by Ty Patterson
‘Only those names. He wasn’t close to me. And then he must have sensed something because he looked around. I was terrified. I raised the window and pretended I was sleeping. I heard him drive away after some time. I thought he would send men after me, but nothing happened.’
‘Why did you write that post?’
He looked away, flushing. ‘I was high. I had tried some meth I was carrying. I was seeing every post, I felt I had to join too. And when I came down, I realized what I had done. The gang would kill me if they found out. That’s when I deleted it.’
‘When did you do that? How long after posting?’
He scrunched his face, trying to remember. ‘An hour, maybe?’
Zeb knew the sisters bought his story from the way they exchanged glances. The time stamps on the board must’ve matched what he’s saying.
‘Where are Nikolai’s programmers? Where does he run that program from?’
Azarov fidgeted. He fingered the loose soil nervously. ‘I don’t know.’
Beth gouged his shoulder hard with the barrel of his gun. He arched off the ground, moaning. ‘I swear…I swear. I know nothing of that program,’ he sobbed, wiped his face and flopped back to the ground.
‘You know everything about the gang. Who runs its operations. Where its people are.’ Meghan. Cold-voice, steely-eyed. ‘You watch, that means you watch and hear your own people too. You’ve one last chance to tell us.’
‘They’ll kill me,’ he begged.
‘We’ll kill you first.’
Azarov broke. ‘There’s an office in the MIBC. One floor. That’s where the pakhan’s computer people are. But I don’t know if they have anything to do with the program,’ he said quickly.
‘Where in the MIBC?’
He mentioned a high-rise in the Moscow International Business Center in the Presnensky District. West of the central Moscow district where the Kremlin was.
Something crossed his face. He looked away.
Beth grasped his jaw and forced him to look at them. ‘What?’
‘Before all this started, I went to that office to deliver something. I also am the gang’s courier. I saw several empty desks. I had heard of those men. They were the best the pakhan had.’
‘Where did they go?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You didn’t try to find out?’
‘Nyet,’ he eyes widened in fright. ‘They would kill me.’
Beth settled back on her haunches, expressionless, her thumb rubbing idly on the Glock’s barrel.
Zeb knew what she was thinking, what Meghan was considering too.
Tverskoy moved those men to another location. That MIBC place is where he runs normal gang operations. This program isn’t normal. He’ll want to isolate the engineers. Another safe house.
He replied to the questioning look on her face when she turned to him. We’ve got to move. We’re running.
‘Shoot him.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
‘Nooo! Please,’ Azarov pleaded and grabbed at her feet. ‘I told you everything I know. Don’t kill me. I beg you.’
Beth looked at him consideringly. ‘You could have held something back.’
‘Nyet,’ he cried. ‘That’s all I know.’
‘You have seen our faces.’
‘I will forget them. I won’t tell anyone about you or what happened.’
‘They will question you. They’ll want to know why you pressed the panic button. Who we were. You know what’ll happen. They’ll torture you, get everything from you, and then kill you.’
Azarov shuddered visibly. His mouth opened but no words came. Sweat beaded his forehead.
‘You know I am right,’ Beth told him. ‘It’s better we kill you. It will be quick.’
‘I’ll run away,’ he said, clutching at her hands. ‘I will leave the gang. Escape from Moscow.’
‘How?’
‘I have family in Vladivostok,’ he said eagerly. ‘I can go back to them. I can drive a car anywhere.’
‘They’ll know you have people there.’
She got to her feet when Meghan put a hand to her shoulder. A silent message. It was time to go.
She hauled Azarov to his feet and hustled him to the car, Zeb leading. Meghan drove, Zeb directing from the back, the Russian flanked by Beth on the other side.
They ditched the car as soon as they left the woods. Hurried to join a bunch of passing tourists. Zeb broke away to go to a nearby parking lot. Cars of various shapes, sizes and colors. An old one there, a Ford. Ancient enough to not have alarms. He looked around casually. No one watching him. Meghan’s hair flashed in the distance as she craned her head to look at him. His elbow crashed into the window. Once again, and it shattered. A few minutes later he had hotwired it, collected them and was driving to the Kremlin.
He drove into a hotel lot, parked, and led them inside the cool interior. Went to a clothing outlet in the lobby, sized Azarov quickly and bought him a new outfit. Placed a hand on his back and guided him to the restroom.
‘Change,’ he ordered.
The Russian changed.
He peeled several bills from a bundle and thrust them at Azarov when they returned to the lobby. ‘Lose yourself in Moscow. It’s the biggest city in the country. You are better hiding here than anywhere else. Unless you want to make a new start in another city. But not in Vladivostok. The choice is yours.’
‘Get yourself a new identity,’ Meghan snapped at the driver. ‘I’m sure you’ll know people. And it’ll help if you stay away from gangs.’
Azarov licked his lips. He looked at them nervously. ‘Who…’ he cleared his throat. ‘Who are you?’
‘The people who could have killed you, but didn’t. Now, go, and forget you ever saw us.’
Beth drew out her phone when he disappeared from sight, tapped its screen and a green dot showed up on its screen. The same soluble GPS in water trick.
‘We hit MIBC?’ she asked when she put away her phone.
‘Yeah,’ Zeb replied.
* * *
They checked out the commercial complex that evening. All eight of them, casually clothed, posing as tourists, snapping away randomly on their cameras.
Several high rises, many buildings still under construction. It was a multi-purpose complex with offices, residential apartments, retail and entertainment outlets, with over three hundred thousand people either living or working in it once all the buildings were complete.
Eleventh floor in Tower B. That’s where Tverskoy runs his cybercrimes from, Zeb thought, recalling what Azarov had told them. He was in front of Naberezhnaya Tower, on the banks of the Moscow River.
The building was not one tower, but three, arranged in a circular fashion. Tower A was the smallest, seventeen floors. B was the next highest, with twenty-seven floors and C was the tallest. Fifty-nine floors, two hundred and sixty-eight meters high. Total floor area of over two hundred and fifty-four thousand square meters in the three towers.
They had to check out the tower, make sure Azarov had told them the truth. Sure, they could question Tverskoy but getting to him, getting past the ring of security he would have around him…no, going inside the tower will be easier. Beth and Meghan can then work their magic and see if there are any leads to this program.
He continued checking out the tower. Manned security in the lobby. CCTV cameras. Swipe cards for entry and for elevator use.
‘Can you hack the building’s systems?’ he asked.
‘Done,’ Beth smirked in his headset. He turned casually and there she was, poring over a map, head bobbing to some tune in her headset. It was designed to cut out music the moment any of them spoke.
‘But Tower B’s a problem.’ Meghan added, seriously. ‘We got lobby access and camera access. Not to the elevators, though. And the door to the stairs, that’s got palm print security on it. Werner’s working on it, but so far, no luck. Floor plans for the eleventh floor aren’t available.’
‘They’re bound to
have armed men,’ Bwana joined in. ‘I hope there will be many. It’s been a while since I killed anyone.’
The bloodthirsty, savage words were a front. Sure, he could go lethal in the blink of a second, but only if the mission demanded it.
Zeb looked up at the glassed buildings, prominent against the night sky. Azarov might have informed Tverskoy who will be prepared. He knew the likelihood of the cab driver snitching was low. The twins were tracking his movement and there were no signs that he was anywhere near known gang operations. It’s a risk we can’t take. Besides, we have to assume the gang’s tech people are very good. They might detect what Beth and Meg have done. Countermeasures could be taken. Traps could be set.
A flashing red light on top of Tower C. A warning to aircraft. That gave him an idea.
‘We’ll go tonight. Get some sleep.’
‘But how?’ Meghan demanded.
‘We’ll fly.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
‘I thought you said we would fly,’ Bear grumbled as he peered down cautiously.
They were on the roof of Tower C. Two am at night. No one but them on top of the building. Aircon equipment in the center, pumps and fans working silently. A door for access to the floors, through which they had arrived. Metal barrier and a parapet running around the edge to prevent accidents. A radio mast on top of which was the red light that Zeb had seen earlier. Strong breeze. Cool. Mid-fifties temperature.
Getting to the roof had been easy, with the access cards the twins had cloned for them. The guards in the lobby hadn’t raised an eyebrow when they had arrived, wearing a construction company’s overalls. The MIBC was still under construction. It wasn’t odd to see workers at odd hours. They made aliases and the operatives’ covers held. The sisters had worked their magic to ensure that.
They had also taken over the Tower’s security and CCTV system which was now on an endless loop.
‘You scared?’ Bwana’s teeth gleamed white as he challenged his friend.
‘Nope,’ Bear retorted, ‘but this idea of Zeb’s-’
‘Why don’t you quit whining and help us,’ Chloe cut in.
They had changed into black combat gear on reaching the roof. Masks over their face. Ballistic plate carriers beneath their vests. HKs over their shoulders. Glocks on thigh holsters. More weapons on their bodies. NVGs around their necks. No identity credentials of any kind. If they were caught FSB, Russia’s security agency, was all they would say.
They didn’t plan on getting caught.
Zeb unloaded several gun-like weapons from the bag he was carrying. Several coils of cable. Pulleys. Rappelling gear that he slung over his shoulder.
He picked up one weapon, went to the edge of roof in the strong breeze. Used a range-finder to check distance. Knelt on one knee. Peered through the weapon’s nightscope to work out where he would shoot. Adjusted the crosshair and fired.
The projectile shot out with a hiss, carrying lengths of cable with it. It sped through the night sky, and landed on the roof of Tower B. Claws shot out of the device, driven by several tons of hydraulic pressure that could crack concrete. They buried in the roof securely. The cable was secured on Tower B.
Zeb got to his feet and fastened his end to the metal structure that housed the aircon equipment.
‘Ready?’ he asked his friends.
‘You go, first.’ Bear told him. ‘If you fall, we’ll go down to scrape you off.’
Zeb slung a pulley over the cable, tested it with his weight. It held. A safety harness from his belt, attached to the cable with another pulley. Inserted a gloved hand under the first wheel and swung off in the night without another word.
A few seconds of flight. Wind rushing against his face. The ground, down below, moving slower… and then his feet were on hard concrete, a few running steps to reduce speed and he was through, safe, unharmed. He unsecured himself, gave a thumbs up to his watching friends and then realized he had a headset.
‘Who’s next?’ he asked.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ten minutes later, all eight of them were on Tower B. Less breezy because C was stopping the free flow of air.
The top of the roof was similar to that on the taller building. Zeb went to the protective barrier and looked down. Slow moving traffic in the distance. No movement at the base of the tower. Broker and Roger joined him as he removed his rappelling cable and fastened a hook to the leg of the aircon pump’s bracket.
‘This door’s open.’ Beth said in his earpiece.
He stopped and turned around. Frowned. She and Meg were at the door, which she had opened.
‘How?’
‘It’s got a swipe card access,’ she pointed to the white box to a side, ‘but that’s cracked. Not working. Someone fitted a padlock,’ she held it up. ‘But didn’t bother to secure it.’
‘There’s still a lot of construction going on,’ Bwana rumbled, looming, dark, blocking light from the night sky. ‘Those workers could have fitted the padlock, saving them the trouble of putting a new swipe system until all the work’s done.’
‘And someone forgot to lock it,’ Chloe added.
Makes sense. Mistakes happen.
‘We go down the stairs,’ Broker’s lip quirked, ‘like normal operatives, or rappel?’
Zeb rubbed his jaw as he thought fast. His plan had been to slide down Tower B’s side, break into the eleventh floor, grab anything important they could find and exit the same way.
‘Entry by stairs, exfil by rope.’ He went to the parapet and secured his cable to the hook and tossed the free end over the side. The others joined him, followed his actions, not one of them asking him to explain.
It was their way. A well-oiled team. Trust was second nature.
He led the way down, the others behind, spread out to ensure all of them had good fields of fire. HK in their hands, creeping down the stairs silently, clearing level after level, senses on high alert.
No gunmen accosted them. Not surprising, given the time. Pause for a breather on the seventeenth. Check on his team. Beth and Meghan leaning against the wall, the younger sister winking at him. Bear holding Chloe. Bwana and Roger whispering something. Broker, eyes closed. All of them breathing easily. Sixteen flights of stairs was nothing to them.
He signaled with his fist and they set off down the brightly lit stairs.
Eleventh floor. A simple door separating them from the gang’s office. A swipe card box.
‘No camera,’ Meghan murmured. ‘That’s good.’ She knelt to the floor and inserted a near-invisible cable through the gap between the door and floor. Attached its free end to her phone. A screen popped up, an image appeared, as the camera at the end of the wire sent its feed.
‘Four armed men at the two elevators. One man behind the reception desk.’
They craned over her shoulder and watched. The landing door opened in a hallway and by the looks of it, was in the corner. Elevators to its right and another bank of them, opposite to the first set.
‘All of those dudes are relaxed,’ Broker murmured.
‘Tranqs?’ Zeb asked.
A chorus of yeahs. Chloe patted the tranquilizer gun at her waist.
‘Let’s do this.’
Chapter Thirty-Six
Meghan unscrewed the card terminal, examined the insides for a moment. Brought out an RF jammer and held it to the face of the screen.
‘It messes up the radio frequencies of this scanner,’ she explained more to herself. ‘But that man at the console? He’ll get a warning alert. Ready?’ she asked.
They nodded.
She got the handle of the door, gave a thumbs up and flung it open.
Zeb went through first. One long step inside. Tranq gun coming up smoothly as the four men, startled at the sudden entry, starting turning towards them.
He fired. The dart landed in the nearest gunman’s chest. It was fast-acting and the man was already falling limply to the ground by the time Zeb reached him in three long strides, ignoring the ot
her gunmen. His team would deal with them.
He caught the falling man before his gun clattered to the floor. That was important. Reduce noise. He laid out the man, removed the magazine from his AR15 and when he looked up, the rest of the gunmen were incapacitated.
Glass door at the end of the hallway. Darkened office beyond. Another card access system which Meghan was already working on.
‘Listen up,’ she said sharply. ‘We don’t know what countermeasures they’ll have. There could be silent alarms. Reinforcements could arrive. Our window is very short. We don’t know how long.’
‘Gotcha, sis,’ Beth drawled. ‘Open that door.’
She flung it open and they rushed inside. No alarms. Ceiling lights turned on automatically, triggered by motion.
Carpeted hallway. Cubicles with monitors on either side, like any other office, except that this was a cartel office. Hallway turned right ahead and disappeared and from somewhere, a voice yelled, ‘Yuri?’
Zeb took off in its direction. Chloe joined him. Spread out. Reached the end of the hallway. Pause. A murmur reached them.
‘Two men,’ Chloe mouthed. ‘Pantry?’ when the sounds of clinking reached them.
Zeb nodded, held up three fingers, folded the first, then the second and on the third, they turned around the corner.
Another hallway. More cubicles. Glassed offices at the end. A pantry to their right, lit from where the sounds were coming and now that they got closer, they could hear music.
‘Hey,’ Chloe stood in the kitchen’s entrance and gave the two men a blinding smile.
A split-second of shock, confusion, which was all they needed to fire two more darts and take out the men.
Zeb and Chloe, Broker, and Bear, Bwana and Roger, swept through the entire office, made sure there were no more men and when they returned to the pantry, Beth and Meghan had each occupied an office. They were at monitors. Password generators fired millions of combinations at the desktops until a gotcha from the younger sister, confirmed she was in the system.
