“Another vodka.”
She blinked. “Yes, sir.”
The jet took off and I spent the entire flight searching for Kazimir’s nukes, the Devil, and the love of his life.
The whole time, I suffered through the jet’s low-quality connection. The ability to access the internet on a plane came at a high cost. In Europe, service was primarily satellite-based. It was because there wasn’t a single ground-based solution like in the US. Therefore, it was expensive to install and maintain. The jet that I chartered clearly didn’t pay for the top version.
I’ll have to make it work.
An hour later, I delivered the Devil’s location to Kazimir’s phone. Finding the Devil was the easiest part. Once he took the codes, I locked in their tracking and delivered that to Kazimir.
Come on. Come on.
My laptop binged, telling me that his team had received it.
With that done, I switched back to searching out Jean-Pierre. Now and then, Naveen’s hackers spotted him throughout the city. The sightings never lasted for too long. He maneuvered through Paris easily and well-hidden. He clearly knew where all the cameras would be.
So, I let Naveen and his people search for Jean-Pierre while I tried to hack into him and his cousins’ phones.
Damn it. This is going to give me a heart attack.
I had five laptops open and surrounding me. The Corsican’s security system was difficult to hack into. Not even Circuit could crack it. He’d emailed three times during the flight to tell me. Thus, I spent the rest of the hours breaking into it.
Fucking Louis.
Not many knew about Jean-Pierre’s cousin, Louis. Jean-Pierre was enough of a brash lunatic to put anyone in his shadow. Therefore, Louis remained hidden. After researching the Corsican, I kept my eyes on Louis the most due to his tinkering in my domain.
In the French hacking underworld, many considered him a technical genius. At nineteen, he started his career of cybercrime, hacking into credit card companies and cleaning away all the customers’ bills. Around the world, they called him French Robin Hood, even though most didn’t know his true identity.
But French Robin Hood had a signature bow and arrow code that he always wrote into his bugs.
There it is. You just can’t help yourself. Can you?
I gently tiptoed through his firewalls. The system caught me and shoved me out.
Fuck!
I returned from another angle.
Too bad you’re with your cousin, Louis. I would love to give you a job.
Throughout France, Louis had been accused of everything from stealing government officials’ personal data to forgery, cryptocurrency money laundering, and even offering his services as a criminal-for-hire. During that whole time, he wasn’t with Corsican. He had his own team.
His involvement with the French Mafia came later once Jean-Pierre was jailed and Rafael broke him out.
Alright. This time it will work.
I snuck through the Corsican’s system again, tiptoeing here and there as well as dodging his electronic guards. More attacks came, but I battled them.
There we go!
Once I entered, I handed the system over to Circuit’s team, hoping that would help find them.
Knowing Louis, he has them using different phones.
Yawning, I glanced out the window and spotted tiny buildings below.
We’ll be landing soon.
I signaled for the stewardess. “A large coffee, please.”
“Yes, sir.” She hurried away.
I rubbed my face with both hands, hoping that all my efforts had finally settled things. I wouldn’t know for sure until I hit the ground and checked my calls.
Kazimir definitely has the codes back and Jean-Pierre’s girlfriend by now. But does he have his Mouse?
I closed my eyes.
Dear God, please make sure she’s safe. I never want to hear Kazimir sound in that much pain again.
My cousin’s last words entered my mind.
“Because if something happens to Emily, your ballerina will never be able to dance again.”
I opened my eyes. As soon as Kazimir got his Mouse back and things settled, I would punch him in the jaw for speaking those words. But for now, I deserved the threat. It was my fault. I’d let it all get out of control, and now I would have to deal with every ounce of backlash.
After finishing my cup of coffee, the plane landed.
Let’s see what’s going on.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Circuit.
He answered. “Misha?”
“Update me. Do we have Valentina’s location?”
“Yes. The baby’s tracker is in effect. We have the exact location and a camera view of Valentina and the baby. They’re safe.”
“Good. What sort of camera are you using?”
“One of the guards has a laptop open in the living room. He’s some type of security guy. He’s consistently monitoring the building’s electrical alarms.”
“The doors and windows are electronically powered?”
“They are, and they have an Alice in the room too.”
Alice was the Russian version of Alexa. The Russian technology company Yandex launched the artificial intelligence. Many Russians had begun purchasing them. American hackers enjoyed breaking into an unsuspecting person’s Alexa. In Russia, the same occurred.