Looking up at my six men, I remind them, “Extraction. Do everything you can to keep the target alive. He could be an invaluable source of information. The fucker’s not the only human trafficker on the dark web, he can lead us to countless more, along with crucial information on where he’s sourcing these women.”
Cracking my neck, I examine the impenetrable forest around us. It’s midnight, and the trees soar up so high, they blot out any light from the moon.
“You’re going to want to shoot this motherfucker in the gut when you see what’s inside,” I warned the team. Nodding to our newest member, who is sweaty but determined, “Casey, you’ve got Carlo and Mikhal with you. Pull every scrap of data you can before we detonate the charges.”
“Why don’t we take this freak, but leave his little slave palace for the German Federal Intelligence Service?” Casey asks, “Schmidt needs to be exposed for the sick fuck he is.”
I chuckle mirthlessly. “Because a member of his fucked-up club isinthe F.I.S. We just don’t know who. They’re more likely to find out aboutusif we leave anything behind.”
He nods rapidly. “Gotcha. Sound logic. Agreed.”
Putting my hand on his shoulder, I ask, “Can you do this?”
Casey snorts. “I’ve got your two best guys covering me. I’m wearing a badass tactical suit that makes me look like a ninja. Yeah. I got this. Really,” he insists when I raise my eyebrow, “I look fucking great in this tach suit.”
Yuri swore this guy was the best…
“On my mark,” I raise my hand, watching the digital readout. “Three… two… one…”
Clenching my raised hand into a fist, I fight back the tidal wave of adrenaline.
“Go!”
Left to my own devices, I would have blown the front of this motherfucker’s mansion clean off the foundations and swept through, shooting anyone who wasn’t his captive. My older brother Giovanni, the Don of the Toscano Mafia and the most boring asshole alive, insisted on the stealth approach.
“Schmidt’s notorious for booby-trapping the hell out of the forest for a 1,600-meter circumference of the house,” he’d warned me. “And once you get in, there’s a dozen failsafe options guaranteed to kill everyone he’s holding hostage. Take the time to plan this out.”
Stuffy bastard.
However, he was right. We took much longer than I wanted to, mapping the area to make a safe approach - this asshole had landmines and deadfalls seeded everywhere around his estate - but we’re finally here. Three trucks drop us off at the far perimeter wall and head for the pickup point by the main gate.
Between the Morozov Bratva and the ToscanoFamiglia, we have twenty men here. Schmidt is not getting past us.
Racing quietly through the brush, I circle my hand over my head, spreading my men out around the house. It is a black steel and glass monstrosity, three stories with a tower that soars nearly above the trees. Casey’s disabled the exterior surveillance cameras and we have exactly five minutes to get from the cover of the brush into the house before we’re spotted.
This hellhole is in the middle of one of the most magnificent forests in the world, but there’s not a scrap of vegetation around it for several meters; just sterile concrete with pressure pads to alert him of anyone approaching. The dark glass walls of the house give it a closed-in, paranoid appearance, as if Schmidt is constantly watching for intruders in every direction.
I had seen him once at an auction to purchase young women. He has pale blue eyes, so pale they look like weak, skimmed milk.
Maybe I’ll start his questioning by plucking one of them right out of his skull,I think, grinning in a way that makes one of my own men flinch as he looks at me.
My team is going down to the lower level of the building, as Yuri’s men move upward, scaling the walls to enter through the roof. There’s a helicopter perched there, and I watch Yuri’s lieutenant wire an explosive charge to the engine.
There’s a faint click in my ear as Yuri murmurs, “There are three guards patrolling the roof and upper floor.”
“The intel shows he usually keeps ten here,” I said. “I’m sending my second team into the garage to disable his cars. We took down two guards on the perimeter, with your three, there are at least five unaccounted for. I’m heading into the basement now.”
“Good luck,” Yuri said grimly. I picked the lower level because we know any captives Schmidt keeps will likely be there.
“Remember,” I murmured into my team’s earpieces, “kill the guards quietly. If there are captives, we don’t want them screaming and alerting anyone. Our team’s job is to get them out safely. That is your first priority.”
Looking over my shoulder, I see their grim determination. We may be fromlaFamiglia, but there are far more evil fucks in this world than us. Most of these men have wives and children of their own, it’s too easy seeing the faces of the people we love when encountering the victims of monsters like Schmidt.
The massive steel door on the north side of the house leads to the lower level, it is blast-proof, fireproof, and opened by a biometric scanner. Casey steps up and pulls up a handheld device. He’s created an AI version of Schmidt, with a perfect voice, fingerprint, and cornea match. He flashes me a grin when the indicator switches from red to green and the heavy door swings open.
I pat him on the cheek and nod to his backup. “Keep him safe.”
They head up the stairs leading to the main floor while I stare down the long basement hallway. The bright overhead fixtures send light reflecting off white enamel walls, floor, and ceiling and it’s almost blinding. There’s a lingering scent of hospital-level antiseptic and a feel of almost grotesque sterility. Ten doors stretch down the hall, five on each side.
