“Dominic, how do you know these guys are the ones we’re after?” Tristan asks.“How did you find any of this?”
I draw in a breath. “I found a secret file on Alfonse’s computer.”
Alfonse was my father’s trusted advisor.It was revealed before I left that he was a spy working with Mortimer Viggo.He fed our enemies all the information they wanted.There were events that happened in the past that didn’t make sense to me until we found out he was the guy who was playing sides and getting shit done in the background.Saying his name is enough of an answer to Tristan’s questions.
“Before I left, I downloaded his files,” I add.“I figured there had to be more to him when we found out he was a spy.Like he might have more answers to what was going on.It turned out he did, but I had to dig deep.The file I found was encrypted with some wacked up code with serious firewalls.” Put something like that in front of a guy like me and I’m as comfortable as reading a second native language.
“God, that fucker…” Tristan sighs and runs a hand over his beard.“I can’t believe that man screwed with us the way he did.”
“I know.” Learning he was a traitor was another hit because he was like a second father to us.“Anyway, the file was fucking huge with all manners of documents going back decades that had been scanned on to the system.It was in that file I found the contract.Then I started poking around for names.That’s when I found Karl and Bradford.It seems Alfonse had more direct dealings with them and he worked for a lot of other people.It threw me for a loop though when I found them listed as dead.To cover all bases, I had alerts set to notify me if anything else came up.It was my facial recognition bots that picked them up.”
“Jesus Dom, what the fuck?” Massimo winces.
“Yeah. And… there’s more.”
“More?” He grits his teeth, and his eyes darken with rage.
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
I click on the file with the image that sent me flying back to L.A. and both my brothers straighten to attention when the image spreads across the widescreen showing Karl and Bradford in the samealleyway talking to a man Massimo and Tristan will both recognize from the past.It’s been a while, but they know his face.
“Jesus Christ,” Massimo rasps.
Tristan bites the inside of his lip and glances from me to the man on the screen.
We only know him as Kazimir. No surname.He’s a senior member of the Circle of Shadows.We ran into him after Alyssa, Tristan’s first wife, was murdered.Like vermin, these people keep resurfacing from the shadows of hell.Like vermin when you see one, one as powerful as Kazimir, you know there’s more.
Two years ago, when Tristan took down Mortimer and several high-level members of the Circle of Shadows, we weakened the unit, but it went without saying that those left behind would reform.The Circle of Shadows was worldwide, and I never made the mistake of thinking Mortimer kept his best men in one place.
“Fucking Kazimir,” Tristan breathes, riveting his gaze to the image.
“That was two days ago. Word on the underground has it that Kazimir is the new leader of the Circle of Shadows.I flew home straight away when I heard that.”
Massimo returns his gaze to me.“They’ve reformed.”
“And it looks like the plan is back in motion,” Tristan adds.
“Yes, which means eliminating the Syndicate.A.k.a us,” I fill in.
“Fuck,” Massimo hisses and rises to his feet.He walks over to the computer screen and glares at the image of the three men.“Things have been quiet for two years.Why now?”
“That was my next question,” Tristan says.“Why the hell now? Why did they wait for so long?Why didn’t they strike before?Mortimer told me the bigger pieces on the chessboard hadn’t started playing yet.We know Kazimir and he is anything but ordinary.And these other guys are a whole other species of criminal we haven’t dealt with before.”
“And those guys don’t just work for the run of the mill,” I point out.“It begs the question of who the king really is, and the other guys I haven’t been able to find.T.N and F.S.” I bite the inside of my lip and think about it.“Something’s changed somewhere along the line.”
I hate vague. It’s like being spoon-fed.Or in our case being tortured slowly, receiving drips and drabs of information on how we might die.
Massimo turns back to me. “Nothing much has changed here.”
“Is the Syndicate still the same?” I ask.
“Yes.”
Before I left the newly formed Syndicate consisted of the three of us, Aiden Romanov who like us was a descendent of the old syndicate, Claudius Morientz, and Vincent Giordano from Chicago.Apart from us, the others had a counterpart like the old setup.
“Many have approached me, and I’ve put them on the back burner or turned them away.The only person I would have taken on straight-up was Alejandro Ramirez, but he’s in two minds about joining.I’ve been focusing on establishing what we already have.Now that’s settled, I have plans for expansion.”