Page 34 of The Payment

Skull moved to the edge of the digester tank where Surrey’s personal effects had been piled.He retrieved a sleek smartphone, its screen cracked from the earlier struggle.

“Locked,” he sneered, then paused.His face, usually unreadable, showed a flicker of alarm.“There’s a message on the screen.”He held up the phone so Gregor could see the text notification:

“Hope you enjoyed the show, old man.Pity one of your own covert benefactors had to pay the price.Surrey is safe in New York.You just killed Theo Oliver.”

“Theo Oliver?Fuck!He’s the primary owner of Atlanta Fin Bank.I’ve never personally met him since he maintains anonymity, but he’s our biggest money laundering partner!”The walking stick creaked under Gregor’s grip.The bastard had known.Had cleverly orchestrated the whole thing.“He must’ve found out we’ve been asking around and used Surrey as bait,” Gregor growled.Like an amateur, Gregor had walked right into it.

“Yebat’!”Ivor smashed a fist against the wall as he recalled the man’s protest as they forced him into the tank.“I knew something was off, and he tried to tell us before we dumped him in the tank.Why the fuck did Oliver pretend to be Surrey?”

“Farrel probably has his family.”

“And now we killed one of our own allies.”Skull looked around.“Jesus!If word gets out about this, Boss, we’re fucking screwed.”His eyes darted around.“Get everyone out.Now!”He was already moving toward the exit, dragging Polov along.

“This has made me more determined.If Farrel went to such lengths to keep Surrey safe, it means he knows everything about him.Find everything we have on Surrey and his wife,” Gregor sneered.“Since Farrel knew about tonight, he used Oliver as—”

An explosion rocked the building, sending them staggering against the railings.Alarms began blaring throughout the facility.Through the chaos, Gregor could hear the distinctive sound of helicopter rotors approaching.

“Or Oliver was never the target,” he finished grimly as gunfire erupted outside the dome.

“How do we get out of here?”Gregor snapped at the guard who was keeping up with them.

“There are four exits—” Wheeler said as he squinted while trying to recall the blueprint of the facility.

“The main entrance is hot, so the north emergency exit will be their second point of entry,” Skull cut him off with characteristic directness.“My guess is that they’ll flood the underground corridors within two minutes.”Skull was already moving, guiding Gregor with a firm hand.He ignored the guard still following them.“But they don’t know about the storage office.”

The guard stared at the assassin.“The sealed room?That’s a dead end.”

“Stop interrupting me.You know shit.I had a construction team out here two months ago.”A ghost of a smile crossed Skull’s face as he looked at Gregor.“I don’t leave loose ends, Boss.I knew, at some point, we’d be coming to Boston, so I’ve been preparing for this since the Dark One married Tatiana.Why do you think I suggested we do the interrogation here?”

Another explosion rocked the dome.The sodium lights flickered and died, leaving them in the eerie glow of emergency lighting.Above, Gregor’s men engaged the incoming attackers, buying precious seconds.

“The access panel under the floor,” Skull continued, navigating them through the darkness with practiced ease, “leads to a maintenance shaft they sealed up in the eighties.It drops thirty feet to the old tunnels and comes up inside a warehouse I bought through one of our shell companies.I have a car waiting there.”

Gregor felt a deep appreciation for his longtime assassin.While he had been consumed with rage at Farrel’s betrayal, Skull had been quietly fortifying their position and preparing for every contingency.This was why he had kept the man close all these years.Not just for his skill with weapons but for the cold, methodical intelligence that saw threats before they materialized.

They reached Tank Three as breaching charges detonated above.Skull quickly located the shaft’s cover, hidden beneath a layer of convincing artificial grime.

“Your concerns earlier,” Gregor said as Skull worked.“You were testing my readiness.”

“I needed to know if your anger would cloud your judgment.”The cover creaked open.“I had to be sure you’d follow my lead when it mattered.”

“Fifteen years, and you still manage to surprise me.”Gregor laughed quietly, despite their situation.“I fucking better give you a raise for this and a well-deserved bonus.”

“Let’s survive first and negotiate later.”Skull helped him into the shaft.He stopped Wheeler in his tracks as he moved to follow Gregor down.“You’re not going anywhere.”

“But I helped you!I put my life on the line to—”

“To what?”Gregor’s eyes narrowed as he looked up from where he was holding onto the ladder.Igor’s face was colder than a typhoon’s wind.“By fucking us over?Getting paid twice?No one else but you knew about us being here tonight.So, in case you’re ignorant of what happens to a snitch...”

The echo of the gunshot sounded dull against the gunfire from further away.Wheeler reeled back with a bullet wound between the eyes.

Skull smirked as he caught Gregor’s gaze.“And Boss?Next time, I suggest caution...”

“I’ll fucking listen,” Gregor declared as they descended into the darkness.Above them, his men’s last stand echoed through the dome.Every death would be repaid, but right now, survival meant trusting the man who had spent months planning for this exact moment.

“Time to disappear,” Gregor said as they entered the tunnel.“Let’s show the Dark One why the old ways survived so long.”

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