Page 74 of The Bratva's Bride
“Yeah, things are running smoothly in Moscow still. It’s running smoother now thanks to Bao discovering those shipments. It flew under the radar over there, corrupted port officials that were being paid off by Ivan, and some of the workers were those who worked for him when he had a name over there. Dima’s going to shut it all down tonight though, so we’ll need to be quick to act before word can get back to Ivan that his little shipments are permanently shut down. Once we cut off his source of inventory then he’s either going to retaliate or run. Either way, we need to act before he can.” Like hell I would let him slip away so he could restart operations elsewhere.
“Is there a way for you to tell your cousin to wait five more days? The next auction event is this weekend, and I think it’s best if we wait to strike them there because they’ll all be there. The sicko I nabbed yesterday is a regular attendee and says that it’s very rare for the head honchos to not be there to witness the atrocities.” Greg scoffed with a disgusted scowl on his face at his last words.
“Please tell me he dropped the soap.” Hanna snickered with a devious and curious smirk.
“No, he’s locked up in a basement for now. He’ll get his dues once we shut down Lady Qing’s event and get some cuffs around the slimeballs who attend the thing.” Greg paused for a second to run a hand through his dark hair and take a sip of his drink. “From what he told me, it’s an exclusive event, members and exclusive invites only. You can only enter with a member's card once Lady Qing accepts you. I got the sleezebag’s card, so if we want then we can send someone in ahead to scout the area, be our eyes on the inside.”
Sighing loudly, Angel shook her head. “We can’t do that, she knows all our faces.”
“She might know us, but I doubt she knows all of Nikolai’s guards.” Greg’s hopeful eyes fell to me, and I knew what he asked for.
It was risky to send any of my men in there like that with no backup, but if we got a scope of things before charging the place then it would give us the advantage. “It’s risky, but I’ll think about it. I don’t want to risk the life of my men like that because if I send someone in, they’ll be by themselves with no backup. Although, I do agree that it would be a great advantage to get eyes on the inside. We may have the building’s schematics and blueprints, but knowing the layout only goes so far if we don’t have a clue as to the enemy’s numbers and positions.” It was a risk, but a damn good one if we could pull it off.
“We can bring that back up later when you have thought about it more. I know it’s not easy to pick a lamb to send into the wolf’s den.” Bao spoke up before pulling out some sheets of papers from the various piles.
After spreading the sheets on top of everything, he started to talk. “These are the blueprints I managed to get, and a quick fly by of my drone confirms that these are accurate. We can assume that there will be guards posted at the three entry and exit ways. I’m going to assume two each to err on the side of caution. I’m also assuming that she’ll have guards around the perimeter as well. The only problem with everything is that we won’t have any cover for a sneak attack. The place is built underground, with only the entrances above. The rest is all desert, flat barren land. You kinda see the problem? Unless all of your men know how to fly killer drones, we ain’t getting close without setting off some kind of alarm.”
“Then we’ll just do a very coordinated drive by. If you can hack their network and shut down their system long enough for us to wipe everyone then we can break in smoothly. If they can’t get into contact with the others then everyone will remain clueless on the inside. We’ll just take out everyone above ground while communications are down then storm in on all sides.” Angel had a good plan, albeit simple and straightforward, but it might be the way to go.
The only problem with my wife’s plan was that we’d still be going in blind, and we wouldn’t have full control of the situation. We might surprise them briefly to cut down some of the guards inside the compound, but once they’d get their bearings then we’d be gunned down. Ideally I would want to sneak more men inside so we’d be able to attack on both ends, but if this event was as tight knit as Greg says, then that’s not possible.
Digging through another stack of papers, Arseny pulled out a rather hefty stack of files. “Oh, and here’s a list ofallthe known members. Whether they are regular attendees or not is unknown, but this is the list that I dug up along with ratherjuicydetails of the not so legal kind.”
Taking the stack, I quickly flipped through them, barely skimming through a quarter of them before I got the general idea. The men and women who partook in the event were caked with mud and dirt, filth that we had solid evidence of now.
“One of the requirements to being able to be a member and partake in the events is that you have to give something up on your side to show that you belong in the sick and twisted world that happens within The Catacombs. The guy said it was insurance, a will of good faith or some shit. With that dirty evidence in hand, it guarantees that the member won’t squeak about the event or anything related.” Greg said, nodding at the files in my hands. “Basically prove that you’re filth and give it to them to hang over your head.”
“Took me forever to hack the damn network of theirs to get my hands on that, so don’t lose it.” Bao sternly said with a hardened glare, his finger jabbing at the files in my hands.
Chuckling, I shook my head softly as I tossed the files back onto the table. As much as I wanted to burn the thing to ashes, it would come in handy. “No, this kind of information would ruin a person completely if it ever fell into the wrong hands. Unfortunately for these bastards, those wrong hands are mine.” Each and every single one of those people in those files were going to pay for their sins.
“I knew half of those people were sickos, but I didn’t think they were that far down the pipeline.” Angel seethed beside me with a scowl of disgust.
“Don’t worry, we’ll deal with them after we deal with Ivan and Lady Qing.” I assured Angel with a dark smirk. We were going to be set for multiple life times after I’m done going through that stack of files.
Reaching over, I picked up the blueprint of the place, drinking in every little detail Bao had marked out. “Bao, can you hack the video feeds?” There were quite a few stationed around the place. If we could get a visual through the cameras then we could map the area out better.
“If you can get me close enough, yeah, but the problem is getting me close enough. Close enough as in fifty yards or less. Which brings us back to the problem of the thing being a fucking flat desert for miles. An idle van out of nowhere is going to raise questions. I’d be shot down before I could hack anything, and I rather like my body whole.” Bao pointed out while pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.
“If we get you close enough, without putting your body up as a meat shield, then you can do it? Yes?” I had an inkling of an idea as my eyes scanned the aerial surveillance photos that were scattered on the table.
“Yes. If I can hack the freaking government then I can definitely hack Lady Qing’s shit. It’d be child’s play.” Bao sounded almost offended when he replied with a cocky grin.
Reaching out, I grabbed some of the aerial photos. “These cargo boxes, what do you know about them?” I questioned, tapping at the items in question.
“From what I know and gathered, they get brought in typically a few days before the event. They transport everything that is to be auctioned or used in the event. They are also used as disposal of things afterwards.” Bao answered after taking a closer look at the photos.
I wanted to confirm something before I got too far with my brewing plan. “So they remain until after the event takes place?”
“From what I know and gathered, yes.” Bao looked at me warily as he answered in a wavering voice.
“Why are you interested in the cargo,anh?” Angel questioned with a furrowed brow.
“What if we set Bao up in one of those cargo boxes? Judging from the images, it would be within the range that Bao would need to operate. If we can figure out when the transports take place then we could hijack one of them, place the equipment that Bao would need in it, leave the cargo box at the site of the event, then on the day of we just sneak Bao into the cargo box after we take out the guards.” It sounded like a long shot, but that would set Angel’s friend up to do the damage he needed.
“That sounds like a plausible idea. It would save us from sending anyone in and risking them being made and killed. We’d be able to properly work out a plan of attack that minimizes damage to our side. Do we know when the next shipment is going to be made? If we can figure out the next one, we can intercept them enroute, take the contents of the cargo for ourselves if it’s worth it, and replace it with our equipment. Might also be a good idea to replace the drivers just so we can get an idea of the route to the place.” Stepan’s plan sounded good, like most of his plans.
My eyes shifted to the corners to glance at Angel when she spoke. “What do you think our chances are of getting a shipment on the day of? Or would that be too suspicious?”