Chapter 78 Viktor
Viktor
The sea was black glass beneath the floodlights, and Viktor watched the ripples spread like veins across the surface. The docks reeked of salt, oil, and fear—his favorite combination.
“Contain the perimeter,” he ordered, his voice smooth yet sharp. His men moved out with mechanical precision—no wasted movement, no chatter. Hydra’s elite. Handpicked. Loyal only to Grand’s coin and Viktor’s cruelty.
A truck burned faintly in the distance, smoke rising into the early dawn. The Golden Team’s doing. He smiled.
“They’ve become predictable,” he murmured. “Always running toward the fire, they start.”
The lieutenant at his side adjusted his comms. “Thermal shows multiple signatures near the cargo offices. Four, maybe five.”
Viktor’s gloved hand rested on his pistol. “Beckett and his woman,” he said. “Bring the rest in alive if you can. But the girl—” his smile deepened, snake-like—“she’s mine to deliver.”
“Yes, sir.”
The lieutenant started to turn, but Viktor caught his arm, pulling him close enough to see the fear in the man’s eyes. “And if Beckett interferes, you shoot him once in the leg. I want him to watch.”
He released the man and stepped forward, the hem of his coat brushing through the drifting ash.
Above the docks, the cranes loomed like metal sentinels, their long arms slicing through the mist. Somewhere in that labyrinth of containers, the Golden Team waited. He could almost taste their defiance.
“They think they fight for justice,” he said to no one in particular. “But justice is only power wearing a prettier mask.”
A faint burst of static came through his earpiece—Cyclone’s blackout grid shorting his comms. Clever. He admired that kind of audacity.
He drew his pistol, the motion graceful, almost reverent. “Let’s show them what it costs to cross Hydra.”
Then he lifted his hand.
Dozens of headlights snapped on at once, cutting through the darkness in blinding white. The night erupted with motion—engines revving, boots striking pavement, men shouting orders in three languages.
Somewhere out there, Beckett was watching, waiting for this exact moment.
And Viktor couldn’t wait to meet him.