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Adrik nodded his head. “I think we need to find out everything he knows after Sephie approves him.” He looked to Misha, who nodded his head in agreement.
Viktor looked to Mike; they quickly made a plan to bring Andy back from the safe house. This time, Ivan and Andrei were quite happy to stay behind. I thought back to that first week at the house, when I thought I was torturing the guys by forcing them to stay with me. Adrik was right. They preferred it.
Once they left for Operation Fetch Andy, Ivan quietly asked me in Russian, “Did you catch Mike’s look when you walked in with Andrei?”
I nodded my head. “I’m not entirely sure of what he thinks is happening, but it definitely makes me want to be even more affectionate with you guys just to see what kind of reaction I can get out of him. Maybe I was wrong about him,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
Ivan gave me a coy smile. “You were thinking what I was thinking.”
“To the white board, Super Squish!” I said, laughing.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Sephie
Adrik and Armando were still discussing business while we all waited for Andy to arrive. Ivan and Andrei took the opportunity to start to teach me the Russian alphabet, which was admittedly harder than I thought it was going to be. I was in between them on one of the couches, both of them leaned toward me so they could write different letters on the notepad in my lap, when the extraction team came back. We might have planned it that way, just to see Mike’s reaction. It did not disappoint. He was clearly shocked when he walked into the office and saw the three of us so close together on the couch, but he masked it quickly.
Ivan said quietly, in Russian, “He’s definitely going to need to be checked more forcefully next time.”
Andrei said, “I didn’t notice it before, but I noticed it then for sure.”
As Andy walked into the office, I handed the notepad to Ivan, winking at him. I stood up and followed Adrik as he walked toward Andy. “Andy, it’s good to see you again,” he said, offering him his hand to shake.
Andy grabbed his hand, saying, “It’s good to see you too, sir. Thank you for getting me out.” He was clearly relieved to be here.
I realized that I recognized Andy. “I remember you,” I said. “You used to come with Salvadori to all the meetings.”
He extended his hand to me, saying, “Hello, Sephie. It’s good to see you again too.” I shook his hand. He had a genuine look in his eye. I had a flood of memories of him at the meetings once I saw his face. Andy never once said a word at the restaurant, but his face spoke volumes. In the beginning, when I was still learning to understand Italian well, I would watch his reactions when I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Adrik noticed my silence. I felt his hand on my back as he said, “Please, Andy, sit. We have much to discuss.” Once Andy walked past us, Adrik looked down at me, a concerned look in his eye. I whispered, “I think it’s okay. I’ll let you know.” He nodded once, walking us toward his desk. I hopped up on the bookshelves behind his desk as he sat down in his chair. Partly because I wanted to be able to fully concentrate on Andy, partly because I wanted to confuse Mike. I glanced at him to see his reaction to me not sitting with Adrik. Mission accomplished.
Adrik started, “Tell me what you know about Sal’s plan.”
Andy sighed. “I don’t know everything. Sal has been suspecting me for months of working with you. Ever since that bracelet was a dud, he’s been accusing me of not being loyal. Well, he was right, but still. He would keep other guys with him more than me. I was rarely in the room when he would talk to Anthony or Lorenzo, but I still overheard parts of his heated conversations with them. Italians,” he said shrugging his shoulders. Adrik remained silent, allowing Andy to continue. “I happened upon the warehouse where they’re making the brawn somewhat by accident. One of the other guys was supposed to make a delivery there, but he got called to go with Sal somewhere else. They needed that delivery at the warehouse to continue production that day, so he found me and asked me to do it instead. Sal didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was delivering, but as soon as I walked into the warehouse, I knew what was going on. Sal was one of the biggest producers of brawn a few years ago when it first came out. It takes a very specific setup to make. I remembered the setup and recognized it immediately. They’ve greatly increased the scale this time, though.”
As Andy talked, I could see he was somewhat nervous, but it wasn’t directed at Adrik. He was at ease with Adrik. There was another reason for his nervousness that I couldn’t place yet.
“I knew a couple of the guys guarding the warehouse, so I asked them a few questions. Told them that Sal had brought me in to oversee things, but he got called away before he could properly brief me on the operation. Most of those guys were unaware that Sal had been distancing himself from me lately, so they were happy to fill me in.” He stopped to rub his face with his hands. He leaned forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees. “They’ve revamped it. Made it even more dangerous.”
“They wanted to increase the aggressiveness with this formula. That’s what the guys that attacked Misha and Sephie said,” Ivan said.
Andy nodded. “That’s right. They’ve been quietly working on it for more than a year, from what I could tell. A few test runs here and there. A few people died. Those guys that were sent on Misha and Sephie, we never heard from again, so we didn’t know how successful that test was.”
“Sephie broke one guy’s face. That’s what happened to them,” Misha said, winking at me. All the guys couldn’t help but smile, like proud older brothers. I glanced at Mike, who was visibly surprised.
Andy looked at me, a look of surprise on his face as well. “Really?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “The thing about this edition of brawn is that it initially makes you aggressive, but it’s so lethal that your body is fighting to stay alive after a short period and that’s all you can focus on. It’s really only effective for a very short window and then the person either dies or passes out because they’re trying not to die. That makes you slower and gives chances for the victim to get away. Or break your face. You know, whichever. The old edition was actually much more effective. While it kept the aggression to a lower level, it was a sustained aggression over a much longer period. More damage that way.”
Adrik turned his chair toward me and opened his arm for me. He was still looking at Andy. I got up and climbed into his lap, facing Andy so I could keep watching him. There was still something he hadn’t told us yet that I was trying to figure out. Adrik wrapped his arms around my waist as I leaned back against him.
Andy laughed, shaking his head. “That would’ve been valuable information to them. From what I can tell, their plan is to replace the supply of all the other drugs with this formulation of brawn. They used to make it in pill form, but now they’re packaging it in powder form too, to pass it off as other drugs.”
“What happens when you inject it?” I asked. My fingers were starting to fidget with Adrik’s as this conversation was bringing up all the things I didn’t want to talk about normally.
“I’ve never seen it, but apparently it makes the person highly aggressive for a longer period of time before their body shuts down. It’s a quicker reaction time. Zero to rage in a minute or two. When they take the pills, it takes about half an hour for it to kick in. Those guys that attacked you had taken the pills,” Andy said. He almost looked apologetic, like it was somehow his fault for the attack on me and Misha.
“What about the plan to put it in the water in Armando’s area? How is that going to work?” Ivan asked.
