"Then explain it to me. Let me?—"
"Let you what?" I move toward her, and I can see her instinctively take a step back. Good. She should, because right now I'm barely holding onto the control that keeps me from doing something we'll both regret. "Let you solve this with your sunshine optimism and your naive belief that everything can be fixed through negotiation and family resources? This isn't your world, Liesl. This isn't some business deal that gets resolved over cocktails and handshakes."
"I know that," she says, but her voice wavers slightly. "I'm just trying to?—"
"You're trying to help. I understand. But your help is dangerous." I can see the hurt starting to form in her eyes, and some part of me—the part that's been getting softer around her, that's been letting her under my skin—wants to gentle my tone and explain instead of lashing out. But I can't afford softness right now. Not when one wrong decision could cost lives. "Your suggestions are the kind of thinking that gets people killed in wartime. And make no mistake, Liesl—we are at war."
"I'm not trying to?—"
"You're trying to fix things. You see problems and you want to solve them with kindness and compromise and all the other bullshit that works in your world but means nothing in mine." The words are coming faster now, harsher, and I can see each one landing as she actually flinches. "But this isn't your world.You're a captive here. A complication. And the fact that you think you can waltz in and solve a strategic crisis with your father's money and your optimistic suggestions just proves how little you understand about what's actually at stake."
Her face has gone pale, and there's something in her eyes that looks like genuine hurt. Not just from rejection, but from being dismissed as irrelevant, and naive. As fundamentally incapable of understanding the reality of the situation.
"I was just trying to help," she says quietly.
"I don't need your help. I need you to stay in your room and stay out of the way while I handle things." The words are cruel. I know it even as I'm saying them. But I can't seem to stop. "Go back to your room, Liesl. And don't come out until I tell you to. This is not a game. This is not something you get to participate in. This is my organization, my decision, and my consequences to live with. You don't get a vote."
She stares at me for a long moment, and I watch something shift in her expression. The warmth that's usually there, that sunshine quality that's been slowly unraveling me, dims and withdraws. "Okay," she says finally. Her voice is small and hurt. "I understand."
She turns and walks back to her room, and I watch her go with something that feels uncomfortably like regret churning in my gut. I'm left standing in the hallway, alone with the weight of my decisions and the echo of her hurt in my ears.
I should feel satisfied. I set a boundary. I reminded her of her place. I kept her from getting involved in something that’s none of her business.
Instead I just feel like I kicked something small and defenseless.
I force myself to head to my room and focus on the actual problem. I spread the intelligence reports out and start working through scenarios again, looking for an angle I might havemissed. Some way to extract Yuri without catastrophic losses. Some strategy that doesn't require me to choose between letting him die and showing myself to be weak.
Hours pass. The sun climbs higher. My men send updates—surveillance reports, shift changes at the warehouse, potential vulnerabilities in Volkov's security. I absorb all of it, and slowly a plan starts to form.
It's risky. But it's the only option that doesn't require me to either abandon Yuri or show weakness through ransom. We go in fast and hard, hit them during the shift change when security is most vulnerable, extract Yuri, and eliminate everyone involved. We send a message that taking one of mine has consequences that extend far beyond ransom negotiations.
I call Viktor. "Assemble a team. Twelve men, our best. We're going in tonight."
There's a pause on the other end. "You're sure about this?"
"No. But it's the best option we have."
"Andrei—if this goes wrong?—"
"I know what happens if it goes wrong. Assemble the team."
I spend the rest of the day preparing—reviewing the tactical plan, checking weapons, going over contingencies for every possible scenario. My men are tense but focused, understanding that this is the kind of operation that either ends in victory or horrible loss. There's no middle ground.
By the time night falls, I'm as ready as I'm going to be. We load into three vehicles, weapons concealed and grim with the knowledge that some of us might not come back. The drive to the docks is silent except for the occasional crackle of radio communication as our surveillance team provides updates on the warehouse.
"Shift change in ten minutes," Viktor says from the passenger seat. "That's our window."
I nod, checking my weapon one final time. The plan is simple—hit them during the confusion of the shift change, overwhelm their defenses through speed and violence, get Yuri out, and disappear before they can mount an effective response. Simple, but not easy.
We park two blocks away and move in on foot, using the darkness and the industrial landscape for cover. The warehouse looms ahead, lit by harsh security lights that create deep shadows between the buildings. I can see guards at the main entrance, exactly where our intelligence said they'd be.
"On my mark," I say quietly. "Three, two, one?—"
We move.
The next fifteen minutes are chaos—gunfire and shouting, and the metallic smell of blood mixing with the salt air from the docks. We breach the main entrance and push through the warehouse, clearing rooms with brutal efficiency. My men are good—well-trained and utterly loyal—but Volkov's people are ready for us. They knew we'd come. They were waiting.
Their ambush hits us in the central warehouse space. Gunfire erupts from the elevated positions, and I watch two of my men go down in the first volley. We return fire, taking cover behind industrial equipment, but we're pinned down and exposed. This is rapidly turning into exactly the kind of catastrophic failure I was trying to avoid.
