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Well, that explained Logan’s demeanor. He was trying not to show his cards to the men around the table.
He knew this woman. Had probably loved her once.
“The other players are outlined in your dossiers,” Logan continued. “The most important of which is Viktor Baranov.” The screen at the front of the room filled with the picture of another man, this one older, his hair mostly gone, eyes sharp and focused. “Baranov is the current pakhan of the Chicago bratva. He only has one child, a daughter, which is relevant here only because it means the Baranov bratva is already on tenuous ground, with no obvious heir to leadership. Trials bring too much attention to the organization. They make the other men nervous, especially the newer, younger men still paying their dues and the older more ambitious men looking for an opening to launch themselves a few rungs up the ladder.”
Mauz looked at the man onscreen. Forget the younger, less experienced men on the ground: Baranov must be nervous as hell without an heir. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a woman to take over — there were a handful of criminal organizations around the world with female leadership — but it was a hard row to hoe.
Plus, Logan didn’t mention Baranov’s daughter as a possible successor, which made Mauz think she wasn’t interested.
Either that or Viktor wasn’t a feminist.
Logan continued. “Any threat from the bratva will have been ordered by Baranov in the interest of keeping the organization intact long enough to come up with a succession strategy that doesn’t involve twenty of Chicago’s brigadier’s killing their way into Viktor’s seat.”
“Seems like the more likely threat would come from the Two Spies,” Ford said.
“Maybe.” Hawk finally spoke from his end of the table. “But a power play from the Spies will be focused, disciplined. Our threat assessment says the bigger danger is from Vitsin himself, and from the guys around him looking to make a name for themselves by taking out the prosecutor assigned to try the case.”
“Who are the Two Spies?” Sawyer asked.
“Not who, what,” Jude Masters said from across the table. He’d been an analyst with the NSA before coming to Imperium and knew all kinds of shit, both helpful and useless. “They’re support organizations who keep guys like Vitsin in line so the boss doesn’t have to.”
“Do we have information on the Spies?” Ford asked. “Lots of moving parts in these organizations. Don’t want to take anything for granted.”
“It’s in the dossier,” Logan said. “We’ll obviously stay on our toes, watch for threats from every direction, including the Spies, but for now, our concern is Vitsin and his underlings. We’ll know more once I get to Chicago and dig in.”
The room seemed to freeze. Mauz caught the look of surprise on Sawyer’s face and hoped he’d done a better job of hiding it on his own. It was true that Logan hadn’t been in the field in at least two years — same with Hawk, before the Bancroft job that had been a personal favor — but that was nobody’s business.
If Bane wanted to hop the company plane to Chicago to protect Perez, it was his prerogative.
“I assume you’ll need some of my men,” Mauz said.
Logan nodded. “I’m not sure how many yet, but let’s assume it’ll be at least three. Put them on standby, the most experienced you have, body men with strong scores in tactical driving, just in case. I’ll get you the final numbers in the next forty-eight hours.”
“You got it,” Mauz said.
Logan looked at the rest of the men around the table. “That goes for the rest of you too. Read the dossier, get familiar with the players, and be ready to move on a dime.”
Mauz shuffled the idea cards in his head. Logan would need men from his team to accompany Perez and her son to work and school and men from Ford’s team to set up or augment the security system at the Perez house. He’d probably have back end work for Jude, their resident hacker and tech genius, who’d probably put together the dossier and might already be digging into the secondary players.
Blake Denman, the cyber security expert sitting to Jude’s left, would go over Perez’s social media accounts and email, check her computer for hidden viruses and anything else that might be tracking her movements or feeding data to the bratva.
Sawyer would put the pieces in place: arrange for the cars, make sure the team had weapons that met the laws in the state of Illinois, outfit them with appropriate tactical gear and comms equipment, among other things.
David Tanaka, Imperium’s records expert, was the only one at the table who might not be needed. Tanaka had come in handy in the past, navigating the circuitous red tape that made it next to impossible to find old building plans and just as impossible to secure confidential birth and death records, but Perez would probably have access to any of the records they needed.
Still, it was company policy for the management team to meet in its entirety on every big job. Pre-project threat assessment was limited by what they knew before a job started. Once it was underway, anything could — and often did — happen.
They were paid a fortune to be prepared, and Hawk and Logan made sure their clients never regretted a dime.
“That’s it,” Logan said.
“When do you leave?” Mauz asked.
“Now.” Logan grabbed his iPad and phone and headed for the door. “Ford, get some stuff together and meet me at the airport in an hour.”
Ford rose to his feet and followed Logan out of the room without a word. They were all used to being called onto jobs without warning, and Ford was usually the first one in.
Mauz watched them go. Whatever baggage the Perez job contained had been aired in private between Hawk and Logan. Given Logan’s grim expression, it must have been one hell of a suitcase.
