“And you believe him?” Jack countered. “Jacob will say whatever he has to in order to get what he wants. But he is just a pawn in the Illuminati’s game, an insignificant player on a board that is far more complicated than he realizes.”
“Perhaps,” Kozlov conceded. “But not for long. Soon he will ascend and we Faithful will know the full measure of his benevolence.”
“You’re fucking delusional,” Jack told him. “Jacob will put a bullet in you before he’ll share any of his power.”
Kozlov shrugged. “If that is the Master’s will, I will accept it.”
“Jacob will never ascend in the Illuminati,” Jack insisted. “He has fed you a line of bullshit. He’s a politician, Kozlov. He’ll say whatever he must to get what he wants. The Masters will never relinquish their power. They would die before allowing all they’ve worked to rebuild to be wrested from their grasp.”
Kozlov’s cruel mouth curved into a menacing grin. “This is the first word of truth you have said today, I think.”
Jack licked his dry, cracked lips, wishing it had done a damned bit of good before he managed to ask, “What are you talking about?”
Kozlov picked up the cage of rats, turning them a little, studying them a moment before he replied. “I received a call from the Mistress to encourage my haste. The Master will ascend tonight, and I must prove my loyalty in order to take my place among his most trusted.”
The maniacal gleam in Kozlov’s eyes sent a chill through Jack. Exactly what the hell was Jacob planning? And how many innocents would pay the price as a result?
“Now,” Kozlov said, setting the cage of rats on the table and opening the cage door, “which one should we start with?” He extracted a particularly large brown rat and closed the cage door, much to the ire of the others. The rat squirmed and screeched, clawing at the air as Kozlov carried it toward Jack.
“Fucking hell,” Jack muttered under his breath, his heart pounding. He tried to swallow but found it impossible. He frantically assessed his wrists and ankles again, searching desperately for a way to break free of the barbed wire. But it was too tight and dug deeper into his flesh as he renewed his struggles to break free.
“So, tell me, Templar,” Kozlov said. “Where is the flash drive my Master desires? I will give you ten seconds to tell me before I allow my friend here to go exploring. And every time I ask and you refuse to answer, I will release another of his comrades.”
“I told you,” Jack said, his throat tight, his gaze locked on the squirming rat, “I don’t know. The one we intercepted was blank.”
Kozlov nodded. “Very well.”
As Kozlov took a step forward, holding the rat by the tail, preparing to drop it on Jack’s lap, Jack pressed back into his chair in a futile effort to avoid what was coming.
A sudden beeping brought Kozlov up short. Frowning, he fished his cell phone from his pocket with his free hand. “What do you want?” he demanded in Russian. “You are interrupting.” There was a short pause, then Kozlov chuckled. “Excellent.”
He pocketed his phone and offered Jack an amused grin. “It seems your friends have arrived. Shall we see which ones live long enough to actually find you?” He cast a glance toward the rat. “I think I will leave my little friend here to keep you company while I attend to our guests.”
“Jesus,” Jack muttered as Kozlov tossed the rat. It rotated in midair and landed with an angry hiss before skittering off into the shadows. When Jack looked back toward Kozlov, the man was gone.
* * *
Maddie drew her knife across the throat of the guard stationed just inside the east door, glancing up to see if anyone came rushing in at the sound of his surprised cry when she’d grabbed his head and pulled it back to expose this throat. She eased the man’s body down to the ground, suppressing a groan at the deadweight in her arms. “I’m in.”
“Damn it, Maddie,” Finn admonished in her earpiece, “I had a plan.”
“Yeah, well it was a shit plan, Finn. We were supposed to go in the door with no one guarding it.”
Maddie glanced toward Adam, who’d already dispatched the other guard. With the windows darkened by decades of dirt and grime, little sunlight made its way into the abandoned car factory, and the darkness concealed more than it revealed. She motioned for Adam to follow her and crept along the wall in the shadows, feeling more than hearing him behind her. The guy was a freaking ninja.
“I can’t help it if Kozlov has a bunch of vampires working for him,” Finn continued. “The dudes had zero heat signature.”
“They’re not vampires, Finn,” Maddie whispered, rolling her eyes as she cleared the narrow corridor that led to the factory floor. “Your equipment’s faulty.”
“Hey, now,” Finn quipped. “There’s nothing wrong with my equipment, honey. And if you hadn’t hooked up with Jack you’d know that by now.”
Maddie smiled, glad for Finn’s humor just then. It kept her mind off of what she feared she’d find once they managed to locate Jack. “Guess I’ll just have to live with the fact that you’re the one that got away.”
His answering chuckle broke off abruptly. “Look alive, kids. You’re coming up on a whole cadre of Koslov’s boys.”
“Cadre?” Adam whispered.
“What?” Finn replied. “Should I have called them something else? What’s the technical term for a group of Russian mobsters who secretly work for the Illuminati—which officially doesn’t exist? A gaggle?”
