Chapter Ten
A week had gone by, and Anastasia hadn’t been able to locate Gnesin anywhere.
The work was always the same: she would arrive, the guards would pat her down, check her bags, and so far, no identity checks.
He had been able to get his hands on a fake passport, but anyone who looked closely enough would see it was fake.
So far, they had gotten lucky. In Dmitriy’s experience, there was only so much luck they could have.
Whenever he dropped her off, he couldn’t get too close.
Gnesin’s property had a great deal of security around it.
If he got too close, the cameras would pick him up, and if they attempted to identify him, Anastasia would be screwed.
So, he would park far enough away that he knew no camera would detect him.
Checking the property would be difficult.
He needed to find someone who had the ability to hack from the outside, undetected.
After dropping her off on that final day, Saturday, he had an idea, a very rough idea. He left where he usually stayed, and took a brief drive one hour away. He didn’t like leaving her, it was the last thing he wanted to do, but time was of the essence. They were shooting in the dark.
There was a guy, known only as Hacker, and he tended to use him when he needed to get delicate information.
The only problem was, he was ... temperamental, and tended to be difficult to see in person.
Hacker’s real name was Jack Reilly. He was an eccentric who believed everyone was after him.
Part of that was probably true. He figured the government or some kind of law enforcement would be looking for Jack, which was why he lived in an abandoned warehouse that also seemed to be heavily guarded.
No one could get in or close without Jack knowing.
The other problem was, once you were in, you were only getting out with Jack knowing.
He didn’t know if anyone had property control over Jack.
They had met a few years ago. Jack had wanted some kind of rare diamond, something he actually possessed, and Dmitriy wanted information.
It was an easy trade of information. He didn’t know what Jack wanted with the diamond.
Arriving at Jack’s gate, he rolled down his window and waited.
“Holy shit, is that you, Dmitriy?” Jack asked over the radio.
“The one and only, and we need to talk.”
A buzzer sounded, and the gate opened. He had no choice but to drive his car through.
The moment the gate was open enough for him to do so, it wouldn’t go up anymore.
Again, it was all connected by Jack. Driving through, he put the car into “park,” as the gate closed behind him, and then Jack opened the door.
The man was dressed in a pair of dungarees, and his hair was long, falling around his waist, but he had a smile on his face.
“It has been a lifetime,” Jack said.
Dmitriy wouldn’t have even considered them friends, but the way Jack pulled him in for a hug, he guessed they were as close as friends were going to be.
“What brings you to my palace?” Jack asked.
“I need help.”
“You, the ghost devil, need my help?” Jack burst out laughing. “How are you feeling about a logo? Perhaps a leather jacket so you can announce your arrival and that anyone who sees you is going to be, well, you know, dead.”
“No logo. Look, I need to know if you do any work with the Gambinos.”
“And if I do?”
“Then, for the sake of our friendship, I go,” Dmitriy said.
“The Gambinos have reached out to me, but seeing as I’m good friends with Dmitriy Fedulov, I see that as a breach of loyalty. The Gambino and Gnesin Bratva are not exactly on speaking terms, are they?”
Dmitriy looked at him. “Not that I’m aware of, but I am going to need your help.”
“This sounds like some serious spy shit. Come on, we got to get inside. We never know who is listening, and trust me, they are all listening, and perhaps even some fucking aliens are listening. Someone is always listening. It’s why they want you to be trapped on those fucking devices all the time.
Just like my momma always said, the country wants us to be dumb. ”
Dmitriy was used to his rambling.
They entered the main building, and as in true Jack style, everything had a code. He was very much a master of the very devices Jack and his parents always complained about. Jack’s place was clean.
Dmitriy had only been here once before, and sometimes, with how dirty Jack looked, it was always a shock to see how clean his place was.
That was because Jack spent a great deal of his time cleaning.
They passed a table that had multiple cloths on it, as well as some polish, and there was even a vacuum cleaner.
They went straight to the computers, which was in a separate room, and there had to be over a dozen of them.
All showing a different camera angle, and none of them were around his home.
“I like to keep an eye on everyone and everything,” Jack said. “So, tell me where you need me to hack?”
“I need you to hack the security footage inside Nikolai Gnesin’s home,” Dmitriy said.
Jack was in the process of locking his fingers together and pressing them forward as if to stretch them out and get ready for a workout. The moment he did that, Dimitriy stopped and turned to look at him.
“Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
“There is no way I could do that. The whole Gnesin Bratva will be on my ass, and I know there is some kind of hit out on you, but that is Gambino shit.”
Dmitriy cut him off, gave him the rundown of everything that had happened, and what was currently in motion. Throughout it all, Jack’s face turned from skeptical to somewhat amazed.
“Holy shit,” he said.
“Yeah, this attack was done quietly. All of Nikolai’s soldiers are gone, or one of them turned traitor.”
“And you want me to access his security to find what?”
“To find him,” Dmitriy said. “I’ve got a girl working on the inside, but I need to know if I am putting her life at risk.”
Jack sighed. “Wow, okay, this is some serious shit, but we can handle this. Don’t you worry, we can handle all of this.” Jack turned to the computer and started to click at the keyboard.
His fingers danced across the keys, and Dmitriy didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. The screens went blank, and for the next hour, that was how they stayed, until finally the screens showed the inside workings of Gnesin’s home.
“I’m in,” Jack said.
“Why did it take so long?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, but to make sure no one knows you’re there, think of it like a mask, you have to make sure no one finds you.” Jack shook his head. “Why don’t you just let me do my thing and I’ll let you do yours.”
With that, he got to clicking away.
“What exactly are we looking at right now?”
Dmitriy moved closer to the screens. He spotted Anastasia but didn’t give any sign that he recognized her.
“Is there any way you could access the security footage from six months ago?”
“Not from here. That shit would be in storage, especially if they handle it on tapes, or it gets wiped over.”
Dmitriy looked at all the cameras and there were a lot. More than he recalled Gnesin ever having. He came to the bottom corner, and it wasn’t quite clear.
“This one, can you make this bigger?”
That main camera came to life on all the screens, and Dmitriy stared into the cage of Nikolai Gnesin. The head of the Gnesin Bratva was in a cage, with no way to escape.
“Fuck!”
He wanted to be wrong.
He wanted Gnesin to some way be in cahoots with the Gambinos.
“Well, shit,” Jack said.
Dmitriy looked at the image. Anastasia was going to have trouble locating him.
“What do you want me to do?” Jack asked.
He stared at the image.
“I need to figure out a way inside.”
****
Anastasia stared at the computer screen and she saw Gnesin locked up. Dmitriy had already made the introductions, and Jack was sitting behind his computer desk as Dmitriy paced.
“Is there anyone we could call?” Anastasia asked.
“There’s no one, not unless we put Gnesin at risk.”
“You think the Gambinos are listening in?” Jack asked.
“They were able to infiltrate his home, and I think at this point, we’ve got no choice but to assume the worst.”
She looked at the surrounding cage. “That has to be the basement, right?”
“With one access,” Dmitriy said. “So don’t even for a second attempt to think what I know you’re thinking.”
“You can read minds now?” Jack asked.
“She wants to get to the basement.”
She rolled her eyes and looked toward Jack, then to Dmitriy. “Someone needs to get to him to let him know we’re trying to figure this out. He might have someone we can call.”
“It’s too risky.”
“At lunch, I believe that is when the guards leave their stations,” Anastasia said.
She watched as he ran fingers through his hair.
“No.”
“Damn it, Dmitriy, you have got to give me a chance here.”
“If the Gambinos find you, they will kill you. This is too much risk and I am not going to allow you to do that.”
“She has a point,” Jack said, who visibly flinched when Dmitriy looked his way.
“You don’t get to glare at him,” she said, putting a hand on Dmitriy’s arm.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Right now, it’s all we’ve got. Otherwise, we’re in the dark,” Jack said. “We need to know if Gnesin had any kind of contact with someone who might be able to help us, because right now, all that will happen is you’ll be infiltrating a heavily guarded prison.”
Dmitriy shook his head.
“Look, I can do this,” Anastasia said. “All I have to do is stay behind, and the moment the coast is clear, I go looking for Nikolai. It’s easy.”
She tried not to wince at her own words, because the truth was, there was absolutely nothing easy about what she was going to attempt to do.
“This is our only shot.”
“And if that doesn’t work, you can go in all guns blazing, and I can direct you from here,” Jack said.
It looked good on paper.
“I need to think.”
Dmitriy didn’t say anything else as he turned on his heel and walked away.
She watched him leave, and sighed. “I’m sorry about this.”
“Nah, it’s all good. It’s nice to see Dmitriy has found someone he cares about.”
She turned to look at Jack.
Jack smiled. “You think I’m kidding?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Our ghost devil is not a guy known for feelings, and he certainly is not the kind of guy to allow anyone to live when an order is given. I mean, assuming that order is ... well, you know, the right one.”
She breathed out. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that, and I can’t help but wonder if my parents ... helped.”
Spending the last few days in Gnesin’s home, with all the guards breathing down her neck, it had made her wonder how they were able to get to Gnesin.
“What do you mean?”
“Gnesin is known for loyal followers, and they didn’t destroy my parents’ home. They made it like another port, or something. A hub?” She frowned. “What if my parents did this?”
Jack blew out a breath. “And you think they got killed because of it?”
“I don’t know, but it does mean that if we save Nikolai, he may demand that Dmitriy kill me. It seems only fair. My family nearly destroyed the Bratva.”
“That is assuming you’re correct,” he said.
She shrugged. “I don’t have any other explanation.” She ran fingers through her hair.
“Dmitriy won’t kill you,” Jack said.
“You don’t know that.”
Jack laughed. “You know, he could have already killed you. It was an order that, at the time, he assumed came from Nikolai, and he didn’t do it. You need to start figuring out why.”
She didn’t get a chance to ask him what he was talking about as Dmitriy walked back into the building.
“Fine, we will do this, but we’re also going to do this my way. There is no room for error on this. You go in, and I follow soon after. Jack watches everything, and we hope we make it out alive,” Dmitriy said.
“Great, so does that mean you two are staying the night?” Jack asked. “I’m making tacos.”
For the rest of the night, Dmitriy was silent, and Jack filled the silence with his love of favorite television shows. Most of them Anastasia hadn’t heard of, because she didn’t watch a lot of television. Watching movies and make-believe was what had gotten her in this position in the first place.
Dmitriy also didn’t go to bed with her. He stayed up, watching the Gnesin house, and Anastasia took a shower alone, and she felt so lost. She wanted Dmitriy’s arms wrapped around her.
If what Jack said was true, then that might mean he actually had feelings for her, and she wanted him to have those kinds of feelings for her.
She tried to get some sleep, but it wasn’t happening.
She didn’t know if it was because she was in a strange house, or just everything that was going on.
Either way, sleep wasn’t coming, so she got to her feet and made her way toward Jack, who was playing a constant live feed of Gnesin in his cage.
Dmitriy was there, watching. It looked like Gnesin was asleep.
“Are you not coming to bed?” she asked.
“They only feed him a little food. Enough to not kill him, but not enough to make him strong,” Dmitriy said. “Bastards.”
“We’re going to figure this out,” Anastasia said.
“Jack told me what you said, your worries about your family.”
She shrugged. “Don’t you think there is a chance that could be the case?”
“I suppose anything is possible. They help Gambino take Gnesin out, and that gives them the perfect reason to take out the Babkins. They’re trying to cover their tracks.”
“It’s scary to think that is what my parents did,” she said.
“Then be happy in knowing it might not be true,” he said with a shrug.
“It’s still not good.”
“Nothing about this is good. We won’t know the truth until we get to Gnesin.”
“He may want me dead,” she said.
“Let’s see.” He pulled her onto his lap. “Because I am not going to let anything happen to you, do you understand? Nothing.”
And he kissed her.
She wanted to believe him, but if Gnesin gave the order, he was going to have to follow it through.