Devil’s in the Details (11 page)

I tried hiding my grin by looking down at the tops of my worn running shoes, nodding, "I think I did." I glanced back up at the admissions building, "I think I got more than I expected." I reached for my cane, pushing on it to stand up with my eyes still on the building in the area where I imagined Victoria's office was. "Let's go get that lobster roll I promised you."

Linking my arm into Stacy's for extra support I shook my head and half listened to her prattle on about the shops and what cute things she bought.

My thoughts were only wrapped around the image of Victoria in her uniform and her phone number. Blazing in bright red ink as a possible warning sign of what I might be getting myself into. Those red digits burned into my memory, mingling with the tiny twitch in my gut, telling me that I had better hope to hell that my crazy idea wouldn’t backfire on me.

"Are you online?"

Sitting down behind the cheap wooden desk in the company apartment, I clicked on the laptop to light up the screen, "Yes Dani. Let’s get started."

Dani huffed, emphasized by the hard click clack of a keyboard being pounded in the background, "We’re already a half hour behind. I’ll have to go faster than usual." I heard the distinct staccato of Dani's fingers moving faster than lightning over the keyboard. I didn't bother to interject my usual sarcastic comment at her huffing like a spoiled brat, or try to explain the delay with how customs was backed up when I landed in Toronto, or that the company car was not in the lot like it was supposed to be when I left the terminal. All minor details that were screwed up by using the tea drinkers set up crew in Canada and not the one Dani and I both wanted to travel with me as I left D.C. A crew her and I both trusted and knew exactly how I needed, and liked things setup before I started a job.

Resting my elbows on the edge of the desk I stared at the screen, watching as Dani remotely opened the files and dumped them all over the screen of my laptop.

"Okay. First, let me direct your attention to the lovely thug you see before you. Sergei Boykov, a low level warrior for the Grekov family who operates out of Canada and Ukraine." Dani moved the image of a very typical looking Russian man to the side of the screen.

Sergei had large Russian mafia tattoos that covered his neck and distinct features that would tell even a blind man he was Eastern European. The massive tattoo of the Kremlin on the left side of his neck that would make it easy for me to find him quickly. He had greasy black hair styled in a messy but fashionable way, his face was acne scarred and his plain brown eyes held very little soul or personality. Telling me right away what type of person he was, a selfish shitbag.

Dani continued as I memorized the face of my target. "Sergei has been running the human trafficking side of things for the Grekov's for the last six months. Buying, selling, and trading men and women of all ages. Sometimes, he tests out his product before moving them onto the final buyers. He loves his cocaine and cannot get enough of it lately. This has him on the bad side of his Captain since he is spending more time snorting up his profits instead of sending them home. Sergei also has a history of keeping male and females that suit his fancy, as personal entertainment. If you get my drift." Her tone had turned hard and full of disgust at the end.

I sighed, "I do, Dani, but try and keep the personal commentary to a minimum. You know I hate developing an opinion about a target."

Dani took in a breath, "I know Victoria, but sometimes it's hard to bite my tongue with some of these shit heads." She clicked and a new photograph filled my screen. A young girl, who had to be no more than seventeen years old, with long strawberry blonde hair and a bright smile on her face. A smile that showed everyone she was confident about having the whole world ahead of her. "So this is where we come in, well, you come in. Seems the old man and the old lady received a frantic phone call from one of the biggest and baddest arms dealer in the Ukraine, asking for a favor." Dani paused. I could hear her struggle with keeping her comments to herself. "The girl you are looking at now, is the youngest daughter of one of the most infamous black market arms dealer in Europe, Katrina Dovzhenko. She just turned seventeen last month."

My ears perked up when I heard the last name of the girl, forcing me to interrupt Dani's diatribe, "You don't mean Yuri Dovzhenko’s daughter. The black market arms dealer the UN and every peace loving country have tried to take down for the last decade?" I began to feel the frustration boil up.

I knew my job and my employers kept to playing the neutral party, but sometimes it was hard to digest. Especially when it came to doing a favor for a man who was primarily responsible for arming the same enemies I had fought in the desert against, who also had weapons that often outweighed mine. Let alone, being the main supplier of weapons, arming both sides of the ongoing war in his own country. The man was only loyal to money and would do anything for it. I had to clench my jaw as Dani continued.

"The one and only." Dani sucked in a breath, "Focus, Professor." She waited until I groaned at her using the horrible nickname, "Daddy came to Voltaire a few days ago asking for help, laying quite a bit on the table as payment for our services. I won't get into this because, its well above my pay grade and at a classified status, and no one has told me what he's offered us. Anyway, it seems Yuri's daughter was at a dance club in Odessa three weeks ago and was slipped a little extra boost juice in her drink. She was kidnapped at the end of the night and ended up over in Toronto in Sergei's personal collection. None of the kidnappers or Sergei knew who Katrina's daddy is. It looks like daddy just found out when one of his own thugs was enjoying a little paid action at Sergei's brothel, and recognized the girl when she was offered up to him for an extra charge."

I stood up from the chair, moving to the large window of the expansive apartment. Looking out on the nightscape of Toronto, my eyes drew up to the CN tower. "Why didn't Yuri just have his men take care of the issue?" I was getting more frustrated by the details of Sergei and his business than I was about the fact I was about to do a favor for another dirt bag.

"He can't. Seems if he did step in to retrieve his daughter, it would upset some sort of peace treaty with the Grekov family. Something in the back chatter about the two being in bed together in the arms business. I don't really know Professor. I just get the case files for the jobs, do the research, and send you on your way."

Dani paused for a second, waiting for me to comment. "But the old man and old lady have agreed to help Yuri regardless of where he falls in the morality scale. They want you to go in and do what it takes to eliminate Sergei. Just like daddy is paying for. Get the girl safely out of there, then Voltaire gets access to things the UN has tried to get to for the last ten years. Leaving it for the great Voltaire to ride on in, waves its magical black ops wand, and save the day in the eyes of the UN. When in reality, here we are, doing business with war criminals and street thugs." She clicked again, grumbling under her breath, the sound making me return to the laptop. "Sergei is holed up at the fancy apartment building two blocks from you. He's up in the penthouse and the last intel I had from the security cameras, Katrina is currently in there with him."

I roamed over the security footage and the blueprints of the building Dani had laid out on my screen. "How many guards?" I wanted to clear out my growing frustration and move towards getting into the right mind frame to do this job and leave any personal feelings out of it.

"Five on the penthouse floor, that's it. Sergei keeps a light crew at the penthouse. Usually one by the elevator, two at the door and the other two milling about inside the penthouse making sure Sergei doesn't go completely off the rails with all the cocaine he has been ingesting lately. I’ve been monitoring the security footage over the last twenty-four hours to find patterns and the only one I find is Sergei raging out at his men when there isn’t enough cocaine in the penthouse. It also looks like he keeps his personal objects of desire high as kites along with him." I could hear the disgust return in her voice. Something I heard very rarely from the very cut and dry woman. Dani paused one more time before sending me the confirmation instructions. "The old man and the old lady have both given you dealer's choice on this one, Victoria. You can go about it anyway you want as long as you make it look like his own family turned on him."

Another series of photographs filled my screen like a card dealer dishing out the next hand of poker. The photographs were of crime scenes from all of the Grekov hits spanning over the last five years. "These crime scene photos were pulled from Toronto Metro Police to give you a better reference point. They love guns and knives."

I scanned over the images, quickly developing my strategy, "How much time do I have?"

"They want you in and out by three a.m. Sergei's Captain is expected to meet him at around eight in the morning. The police need to be there before then and rope the scene off, hopefully scaring back the Grekov family until Yuri is satisfied and I can spin the gossip that it was an internal hit." Dani clicked a few more times, moving security footage images around on my screen to bring up the side alley of Sergei's apartment building. "There will be a van waiting at the first floor service entrance. It will be our clean-up crew this time, and they will take the girl from you and ship her back off to Daddy. After that, both you and the cleaning crew need to send confirmation the job is done and, as usual, I will be your eye in the sky rerouting the security cameras and getting you where you need to go. Keep your blue tooth on. When it’s all done, all you have to do is disappear like you usually do and I will see you Monday morning at school." Dani clicked a few more times, "There’s a bag in the mattress with everything you’ll need."

I mumbled a thank you and hung up on Dani. I looked at the time on my laptop, noting that it was edging closer to quarter to two in the morning. I now had less than an hour to complete this job, making me a bit agitated that I didn't have more time to prepare properly.

I rushed to the bed I would not sleep in tonight and lifted the heavy mattress up to find a square black backpack. I removed it and unzipped to find a silenced Walther PK380 and a nice set of lightweight tactical throwing knives with two push daggers at the bottom. All of the weapons matched up perfectly to what the Grekov family's thugs preferred to use as their tools of disposal and how I had seen them used in the crime scene photographs. The Grekov's loved brutal close quarters, exactly what I had in mind for Sergei.

Setting the backpack on top of the bed, I moved the overnight bag next to the granite fireplace in the center of the apartment and took out the usual black clothes I wore on all of my jobs. I dressed as I silently ran through the blueprints and visualizing every little movement I would be making.

After changing out the t-shirt and jeans I wore on the flight, and into my “work” clothes, I threw on a solid black pair of sunglasses and pulled up the hood on my thin jacket before leaving the hotel room. Grabbing the backpack and slinging it over my shoulder, I shoved a pair of thin black leather gloves into my front pocket. I kept my head down and avoided eye contact as I slowly slid into work mode.

Stepping out onto the city streets I sucked in a few calming breaths before starting to jog down the two blocks to Sergei's apartment building. I would look like a typical late night jogger, a wealthy lady or actress who was hiding from the bustling nightlife as I tried to sneak in a quick run before the bars let out and filled the streets with drunks.

Less than ten minutes later, I was standing in the elevator of Sergei's apartment building, watching the digital readout count down the floors on the way up to the penthouse. I tapped on the ear bud in my left ear, "Dani, I'm in."

"I see you. Try not to look directly at any cameras tonight, alright Victoria?" Her tone was back to the typical sarcastic one Dani always had when we worked together.

I rolled my eyes under my sunglasses, "You won't ever forget that, will you?"

"Nope. It was a stupid mistake and I will hold that over your head until you’ve learned your lesson Professor." She accentuated all of the syllables in Professor.

I shook my head, "I'm going to mute you until the job is done. You have my back?"

"Always have, Victoria. Always will." Dani was genuine with her words as she was every time she spoke them when I went into a job where she was my eyes in the sky. "You’re clear. The cameras have been rerouted and are on a loop. All anyone will see from this point on is big dumb guard walking in circles."