Bloodbound: The Alliance
Chapter 33 - 37

Chapter 33: Chapter 37

Simon POV

"Sorry, couldn’t track it."

"But I gave you the routing numbers? There’s no way someone else one upped you?"

Dylan lets out an insulted huff. "Because no one didn’t. They converted it into untraceable cryptocurrency. I’m good, but I’m not a god. You are wasting your time. Criminal organizations have a dozen of me, a team of black hat hackers, to keep their business and clientele undetectable."

I nod. My eyes dart to the laptop, the interface popping up on the screen.

"Listen to me. You lost a lot, you paid the ultimate price going after Haru. And look at what it got you."

Grief wrenches at my heart. "It’s because of her that I have to do this."

Voices trickle through. I grab the headset off the passenger seat.

"I have to call you back."

An ongoing call between Haru’s midlevel goons. I have a wiretap on their phones thanks to my counter surveillance during hours of reconnaissance and stakeouts. As well as Dylan’s illegal cyber intrusions on their network. Each outgoing call is processed through translation software, resulting in the real-time generation of subtitles that display the original spoken words alongside their English translation.

彼らは会うことに同意した

They have agreed to meet.

今夜,ゼニス工業子会社支店にて/

At the Zenith industrial subsidiary branch tonight.

I remove the headset, quickly looking up the location. I already recognise the name of the multi-billion corporation owned by Orian Moon. The location that was mentioned is currently under reconstruction, isolated, ginormous and the perfect place to make a dead drop, but I can’t cover that space alone. Not to mention every square inch of that place is going to be crawling with armed thugs. I’m going to need backup, but I got none. I can’t go to anyone until I have something concrete. The department won’t take my calls, so when I walk back to those offices, I have to make an entrance.

***

I sit perched on my haunches high up on a metal beam of a skyscraper on the tenth floor.

I have been waiting for hours in the ceiling for either party to show. And finally, it begins. The elevator dings open and a squad of Japanese men in crisp suits strut out, the ones on the outer edges carrying fully automatic weapons. They come into the unfurnished room, white with plastic everywhere and I have a bird’s eye view of everything below.

Half an hour later, Latinos arrive, all of them wearing the same menacing tattoo of a snake wrapped around a skull. Sangre y hueso. The Blood and Bone cartel, not one of but the most fearsome and powerful cartel on the planet. Wholly untouchable. I slither out my phone, recording the transaction as two of the cartel thugs drop a huge duffel bag at the Yakuza’s feet.

"Solo hacemos negocios con el jefe." We only do business with the boss. "Where is Haru? Or his second-in-command, the one they call the Wolf?"

One of the suited men steps forward, straightening out his jacket pompously. "Botan couldn’t make it. But he sent me in his place to make sure the product is as good as your organization claims."

The heavily tattooed Latino belches out a guffaw from his belly. "We don’t need your approval."

"You do if you want access to our trade routes. The Yakuza control shipping terminals on three continents from the Balkan route to Pacific Asia. Independently, each of us doesn’t need the other, but imagine what we could accomplish with combined forces? It would render the world’s superpowers, like America and Russia, powerless."

A sudden creak alerts me—someone on the catwalk behind me.

My hand flies to my holstered gun.

"Ah-ah," he chides condescendingly. "Hands."

My hand stills on my weapon before I slowly raise both of them to my shoulders. The barrel taps the back of my head threateningly.

"Stand up."

I rise carefully with my hands still elevated, maintaining my balance as I swivel around on the beam. I don’t know his full name, only his name; Akio. Snow-white hair slicked back, plastered to his head with stark black brows and light gray eyes. He has his gun trained on me with a sadistic smile spreading on his face.

"You’re slipping, Mansfield." He cocks the barrel to the side, his head slanting with it curiously. "The detective I knew would’ve smelt the trap a mile away."

My eyes glance at the ongoing meeting below us. Old pieces start fitting, creating a new image. I was set up. The meeting is real, but what difference does it make? I’m a dead man breathing.

"You really think we don’t monitor our lines? We detected the malware minutes after it was installed." He chuckles, a vile and patronizing deed. "We organized this meet to lure out the rat. And there you are."

"Came to gloat?"

He gives me a crooked grin. "It’s just sad that Elizabeth’s death was in vain."

Rage floods my veins. "Keep her name out of your filthy mouth."

"Oh, don’t worry. You’ll be reunited soon enough. My gift to you, but first, the boss wants to see you."

***

Avara POV

We’ve been on the road for hours with minimal recess.

The signal out here is disrespectfully bad, but the beauty out here makes up for it. The convoy winds through a valley of mountains. A pageant of smells float in the air and a horde of dandelions litter the meadow. Staffs of slim light spill from the sky. The scene is spirit-refreshing and pastoral, like a landscape painting brought to life.

In due course, we travel up a private road, a steep incline curtained by vegetation.

The gravel road solidifies again, pulling up to a double story lake house with joint chalets, which I’m guessing the security detail will be occupying. We all pour out of the cars, my legs like molasses as I round the BMW. The guards band together to haul out our luggage. Vance walks over to the front door with a natural stone-cladding façade. He kicks aside the ’welcome’ mat, picks up a set of keys and unlocks the front door. I move aside as they start transferring our belongings from the trunks to the inside of the double story lodge.

"Let me get this straight." Kelsey turns to glance at the cars, then looks back at the lake house. "You left the keys to this—worth at least seven figures, piece of real-estate, under a mat?"

Vance shrugs. "It’s a very safe town. Welcome to Lakeshore."