We wait until nightfall to make our move. My men and I have surrounded the Swiss villa where the Black Company’s top lieutenants are hiding out. It’s not often that I join on this kind of mission, my face too high-profile to be caught carpet-bombing the enemy, but I wouldn’t miss taking down these mudaks for the world. These fuckers are the cause of my incessant nightmares. They came after Kira, and that alone sealed their fate.
But tonight, it ends.
I give the word and like a well-oiled machine, my team cuts the power. The villa plunges into darkness, a tangible silence spreading like a virus. Panicked shouts fill the night as Black Company guards wake up to the fact that something is happening.
On my mark, my men advance on the house. We’re a small but well trained team. I took only my best men with me. Roman, to my left, signals two fingers—our entry point is clear. We glide through the breached fence silently. Most of my team takes the left, towards the front of the villa, but Pavel, Roman, and I go right, around the back. Lai King is mine to kill.
A pair of guards emerge from the villa’s rear, flashlights cutting through the blackness. They don’t see us coming until it’s far too late. Pavel and Roman take the guards out in unison, the silencers helping to mute the gunshots before the men crumple to the ground. Adrenaline surges as we step over the fallen and push forwards into the villa. We still have chaos on our side, but that won’t last long, so we need to locate King before he figures out we’re here and beelines to the safe room.
Through my ear-piece, Konstantin reports that Lai King is still above ground. ‘Second floor, office at the end of the hall,’ he says. “All guards on the ground floor were taken out.”
“Copy that,” Roman says, taking point, while Pavel covers the rear.
We take the stairs two at a time, turning the corner when we reach the second floor, pausing to make sure the area is clear and to orient ourselves. We studied the floor plan of the villa on the plane, but it’s different when you’re on the ground.
“Fuck!” Pavel’s pained words ring out behind me.
I spin, gun at the ready, to replace my friend staggering, holding his side where blood’s coming out fast. What the fuck happened?
A shadow detaches from the wall, knife in hand. From a crouched position, Pavel raises his gun but doesn’t shoot. Because it’s not a guard who attacked him. It’s a young woman, her face streaked with tears, the knife in her hand still bloody.
Woman or not, she has to go.
My finger tightens on the trigger, but Pavel’s voice cuts through the tension. ‘Don’t!’
My moment of pause buys her a precious second, and she’s running before I can make a move, disappearing into the darkness. I curse under my breath. What the fuck was that? Does he know her?
There’s no time for questions. Whoever she is, she’s clearly not a soldier—she looked shaken and scared. While I won’t count her out entirely, I’m also not going to change course to follow her.
Roman crouches down by Pavel’s side, pressing down on his wound. “Go.’ He waves me off. “Get King. I’ll get Pavel out of here and warn the others about her.”
I hesitate, but I know Roman is right. I need to end this here and now before it spirals further.
With my weapon extended before me, I approach the office door, senses heightened. As I’m about to force entry into King’s office, a single gunshot from inside the room stops me in my tracks. Fuck!
My stomach churns with the realization that I’m too late. But I have to see for myself.
Inside, I replace Lai King’s body slumped forwards over the desk, a pistol loose in his lifeless grip, blood painting the papers and wood beneath him. Fuck me.
He chose his own end over facing me. I almost can’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to face me either.
On the desk in front of him, the computer monitor flickers with the remnants of a data wipe, lines of code cascading down as the last of the files vanish into the digital void. A snarl rips from my throat. Lai King took the coward’s way out, and he took the secrets I’d hoped to wrench from his lips with him. Not only did I not get the fight I came for, information that I want is all but disappearing before my eyes.
I grab the nearest thing—a crystal paperweight—and hurl it against the wall, where it shatters with satisfying violence. All this way, for a dead man and a wiped computer.
I scan the room, half-expecting some final trick, but there’s nothing. Only the quiet hum of electronics and the faint scent of gunpowder.
I turn, about to leave when the satellite phone buzzes in my pocket. Pulling it out, the screen lights up with a message from Viktor that punches the air from my lungs.
Viktor: Kira is missing.
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