Page 7 of Deadly Hacker

“He was of no use to us,” said Andrei.

“The guy was stupid enough to steal a smart vehicle from our casino lot,” added Rad. “Trust me, if we didn’t eliminate him, someone else would have.”

“He earned his fate,” agreed Luka.

“How did he stumble into our world?” asked Mikhail.

“He was a lackey of Rurik Turgenev. Just a lowlife with nothing better to do than fixate on a girl like Kira,” said Vadim.

“They met at the Shining Star?” questioned Mikhail.

“Da. He latched on, the same way his boss did,” said Andrei. “Rurik was funding Fedorov’s lifestyle in exchange for dirty work.”

“Lifestyle?”

“Fedorov was a criminal with a drug problem. His criminal history is a mile long: burglary, assault, fraud, intimidation, buying and selling narcotics. When I killed Rurik, I destroyed his connection. If he wasn’t insane before, that certainly pushed him over the edge,” said Luka.

“Oh yeah. He really went off the rails, judging from the intel I’ve gathered the past few days,” said Rad. “This Fedorov character wanted revenge for his boss’s death, plus a little extra. We’re too big to take on directly, so he focused on Kira.”

“And he wasn’t even man enough to attackher,” added Andrei. “After Rad’s tracking helped us catch him, we tortured him for information.”

“I needed to know exactly what led him to Sonja and Stepan’s home,” said Luka.

“He was watching Kira for a long time. Following her. Stalking her on social media,” said Rad. “Typical creep activity. He knew where she worked via Turgenev. He followed her many times before he worked up the courage—”

“Mostly drug-fueled,” interjected Vadim.

“—to make his move. One night, he went back to the casino. He planned to cause a scene, mess with the girls, pick a fight with staff. By this point, the guy had already been on a week-long bender,” said Rad. “It didn’t take long for him to get kicked out of the casino that night, but not before he lifted the phone and car keys off a tipsy high-roller at a poker table.”

“Right under security’s nose?” Mikhail asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rad nodded. “Never underestimate the power of a man who thinks he has nothing to lose. Anyway, once he got to the parking lot it was easy enough to figure out which car those keys belonged to. It was a smart vehicle.”

“Explain,” Mikhail pressed, with a wave of his hand.

“You can think of it as a car with Wi-Fi,” said Rad. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the gist. So our guy Igor takes off with the vehicle. The car’s owner stayed late at the casino playing poker and didn’t report it stolen until early morning.”

“We found tons of booze, drugs, and paraphernalia in the vehicle,” said Luka. “He was in another fucking reality. I could pity him for that, if nothing else.”

“His delusions drove him to Kira’s residence,” Rad continued. “He intended to kidnap her, but was discouraged when he arrived to find Luka was already there.”

“I refuse to entertain how different this conversation would be if I hadn’t been there,” the enforcer growled.

“Luckily, we don’t have to. Because your presence was enough to make him re-route to Kira’s parents’ house. In his fucked-up mind, he thought if he couldn’t get her, he could at least hit her where it would hurt most. This guy is so used to doling out misery, he can do it even when he’s off his head,” Rad explained. “He waited outside the Rudavins’ house for a couple hours, then seized the opportunity when Stepan came out to collect the morning paper.”

“He ambushed Stepan and dragged him to the car. What he didn’t bargain for was Kira’s mom, Sonja, who saw everything from the front window,” said Andrei. “She came rushing out to intervene. That’s when the little shithead whacked her in the head.”

“How is she doing?” Mikhail asked, looking at Luka.

“She’s recovering well. The hospital discharged her the next day. Kira has been by her side every minute. We have new guards stationed on their street, and I have been visiting as frequently as I can between missions,” he filled in quickly.

“Fedorov knew he was fucked,” Rad went on. “He understood that he’d crossed a line. He knocked out a disabled older woman in daylight hours. The neighbor, Mrs. Forsyth, saw everything. Fedorov had no plans for what to do with Stepan, either. He just took off, heading northbound, trying to get the hell out of Dodge.”

“Probably would’ve disposed of Stepan in the desert, first chance he got,” said Andrei.

“And that’s when you… hacked the car?” Mikhail asked, the words seeming farcical to him. Rad only grinned. He knew his work was a little outside the lines for his fellow mafia men. They were slice-and-dice types. None of them were former Harvard researchers, after all.

“I met up with our payroll cops on the case,” Rad said. “We used the stolen cell phone and vehicle information to locate the car. Then, I employed my homemade hacking program to take control of the car. I reduced the speed via cruise control until Fedorov pulled over.”

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