only by the ringing of cell phones.
By the time the car passed through the mansion gates, Yugo had smoked a dozen cigarettes.
His mind whirled with worry, and as soon as he entered the house, he rushed to his office.
Greg’s phone rang even before Yugo landed his ass in his chair.
His dark eyes narrowed as the bulky man listened wordlessly to the message, then hung up and turned to his boss.
“It seems there’s a coup going on in the Al-Amin group. Kais is fighting for the throne.”
“Hmm…” Yugo rubbed his chin, thinking it wasn’t all bad news. It made perfect sense that the trucks had been stopped, suggesting that Kais wanted to renegotiate or at least ensure the drivers wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire. So far, he saw only one real problem. “News about Mio?”
“Not yet…”
Yugo hummed again, then reached for a cigarette. “Grab your laptop. Let’s see what’s going on in Afghanistan.”
The office Yugo had always found spacious enough became crowded and stuffy within two hours, as uninvited people filled it without any warning.
Rudolph and Tobias occupied the guest chairs.
Gustavo lounged on the couch as Greg stood propped against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Diego Ortega, Gustavo’s protégé, took the bar corner.
“It feels like I’ve been away for weeks, not hours. Who are all these people, and where’s everyone?” Tobias asked, then yawned, revealing his larynx before licking his dry, colorless lips.
“Quit. Why? Gonna miss someone?” Yugo asked, knowing Tobias was irritated about having to find a new informant.
“Even Mary?” His sandy eyebrows furrowed. “Damn, she was the light of my nights spent here. It’s such a loss… Have you hired anyone cute to replace her?”
Yugo snorted. “I see you recovered from your grief very quickly. Good.”
A loud clattering filled the air. Diego shook a metal shaker with both hands. The ice clanged incessantly, but his face remained nonchalant.
Tobias hummed, eyeing him askance. Gustavo’s face remained blank as if he saw nothing wrong with his subordinate’s behavior. Greg tipped his head as he examined Diego’s ministrations, expression puzzled.
When the liquid was poured into a glass, Diego finally gave the others his attention. The whitish, unidentifiable drink he held in one hand attracted curious glances. He pulled a lollipop from his mouth and stirred the drink with it, banging the caramel ball against the glass with a loud clink.
With a sneer, Tobias turned in the chair, threw an arm behind his head, and settled back into the soft black leather, getting comfortable. He watched Diego for a moment longer, then jibed, “Don’t worry, Lebowski [8] , the day has just started. We can wait.”
“Don’t be so grumpy, Sunshine. It doesn’t suit you,” Diego retorted and lifted the glass, giving his attention to every man present. “An eggless Sour Monkey [9] , anyone?”
Rudolph grunted out a laugh.
“No wonder it’s sour if it’s missing the egg.” Tobias shrugged and turned back toward Yugo, completely ruining the serious atmosphere.
Yugo had to click his fingers a few times to kill the laughter and bring attention back to the topic.
“What the hell are you all doing here? I was in Vienna this morning. Couldn’t you have solved it earlier?
” As if to emphasize his point, Greg approached the desk and stood by his left side, taking a better view of the guests.
The overpowering menthol chilled the back of Yugo’s throat like a mouthwash.
His breath hitched as he managed another careful inhale.
Looking up, he noticed how clean-shaven Greg’s chin was and how precisely his shirt was buttoned, as if his subordinate was getting ready for a date, not a meeting.
Yugo hummed but lost the thought when Gustavo cleared his throat and raised two fingers to draw attention.
“This morning, Tobias’ cargo was still on the move. Now, it’s stuck in the desert, so my cargo won’t arrive on time. If the trucks aren’t released soon, the streets will run dry within weeks.”
“Didn’t we move the pick-up point to Turkmenistan?” Yugo asked, scanning Tobias’ nonchalant face.
“Um, yes, we did,” the blond replied with another yawn.
“Then why the hell are the trucks stuck in the Registan Desert?”
“Change of plans?” Tobias said innocently, arching his eyebrows. “What can I say? I had my reasons. And no one has died yet.”
“It’s colossal damage, Tobias,” Gustavo reproached with a scowl. He brushed back his inky hair, observing the blond with a tranquil gaze of his black eyes.
“Sell what Mio brought. That should cover a month. We’ll fix it by then,” Yugo said.
“Don’t be so full of yourself. I suggest we side with Ahmad and resolve this quickly. He’ll be forever grateful.” Gustavo turned to him with clear disapproval.