Chapter 47
No Way Back
The airport is pure chaos by the time Victor and Kai arrive.
Neither of them looks like a man who has just walked out of a highly successful operation.
Their clothes are slightly disordered, their faces exhausted, and the volatile adrenaline from the past few days still runs hot beneath their skin.
The honey trap is complete. Alicia's villa is nothing but burning rubble, the intelligence they needed is secured, and Alessio's network has taken a serious hit.
But neither Victor nor Kai makes the mistake of believing that means they are safe.
They move through the private entrance of the airport with their heads down, blending into the crowd as much as two men carrying the weight of an international criminal operation can.
Victor keeps one hand inside his coat, his fingers resting against the small second phone he bought specifically for this mission.
It contains nothing that can connect him to the Blackwood organisation, nothing that can lead Alessio back to Lucius, and nothing that matters anymore.
Its purpose ends the moment they leave Italy.
Kai walks beside him, checking the boarding information on his screen.
"We're still on time," he mutters, his eyes scanning the terminal.
Victor glances towards the departure board with a flat, brief nod.
"Good." Kai looks at him, evaluating his drawn expression.
"You look like shit." Victor gives him a tired, unblinking stare.
"So do you." Kai smirks, trying to break the heavy silence. "At least I'm handsome."
Victor almost laughs, but the expression disappears instantly when he notices two men entering the terminal behind them.
They are not airport security; Victor knows it immediately.
The way they move is entirely wrong. Too deliberate.
Too alert. Their eyes sweep through the crowd instead of looking at the departure boards, and one of them touches his earpiece before pointing directly towards the economy-class check-in area.
Victor's expression doesn't change. He lightly touches Kai's arm.
"Don't look back." Kai keeps walking, his pace perfectly steady.
"They're here?" "Yes." "Gambino?" Victor's jaw tightens. "Most likely."
They continue towards the boarding gates without changing their pace.
Victor knows the men are searching for him.
The trap has worked both ways, but Alessio has clearly discovered enough to realise that Victor and Kai are trying to leave the country.
He needs them dead or captured before they reach American airspace.
Victor looks at the boarding pass in his hand.
Business Class. Kai's is the same. Their tickets were arranged under clean, deep-cover identities, and their names are nowhere near the Gambino family's current intelligence files.
They pass through the priority security line and disappear into the restricted section, while the men behind them reach the crowded economy counters.
One of the trackers begins questioning an airline employee, while the other starts aggressively checking passenger names on a printout.
Victor watches the scene unfold through the glass partition from a safe distance.
"They're looking for us in economy," Kai murmurs, a cold edge to his voice.
Victor's eyes remain fixed on them. "Let them."
The two Gambino men move quickly, their desperation showing.
They check passenger lists, approach another counter, and begin demanding information, but the airline staffs flatly refuses to give them anything useful.
Their frustration grows visible. One man suddenly receives a call and listens for several seconds before his face goes completely pale.
Victor doesn't need to hear the conversation to know what is happening.
Someone in authority has realised the two men are carrying false credentials and are asking questions they have no legal right to ask.
Airport security appears directly behind them.
The men turn too late. One reaches inside his jacket, but before he can pull his weapon, several armed officers surround him and force him brutally against the counter.
The second man tries to run, but he makes it only a few metres before security tackles him to the ground.
Victor watches silently from the business lounge, his face an unreadable mask.
Kai looks over, a dark smirk playing on his lips.
"That's convenient." Victor takes a slow sip of his coffee.
"Very." Kai raises an eyebrow. "You did something?"
Victor looks at him, his voice devoid of emotion.
"I made one phone call before we entered the airport."
Kai's smile slowly widens. "Of course you did."
Victor looks back towards the arrested men being dragged away in handcuffs. "They were never making that flight."
An announcement echoes through the lounge.
Their flight is boarding. Victor stands up, buttoning his jacket.
Kai picks up his bag. For the first time in days, neither man says a single word about Alicia, Alessio, or the operation.
They walk towards the aircraft with the strange, fleeting feeling that they have finally escaped the battlefield.
They take their seats in Business Class, far from the economy cabin where Alessio's men are still causing a scene.
Victor settles into his seat beside the window and closes his eyes for a moment.
Ten hours. Ten hours between Italy and New York.
Ten hours before he sees Lucius again. Ten hours before the mission becomes history.
Kai sinks into his seat and exhales heavily.
"We're going home." Victor opens his eyes, staring out into the dark tarmac.
"Not yet." Kai looks at him, frowning. "What?"
Victor turns towards the window as the aircraft begins moving towards the runway, the engines whining to life.
"We don't know what Alessio is doing while we're in the air."
Kai's smile disappears entirely. He understands.
The war has already begun, and they are flying blind.
Ten hours later, the aircraft lands in New York.
The moment Victor's phone reconnects to the local network, it begins vibrating repeatedly.
Messages, missed calls, and encrypted alerts flood the screen in a violent cascade.
Victor's expression darkens before he even opens the first notification.
Kai notices the sudden shift immediately.
"What is it?" Victor reads the message once.
Then he reads it again, his face becoming completely still, turning to stone.
"Jersey City." Kai straightens in his seat, his breath catching.
"What happened?" Victor turns the glowing screen towards him.
The encrypted text reads: BLACKWOOD FAMILY BASE DESTROYED.
MULTIPLE CASUALTIES. Kai's eyes widen in horror.
"When?" "During the flight," Victor's voice is dangerously low.
"Alessio hit one of the family bases while we were over the Atlantic."
Another message arrives, followed by a tracking ping.
Alex is already waiting outside the airport terminal.
The two men move quickly through the arrivals gate, their movements sharp and urgent.
They find Alex parked beside a black, tinted saloon car, his expression grim and hollowed out.
The moment he catches their eyes, he opens the rear door.
"Get in." Victor doesn't ask questions until the car are moving, accelerating rapidly away from the airport.
Alex grips the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning stark white.
"He attacked Jersey City." Victor looks at him through the rear-view mirror.
"How bad, Alex?" "Bad enough," Alex's voice is pure ice.
"The base is completely gone." Kai leans forward, gripping the back of the passenger seat.
"Anyone alive?" Alex's jaw tightens so hard the muscle feathers. "Two."
The car falls into a suffocating, heavy silence.
Victor looks out through the window as the familiar New York skyline passes around them.
The city is bright, crowded, and bursting with life, completely unaware that a vicious mafia war is already consuming the people travelling through its streets.
After everything they have done in Italy, after destroying one of Alessio's most valuable assets, Alessio has answered immediately with blood.
He hasn't waited. He hasn't negotiated. He has gone directly for the throat of the Blackwood family.
Alex turns onto the highway, driving faster, weaving through traffic with aggressive precision.
"Teajun has the full report. He's managing the fallout."
Victor looks at him. "Why didn't he call me directly?"
Alex gives him a bitter, fleeting glance through the mirror.
"Because you didn't have your old phone on you."
Victor's eyes narrow. He remembers. The official phone connected to the main Blackwood network is still in Italy.
The second phone—the burner device nobody knows about—is the only device he has been using since the operation began.
"Right." Alex looks at him again. "You left something behind?"
Victor doesn't answer immediately, his mind calculating the variables.
Then he says, "A phone." Kai looks at him, confused.
"The mission phone?" Victor nods flatly.
"It's still in Italy." Alex frowns, his eyes fixed on the road.
"Why?" "Because it has served its purpose," Victor says his voice cold and final. "Nobody needs to know about it."
The car speeds towards Lucius's ancestral mansion, tearing through the evening shadows.
Before they can even reach the perimeter of the estate, Alex's phone rings over the dashboard Bluetooth.
He answers it immediately. "Yes?" Teajun’s voice comes through the speaker, quiet, clinical, and profoundly exhausted.
Alex's expression changes instantly, the anger giving way to a sickening dread.
"What?" Victor turns fully towards the console, his body rigid.
Alex listens to the voice on the other end, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel until the leather groans.
"How many?" Alex asks, his voice dropping an octave.
Silence fills the car as Teajun responds over the line.
"You're sure?" Alex presses his throat dry.
Another long pause follows. Then Teajun says something that makes Alex close his eyes for a brutal, agonizing second.
"Okay. We're almost there." He ends the call with a sharp flick of his thumb.
Victor's voice is low, cutting through the quiet like a blade.
"Tell me." Alex looks at him through the mirror, his eyes hollow.