9

  Tirana

  Adriana walked across the tarmac to the black sedan the agency had arranged. The driver exited and climbed into the passenger side of another car. The second sedan sped away a moment later, leaving her there alone.

  June would be meeting her shortly at the rendezvous point—a hotel in the city. The room wasn’t anything fancy, at least that’s what she’d been told. They didn’t want to draw any attention.

  Adriana wore a simple outfit, jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a jacket over it. The air was chilly as it blew across the airfield, but not as cold as it’d been in Ireland.

  She tossed her bag into the passenger seat and checked to make sure there was plenty of gas in the tank before leaving. Noting it was nearly full, she shifted it into gear and sped off, letting the GPS on the dashboard guide her into town.

  Checking into the hotel was easy enough. Once she arrived, Adriana was greeted by a few valets, all of whom she ignored. No sense in having a couple of college-age boys looking through her stuff. She’d learned a long time ago that the valets in certain European countries were less than trustworthy.

  She bypassed the valet station and drove around to the back of the building. Scaffolding along the wall on the side told her whoever owned the hotel was doing their best to give it some much needed upgrades, or at the very least a makeover.

  After parking her car along a block wall just inside the property’s perimeter, she made her way inside to check in and find the room.

  While the shabby hotel exterior did little to bring patrons in on a random drive-by, the interior had already been overhauled. Were you to look at images of the outside and then the inside, you’d swear it was two different places.

  Modern white fabric lights shaped like box kites hung from the ceiling in the center of the grand lobby. A concierge was perched behind his granite counter to the right. Three other identical spots were empty, telling Adriana this wasn’t their busiest time of day…or year for that matter. The floor tiles looked like the same kind of granite used for the counters. Its shiny façade gave a luxurious feel to the place that it probably hadn’t earned during its first decades in business.

  The smell of jasmine wafted through the lobby, probably infused at several points by automatic air fresheners.

  She’d noticed a similar scent in Las Vegas casinos, although Adriana knew that scent was also laced with higher levels of oxygen to keep the gamblers playing longer.

  After getting her key, she made her way up to the room on the third floor and put her things down on the table by the window. As was her routine, Adriana opened her baggage and started taking inventory of her weapons, ammunition, and other tactical supplies. She’d checked it twice before getting in the car to the airport and then once more before boarding the plane. She believed you could never be too careful. It wasn’t obsessive-compulsive. She simply preferred to be absolutely certain.

  Being consistently persistent had saved her life in the past. She had no intentions of getting sloppy and dying anytime soon.

  Satisfied that everything was as it should be, she zipped up the bag and slipped into the bathroom for a quick shower and a fresh set of clothes. Traveling—especially flying—always made her feel grimy. Not to mention she had no idea when she’d be able to shower and change again.

  The door to the room opened as she was leaving the bathroom, her hair still wrapped in a towel to dry. She grabbed her pistol and held it out, aiming low in case it was someone she knew. That way, the bullet would be less likely to kill and more likely to injure. A friend wouldn’t appreciate either but would appreciate still being alive.

  June’s voice preceded her entry, saving Adriana the trouble of putting a round in her friend’s abdomen.

  “Adriana? It’s me.”

  “Come on in,” Adriana said, lowering the weapon as she walked over to the window.

  June padded into the room and let the door close softly behind her. She noticed Adriana’s hair in a towel. “Ugh,” she said, “I always feel like I have to take a shower after traveling.”

  Adriana offered an understanding grin.

  June plopped her small luggage bag on the bed and set her laptop case on the desk in the corner. “How long you been here?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  “Okay,” June said. “Let me take a quick shower, and we’ll get started.”

  Ten minutes later, June was in a fresh set of clothes and sitting at the desk with Adriana, staring at the computer screen.

  “This is where our guy is.” June tapped on the monitor. It displayed a map of the city. She circled one of the buildings with the same finger. “We believe he’s holed up here right now.”

  “We believe?”

  “Last our surveillance teams checked.”

  “When was that?”

  “An hour ago.”

  “Oh,” Adriana said, relieved. “Then yeah, he’s probably still there. For a second it sounded like the last contact you had was a few weeks ago.”

  June chuckled and shook her head. “Anyway, he’s likely there. The building doesn’t look well guarded.” She twisted two fingers around on the screen, and the view changed to one from the street.

  “Google doing real-time street views now?”

  Another snicker escaped June’s lips. “We have eyes all over the building now. Our team surrounded it when you gave me the location. They’ve had eyes on it 24/7. And by eyes I also mean cameras.”

  June shifted the view again, and the building’s front door appeared on the screen. “Going in the front isn’t an option.”

  “Heavily guarded?”

  “Depends on what your definition of heavily guarded is. There are twelve guards on the other side of that door, each positioned in a different place so that if anyone comes through who isn’t welcome, they’ll be shot dead before they get to the elevator.”

  Adriana frowned, trying to comprehend what her partner had just said. “It’s an apartment building? What about the other residents?”

  “We believe the Red Ring owns the entire building. The rest of it is probably vacant.”

  Adriana raised an eyebrow, impressed. “They really are a well-funded organization, huh?”

  “That’s just the beginning. The elevators are key-code activated. If you don’t know the correct code, you have to take the stairs. Good news: the stairs are also protected by a passcode.”

  “One that we don’t have.”

  “Correct. So, that means we have to find another way in.”

  Adriana gave a slow nod. She had a feeling she knew what her friend was about to say next.

  “This is where your unique set of skills comes into play,” June said.

  “I knew you were going to say that.”

  “Sorry to be predictable.” June clicked the mouse pad and brought up another window. “These are the schematics to the entire building. We’ve discovered three other possible points of entry, but none of them are easy.”

  “Of course not.”

  “Path number one is a no-go. I was thinking we go in via the rooftop and then rappel down the side, bust through a window, and crash his penthouse.”

  “Why’s that off the table?” Adriana asked.

  “Tosu has men stationed on the roof. Six of them. They rotate shifts every two hours with another round of guards that patrol the hallways and stairs.”

  That was a lot of manpower to protect one guy. Adriana’s eyebrows knit together. “Any idea how many guards we’re talking about?”

  “Like for the entire building?”

  “Yeah.”

  June shook her head. “No, but we ballpark it around thirty at any given time. Could be more. Could be less.”

  Adriana knew it wouldn’t be the latter. One thing she’d come to realize about these kinds of scumbags is that if they thought ten guards could do the job, twenty would be even better. Sure, it was overkill and maybe a bit more expensive, but for a group that had money to burn, why not? Could it be that Shadow Cell’s admins had underestimated Tosu’s importance? Anything was possible at this point.

  “Okay, so, thirty guys,” Adriana said. “A dozen in the lobby. Six on the roof. You said they rotate those six with others. That means six more in the corridors and stairwells.”

  “Which would leave six in Tosu’s apartment.”

  “If your number is right. If it was me, I’d station two or three outside the door, or probably one at each end of the hallway and then two more inside his place.”

  “All right, so thirty.”

  “At least. He’ll have half a dozen in his apartment. Then there are likely some stragglers somewhere else in the building. Or maybe positioned outside somewhere.”

  “Like I said, it’s not gonna be easy,” June said.

  Adriana scanned the blueprints. She pressed her fingers to the screen and rotated the image, then twisted it to get a 3-D view.

  “We could go in on zip lines and hit the roof that way. Would be close. I’ve got the gear for that, but when the grapple hits the building, it could alert the guards. What were the other two ways in you mentioned?”

  “Unfortunately, they all involve the rooftop. It’s the least guarded point of entry into the complex.”

  Six guards was hardly poorly guarded, but Adriana trusted her friend’s assessment. It was her job to make calls like that. Now, apparently, it was Adriana’s job to figure out a solution.

  “Okay, so that means windows are one way in , stairwell is another, and I’m guessing your third option is…elevator shaft, accessed on the top floor?”

  “Correct. All three pose different problems.”

  “Elevator shaft is the way to go, then.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Adriana gave a single nod. “They can’t put men in that shaft. And truthfully, why would they think they needed to? To get in it, you’d have to get by all those guards. The stairs are no good because we don’t know if there are men on the other side of the doors, or if they have guys stationed on the other side of the doors that come out of the stairwells. If I had to guess, I’d say someone is watching them.”

  June followed her friend’s line of thought, and while she didn’t disagree, she still had reservations. “Okay, so what happens if we go through the elevator shaft, manage to pry open the doors on Tosu’s floor, and there are guards standing there?”

  Adriana anticipated the question. She’d already run the scenario in her mind.

  “Smoke canisters,” she said. “I have a few in my bag. We use thermal scanners to detect movement on the other side of the wall. When and if we need to, we toss a few of those into the corridor. The guys won’t know what hit them.”

  “That’s an option. But the smoke will set off alarms, not to mention Tosu’s men will go on full alert. They’ll rally everyone to our location.”

  “Good point.” It was something Adriana had considered but thought it was the only option. Then she had another idea. “From the looks of it, the alarm system is pretty sophisticated.”

  “It is,” June confirmed. “It’s state of the art.”

  A wry smile creased Adriana’s lips. “We’re going to need some extra gear to get down into that elevator shaft. As for the security system, let me make a call.”

  10

  Tirana

  I really don’t like this,” June said.

  The wind howled in her ears as she looked down from one of the tallest buildings in the city. It was almost midnight, and the city lights glowed bright against the dark backdrop of the sky.

  She and Adriana were on the edge of Stadium Tower, 262 feet above the ground. They stood on the edge, with knees bent to keep their balance against the gusting wind.

  “Sean would like it a lot less,” Adriana quipped.

  Sean’s fear of heights was legendary. There was zero chance she’d get him onto a high ledge like this, not even for an important mission. He would have opted to find another way in. Probably through the front door with guns blazing.

  She laughed internally at the mental image.

  “It’s gonna be fine,” Adriana said. “Just make sure you throw your chute the second you’re clear of the building. Our window is gonna be tight. Throw it too late, and you’ll miss the landing spot.”

  The two women had parachute packs strapped to their back. They held the main chutes in their right hands. They were also armed with enough weapons and ammo to stage a small coup. Both carried a pistol on each hip, strapped down tight to keep the weapons from moving too much. In addition to the handguns, they carried HK-5 submachine guns tied tightly to their chests. They each had a complement of backup magazines for their weapons, with everything totaling over two hundred rounds.

  Adriana would have carried more, but then she’d have sacrificed weight and agility for firepower. She knew her ability to move quickly was just as lethal as a bullet. Or so she hoped.

  June cleared her throat. She’d never base-jumped before. Adriana hadn’t either but assured her friend it would be fine. “Safer than jumping out of an airplane,” she’d claimed.

  June didn’t need to know that was a lie.

  “You ready?” Adriana asked, casting her partner a sidelong glance.

  June shrugged. “Not really.”

  “Good. Remember, we’ll be coming in pretty hot, so be sure you pump your legs as fast as you can when you get close to the rooftop.”

  June gave a tentative nod.

  “I’ll be right in front of you,” Adriana reassured. Somehow, she knew it wasn’t that reassuring.

  She pressed a button on her lapel. “A-Tak, you ready to kill the lights?”

  “Ready and waiting, boss.”

  Adriana had called on her associate for one more favor. Tosu’s building was covered from head to toe in high-tech security systems and that, ironically, made them vulnerable to an online attack.

  “Sixty seconds,” Adriana said.

  “Ten-four.”

  “Jumping now. Mark.”

  Adriana pushed off from the ledge and dropped away from the building. Air rushed by her, whistling loudly in her ears. She threw the black chute out as hard as she could, and the fabric caught air and yanked her upward.

  She grabbed the handles and guided herself toward the target. The men on the rooftop were miniscule at first, but grew larger by the second. The area above Tosu’s complex was well lit, with floodlights singing brightly from every corner. Adriana knew in a matter of seconds the rooftop would be bathed in darkness. Unless Ray screwed up.

  If that happened, she and June would be cut down before they could put their feet on the ground. She considered the possibility and had decided that if the lights weren’t killed within fifteen seconds of landing, she and June would abort and steer clear of the complex.

  Even then, the guards would probably see them, which would make for a hairy escape amid a hail of gunfire.

  A thousand yards from the target, Adriana pulled on both cords, and the parachute lifted slightly and steadied its course.

  The city below her feet passed by quickly as she approached the target. The gap closed: nine hundred yards, eight hundred, seven hundred. Inside of five hundred yards, Adriana’s concern ballooned. If Ray didn’t kill the power, she and June would have to turn away.

  “Come on, Ray,” Adriana whispered to herself.

  Five seconds passed like a month. Then suddenly, the bright lights on top of the building went dark.

  The guards disappeared in the blackness, but Adriana could still make out the rooftop’s silhouette against the glittering backdrop of the city.

  “Good man, Ray,” she said.

  A hundred yards and closing quickly, Adriana readied herself for impact. She raised her feet like she’d been trained to do on her first jump from an airplane. Her boots cleared the roof ledge with ten feet to spare, and she let off on the cords to allow the chute to go limp.

  Her feet hit the ground and she rolled forward. It took her less than two seconds to cut the chute free and draw the pistol from her hip. The suppressor on the end of the barrel made freeing the gun a little clumsier than normal, but it was essential to keep things quiet.

  The parachute fluttered away in the gusting wind and a moment later disappeared over the edge.

  June hit the ground and rolled fifty feet away from Adriana. She deftly copied her partner’s movements, pulling her weapon and freeing herself from the chute.

  Adriana saw one of the guards appear around a huge air conditioning unit. He was chattering on a walkie-talkie about the power outage, ordering someone to get the lights back on.

  The man was between the two women as he walked over to the edge and looked out.

  Adriana started to sneak in his direction but sensed something move behind her. She ducked under a huge ventilation cylinder and waited for a second. A guard appeared around the corner, pacing deliberately to where she’d just been standing.

  “Did you see that?” he said into his radio, cutting off the guy who was in the middle of a rant about the power outage.

  “See what?”

  Adriana sprang from her hiding spot with knife drawn. She plunged the tip into the base of the man’s skull and drove it up into his brain. His body shuddered for a second and then went limp. She withdrew the blade and let him fall to the ground, dead instantly.

  She looked across the rooftop and saw June pulling her knife’s edge across the other guard’s throat. The man waved his arms around for a moment and then desperately clutched his neck to stem the bleeding. He fell to his knees and then lay prostrate on the ground in a pool of dark crimson.

  Adriana made a signal for June to go around the other way to sweep the perimeter. They’d discussed the plan ahead of time, and both women knew to take out as many of the bad guys as possible as they worked their way to the middle, where the maintenance door led to the elevator.

 

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