Page 132 of Reclaiming Adelaide

“I’ve been following them and observing their movements to see how much they’ve changed. This is the first time we’ve… they’ve all come together in a while.” Yergi took a deep breath, his shoulders rising, then fell as he exhaled. “Sev Shun was my creation. From when I was a little boy, watching my country fight the control of Azerbaijan, I wanted to raise the strongest army to help my country. But as I grew older and watched how the government cared more about some damn piece of land than they did their own people, I dropped my desire to help my country.”

“So you killed women and children? That’s your solution?”

Yergi shook his head. “That’s not how we planned our mission. The job in Mexico went wrong. Our targets were diplomats meeting to ally with Mexico. If they did that, it would give them power over the southern countries in North America. Our client, a powerful man in the middle east, didn’t want that alliance.”

“So you bomb a building full of kids and call it a good day?”

He sighed as the SUV came to a stop. “The meeting in the embassy was down the road from the convention center, but we couldn’t get our car bomb in place before they left. I told them not to do it, but my crew revolted.”

“Do what?”

“They followed them and blew their cars from the ground. They were okay with a few for the many. That’s when I created Cryptonic. I worked with them, keeping my role as leader, but then they caught wind of my betrayal and drove me underground. That was about eight months ago.”

“When you started working on hacking their systems?”

He nodded. “Listen, they locked me out of everything. I tried to make it right. I didn’t agree with any of it, but I no longer had control.” He held his cuffed hands up and begged with them clasped together. “Don’t turn me over to them. They can’t be allowed to continue.”

Tonk chuckled. “Doctor Frankenstein turns against his creation.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“I wouldn’t have created the very problem I worked to resolve.” Tonk removed his hand from Yergi’s shoulder.

“What the fuck do we do now?” I faced Tonk and Alek.

“We stick to the plan. Nothing’s changed,” Tonk said firmly.

Yergi recoiled, his cuffed hands raised in futile surrender, his fear finally showing through his stolid face. “They’ll kill us all.”

“I’ll kill you if they don’t,” I said, putting my hand on the pistol at my hip.

“After everything I just told you? Why? I’m not the enemy here.”

“Because you recruited a teenage girl, knowing full well what kind of danger you were putting her in. And then after everything…” I clenched my fist, restraining from beating him to a bloody pulp. “You left her without the tools or knowledge to protect her.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I did or not. She’s lucky to still be alive. We all are.”

“I beg to differ.” I squeezed my fist harder. “Now, if Franklin was your second in command, does that mean he’s taken over?”

Yergi nodded as I pulled out my phone. “Which one is he?” I thumbed through a load of pictures we’d acquired on the men when we first met.

“If he’s anything like me, he won’t be there in person but watching from a safe distance.”

Max chuckled from the driver’s seat. “That figures. You let your team do all the dirty work while you take no risks.” He shook his head. “No wonder they turned on you so easily.”

“What does he look like, then?”

“Um, like his brother, Yervant.”

“Yervant… the one with the tattoo, blond hair, big build?”

“The very one.”

“Is this what we’re doing?” Alek asked, his torso twisted in the seat toward me. “Your call.”

I glanced around the SUV, Tonk as stoic as ever, Max gripping the steering wheel while he waited for the order, and Yergi staring straight ahead, awaiting his fate.

“We’re doing this.”

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