Chapter 5
MIt’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m currently in my second residence in the center of Sarajevo.
It’s a gorgeous penthouse on the twenty-fifth floor in one of the biggest buildings in this city.
The interior of my apartment is all modern.
My living room has a large plush U-shaped white couch and a TV I rarely use.
What really steals the show are three big windows overlooking Sarajevo.
The dining room has a mixture of beige and off-white colors that fit perfectly with the wooden tables and huge kitchen, an amenity I use as often as I can.
The rest of the apartment is in the same style with its three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
I don’t conduct any business here. I only sleep here when I have work to do for my car dealerships.
Which is what I’m doing now.
Well, working is a big word. I’m pumping money into restoring one of my car dealerships. Why? Because yet another one burned down last night.
The rage I felt last night when Sami, the manager of the dealership, called me up to tell me. It was around 1 a.m., and I bolted out of my bed to check the security cameras. It didn’t surprise me that the cameras weren’t working last night.
I wanted to call my cousin Hana immediately, but I knew she was studying and catching up on some sleep. So I waited.
Until now.
“What?!” I’m not used to Hana being this defensive. I scrunch my eyebrows.
“Who took a dump in your cornflakes?” I ask, even though I think I know the answer. Despite being curt with her, I still love her. She is my baby cousin, and our shared hatred for our parents only deepened our bond.
“My professor who teaches computing in biomedicine. I don’t even want to work in the biomedical field, no offense to anyone who does.”
“Let me guess, he failed you?” If she could slap me through the phone, she would. Hana has hated her professor since the beginning of her master’s studies.
“He did, and when he asked me why I couldn’t study for his course, I simply said to him that I don’t care about what he teaches.”
“You can’t do that, he will fail you on purpose.”
“Let him fucking try, and if he does, I’ll have Sara come to his house so that she can yank his b—”
“Hana, please stop. You know you will have to earn your degree if you want to work full-time for me. And if you want to give out orders.” She sighs heavily through the phone.
“What do you want, M?” She knows me so well.
“I’m sure you got the confirmation that one of my car dealerships burned down, again.”
“I did. And before you ask, no, I still don’t know who did this. M, whoever is doing this is dangerous.”
“I fucking know that,” I state. “Do we even know if it’s a woman or a man?” My question hangs in the air while I make myself a cup of coffee.
“It’s a dude, M. I’ve seen the same person go into our buildings many times. You know what? I’ll just come over and explain everything. Be there in ten minutes.” I don’t protest, and after less than fifteen minutes, the doorman is calling to ask if she can come up.
The moment I open the door, Hana moves past me and sits down at my kitchen table, opening up her laptop. I go and sit across from her.
“As you can see on the screen, this is the man who has been burning down your dealerships.” Hana points to a hooded figure who knows how to avoid my cameras.
It’s like he knows where they are.
“My only concern is, how the fuck does he do that? It’s like our security system is a simple board game to him,” I tell Hana as I examine the footage further.
While I know that women in this field can be even more vicious than men, the hooded figure is a man.
He doesn’t show his face, but he did show his hands.
The fingers were thick, nails cut short, the kind of hands that could twist metal or crush resistance without much effort.
“No shit. There is one positive thing I want to share, and it has to do with a new security system.” Hana grabs her laptop back and does some magic before showing me her new system. While I am a mechanical engineer, Hana is on her way to becoming an IT engineer extraordinaire.
The algorithm doesn’t make much sense to me, but that’s why I have her.
“The dealerships stay sealed from the outside once hours are over and when somebody needs to open it for the day. No one gets in without the key to the box—and even then, they’ll be subjected to a retinal scan and a phrase only we know.
Two tries, and it’s still polite. Three, and the system screams.” She taps on the screen to show me a picture of a small camera.
“This little gadget will be located in every single dealership, undetectable. Every face that walks through the door is cataloged and cross-checked. If someone shows up on a flagged list, you’ll know before they reach the reception desk. ”
“Where would you get that information from?” I ask her. She lifts her right eyebrow.
“M, I hacked into Bosnia’s national database.” Very few people scare me, but my cousin can be terrifying when she’s in her element.
Family trait, I guess.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. Do you want me to set everything up in the dealerships?” Hana asks as she is packing up.
“You’ll go to our dealerships here, and I’ll dispatch Oliver to my branches in Asia and Josh to the States. I’ll also send a couple of other guys to our dealerships here in Europe so we can get this done quickly.” I lean back in my chair and look outside my window.
“We’ll catch this guy, M. I’ll make sure of it.” And with that, she is out the door.
There are so many things going around in my mind.
Lana.
My dealerships.
Marco.
Luckily, I’m a goal-oriented person, and I know where to start.
I stand up and go to my bedroom to grab my own laptop. I pull up the feed from Lana’s diner and check on my hummingbird.
She is such a hard worker, and I respect her for that. It’s not that easy to find a job in today’s market and to hustle for your money.
I know that I’m looking at this from a very privileged background. I have two careers, as a hired assassin and a businessman, and I have generational wealth, for crying out loud.
This train of thought is interrupted by Oliver's call.
“How can I be of service?”
“Funny, motherfucker,” Oliver says in a flat tone. “If you are still up for it for tonight, you are in luck. The pig is on his way to the diner.” Is it Christmas morning? Oliver’s message lights my whole face up.
“Definitely. I’ll go to the diner later on tonight. Thank you, Oliver.”
“Pleasure. Have fun.” I am imagining him giving me a playful wink, and only this once do I understand him.
Time to send a message.