Page 37 of The Bait

Harry nodded. “Good. Okay, what else can you tell me.”

“They came up on the south side of the island, so they definitely knew they’d have more cover than if they used the dock. That means it was likely a rubber dinghy so it could come ashore and they had a larger boat further out.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “A safe assumption.”

“They had intel on the island.”

“Agreed.”

“And they likely made landfall in Myanmar. Thailand’s coastguard is better and there’s more chance of going undetected or even paying their way through Myanmar.”

“Okay, good.” Harry wanted to ask,where would they have gone next, but that was a complete unknown and he needed to focus on what they did know. He tapped the screen. “Tell me what else you know about these intruders.”

“Trained. Professional. Efficient.”

“What else.”

He looked closer at the screen. “Kalashnikov rifles. AK-74s, which tells me they’re either from Russia or they were armed by the Russians. So that means likely Russian but not conclusive.”

Okay, good. “What else?”

Asher pressed play again and waited until one of the intruders, the one with the gravelly voice, turned around. Asher paused the screen and zoomed in. It did pixelate a bit but it was clear enough. “That’s a Kizlyar knife. That’s Russian.”

“Good. Anything else?”

Asher studied the screen before he shrugged. “Nothing. They’re covered, have no VDMs, no old Yugoslav army tattoos on display. They look like a standard special forces op.”

Harry agreed. “They do look military. Not just some hired loyalist, separatist nutjobs. They’ve been trained properly.”

Asher’s brows drew together. “Don’t assume anyone with proper training and certain skill sets is military. I never enlisted, but I assure you, I was trained.”

Harry conceded that point with a nod. “Fair enough.”

“And our friend Ivan did say that ZBK group was taken over by an ex-general,” Asher added.

“True.” It was Harry’s turn to sigh. “We need to find out what we can about them. Location, factions, chapters, however they operate, and who we need to question. I’m sure they assume their three men they sent to kill us are dead, but I’d like to tell them in person.”

Asher almost smiled. “And I’d like to be there when you tell them.”

“So our next call to action, before we pay Ivan a visit to collect our guns, is to find out everything we can.” Harry tapped the screen that still showed the scene in Yunho’s war room. “And what else Yunho has in these files. See if we can find out what he discovered recently or who he might have pissed off.”

“He pissed off a lot of people.”

“Yeah, but why now? Something must have happened in the last six months to bring this about. It might be an enemy from a decade ago who just found out he’s still alive. But something must have recently tripped a wire somewhere. Because after all this time of Yunho being untraceable, they suddenly found him.”

Asher nodded, frowning. “I hope he’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m trying not to think about what they’ve done to him...”

Harry put his arm around Asher’s shoulder. “We will find them. But we need to focus, and we need to think like Yunho. He gave you the access code to all his information. He wants you to find what we’re missing.”

Asher seemed bolstered by that, determined to search and find whatever that was. The thing was, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack, if the haystack was a few exabytes of data and they had no clue what the needle even looked like.

Harry busied himself with his own research. Google was a godsend, even though he could remember a time very early in his career when any information he needed to find had to be sent to him. Intel arrived via text or yellow envelopes, or a burner email account. Christ, Harry didn’t even know what a VPN was back then...

Now he could find out information, get compound aerial views, street views, data records, addresses, and identification photos with just a few clicks of his keyboard.

Yet compared to Yunho and Lucas, Harry was as computer literate as a potato.

Asher was much better at it than Harry could ever be.

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