Page 77 of Viper

“There’s more,” Cryos cautions.

“Of course there is,” Bullet groans. “Fuck. If the bastard wasn’t dead, he’d be now with all this shit he’s still pulling to fuck us over from the grave.”

“The problem is that Dagger had well over ten years to get this done,” I point out grimly. “He had all that time to study us, to study those journals, to make sure he had every plan in place and every back-up plan ready to go. And honestly, that means he could have hid it anywhere. Including any places he frequented.”

“But the code on Misha’s phone could be the exact information in that other journal right?” Hulk points out. “So if we don’t find the journal, we have that to work off. And even if it’s not every place, that list looked extensive enough that if we shut them down, they’re going to take a hard enough hit that it might drive them out of town. Not to mention, if we can find Vlad’s hiding spot and take him out too, we’ve essentially crippled their operation here, right?”

“Actually,” Cryos interjects, “that’s the other part of the problem. My contact did a wide search on Dagger, any mention of us, and even mention of the Russians or anyone else interested in our area and it looks like Dagger may have sold off his information to someone else like we suspected. They couldn’t pinpoint who, but there has been chatter about our area on the dark web, and with what happened to Misha and the current state of the Russians here, there is talk of waiting to see what happens before any moves are made.”

“Fuck, if it’s not one thing it’s another,” Shadow gripes. “Of course, that fucker wouldn’t be happy with one big fish, he’d want a back-up one just in case.”

“Which brings up another possibility,” Frost points out. “What if Dagger didn’t give all of his locations and information to the Russians? What if he gave other parts of it to this second group? Will that be in this other journal too, or does he have multiples of those going around?”

“At this point, nothing would surprise me,” Bullet grunts. “So no clue from your contact on who this other group is?”

“This information came from some very dark parts of the web, and also parts where information is very hard to source. They’re going to keep working it, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll get the information any time soon,” Cryos responds.

“For now, let's leave that be and focus on the problem at hand,” Bullet orders. “If these bastards show up, we’ll handle them too. And we’ll call in allies if we have to to help us handle all fronts until we get it all cleaned up. Did your contact find out anything else?”

Cryos nods. “Final piece is that I was finally able to get past the security of the Swords and Wild Devil’s. And I can confirm that the Wild Devil’s are the ones that are involved with Vlad’s operation.” He clicks some keys, and what looks like bank documents appear on screen. “These are deposits made into their hidden accounts that they launder money through. I’m sure it’s not all of it, but the sums are enough to know that they’re getting large amounts of cash from somewhere. I also found record of their Treasurer keeping records on his computer of where their money is coming from, and right in the center is a big ol’ R, with a V and S beside it and a log that suggests a recurring payment.”

“Dumbass,” I scoff. “Even I know you don’t put that shit in anything electronic. You write it in an actual log book that you stash away.”

“Are we sure these aren’t fake and meant to lead us in the opposite direction?” Shadow asks.

“As far as I can tell, they are legit, but I think that whoever their Treasurer is, he must have realized that it wasn’t smart, because he tried to erase the file, and it hasn’t been updated in about a month. But unlucky for him, it wasn’t quite the full amount of time before the computer automatically deletes it and I was able to grab it,” Cryos says proudly.

“I’m still surprised it’s the Wild Devil’s and not the Swords,” Sniper remarks. “I thought they were the ones with the warehouses and shit.”

Cryos nods. “I agree with that, but once I got further into it, it’s because the Wild Devil’s guy is far better at hiding and distorting things until you get past his firewalls and encryption. The Wild Devil’s have quite a few warehouses and businesses that aren’t legit on the books, and to the untrained eye would appear to just be storage, or property they bought but did nothing with yet. There are plans for every single building submitted to their town that looks like they plan on doing big things with them, but so far don’t have the cash to do them.”

“Keeping the town at bay, and if anyone else is looking, they would think it’s just a matter of cash flow, but plans are in the works in case they ask questions,” I summarize. “Clever sons of bitches aren’t they?”

“Do you think some of the encrypted locations will include theirs then?” Milk asks.

“It’s possible,” Cryos replies. “But honestly, I don’t think Dagger would need to know that shit, so it could just be that Vlad reached out to them when we wouldn’t play ball to use their properties when he needs it. We wouldn’t be focused on them, only on the ones in our town, and it’s a clear way for them to get things around us with the added protection if we have a truce with them, so we shouldn’t suspect or go after them without wanting a war on another front.”

“Could it also be that we’re not finding Vlad, or Dmitri when we were looking for him, in our city, because he’s not actually here?” Stone suggests. “Maybe he’s hiding out in Wild Devil’s territory, which would make him untouchable.”

“It would make sense,” I agree. “But then again, Vlad doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to be too far from the main parts of his operation. Dmitri for sure wasn’t.”

“And Dmitri didn’t seem to use them either,” Cryos adds. “From all I’ve found, they’ve only dealt with Vlad and his men.”

“Vlad is older and knows more tricks than Dmitri would have,” Bullet agrees. “Cryos, keep digging into the Wild Devil’s to see if anything they have in their systems can be helpful. At this point, we can’t wait to make sure we’re ready to go when shit hits the fan, and I want to know what we might be up against.”

“Will do,” Cryos agrees. “That’s all I got for now, but my contact is still working on things too, so if anything else comes through I’ll get it through to everyone else as fast as I can.”

“Good. Shadow, once Church is done, ring Crypt and let him know what we need from him. Everyone else, we need to start looking everywhere we think Dagger could have hid something. I don’t want someone else stumbling on to it and using it against us too. That shit’s for our eyes only, got it?” Bullet says firmly. A chorus of agreements sound out. “Good, and if anyone remembers anything, you let myself, Sniper, Shadow, or Frost know. Nothing too small should be ignored. Dagger might have said something small, something that you wouldn’t have thought about back then, but now could be something important.”

“He did like to play mind games a lot when we were Prospecting,” King agrees, lips thinning. “It was so long ago though, so I don’t know if he would have said anything then that I would remember now. I just know he and I used to be on gate duty and he’d be big on trying to get me all riled up with his stupid word games and double meanings about things. I always felt like he was trying to prove he was better than me.”

I straighten as those words filter through my mind. “Wait,” I say sharply. “What if we’re all looking in the wrong place because we’re not taking into account that this wasn’t where we as a club always were? ”

Shadow straightens too, as do a couple of the other brothers. A few look confused, not following where we’re going with this. “The old clubhouse,” Shadow says with a nod at me. “Fuck, you’re right, Viper.”

“The shop?” Torque asks, eyes sharpening. “You think he hid it in my shop somewhere?”

“It’s the old clubhouse right?” I explain. “And we all had rooms there, though they weren’t very big. Hell, didn’t he have Bull’s old room or something? And even if he didn’t, it still doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have found out where everything was that Bull himself hid, or maybe even suggested in the original journal left.”

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