“Desmier,” Zakh suddenly says, rushing up to us. He holds out his phone to Xiou, showing him a picture of a woman holding two small children at her sides and a baby in her arms. “Maybe this will make him talk.”
Xiou’s eyes go wide. He looks terrified. A sudden change to what he was before, as if he’s just swapped personalities.
“No. Please.” His voice takes on a higher pitch.
“I told you I just needed time.” Zakh throws a punch in Xiou’s face and kicks his shin. “Maybe you’ll tell us what we need to know in return for the lives of your wife and children.”
I don’t know what the fuck Zakh did to find this information, but I thank Odin for it, because I was about to kill this guy just for being annoying.
“Talk. Now!” I shout. “Tell me what I need to know.”
“Please don’t harm my family. Please. They are not a part of this. Please.”
“If you want them to live, you need to talk right the fuck now.”
He nods quickly and off balance. “Uther Sidorov and I have been working together for over twenty years. I am his link to the Triad, but I don’t work for him.”
“Who are you working for then?”
“The Mark.”
“Who the fuck is that?” I’ve never even heard whispers of such a person or group, and I’m a man who makes it his duty to know his enemies. Those who are active, and those who could potentially become a threat.
“I’ve never seen their faces. All I do is take orders. I can find people no one else can. I track and kill if I need to.”
“Did you track my mother and me?” I need to get it off my chest.
“Yes.”
At his confirmation I want to kill him again, but I tamp down my rage. There’s something serious going on here, and I need the whole story.
“Tell me everything about the Mark.”
“They run a human and organ trafficking ring for which my people organize the sales. They sell everything from babies to young women, and when they can’t sell them, they harvest their organs. The business is a multi-million dollar one that has been running for decades.”
“Decades?”
“Yes, decades. At least twenty-five years.”
“Does my brother Viktor have any involvement in this?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him or taken orders from him.”
His answer seems to rule Viktor out. So does the timeframe and the presence of the pictures of my mother and the Butyrskayas. But I haven’t completely ruled him out yet. My gut tells me there’s some sort of link. I just have to find it.
“What about my father? Why was he poisoned?”
“Viktor promised Uther more money to pour into the oil business once he took over from your father. Since your father had no plan to retire, the poison was to make that happen quicker. Your arrival turned everything upside down.”
His eyes flit back to the phone in Zakh’s hand, then he looks back to me.
“Keep going. The pictures of the people you have all share something in common. What is it?”
“You are all threats to the Mark’s plans. Everything we do is based on securing the funds we need to carry out the business.”
“What sort of threat was my mother?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. At that time, I was new. I didn’t know much. I’m still not told the details of various plans, but I have ways of finding out.”