Page 99 of Lethal Alliance

Makari’s meeting point is a warehouse by an old air base near the Miami waterfront, lit by bare globes hanging from the ceiling. There are half a dozen armored vehicles at the far end and two choppers in the hangar next door. Mak’s team is standing around the wide, flat ops table on which the schematics are laid out. A bank of laptop screens are set up on a trestle table behind them. I strip off my traveling clothes, replacing them with the same formal black business suit the team is wearing, handmade specially with bulletproof lining.

Mickey is sitting on a crate opposite me, his face pale and set. For once, his laptop screen is closed.

“You’ll stay here with the backup team.” I eye him sternly. “No fuckery, Mickey.”

“I know.” He gives me a rictus smile that doesn’t get anywhere near his eyes. “I’ll be watching, though.” There’s a live feed from our lapel cameras to the coordinating team here in the warehouse.

“Just make sure that’s all you do.” I sit down on a crate and reach for my shoes.

He leans forward, his eyes narrowing. “What’s that tattoo on your foot?”

“This?” I grin, holding the sole of my foot out to show him. “Funny you should ask. I would normally have avoided that question. But since it’s largely irrelevant now, the tattoo is a set of numbers. It’s the code to access the safe deposit box where my mother hid the key to the vault.” I pull out the small golden key and show him.

“You’re taking that with you tonight?” Mickey’s still staring at my foot as I pull my boots on, his face oddly still, as it often is when he’s thinking something through. “Does that mean you’re planning to actually open the vault?”

“It means I need the Orlovs to believe Icanopen it.” I lace the boots and look at him curiously. “You know that, Mickey. You’ve been involved in all the planning. You know that’s how we plan to distract Orlov while we hit the Fedorov place.”

He nods, but his eyes are still far away. Knowing Mickey, he’s thinking of every angle of our plan, still trying to find holes in it. I reach forward and touch his leg. “The best minds in the business have gone over this a hundred times,” I say quietly. “You need to trust me on this, Mickey. And if you find that hard, then trust Mak.” I give him a half smile. “Even I defer to him when it comes to the operational part of this. When it comes to stealth missions, he and his men are unparalleled. I’m a big believer in hiring the best of the best, as you know from working with Mercura. Mak is the very best at what we’re about to do.”

“I know that.” He gives me a strained smile.

I nod at the table. “Want to listen in to the final briefing?”

He shakes his head, already reaching for his laptop. “You don’t need me. And there’s some things I want to check.”

I grip his shoulder. I know how he feels. This close to going in, time slows down, tension turning every second into an hour. He’s been running on adrenaline for days, and this operation isn’t some existential cyber challenge with an anonymous opponent. It’s a deadly race to save his sisters. Mickey has been remarkably collected during the planning phases, but it doesn’t surprise me at all that so close to the bullets actually flying, he’s searching for a distraction.

“Mickey.” His eyes flicker up to me. “When I take the call from Orlov—”

“I know, I know. I can’t be there.” He nods. “You have to take the call in the hangar, where he can’t see anything, and you don’t want them to know I’m here. I get it.”

“I’m sorry.”

He gives a curt shake of his head. “Just get my sisters back.”

I head over to the table. The men leaning over it might look like any ordinary security detail, but then they are accustomed to becoming whatever the job requires. I don’t need Mak to give me their résumés to know they’re drawn from the top echelons of special ops around the world. They nod at me courteously, and I take my place beside them as Mak takes point at the head of the table. Like I said to Mickey, Mak is the best at what he does. Ego doesn’t play a part in moments like these. He wouldn’t tell me how to run Mercura; I don’t tell him how to run his team. I made the original plan. The execution of it I trust to Mak’s expertise.

“Orlov is expecting our video call at nineteen hundred hours.” He points to the schematic of the Miami compound. “Roman told him in the initial call from Spain that he wants proof of life on that call, to speak to the girls in person, before he agrees to come to the compound and open the vault. Bravo Team is already in place around the Everglades house. The moment we set the meet time at the Petrovsky compound into motion, they will be watching. Fedorov will have to travel by chopper if he’s going to make the meet—it’s too far by car. The team will get the go-ahead to take him as soon as he moves, ensuring that both Inger and Fedorov are taken alive. That operation will be done on the black. No choppers, no gunfire, no noise or lights. Fedorov’s men will be dead before they even know there’s an attack in progress.

“Timing is everything, which we all know. Fedorov’s chopper, flown by our people, must take off from the Everglades without any trouble. Orlov has to believe Fedorov is on his way. Then we need to arrive at the Petrovsky compound in Coconut Grove before our team in Fedorov’s chopper does.”

“We’re certain Fedorov is still in the Everglades house?” One of the operatives asks the question.

“Pavel has had trouble hacking the feed inside the house there, so we have limited eyes inside, but his chopper is still there. Bravo Team has been covertly watching the Everglades property for days and believes they have identified Fedorov. It’s the best we can do on short notice.”

“What have we got from Charlie Team outside the Coconut Grove compound?” It’s another of the operatives.

“They’ve had the place under surveillance for three days, but they couldn’t get in tight without raising the alarm. They’ll move into their close positions as soon as we start traveling to the meet. They’re coordinating with Pavel to shut down the feed inside the compound while they get weapons in place for us by the time we enter, but they’ll wait for my direct signal before they go in themselves. Alpha Team, once inside the compound, you’re on Roman’s signal, not mine.”

The questions continue, incisive and direct, examining every loose end, checking numbers, resources, movements, and intelligence. I let Mak take them all. We’ve already been through this ourselves. Even with my eyes closed, I know every inch of the layout of both the Everglades house and the Petrovsky compound. I can see the entire operation in my mind as if it has already happened, the weak points, the possible changes.

“Roman.” Mak turns to me. “Is there anything you want to add?”

The faces at the table look at me.

“You all know what’s at stake here.” I meet each man’s eyes long enough for us to gain the measure of the other. “Orlov has no need to keep my daughters alive. He won’t hesitate to kill them if he gets even the faintest hint of what’s going down. He’s going to be suspicious, which is also why he has Alexei Petrovsky guarding the girls’ door. He’ll want to see that vault open before he hands the girls over, and he has to believe that is what’s happening. He won’t summon Alexei to the vault until the last minute.”

I tap the vault on the schematic of the Petrovsky compound. “That’s the tricky point, as Mak has already explained to you. Alexei Petrovsky is the wild card. He hasn’t come this far just to open the vault for Orlov, and we don’t know what fucking trick he has up his sleeve. Until we do, and until I give the signal, nobody makes a move, or I’ll shoot you myself.”

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