Page 42 of Tracking Shadows
“That’s good. You’ll need the extra muscle to block off the tunnels. But we can’t rely on brute force alone.” She taps the map again. “You must use the tunnels as soon as you find out something is wrong. I can cut the signal when Sergei arrives. He won’t be able to call for backup. But the problem is, we’ll only have a fifteen-minute window before the signal restores itself.”
“Fifteen minutes?” I echo. “That’s too short. Sergei’s not an idiot. He won’t go down that quickly.”
“I know,” Katya says, “but that’s all I can give you. The system is old, and I can’t hack it for longer than that without tripping alarms. We’ll have to move fast.”
I glance at Alexei, who is staring at the map, his jaw clenched. He’s thinking, calculating, and I can tell he’s already considering how to make those fifteen minutes count. But it’s not enough time. Not for someone like Sergei.
“That’s pushing it,” I say. “If anything goes wrong, we’re trapped in there with Sergei and his men. He’s not just going to roll over.”
“It’s the best I can do, Irina,” she repeats. “We either take the chance, or we risk Sergei escaping and the whole operation blowing up in our faces. We don’t have a choice.”
“We’ll make it work, but we need to be crystal clear about what he thinks he’s walking into,” Alexei says. “We can’t rule out the fact that he’ll still be suspicious from the moment he steps foot near the place. We can’t afford any holes in this.”
Katya flips open a folder. “He believes it’s a high-value shipment of heroin,” she explains. “He’s already sent scouts to verify the shipment’s route, so everything looks legit from his side.”
“Where’s the heroin supposed to come from?” I ask, glancing at the papers she’s laid out.
“Bulgaria,” Katya responds. “I’ve set up a dummy route from the Black Sea through a couple of shell companies. It’ll look like it’s coming in with a legitimate shipment of electronics. The drugs are supposed to be hidden in shipping containers.”
Alexei taps the table. “And Sergei’s buying this? A shipment this big . . .. Why would he risk showing up personally?”
Katya’s lips press into a thin line. “That’s where I had to get creative. It’s not just about the drugs. It’s about the buyer. I’ve made it look like there’s a new player in town, someone with a lot of money and no loyalty to the usual mafia families. A foreign investor looking to move weight fast.”
“And Sergei wants to secure that relationship,” I say, catching on. “He’ll want to meet this mysterious buyer himself, lock in the deal.”
“Exactly.” Katya nods. “He’ll think this is a chance to expand his influence, cut out some of his rivals, and get on the good side of the Broker. It’s a big win for him. It’s too good an opportunity for him to pass up.”
Alexei taps the table. "I guess we’ve handled everything, then. It's all laid out."
Katya nods, rolling up the map and securing it in a tube. “Time and date are set. Three days from now, at 9 PM sharp. We’ll need to be in position an hour before that. I’ll be out of reach until then. I can’t risk raising any suspicion right now.” She glances at me, then at Alexei, before heading toward the door. “This is our one shot.”
With that, she walks out the door.
I sit back and cross my arms as I stare at the spot where Katya was. Her precision and cold efficiency always leave me feeling unsettled. But she’s good—damn good—and I trust her.
Alexei leans back in his chair. “So,” he says, “how do you feel about all this?”
I take a deep breath. “The plan? It’s solid, in my opinion. Katya’s done her part really well. I trust her.”
He raises an eyebrow. “She’s a tough one to figure out.”
“She doesn’t talk much about her past,” I admit. “She’s closed off. All I know is that Sergei killed her family. She was shot, but somehow, she survived. That’s all I’ve ever gotten from her.”
His jaw tightens. “Sergei has destroyed so many lives. Death’s too easy for him, too quick.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
He leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I’m saying, maybe we don’t kill him outright. Maybe we bring him back and let him suffer for a while.”
“No.” I shake my head. The thought of keeping Sergei alive leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. “That’s too risky. What if he escapes? Or the Broker gets wind of it? We can’t afford that kind of mistake.”
Alexei smirks, a dangerous gleam in his eye. “You worry too much. Dmitri can send us a plane to fly us out immediately after.”
I glare at him, frustrated by his overconfidence. “And what if something goes wrong? We’re dealing with Sergei here, Alexei. You know better than anyone that he’s not the kind of man to take lightly.”
His lips spread into a lopsided grin. “I like a challenge.”
I roll my eyes, trying to shake off the shiver creeping up my spine at his smile. “You’re crazy.”