Page 137 of Sins of Innocence

"I don't know why you didn't just send me the images so I could throw them up on the monitor," McLaren bitches.

Ethan doesn't bother to answer. But we all know he has a preference for analog over digital. McLaren never lets an opportunity to razz him about it pass her by though.

I stop on a photo of Kenneth standing outside a cigar club talking to a blond man in a charcoal coat. Wary posture. Hard eyes.

Dagda leans forward. "Shit."

"You know him?" I ask.

"Lars Nyström."

Torch whistles low. "The Swede?"

Dagda nods once. "Enforcement and contract work for the Swedish mafia. Last I heard, he was handling operations tied to Malmö and Stockholm."

"You sure it's Nyström?" I ask.

I've heard of the Swedish assassin. Who in our world hasn't? But I've never seen him.

Dagda nods again. "Saw his file during some joint security work overseas. Man's a psycho."

"That's saying something, coming from you lot," Torch says dryly.

Dagda flashes his teeth. "Thank you."

Thomas studies the photo again. "The fuck would Kenneth be doing with a Scandinavian hitter?"

Ethan crosses his arms. "Wish we had audio."

McLaren grimaces. "Would've if someone hadn't dragged me to Anaheim for a surprise wedding."

Noah grins. "Worth it."

She considers for half a second. "Yeah. Fair."

I look back at the surveillance photo.

Kenneth talking to a Swedish mafia hitter isn't random. Men like Nyström don't do social calls.

"What Kenneth wants with a hitter is pretty damn obvious," Torch says. "He wants Mick out of the way and if it takes killing him to get that, he will."

I agree.

"But what could Kenneth be offering the Swedish syndicate that would make risking running afoul of Brogan Shaughnessy worth it?" Thomas asks.

"They want access to Vanta." Noah's the youngest member of my crew but he's damn smart.

"Sweden rolled out gunshot detection systems years ago," Dagda says grimly. "A weapon that bypasses acoustic tracking?"

McLaren frowns. "Access to the Whisper guns would be worth their weight in antimatter to the Swedish mafia."

With no muzzle flash, minimal sound signature and no detectable ballistic pattern conventional systems can reliably track, the Whisper guns are our most lucrative product in our weapons catalog.

"Swedes aren't on the approved distribution list," Torch says.

"No," I agree. "They're not."

Me and my team know more about the Vanta guns than the rest of our mob outside Mick's inner circle—which I guess I'm part of now—because we run logistics for delivery.