Shadows Rising

by Ernest Dempsey

  “Noted.”

  “We also got a lot from Eastern Bloc countries near there. Former Soviet countries are havens for hackers. Bad economies, lousy weather, and a chance to make some serious bank can cause people to bend their morals.”

  “You’re one to talk.”

  “Hilarious,” he said with a faux smile.

  “How were you able to tell where the traffic is coming from?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”

  Her head retreated an inch. “Yeah. Why?”

  “Because, that’s pretty simple. Have you ever heard of analytics?”

  “Sure. On commercials for computer companies or businesses.”

  “Right,” he said with a nod. “It’s the same thing. Except on the dark web, you have to use a lot of different code. That’s what I was doing last night when you saw me typing all that stuff. On the dark web, everyone is spying on everyone else. It’s a cesspool of the worst kinds of people on the planet, so obviously you don’t want other users to know you’re tracking them. If they find out, they’ll try to do the same to you.”

  “So, best practice is to stay as anonymous as possible.”

  “Exactly. I put in a bunch of barriers for anyone trying to worm their way back to us. Plus, there are tripwires in place to let us know if they get close.”

  “Tripwires?”

  “It’s like an alarm for your house, but for digital traces. If someone even thinks about trying to track down our location, we’ll know about it.”

  She still had a ton of questions. Probably better to just save those for another time. As long as Ray was confident, so was she.

  “So…other than the former Soviet states, I’m guessing you found something interesting?”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t from the information I put out there.” Before she could ask, he answered the question hanging on her lips. “I also ran a program to hunt down anyone who’s in the market for the kinds of things a terrorist might want, you know, the guns and things.”

  She nodded so he went on. “Then I cross-referenced it with the tracking data from the analytics. We got a few dozen matches, but only two of them look like they could be your guy.”

  “What’s so special about those two?”

  “I’m glad you asked,” he said with a goofy smile. “There are a few things. One, those two shoppers offered hard currency.”

  Adriana knew what he meant by the term. They were most likely spending gold. Some people in the criminal underworld would take silver, but not usually. Gold was the preferred method of buying and selling. Unless it was marked, and based on her knowledge, it almost never was, gold was extremely difficult to trace.

  Wire transfers and paper money were easier for the authorities to find. Paper less so once it was in the hands of the buyer or seller, but then it became difficult to spend. Physical money was tricky. It had to be laundered, filtered, and sifted through numerous channels before it came out clean on the other side. While the Red Ring probably had the resources for something like that, and used them on a day-to-day basis, someone offering gold was in a hurry.

  “You said a few things,” Adriana said, getting back to the subject.

  “Right. I don’t have to tell you why they’d use hard currency.”

  She appreciated that he gave her that much credit.

  “The other reason I think one of these might be your guy is their location. One of them is in Pakistan. Definitely worth looking into. I don’t have to remind you where we found Osama bin Laden.”

  Adriana knew about the Pakistani government’s shady dealings in terrorism. She had a feeling there was more going on under the table, too. There were documented instances of them carrying out attacks in India. Their feeble attempts to conceal who the terrorists were working for did little to hide the truth. Then there were the missions conducted at the behest of Washington. Those, she hoped, were mere rumors, but something told her there was far more going on than what the public really knew.

  The police and military did what they could to keep that from happening, but a few always slipped through the cracks. Border control for any nation larger than Lichtenstein would be difficult to maintain without flaw.

  “And the other country?” she asked.

  “Albania.”

  “Hmm. That’s the one, then.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said. I mean, it’s not totally shocking. I’ve seen some guys online before from there. That whole region was ravaged by that war back in the ’90s, and even though most of the factions got their own countries out of it, there’s still a lot of tension. The dudes I see online from there are usually doing the human trafficking thing, sometimes worse than that.”

  She wondered what could be worse and then decided she didn’t want to know. “Albania would be a good place to hide out. And that’s where Tosu is from. Although why would he go right back to his own backyard to avoid being found? That’s a big risk.”

  “I leave that to you,” he said. “I mean, you’re the expert, right?”

  Adriana pondered the results of Ray’s efforts. Surely, Tosu wouldn’t be brazen enough to go back to his own country, much less his own home. Right? Then again, sometimes the best place to hide was in plain sight, where no one would bother to look. She imagined several agencies must have some kind of intel on Tosu. He’d cut a pretty broad swath into the world, and his tracks couldn’t be completely covered up.

  “Can you get me an address?”

  A printer on the left end of the workstation made a mechanical noise and then began running.

  “Already did it,” Ray said.

  The paper slid out onto a tray. He picked it up and handed it to her with a proud look on his face.

  She eyed the address, memorized it, and then stuffed it into her back pocket.

  “So, I guess you’ll be going?”

  “Yes. I’ll leave you alone…for now. You may resume whatever illegal activities you were doing before I got here.”

  “Thank you,” he said with a hint of cynicism.

  “No, thank you, Ra—I mean, A-Tak. I appreciate the help.”

  “You’re quite welcome.”

  She grabbed her things and headed for the door. He walked her over and pulled it open to let her out. After she stepped out into the hall, she paused and turned around.

  “Do me a favor,” she said.

  “You mean another one?”

  “Yeah. Stop moving around so much. You know there’s nowhere you can go I won’t find you. So, next time, do us both a solid and stay here. Okay?”

  Her eyes probed him to see how he’d take the request.

  He simply grinned. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

  9

  Tirana

  Adriana walked across the tarmac to the black sedan the agency had arranged. The driver exited and climbed into the passenger side of another car. The second sedan sped away a moment later, leaving her there alone.

  June would be meeting her shortly at the rendezvous point—a hotel in the city. The room wasn’t anything fancy, at least that’s what she’d been told. They didn’t want to draw any attention.

  Adriana wore a simple outfit, jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a jacket over it. The air was chilly as it blew across the airfield, but not as cold as it’d been in Ireland.

  She tossed her bag into the passenger seat and checked to make sure there was plenty of gas in the tank before leaving. Noting it was nearly full, she shifted it into gear and sped off, letting the GPS on the dashboard guide her into town.

  Checking into the hotel was easy enough. Once she arrived, Adriana was greeted by a few valets, all of whom she ignored. No sense in having a couple of college-age boys looking through her stuff. She’d learned a long time ago that the valets in certain European countries were less than trustworthy.

  She bypassed the valet station and drove around to the back of the building. Scaffolding along the wall on the side told her whoever owned the hotel was doing their be
st to give it some much needed upgrades, or at the very least a makeover.

  After parking her car along a block wall just inside the property’s perimeter, she made her way inside to check in and find the room.

  While the shabby hotel exterior did little to bring patrons in on a random drive-by, the interior had already been overhauled. Were you to look at images of the outside and then the inside, you’d swear it was two different places.

  Modern white fabric lights shaped like box kites hung from the ceiling in the center of the grand lobby. A concierge was perched behind his granite counter to the right. Three other identical spots were empty, telling Adriana this wasn’t their busiest time of day…or year for that matter. The floor tiles looked like the same kind of granite used for the counters. Its shiny façade gave a luxurious feel to the place that it probably hadn’t earned during its first decades in business.

  The smell of jasmine wafted through the lobby, probably infused at several points by automatic air fresheners.

  She’d noticed a similar scent in Las Vegas casinos, although Adriana knew that scent was also laced with higher levels of oxygen to keep the gamblers playing longer.

  After getting her key, she made her way up to the room on the third floor and put her things down on the table by the window. As was her routine, Adriana opened her baggage and started taking inventory of her weapons, ammunition, and other tactical supplies. She’d checked it twice before getting in the car to the airport and then once more before boarding the plane. She believed you could never be too careful. It wasn’t obsessive-compulsive. She simply preferred to be absolutely certain.

  Being consistently persistent had saved her life in the past. She had no intentions of getting sloppy and dying anytime soon.

  Satisfied that everything was as it should be, she zipped up the bag and slipped into the bathroom for a quick shower and a fresh set of clothes. Traveling—especially flying—always made her feel grimy. Not to mention she had no idea when she’d be able to shower and change again.

  The door to the room opened as she was leaving the bathroom, her hair still wrapped in a towel to dry. She grabbed her pistol and held it out, aiming low in case it was someone she knew. That way, the bullet would be less likely to kill and more likely to injure. A friend wouldn’t appreciate either but would appreciate still being alive.

  June’s voice preceded her entry, saving Adriana the trouble of putting a round in her friend’s abdomen.

  “Adriana? It’s me.”

  “Come on in,” Adriana said, lowering the weapon as she walked over to the window.

  June padded into the room and let the door close softly behind her. She noticed Adriana’s hair in a towel. “Ugh,” she said, “I always feel like I have to take a shower after traveling.”

  Adriana offered an understanding grin.

  June plopped her small luggage bag on the bed and set her laptop case on the desk in the corner. “How long you been here?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  “Okay,” June said. “Let me take a quick shower, and we’ll get started.”

  Ten minutes later, June was in a fresh set of clothes and sitting at the desk with Adriana, staring at the computer screen.

  “This is where our guy is.” June tapped on the monitor. It displayed a map of the city. She circled one of the buildings with the same finger. “We believe he’s holed up here right now.”

  “We believe?”

  “Last our surveillance teams checked.”

  “When was that?”

  “An hour ago.”

  “Oh,” Adriana said, relieved. “Then yeah, he’s probably still there. For a second it sounded like the last contact you had was a few weeks ago.”

  June chuckled and shook her head. “Anyway, he’s likely there. The building doesn’t look well guarded.” She twisted two fingers around on the screen, and the view changed to one from the street.

  “Google doing real-time street views now?”

  Another snicker escaped June’s lips. “We have eyes all over the building now. Our team surrounded it when you gave me the location. They’ve had eyes on it 24/7. And by eyes I also mean cameras.”

  June shifted the view again, and the building’s front door appeared on the screen. “Going in the front isn’t an option.”

  “Heavily guarded?”

  “Depends on what your definition of heavily guarded is. There are twelve guards on the other side of that door, each positioned in a different place so that if anyone comes through who isn’t welcome, they’ll be shot dead before they get to the elevator.”

  Adriana frowned, trying to comprehend what her partner had just said. “It’s an apartment building? What about the other residents?”

  “We believe the Red Ring owns the entire building. The rest of it is probably vacant.”

  Adriana raised an eyebrow, impressed. “They really are a well-funded organization, huh?”

  “That’s just the beginning. The elevators are key-code activated. If you don’t know the correct code, you have to take the stairs. Good news: the stairs are also protected by a passcode.”

  “One that we don’t have.”

  “Correct. So, that means we have to find another way in.”

  Adriana gave a slow nod. She had a feeling she knew what her friend was about to say next.

  “This is where your unique set of skills comes into play,” June said.

  “I knew you were going to say that.”

  “Sorry to be predictable.” June clicked the mouse pad and brought up another window. “These are the schematics to the entire building. We’ve discovered three other possible points of entry, but none of them are easy.”

  “Of course not.”

  “Path number one is a no-go. I was thinking we go in via the rooftop and then rappel down the side, bust through a window, and crash his penthouse.”

  “Why’s that off the table?” Adriana asked.

  “Tosu has men stationed on the roof. Six of them. They rotate shifts every two hours with another round of guards that patrol the hallways and stairs.”

  That was a lot of manpower to protect one guy. Adriana’s eyebrows knit together. “Any idea how many guards we’re talking about?”

  “Like for the entire building?”

  “Yeah.”

  June shook her head. “No, but we ballpark it around thirty at any given time. Could be more. Could be less.”

  Adriana knew it wouldn’t be the latter. One thing she’d come to realize about these kinds of scumbags is that if they thought ten guards could do the job, twenty would be even better. Sure, it was overkill and maybe a bit more expensive, but for a group that had money to burn, why not? Could it be that Shadow Cell’s admins had underestimated Tosu’s importance? Anything was possible at this point.

  “Okay, so, thirty guys,” Adriana said. “A dozen in the lobby. Six on the roof. You said they rotate those six with others. That means six more in the corridors and stairwells.”

  “Which would leave six in Tosu’s apartment.”

  “If your number is right. If it was me, I’d station two or three outside the door, or probably one at each end of the hallway and then two more inside his place.”

  “All right, so thirty.”

  “At least. He’ll have half a dozen in his apartment. Then there are likely some stragglers somewhere else in the building. Or maybe positioned outside somewhere.”

  “Like I said, it’s not gonna be easy,” June said.

  Adriana scanned the blueprints. She pressed her fingers to the screen and rotated the image, then twisted it to get a 3-D view.

  “We could go in on zip lines and hit the roof that way. Would be close. I’ve got the gear for that, but when the grapple hits the building, it could alert the guards. What were the other two ways in you mentioned?”

  “Unfortunately, they all involve the rooftop. It’s the least guarded point of entry into the complex.”

  Six guards was hardly poorly guarded,
but Adriana trusted her friend’s assessment. It was her job to make calls like that. Now, apparently, it was Adriana’s job to figure out a solution.

  “Okay, so that means windows are one way in, stairwell is another, and I’m guessing your third option is…elevator shaft, accessed on the top floor?”

  “Correct. All three pose different problems.”

  “Elevator shaft is the way to go, then.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Adriana gave a single nod. “They can’t put men in that shaft. And truthfully, why would they think they needed to? To get in it, you’d have to get by all those guards. The stairs are no good because we don’t know if there are men on the other side of the doors, or if they have guys stationed on the other side of the doors that come out of the stairwells. If I had to guess, I’d say someone is watching them.”

  June followed her friend’s line of thought, and while she didn’t disagree, she still had reservations. “Okay, so what happens if we go through the elevator shaft, manage to pry open the doors on Tosu’s floor, and there are guards standing there?”

  Adriana anticipated the question. She’d already run the scenario in her mind.

  “Smoke canisters,” she said. “I have a few in my bag. We use thermal scanners to detect movement on the other side of the wall. When and if we need to, we toss a few of those into the corridor. The guys won’t know what hit them.”

  “That’s an option. But the smoke will set off alarms, not to mention Tosu’s men will go on full alert. They’ll rally everyone to our location.”

  “Good point.” It was something Adriana had considered but thought it was the only option. Then she had another idea. “From the looks of it, the alarm system is pretty sophisticated.”

  “It is,” June confirmed. “It’s state of the art.”

  A wry smile creased Adriana’s lips. “We’re going to need some extra gear to get down into that elevator shaft. As for the security system, let me make a call.”

  10

  Tirana

  I really don’t like this,” June said.