Page 68

Dimitry

Andaman Sea

“ I t’s very kind of your friend to let us use his yacht.” I give Leon a quizzical look. “Have you filled him in on what, exactly, we’re using it for? There’s a more than even chance it might end up blown sky-high, if our friends in the compound work out it’s our base of operations.”

“He’s aware.” He smiles cryptically. “Let’s just say he has stakes of his own in this particular game. And more than enough money to buy another yacht, if necessary.”

We’re talking in the pilot cabin of the yacht from which Abby flew back to SK several days ago and which is now currently moored in a secluded bay within easy distance of the compound.

“He’s also elusive, this friend of yours.” Roman gives Leon a rather narrow look. Pavel and Mickey’s combined skills have yet to uncover the owner of the yacht, which has made him understandably twitchy .

“Elusive is a good thing,” Mak intervenes smoothly, shooting me the ghost of a wink. “If Pavel and Mickey can’t work out who owns it, then nobody else can either.”

Roman scowls, but at least he shuts up.

I suppress a grin as I open up the schematics on the chart table. Mak is possibly the only person to whom Roman will actually listen without argument. And given that he’s just arrived with three teams of highly trained private mercenaries, I’m extremely relieved he’s here.

Although I am surprised to discover he and Leon know one another. And not just in passing either.

“You know what this reminds me of?” Mak is saying as he pours Leon a coffee from an Italian moka pot.

His eyes crinkle at the edges, darkness swimming beneath the mercurial blue.

Despite being on a yacht in the Andaman sea, his tall figure is impeccably clad as ever, in a three piece suit no doubt crafted by some Savile Row tailor.

He and Leon seem roughly the same age and height, though where Leon’s bulk rivals my own, Mak is less obtrusive.

His figure has a louche, rakish quality that I know from experience disguises utterly lethal abilities.

“Chechnya, the first time?” Leon nods, grinning as he takes the short glass of thick black brew. “We were stuck on that damned boat in the Caspian Sea for months. Your coffee was the only thing that saved me from complete despair.”

“Well, that and the vodka.” Mak clinks his glass to Leon’s.

“Oh, the vodka.” Leon tilts his chin. “Yes, that was certainly memorable.”

“You two really do know each other,” Roman says, looking between them.

Mak glances at me. “A story for another time, I think. Dimitry.” He crosses to the chart table and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Talk us through it.” He nods at a box on the table. “Luke and Paddy are already on site. They’re on the line now. ”

“Hey” comes Luke’s low, steady tone through the box. “I can smell that coffee from here, Mak, you sadistic prick.”

I grin. “Good to hear you, Luke. Right. Let’s do this.”

Mickey, Pavel, Alexei, and Bryce move away from the screens they’ve been watching and join us around the collection of maps on the table.

“Luke and Paddy have been running surveillance for days now,” I begin.

“They’ve been in and out of the compound multiple times and cut several access routes in for us.

Mickey?” I nod at Roman’s godson a tall, lean sixteen year old who seems to have shot up by a foot in the months since I last saw him, not to mention filled out in a way that suggests he’s been taking his training in the gym seriously.

His dark blue eyes are sharply focused on the screen, his fingers skimming the keys as the screen lights up with photographs of the compound, taken from within the grounds as well as from the exterior.

Roman whistles admiringly. “Nice job, boys.”

“We aim to please” comes Paddy’s dry voice through the speaker.

“We’re going to need to work from the outside in and the inside out simultaneously,” I say.

“We must take out the perimeter guards before anything goes down inside. But timing is going to be crucial. We may not know who, exactly, this man is until the auction is complete. He’s placed strict rules around the auction itself to preserve his anonymity.

We’re relying entirely on Abby being able to identify him, and on Rodrigo to convey that message through his comms. That means a lot can go wrong. ”

Alexei folds his arms, his one lone eye piercing me across the table. “Are we seriously planning to trust the Cardenas cartel?” His raspy voice is harsh, and there’s no hint of a smile on his face.

Then again, Darya’s brother isn’t really the smiling type. Not surprising, given he spent his formative years being brutally and repeatedly tortured.

By people who were allied with the Cardenas cartel.

Which makes his grim demeanor now entirely understandable.

“Our target didn’t just murder Juan Cardenas, Rodrigo’s father,” I say, meeting Alexei’s grim eye directly.

“He did it purely so he could use Rodrigo to open up new cocaine markets. Rodrigo doesn’t just want this man dead—he wants his entire operation decimated, just like we do.

And neither of us can do that alone.” I tap the map showing the hotel where the auction will be held.

“Rodrigo can get men inside the hotel. We can’t. ”

Roman frowns. “What about him?” He nods at Leon without saying his name. “I thought he was the one running this show? Can’t he get men inside?”

“I can’t, unfortunately.” Leon shakes his head, seemingly not at all put out by Roman’s open hostility.

“I’m the registered dealer for the piece, which is how I pulled the buyers for the auction together.

But dealers and auctioneers are two separate roles.

I don’t run auctions; I’m the intermediary between buyers and sellers.

And in this case, given that I’m the actual owner of the piece, I’m already stepping on dangerous ground.

I’m remaining anonymous, of course, which isn’t at all unusual in cases like this.

But if I step into the role of auctioneer, it will raise alarms we can’t afford. ”

“But you’ll still be in attendance?” Roman eyes him suspiciously.

“No,” I cut in. “He’ll stay on the yacht with Mak, running comms to our auctioneer.” I nod at Mickey. “Pull up the picture.”

Mickey hits a key, and a photo of an olive-skinned hawk-eyed young man in an impeccable suit appears on-screen.

“This is Dariush Azad,” I say, zooming in on the face.

“He’s an Iranian auctioneer who has begun to make a name for himself running auctions for black-market objects, primarily those acquired during conflicts in the Middle East. He is known more by name than face, and for the fact that he runs his auctions using digital controls and a screen rather than traditional paddles, with Mercura as the sole option for payment.

This unique style enables his clients to remain completely anonymous, but still attend in person.

If they choose, bidders can keep their faces hidden and be identified solely by the number associated with their digital control. ”

“And you know this guy?” Roman asks, frowning at the screen.

“I’ve watched him in action a dozen times since I started working with the Naryshkin treasures. He’s notoriously security conscious, for obvious reasons, and often changes his appearance to avoid notice.”

“So where is he?” Roman looks around, as if expecting Dariush to magically materialize.

My mouth twitches. “He’s right there.” I nod at Pavel, who’s moving nervously from one foot to another.

Roman stares over Pavel’s head, clearly expecting someone else.

“No, Roman,” Mickey says with the kind of exasperation only a teenager can show a parental figure. “Dimitry means Pavel . We’re going to make him look like this Azad guy. Then we’ll wire him up, and Leon will coach him through the auction.”

Roman’s eyebrows nearly shoot through the roof. “You’re fucking what, now?”

“Right?” Pavel nods in emphatic agreement, pointing at Roman. “You see? He thinks you’re mad as well.”

“No,” Mickey says impatiently, “we’re not mad.

Look.” He zooms in on the screen. “Pavel’s facial features hit all the same points as Dariush Azad—or they will, once we shave Pavel’s beard off.

They’re exactly the same height, and since I’ve been making Pavel train with me in the gym, around the same weight.

All we need is to give Pavel a decent haircut, put him in a decent suit, then have Leon feed him the right words and—voila—we have Dariush Azad. ”

Roman stares at me incredulously. “You’re planning to put a multimillion-dollar high-stakes life-and-death mission in the hands of my chief tech geek ?”

“Why the fuck not?” I glare at him across the table.

“You trust Pavel with your multibillion-dollar crypto platform. And for the record, Pavel isn’t your tech geek.

If you remember, it was me who actually recruited him, more than a decade ago, when he was just a refugee kid running a hacking workshop in London.

Against your wishes, I might add. I’d say he’s proved himself more than a little useful since, wouldn’t you? ”

Roman’s glare could poison trolls, but he wisely keeps his mouth shut.

I bite back a very evil urge to grin. I’m enjoying this far more than I probably should.

“So,” I go on, “that’s what’s happening.”

Pavel shakes his head. “I don’t get a say in this, do I,” he mutters.

Mickey grips his shoulder bracingly. “See? I told you going to the gym would pay off.”

The look Pavel gives him almost rivals Roman’s.

“All Pavel has to do is keep the auction going until we get through the perimeter,” I go on.

“Luke, Alexei, and Paddy will run Mak’s crews from the outside.

Since the triads have already made Paddy and Luke, they can’t show their faces until it’s already going down.

Other than Paddy, Bryce is the best man with explosives, so he’ll go in with the Cardenas boys.

His Spanish is also fluent, which will help.

” I glance at Bryce, who nods. “Paddy’s set the explosives on the perimeter already, but you’ll wire the inside to blow.

He’s left instructions as to where the caches are, but it will be up to you to find them and get them into place.

The Cardenas guys are trusted guests who often frequent the compound and roam the grounds, so they’ll give you cover—but you’ll still need to be fucking careful. ”

Bryce nods stolidly. “Copy that.”

Alexei looks between Roman and me. “What about you two?”

I take a deep breath. “We’ll land with Mak’s crews, but we’ll go in before it all starts.

According to Luke and Paddy, there are over three thousand people being held captive in that compound.

Someone is going to need to make sure they get out before it blows.

” I nod at Mickey. “We’ve been hacking into their system for days now, spreading the word among the programmers.

Hopefully at least some of the captives will be ready to go. ”

“ Spreading the word ?” Roman looks like he’s about to literally explode. “Why not put up a fucking banner saying incoming while you’re at it? What the fuck happened to operational security? Did you lose your goddamn mind along with your fucking girlfriend, Dimitry?”

A moment later I have him up against the wall of the yacht, hard enough to make a solid thud as his body hits the paneling. I put my face very close to his.

“I’m going to let that go,” I say quietly, “but it’s the last time I will. And only then because you’re my fucking brother.”

I stare at him, letting all the fury and tension of the past months show in my face. I hold him there until I see the fight go out of Roman’s eyes and understanding creep in.

He grips my shoulder, hard enough to hurt. “You better not fucking die on me,” he says roughly.

I give him my madman’s grin. “Why the fuck do you think you’re coming with me? ”

He nods slowly, his mouth curling in a reluctant smile. “Go on, then, you crazy fuck.”

I turn back to the rest of the table, who are all staring anywhere but at either of us.

“Listen up,” I say, leaning on the chart table and looking at each of them in turn.

“I know this has escalated, fast. But three thousand people behind those fences were stolen from their fucking families. They simply disappeared, never to be heard from again. They were forced into slavery and are tortured so badly many simply give up and run into the guns rather than live another day. Abby was held for several months, and she still can’t sleep a fucking night through without a nightmare. ”

My voice shakes slightly.

I don’t give a fuck.

Every word Abby told me about that place, not to mention the many I knew she held back, have been growing inside me like a toxic plant. I can’t erase those words, any more than I can the pictures they painted in my head.

“There are mothers in there,” I say quietly. “Daughters. Refugees who escaped wars, only to find themselves facing an even worse fate. And if we just walk away and leave them there, then we’re no better than the bastards who took them in the first place.

“Yes, it’s a risk. And any one of you can walk away if it’s one you’d rather not take. But if we win this one, we haven’t just cut down a bad guy who wants to kill us all. We’ve pulled a cancer out at the root. If you want my opinion, I think that’s a fucking risk worth taking.”

There’s a long silence.

Then Paddy’s Irish accent crackles through the speaker. “If you lot are finished with the circle jerk,” he says dryly, “my boy Luke here and I would really like to get this shit done. I haven’t had a beer in a fucking week.”

Bryce leans forward as the others laugh. “We’re all in, brother,” he says quietly. “Or we’d never have come in the first place.”

I look around the table as each of them meets my eyes and nods.

“Thank you,” I say quietly. “Then let’s get on with it.”