Draft version - Russian Roulette - Family secrets

Ch. 137: Trust me

Zariyah had been on the phone for what felt like hours trying to get through to Kyrylo without having to communicate with men who could be loyal to Vasyl.

Unfortunately, without luck.

The soft pinkish and purple hues of the sunrise told of it not being quite being morning yet. Despite the hour, they were all hyped up on coffee going over every little clue they had gotten on King beforehand. His possible connection with Giovanni Campo, his interest in Niehauser, all the places he had kidnapped Mackenzie from.

They had no information on Vasyl, who he was, where he operated from or how he kept connection with Kyrylo, if he did at all during what was happening.

But King, they had information to go on there.

Whatever they could find, they examined and tried to look at from new angles.

They had collectively agreed that they felt Gareth and Mackenzie both were being held by Vasyl, if Kyrylo was in on it did not matter. It was once again a joined effort to find one location.

"Guys..." Horse's sleepy voice sounded over the speaker.
"Yeah, bud?" Phoenix responded with a yawn.
"I've been going over the Campo files with Aces and Remy."

They had all divided into teams to cover as much as possible. Some had been placed with laptops to look at surveillance footage from Banca Campo. Others had been looking at numbers and associates, real estate purchases and everything they could think of. Pip had been monitoring the sales site if the auction was suddenly closed or something popped up, they needed to be aware of.

Mackenzie's auction would close at noon.

They were desperate, because they knew it would not be long after an auction that the buyer would want their merchandise.

"Yes?"
"We've been so busy I had to put other things on hold. I just went through Gareth's email accounts. There's this mail, I'm not sure if is legit or what."

A mail account was put up on a screen and Phoenix called over people to look at what Horse had found.

"Cracker, I need you to verify this."
"Me?" Cracker asked with confusion and pushed through the crowd to look at the screen.

It was a forwarded mail from what looked like a dummy gmail account with the name 'Smith' to Gareth from an Aidan McCallister.

It was a set of coordinates and the message:

'Gareth is here.

You need to move fast, I'm trying to stall as best I can.

4th sublevel northern end of the largest warehouse building. At least 200 guards working in shifts or in the smaller buildings, more arriving every minute.

Best entry point is the southern parking lot. It's an open space so they're not protecting it, they only have a few lookouts in the building to the side.

If you don't believe me, tell Cracker 'Angry Birds Anonymous'.'

"Fuck!" Cracker paled.
"What is it?"
"The Extractor. He was playing Angry Birds on his phone one day we waited for an interrogation. He said he's addicted to it."

Cracker had been one of the men Gareth had trusted with interrogations in the past. He knew the Extractor from those encounters. They rarely conversed much, but he was always that weird sort of warm and nice in his behavior before and after his work. During work...