by KJ Dahlen
His first punch sent Alexi flying. He crashed down to the floor and blood dribbled down his front. Blood and a few teeth. He groaned and turned his head first one way then another as pain washed over him.
Deter drew back his hand and his fist broke a rib as he smashed it down into Alexi’s chest.
Alexi began to sob but still he said nothing the men wanted to hear. It wasn’t until the seventh blow that he cracked. By this time, he had three broken ribs, a smashed ankle, a busted nose and smashed eye socket.
Deter stopped the moment Alexi cried out, “Stop! I will tell you what you want to know.
Chapter Three
That evening, they all came together in Yuri’s penthouse again. This time, the Nomads had put together the beginning of their game plan. Using the information they had secured from the diaries along with what Alexi had told them, they had the first part of their journey well planned.
Tegan had a warehouse near Covington. Viktor had found satellites shots of the area. From these photographs, he could see a detailed map of the area. He could also see a well-used trail to Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf, where a boat could get through and be lost to commercial traffic. The Ghost Fire Riders MC had established themselves in that area for quite some time and this route could be used by them to deliver their goods to anywhere they needed to go. The land itself was swampy and seemed abandoned but they all knew it was not. It may have been swampy but it wasn’t abandoned.
Alexi had told his team that it was the perfect place for the MC to hide their activities. Not only did they run the women through there but they also ran guns, drugs and other contraband that they didn’t want the authorities to know about.
Alexi told them he’d found that the local sheriff was related to the MC leader and this Alexi they held in the basement insisted the so called law man often looked the other way for a payout twice a month.
Yuri had looked disgusted at this point in Viktor’s update but they all learned this was only the beginning of the shit Tegan was into.
Not only Tegan but the Ghost Fire Riders as well. While being a small operation they had quite a lot going on. Alexi informed them, they wouldn’t even get close to the main compound without a well formed plan, even if they tried as it was patrolled both on land and on the swamp side. They also had cameras. It had been reported that not even the locals would go there.
Viktor had listened to this Alexi as he told his tale after Deter had done his job of ‘getting’ the cretin to talk but in his head even then while the torture went on, he knew what he had to do. He’d been given the go ahead to dismantle and destroy Tegan’s empire and this was but one part of the whole. He would have to work backwards from the words Galina had written but that wouldn’t be a problem.
His men knew what they were doing. He could depend on them to do what they were trained to do. His team was the best of the best. They all worked hard to get where they were today and it showed. With Deter and Pyotr covering their backs, they could do the impossible and very often did.
Viktor approached the area where Sergi, Misha, Yuri and Vatali were sitting. Kosta, Salt, Barshan, Mikial and Pepper weren’t too far away and the rest of them gathered in so they could hear what he had to say.
“We’ll need another day to get our bearings and then we will begin our mission,” Viktor announced to the group. He was looking at Sergi but everyone could hear him.
“You found a starting point then?” Sergi asked.
“Da, we did.” Viktor nodded. “We may have to take out a small MC but from what I understand, those people won’t be missed by anyone important.”
Yuri frowned. “Anyone I might know?”
Viktor glared at him. “I certainly hope not.”
“What’s the name of the group?” Yuri insisted.
“The Ghost Fire Riders.” Viktor hesitated then asked, “Do you know of them?”
Yuri sighed in relief. He was glad for once, that he didn’t know them. He had also been hoping they weren’t the Advocates or the Hell Fire Riders. “I do not.”
“Then you won’t mind if we eliminate them?”
Yuri stared at the man as he answered without hesitation, “Nyet...Not at all.”
Viktor nodded then glanced back over at Sergi. “This is not going to be bloodless on our part. You know what we can and will do to achieve our goal. I have to ask this one time and I will only ask one time, is this what you want?”
Sergi stared at the man for along moment then he turned to stare at Vatali. When Vatali nodded, he looked back at Viktor. “I believe this man needs to be stopped in any way you can stop him. But understand something here, he will know you are hunting him. He may not realize it at first but eventually, he is going to know. Are you prepared for that?”
Viktor smiled at Sergi, but his smile held no joy. His eyes were cold and hard. “I love a good fight, don’t you? And if ever there was a man who needed killing he is that man.”
Vatali stood and spoke in a vengeful tone, “I need you to destroy him first, take everything he’s got and leave the man with nothing. Not even a pot to piss in.”
Viktor felt more than a little disturbed by the man’s need for vengeance. That was not the Bratva way but it was the way of a grieving man who lost his daughter, even after twenty six years of not knowing what had become of her. He gazed at Sergi and noted the expression in his eyes, then he glanced over at Salt. She wore a heartbroken look in her eyes and this was one he understood. He watched as Kosta wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him.
“Then I will leave this in your hands.” Sergi ignored Vatali’s outburst and concentrated on Viktor.
Viktor nodded. He got to his feet and offered his hand to Sergi. Sergi took it and sealed their deal. Viktor turned his head and stared at Salt. She met his eyes with tears in hers. He didn’t say a word to her but he did dip his head as if to say he would honor her mother the best way he knew how.
“If you need anything please let me know,” Yuri offered.
Viktor nodded. “Thank you.”
Then he and his team turned and left the penthouse. The Nomads still had a lot of work to do before they began their quest and this was only the first leg of it.
When he got back to his room, he called the others in for a confab report. They would go over everything one more time and when dawn broke, they would be on their way.
“Are we ready to go?” Viktor asked his men.
“Da, I have all we should need for this first step,” Adrik told him. “We have weapons, guns and blades, and explosives should we need them.”
Viktor nodded. He knew Adrik would acquire whatever they would need. He knew how to do his job. Then he turned to Matvey. “Do you have all the reports we need for surveillance on the area?”
“I’ve found a trail that has been well used, as you pointed out. And you were correct in your assumption that they use this trail to move their goods. I looked back on the satellite tracking and found a routine of some kind. They have shipments coming out of the compound about every week or so.”
Viktor frowned. “What kind of business are they doing out there requiring them to ship that often?”
The other man shrugged. “No clue but every week, they are not there for about 12 hours. The whole compound is vacated for those hours.”
“And when does that twelve hour time frame come up again?” Viktor asked with a raised brow.
“Should be day after tomorrow.”
“Good, then we’ll be in that area tomorrow and go in the next day when the compound is empty. We don’t take anything for granted and we have the go ahead to shoot back.” He stared at his men and added, “We go in quiet and soft and see what we find before we do anything. We don’t know what we are going to find.”
“And if we find someone there?” Andrey asked.
“Take him out quickly and quietly,” Viktor said with little to no emotion. “They also have cameras and patrols. One of us goes into the office and secures
whatever records they have while the rest of us search the compound to see if they left anything behind.”
“Are we going to blow the compound?” Grisha wanted to know as he cracked a rare smile.
Da,” Viktor nodded as he almost matched his smile, knowing the man liked to blow things up. “But I want them there when we do it. The world will never miss this MC. We must also leave no trace we were even there. It must appear as if they blew themselves up. But then you already knew this. As this isn’t your first time fucking someone up. If we do this right, Tegan will never know we’re after him and that’s what I want. We’ll need more time to track this bastard and his other dealings down. As is the usual with this type of cretin involved.... these men here, Vatali and the Bratva want him to be stripped of everything before we face him.”
His men nodded and began to grin as they looked at each other ‒ this was how they worked ‒ as a team for the greater good.
“How many vehicles do we have secured?” Viktor asked.
“Four, they are packed up and ready to go,” Ivan assured him.
Viktor nodded. “Ok, let’s get some sleep and be ready to leave by four a.m. That will get us there before sunup and then we can do recon of the area. Did you get a jammer? We need to be able to move around without getting caught on camera?”
Andrey nodded. “Of course...We have several. We can also get in without being seen and I will manipulate the cameras by running a loop if necessary.”
Viktor nodded. “We might need that if we have to wait too long for them to return.” He ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his hands down his face.
Pyotr asked, “What do we do with their contraband if we find any?”
“If it’s illegal we burn it, otherwise we can take it with us. I’d hate to leave him with the power to start up again.” Viktor shrugged. “We have to destroy everything the compound represents.”
“Perhaps we should begin this journey at the beginning and not reverse it as we are doing. It is not so Khorosho if we do it this way,” Grisha recommended.
“Nyet, I think not. This will be good enough,” Viktor replied. “We must move carefully wherever we go and this is one way he will never see us coming. He’s led so many women to their ruin and I don’t want him to know which one of them tipped us off. And if he took a different route with some of them he won’t remember Galina from over twenty six years ago.”
The men had all read copies of the diaries that had been set outside their doors. They all nodded in agreement.
“We can’t let him remember her or where she ended up staying. Galina may not be here anymore but her daughter is here and we cannot allow Tegan Averin to realize this,” Viktor reminded them all as he remembered his vow to Kosta, one of the protectors of Bratva. “If there is nothing else you have concerns for, let us break and sleep before this search and destroy begins.
~*~
An hour later, he was lying in his bed staring at the ceiling. So far, sleep had eluded him. This was not uncommon however, before a huge burn down and kill operation. It took fortitude and a lack of emotion to hold to the creed. A creed that would mean someone’s utter ruin and destruction. Justice. Yustitsiya.
Viktor’s job was that for the most part, as the High Council had to approve of such extreme sentences carried out on Bratva members or the Crime Syndicates these traitorous or low members associated with. They would convene and go over the evidence presented to them before rendering a decree to call in the enforcers. So this was Bratva Justice completely.
This case in particular was too personal to Viktor. This slave trading and forcing of human beings to sell themselves for sex or anything else. It was fol...or foul, as the Americans would say. Otvratitel’nyy. Hideous. So this made it hard in this particular case to erase his emotions from it as he often did. Greed and avarice was one thing, but to trap, take and use little girls? It made his stomach churn, his chest tight and his mind filled with rage. This one would not be easy or Khorosho...good as Grisha had stated in the meeting. It may be too easy to get involved with the feeling of glee upon the destruction they were about to unleash. Nyet, he shouldn’t have that inside himself at any time during the take down. First rule of an Enforcer: Pust’ ne chuvstvuyutsya emotsii....Let no emotion be felt.
Now his mind was busy remembering Galina’s own words. What she had gone through was something no woman should have to go through. And this did make him struggle with ridding himself of emotion, indeed.
Viktor had grown up to respect women. His father and grandfather taught him that much before they died. When he lost them at sixteen to a work catastrophe, he worked hard to gain entry into the Bratva. He trained harder than the rest of the men, not because he had to, but because he was determined to make something of himself. He’d even learned seven languages as well to be able to drop right into a country and know the dialect.
He hadn’t known his mother as she died when he was two. Some bastard found her alone after forcing the door open in a home invasion, and beat her to death. He was lucky the bastard didn’t find him or he would have died that night as well.
Viktor had been a natural at all kinds of weaponry and studied hard to become the best in his own right. Then he found others just like him and together, they formed the first Nomad team. And together they had become the best of the best Elitnaya Komanda, as the High Council called them... an elite team.
He was proud of what his team had accomplished over the years and they were all wealthy men in their own rights. But he didn’t do this for the money, he did this to right the wrong. This was his way of tracking down the lowly dog that hurt and finally murdered his own mother. He did admit this only to himself. He could not deny it. It was his main driving force.
He may never know that bastard’s name but he knew plenty of other men’s names that had done the same thing to others. He had since sent them all to hell where they belonged.
He never knew what he would find when he began a new embattlement but he never let himself doubt that what he was doing wasn’t right. He had to believe in what he was doing or he would be nothing more than a high priced assassin in charge of a hit squad and that wasn’t what he was. Viktor felt that he was a warrior and had pride in what he did and that his men were the same...honor bound but deadly.
~*~
In the early morning hours, the Enforcers assembled in the parking garage and silently loaded up in the vehicles. Without a word nor much sound beyond the engines of the SUVs, they quietly left the hotel.
From a window on the top floor, a man stood silently and watched the four SUV’s pull out of the underground parking garage. He lifted a drink to his lips and sipped the strong liquor in the glass. Whispering softly he made a vow to his lost daughter. It was his family’s battle cry, ‘Anishchins nikogda ne sdavaysya.’ The same one that his daughter had written in her journal. The same one that brought him here to this country in hopes of finding her alive, only to find the truth.
Vatali heard a sound behind him and turned to find Angelica standing there. He turned back to face the window as she came closer.
Wrapping her arms around his back, she looked out the window he had been staring out of. “Have they gone then?” she asked quietly.
“Da, they have begun.”
“God save us...” she whispered at his back. After a moment, she added, “...and I hope they let this Tegan bastard know somehow it was Galina that is sending him to hell.”
Vatali nodded. “So do I, my love, so do I. Anishchins nikogda ne sdavaysya,” he whispered softly as he stood there staring out into the darkness.
~*~
With Viktor and Adrik in the first vehicle, they pulled to a stop as they began searching the area. The sun was barely over the eastern horizon. When they pulled over, the other three SUVs pulled up behind them.
Viktor knew the Ghost Fire Riders compound was just around the next corner. In fact, where they were parked, you could see the dirt road that led to the compound.
Adrik tapped his arm and pointed to a space to hide their vehicles.
Viktor drove over to the new place and parked. This was the perfect spot to hide the four vehicles.
The men all got out and gathered at the back of Viktor’s vehicle.
He and his crew stripped down to their underwear and redressed in their work clothes. Tight black pants and a long sleeve black shirts. Each man fastened a utility belt to their waists and an under the jacket holster. Then they put their weapons, each hand gun had a silencer attached and each knife had its own sheath, one at the waist and one under their pant leg.
Andrey then gave each of them a jammer scanner.
Ivan, Matvey, Deter and Pyotr pulled on dark beanies to cover their lighter hair. Then before they left, each man grabbed a rifle fitted with a silencer.
They would all spread out and case the area to know what was out there. If there were any traps, hidden surveillance or any sensors. Then they also searched for any unknown others or enforcement that the MC had patrolling the area that they hadn’t picked up on already. They would spend the entire night scoping all this out in teams of two. Then rest for two hours.
Then upon synchronization of their watches, they would meet up at daylight to await the MC members leaving the compound.
Everyone then had a different job to do.
Matvey was taking the office, as he knew what to look for.
Viktor would search the main hall while Deter, Pyotr and Ivan would search the outer buildings.
Grisha would set the explosives to blow the compound later after the MC returned.
Now a little past dawn, they made their way silently through the woods around the property. When they got close to the fence around the compound, Adrik stopped and pointed at the camera before anyone could step closer and get caught on film.
They moved noiselessly through the woods and got into position to watch the compound as men began appearing from various buildings in the gated interior.
Viktor counted fourteen men in total. None of them looked very Khorosho, in fact they were all scuzzy looking. With their long greasy hair, their torn and dirty clothing, they looked like something the cat would drag in. His lip curled. Beasts, nothing but animals who paraded around as men.