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“Mother called us a few weeks ago,” Pyotr explains calmly. He is by far the most level-headed of the group. “We were worried about you from day one. We weren’t going to let you go up against him alone.”
“I was handling it.”
“Yeah,” Luka snorts as he hooks up the computer monitor via HDMI. “Because everything’s goingsowell.”
“They were free and clear,” Mikhail argues on, looking pointedly at his mother. “This was my problem to deal with.Myfamily to protect.”
“Save your lecturing,” Catherina snaps. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Dimitri crosses one leg over the other, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling. “How about we save the in-fighting for later, hm? We’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”
“Done!” Luka proudly announces to the rest of the room as he boots up the computer. I get up from my spot on the couch and hurry over, excited to get to work.
“How’s the internet connection?” I ask.
“Absolute shit,” he grumbles, “but I think we’ll be able to get our work done if everyone else here stays off the Wi-Fi and we close out all background applications to keep the CPU from overworking. How much time do you think you’ll need?”
I take a seat in the small chair he provides me, already navigating the screen to start writing my keylogger program. All my notes were left behind at Konstantin’s mansion, but I’ve got the major components figured out in my head. “Definitely before dinnertime. As long as those names are legit.”
Catherina huffs. “Of course they’re legit. I got them from Konstantin’s little black book myself.”
“Howexactly?” Dimitri asks with an arched brow. “Oh, ew. Please don’t say you seduced him or something.” He makes a show of shuddering in disgust.
“I may have wined and dined him,” Catherina says without shame. “I’ve spent weeks working him up to feeling comfortable about drinking around me. And then, one night, I had him spilling all his secrets. Every single one of his accountants, arms and drug suppliers…Everything.”
“Then we’ll need to act quickly,” Pyotr says. “He’ll likely be accessing those bank accounts soon. It takes a lot to fund a private army.”
“I’ll have them seized within a couple of hours,” I assure. “All I need is access to one. It’s very likely he moves his money around between accounts, so I’ll be able to track and access them by following his paper trail.”
“I’ll help get the mass emails ready,” Luka says. “If we bombard them with enough ghost accounts, I’m sure one of those idiots is bound to click on a link they’re not supposed to. I just have to make sure the bot makes the generated emails look convincing enough.”
“Nerds,” Dimitri jests under his breath. “What arewesupposed to do in the meantime?”
Mikhail grabs his coat and pulls it on. “Pyotr and I are going to meet with Nicolai to prepare his men. You and Mother are going to prepare hers.”
“I can’t believe there are people still loyal to our side of the family,” Dimitri marvels. “Even after all this time.”
“We were royalty once,” Catherina says indignantly, already heading toward the door. “Even in exile, that will never change.”
“Are you good here?” Mikhail asks me, speaking in a far gentler tone than with the rest of his family.
I nod. “Yeah, I should be good. I’ll get this up and running and then Konstantin will be dead in the water.”
He grins and moves in to kiss me on the lips. “Good girl,” he rumbles.
“You be careful out there.”
“Don’t worry,moya lyubov. I will.”
“Ugh,” Luka groans beside me. His grimace is pronounced. “You two are so cute it’s disgusting.”
Mikhail ruffles his youngest brother’s hair before leaving. “Shut up, asshole.”
The moment he’s gone, Luka and I get to work. We operate in relative silence. Luka may be a grump, but he’s not mean. In my short time working as his intern, I’ve come to respect him as a brilliant fellow programmer. He works with amazing diligence, his work environment always distraction free. It blows my mind how he’s able to code without any background nose, just the sound of his keyboard clicking.
Even on my best days, I usually like to listen to music or have an old TV sitcom playing so my ears have something to do. Maybe that’s why Luka’s the head of the programming department at CyberFort. He knows his shit, and he’s so meticulous the company’s competitors can’t even hope to keep up. I decide to take a page out of his book and focus, determination practically spilling out of me as I write down line after line.
This has to go perfectly. All we need isoneof Konstantin’s accounts to make a mistake. If we can paralyze his accounts and cut him off from his money, things are bound to spiral out of control from there. He can amass as big an army of Bratva as he likes, can reach out to all his different contacts within the government, and make alliances with other Bratva families… But at the end of the day,someoneneeds to foot the bill. I suspect that none of these people are going to lay down their lives for free. And if Konstantin can’t pay them, that’s one less thing to worry about.
