Page 14 of Lash

"Are we talking about Tata's men or Mercado’s?”

Another shrug. "Either—both. They may be the same, also. Remember, Filip was your father's man until Mercado turned him. When loyalty is purchased rather than earned, it becomes a commodity possessed by the highest bidder, and your father is not in the same universe as Mercado on that front."

"He is so powerful, then? This Mercado.”

Lash nods. "Oh yes. More so than you can imagine." A newer Lada Niva creeps up behind us. "Your father controls one small city in one small country in Europe. Mercado controls much of Latin America, from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego."

"Oh," I say, processing this. "But we are not in South America. We are in the city controlled by my father."

"For a man worth billions, a man who owns politicians, who controls police forces and can command the generals of armies, it is a simple enough matter to exert in his influence wherever he wishes." Lash nudges me so I am forced to walk with my shoulder brushing the wall, putting his body between me and the Lada still trailing us by a few meters. "If Mercado wanted to, hecould have your father assassinated and put whoever he wishes in his place, and then Mercado would own Zagreb."

"What is stopping him?" I ask.

"Value. What does Mercado want with Zagreb, Croatia? It does not factor very heavily in the world of illegal trade. Drugs do not flow through here and neither do guns or women."

"Tata deals heavily in drugs," I say. "Guns and women not so much."

A shrug. "Think of it this way, Tatiana: your father is a distributor. He purchases his drugs from elsewhere—in bulk, yes, by the kilo and hundreds of kilos, but he still purchases and then distributes. Mercado is thesource. He controls the flow. He produces the drugs, and he decides where they go.Thatis genuine power. I do not mean to denigrate him, Tatiana, but your father is the ant scurrying this way and that with crumbs. Mercado is the hand wielding the entire cookie."

I frown all the harder. "If Mercado is so powerful, then what chance do we have?"

Lash grins. "My employer is the difference."

"Who is your employer?" I ask.

"An excellent question," Lash says. "A powerful individual. A very mysterious one who deals in information, among other things."

“What is his name?"

Lash shakes his head. "That's the mysterious part. I don't know."

I laugh. "You work for someone, and you don't know his name?"

"I have never met him, only his second in command, Inez. But I see the effects of his power." Lash shrugs. "Where Mercado is the stormtroopers of the cartels spreading murder and destruction in broad daylight, my employer is the whisper in the shadows, a knife in the dark."

“The knife in the dark being you,” I say. “The obsidian blade."

He nods. “Yes." He glances back at the Lada. "Are those your father's men? I think they must be, or they would have attacked us by now."

I look and then nod. “Yes. That is Jakov and Tomas."

"Tell me about them."

I shrug. "The bluntest of instruments. They guard shipments, usually. If Tata needs someone intimidated or leveraged, he sends them."

Lash nods. "Wonderful."

All I catch is a blur of movement, and Lash has his gun out—BANGBANG! The hood of the Lada sprouts a pair of holes and smoke plumes from the engine bay. It's so sudden that I jump in shock, shrieking. Before I can so much as stammer a question, Lash is at the driver's window, smashing it with the butt of his gun, reaching in and yanking open the door, and dragging the driver out.

"Call Stjepan," Lash growls in Croatian. "Now."

Tomas, the driver, blinks blood out of his eye where a shard of glass cut his face above his eyebrow. He digs his phone out of his pocket and hits a favorite contact. The handset rings, and Lash takes it, puts it on speaker.

"Tomas," Tata's voice barks. "You have her?"

"No, Stjepan,Ido." Lash's voice is a low growl. "I did not kidnap her. The video you saw was a deepfake. Your man Filip was a traitor."

"Nicolae Dragos," Tata says. “It has been a very long time. Tell me, old friend, why should I believe you?"