Page 86 of The Pakhan

“Your second in command is quite convincing,” Shane said in his Irish lilt. To his friends and family, the man appeared jovial, even friendly to all those around him, but he was a shark in disguise, capable of doing terrible things.

“Yes, he is,” I said. “Good to see you, Narek.” Which of course was a lie. He knew it. I knew it. Hell, the entire city knew it.

He smiled and played the game, which I gave him credit for. “I realized that getting to the bottom of our… troubles would be a very good idea. However, I do have business to attend to. A business you seem insistent on investing in.” His taunt was to be expected.

“My wealth is because I constantly diversify. And I assure you that this won’t take long.” I gave a long piercing look to every man before getting down to business. “I think we have a situation where someone is attempting to secure our collective demise.”

Narek laughed. “You are a slick man but do not fuck with my company.”

“I have no intention of doing so.” I left the comment rather open ended. Of course, it was a veiled threat.

“It’s fascinating, Vadim, that you were so certain I was responsible for attempting to rid this world of the person who hacked into my system,” Stefano said with an edge in his voice. “Now, we’re here together.”

“I’ve had someone dig into our highly secure system as well, Stefano,” Shane admitted.

“And you?” I asked Narek. He would be the least likely to admit anyone had discovered anything about his organization. Men in our worlds considered that an egregious weakness and one none of us could afford.

He glanced from Shane to Stefano before looking at me directly, doing nothing more than nodding.

“Then the truth is that someone wants to shut us down, send us to prison, or gain access to our businesses through our legitimate business activities and accounts. And by possibly pitting one against the other. Now, I’m certain you’ve heard I have in my possession the hacker responsible for breaking into Don Marino’s files, but I assure you she is just a pawn as well. Someone did attempt to end her life and if it wasn’t you, Stefano, then it has to be the people who were hiding in the shadows. That is the only way that they could discover her security breach so quickly.”

“How quickly are we talking about?” Shane asked.

“Less than thirty minutes and they were inside her apartment attempting to kidnap her or end her life.”

He whistled. “Do you have any idea who might be behind these cyber-attacks?”

“None whatsoever, although I have a few ideas. In my mind, a single person could hold the key to learning that information.”

“And who is that?” Stefano asked, acting as if he couldn’t care less.

“A person known as her handler. I know very little about the man other than he uses the name Joshua Smith, Blackbird being his handle.” I scoped the table to determine if anyone had heard of him. It was impossible to tell at this point. We were all trained to mask our emotions and all reactions.

Another method of staying alive.

The powerful men glanced at each other. “And you want us to find this person and take care of him,” Narek huffed, as if it was a major inconvenience.

“Make no mistake. I want him alive. He needs to be interrogated,” I told the group.

Shane took a deep breath. “You truly believe someone outside this group hired this hacker to infiltrate all our organizations.”

“I do, which is why I believe it’s in all our best interests to work together to ensure our corporations continue on. While I realize this short alliance is difficult to swallow, whoever is doing this is using the fact we consider each other enemies to keep us on edge and incapable of discovering the identity of those responsible. They are hoping we will be at each other’s throats by the end of this. Imagine what will occur if we don’t focus on the truth. We are businessmen and must think that way. Period.”

Stefan sighed, drumming his fingers on the table.

The tension in the air was palpable but to be expected.

“He’s right,” Stefan said. “Vadim and I have already been ready to kill each other, the clues for a situation leading directly to my organization. While no one will ever consider me a team player and we don’t like each other, that’s fine as long as we respect each other’s territory and families.”

I waited as the others thought about my recommendation. It was dicey at best, egos and heavy amounts of testosterone involved but, in my mind, it would alleviate any outside issues.

In addition, if any of the other three had been the instigators of the situation, their smugness would be easy to spot.

“Have either of the two of you had any issues so we all know what to look for?” I asked Shane and Narek.

Shane laughed. “I had a shipment sent off course, which allowed supposed pirates to sabotage the cargo ship, not only stealing my property but sinking the ship. At first, I was certain it was a series of employee mistakes and equipment failure, but I’ve already begun to think otherwise, although there is no proof.”

I slowly turned my head toward Narek, the most cautious of the group.

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