Page 14 of Dark Soul

The five men stood there, staring at each other. Thorne hadn’t said anything about each other’s backgrounds, so Dark wouldn’t, either. He’d focus on key competencies, instead, and the men would have to trust that he had what it took to lead them.

Trust.

Looking around the room, he didn’t see much of that—probably something they’d need to work on.

“So. What now?” That was Griffin, in his clipped, quiet voice.

“Now you go get settled in. Pascale will show you to you rooms. Dark and I need to have a chat, and we’ll all meet together again at oh—at nine p.m.”

Civilian, my ass.

Dark waited until the men were out of the room.

“Who are you really, Thorne?”

“Who I am doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m going to help you get what you need done.”

“We're going to need a few weeks to train together. Most of us are probably …rusty. And we need to get to know each other. We’ll start tomorrow morning.”

“Start today. You've got two days, Dark.”

“Two days? That’s impossible.”

“None of these men are newbies. Despite their personal … trouble … each of these men is the best at what they do, Dark. That’s why I selected them.”

“It’s still impossible. If we’re to work together as a team, we need—“

“Get to know each other. Do whatever it is you have to do. This won’t work unless you can get those men to behave like a team. But you all need to be ready to leave by Saturday morning.”

The man’s words gave him pause.

“What’s happening on Saturday?”

“We’ve identified your first person of interest. Arseny Kvyat. His name might sound familiar. He’s one of the great Russian oligarchs.”

Dark shook his head. He’d never worked in the region, and until two days ago he hadn’t seen a newspaper in years.

“He’s recently risen to the top of our list for several reasons … and we just found out he and his family are spending the winter in Gstaad.”

Dark didn’t even know where that was.

“That’s less than a three-hour drive from here,” Thorne clarified. “The perfect place to cut your teeth as a team, so to speak.”

“You say he’s risen to the top of your list. Why?”

“Kvyat has always been involved in shady deals but, until now, his friends were mainly other Russian oligarchs. Now he’s gone from cozying up to his usual friends to speaking to the Iranians. From the chats we’ve been able to infiltrate, he’s planning something together with them. We need to take him down, by any means possible, before that happens.”

“And when you say take him down …”

Thorne’s upper lip curled into a sneer. “You need a fucking map, Dark? Take him down, and make sure it doesn’t come back to you. Or I won’t be able to help you.”

Big surprise.

Dark pointed at the folders on the table.

“Is that all the intel?”

Thorne nodded. “Five copies. Everything we have on Arseny Kvyat and his family. So you see why you have until Saturday. We’ve rented a house for you in Gstaad. It’s not a cheap place, so make good use of it.” The man turned to leave the conference room. “Oh, and you all have a medical check-up at eight a.m. tomorrow. The doctor will meet you in the medical bay, in the basement.”