47. Ciel
CIEL
“Heeeey, little brother,” Ryu said when I answered the phone.
I rubbed my eyes. “What now?”
I’d been working late when my phone buzzed on my desk.
I wasn’t necessarily happy staying home tonight to run tech support behind the scenes, but my gut feeling about needing my full computer rig had paid off.
Everything went through without a hitch, even the tips I’d given to law enforcement about the Camorra’s operations on Obi’s orders.
The tips were untraceable, and it would prompt them to look even further at the multiple instances of the Camorra committing crimes.
Obi’s plan had something to do with the cops.
I wasn’t sure what yet, but I trusted his vision.
I’d only just finished the minimum viable product of the virus I wanted to send against Lucia when my phone rang.
“We’re kind of being tailed,” Ryu said.
I blinked and pursed my lips. “By who?”
“Not sure. You want to look?” He rattled off some cross-streets. I had the imaging pulled up within twenty seconds. It only took a bit longer to lock onto Ryu and Cas’s vehicle, and then find the one car that wouldn’t leave them alone.
“The black sedan?” I asked. “Tinted windows?”
“That’s the one.”
I caught sight of the license plate number through a stoplight camera when it went through an intersection. I ran the plate.
“Shit,” I said into the phone. “It’s a government car.”
“I fucking knew it,” Ryu said through gritted teeth. “Well, the feds are following us now, all the way from the Bronx into Manhattan. After we just got into a bloody battle with two dozen dead bodies in the middle of the Bronx.”
Fantastic. Add another item to the list of things to think about. Already my mind was turning with additional security measures we’d need to stay under the radar of both the Camorra and the feds. The last thing we needed was them finding out where we lived.
“Speaking of which,” Ryu continued. “Can you pull some security footage from Russian territory with Camorra faces? Some of Greco’s capos got arrested in the chaos. We can leak the footage to some media outlets so that Greco can’t bury this shit and sweep it under the rug.”
“I think so.” I brought up a search command in my video feed program. “I’m still monitoring the cameras we planted in Bratva territory way back when we were looking for Cas.”
“Spread anything you find as wide as we can. I do not want Greco to bail them out.”
No, Obi’s plan depended on enough capos being in jail.
“Will do,” I responded, making a note to comb through the footage after this.
“We can’t come home,” Cas said through the speakerphone. “What do we do about the tail?”
I dug my opposite thumb into the palm of my bad hand to loosen the cramp there. My brain spun. Obi, Leona, Max, and Wynn were on their way home, too. Could they somehow intervene? No, the trajectories wouldn’t line up, and we didn’t want this to get even more suspicious.
“Well, you’ll need to lose them. You could try to ditch them in Manhattan, but you could just as easily get caught in traffic. Maybe the tunnels would be a good bet? You could pull some risky maneuvers and do a bait and switch. Just don’t even get close to Staten Island. We can’t risk it.”
“I won’t,” Ryu said. “I tried to lose them before I called, but they’re stuck on me. They definitely know what they’re doing. Anything you can do?”
“Yeah,” I murmured while I began typing. “You guys don’t have a signal jammer with you, do you?”
“Nope,” Ryu said.
“Great, well, we all need to start carrying those immediately,” I said. How many did I have? I’d have to build or buy more. “They could be tracking you somehow. Either through your phone or a device stuck to the car.”
I’d need to review everyone’s devices tonight and see if they caught any malware. Plus, if the feds had a tracker on the vehicle, there could be more on the others we’d taken to and from the house. I’d need to sweep them all as soon as possible.
“We could ditch the car,” Ryu said with a sigh and a whine. “But I really like this one.”
“You’ll be fine,” Cas admonished. “Big baby.”
I squeezed some eye drops into my eyes. “I’d rather you ditch it than get arrested.”
“True. But the question is how I’m supposed to ditch the car when they’re right on our asses?”
It was a good question. I started searching through maps of Manhattan.
Finally, my vision hooked onto a possibility.
“I’m going to text you the address of a parking garage.
” It only took a minute before I had access to all the camera feeds.
I flipped through a couple of different camera views, looked at the date and time, and got my eyes on a vehicle that had been there for a while.
“Go into that parking garage and go down to the second level. Park in one of the open spots on the east side. There are three available. There’s a gray four-door in the last spot by the west elevator. Snag it.”
“What about security—”
“I’m killing the camera feeds now,” I said.
Just a couple more lines of code and the history of the last hour would be gone.
“Everything will be dead when you get there, and then I can open the gates to make sure you have an easy entrance and exit. Drive confidently, like you have a parking pass and you’re meant to be there. ”
“Got it,” Ryu said. “Thanks, Ciel.”
A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. Ryuji was getting nicer.
“I’ll wipe down the vehicle as best as I can so we don’t leave prints,” Cas added.
“Keep me posted,” I said. “I will monitor your replacement vehicle while you head home and make sure you lost them. Call me again if you notice anything weird.”
“See you soon!” Ryu chirped before he hung up.
I tilted back in my chair and stretched my neck from side to side. My eyes were so tired. It was long past time to take my contacts out, but I’d been stuck in this chair, trying to keep everyone safe. I’d have to change into my glasses before I went and swept the vehicles.
Buy more signal jammers. Sweep the vehicles. Double-check the software on all our phones. Once I had done all that, and everyone was safe at home, I could finally crash out.
I’d have to leave a note that nobody was allowed to leave in the morning until I’d slept in. I was fucking over being awoken from a deep sleep by a massive emergency.
At least things were better with Max. Leona was happy. The guys were happy. That made every finger stroke on my keyboard, every twinge of pain in my hand, and every eye drop in my eyes worth it. I loved them all so fucking much.
On the parking garage feeds, I watched Ryu and Cas follow my instructions perfectly.
I got a little nervous when Ryuji struggled to jimmy the lock of the four-door, but they popped it open and hot-wired the car right as the black sedan drove into the garage.
They just barely missed each other, but Ryu and Cas got away and lost the tail.
Inside the garage, Jack Greer—the same agent who had arrested Leona—fumed while he stared at the ditched vehicle. I laughed when he kicked the tire, but quickly sobered at my next realization.
They definitely had a tracker planted somewhere on their car. How the hell had that happened? And when?
We needed to be so careful.
After I made sure that Ryu and Cas were safely on their way home, I took out my contacts, put on my glasses, and grabbed my sweeping equipment. Checking the cars couldn’t wait.