Chapter 33 The warehouse
Vincent
“We traced the command and control server to a local warehouse in Sicily. Palermo harbour, to be precise.” Kael said as he took out a tab from the bag he had with him. He handed it to me and I collected it, my eyes immediately assessing the image of the warehouse on it. Falcone industrial storage.
“Who owns it?”
“A company named Bellavista Holdings, though it got shut down two years ago.” I glanced up at him. “Shut down? Why?”
“It got raided by the police for suspicions of illegal activity but on deeper investigation, it was found out to be a shell company. The case got closed almost immediately after.”
“And how did they know to raid the place?”
“An anonymous tip.”
“Do we know who owned the shell company yet?”
“Not yet but Jules is working on it. We have a suspicion, though, that it might be the MK group. Their port is quite close to the warehouse and she was able to track suspicious activities around the area leading back to the group. She’s just trying to find a paper trail now.”
Hmm… Derek. I knew it.
“How are the supplies?”
“They arrived safely at the port early this morning. We’re working on rerouting its direction to the factory.”
“Okay.”
"Also, all the factory computers have been inspected and the infected ones thrown out. Thankfully, none of the research systems were infiltrated.”
Good. I let out a silent sigh of relief. That would have been a huge disaster, though it made me wonder what the perpetrator was really up to if they’d failed to take advantage of the shipping route information that they had. Were they planning something bigger?
I handed the tablet back to Kael and headed towards the room with the keypad. It served as both a study and a safe house for important plans and information. I typed in the code and signalled Kael to come in after me.
“Do you want me to call in Adrian, sir? He’s close to Sicily and could get there in two hours tops just in case we decide to retaliate.” I shook my head and sat behind the desk in the centre of the room. "Retaliating is not the best option right now, especially since they haven’t done anything lethal yet. If we're going to be starting a war, let them be the catalyst. For now, the reason we’re in this mess is because of an unfortunate fool. One of our own. We have to take care of that first.”
“What should I do, sir?”
I leaned back on the chair and went through my thoughts for a while. “Gather everyone in the factory warehouse by 1 am tonight. Let’s teach everyone a lesson.”
"Okay, sir.”
Factory,
Underground warehouse
1am,
The room was silent when I walked in. Pin-drop silent and tense. Everyone knew why we were here. The reason was right before their very eyes. Liam Turner, writhing and whining, naked on the makeshift podium Kael had thought to make for this special occasion. His arms were tied behind his back and his legs too in a way that kept him in a kneeling position. I stopped beside the bastard once I got onto the platform.
“Does anyone know exactly what Liam did to be in this position here today?” The room remained eerily silent until a man at the very front raised up his hand. I recognised him immediately. Leon Bauer, another assistant supervisor, his colleague, if you will. It made sense for him to have firsthand knowledge of the whole thing.
“Tell us, Bauer." He stepped forward slightly.
“He has been watching pornographic content on his work system, which exposed the organisation to attack by enemies.” I nodded my head in agreement. “And what is the number one rule of this organisation?"
“Never mix personal issues with your work here.”
I nodded again. “He did that, which is why he will be used as an example for all of you today.” I stretched out my hand towards Kael who placed a gun in my hand and turned to Liam, whose whining was somehow louder even though he had a gag in his mouth.
“You have something to say?” He nodded his head vigorously.
"Well, shall we hear him…” I nodded to Kael to remove the gag and almost immediately I was irritated.
“Please sir… I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I promise to— Arghhh!” His screams filled the room as my aim fired a shot directly into his left arm. “Fuck!” He tried to scoot back as I moved even closer to him.
“You're sorry?”
“S-sir…” I aimed another shot at his right arm. “Fuck!!!”
“Why exactly are you sorry? Tell me.” I shot another bullet into his left thigh before he could form a sentence. “Fuck!!” He collapsed to the floor with a loud groan and tried to scoot away once again to no avail.
I stepped back with a sigh and nodded at one of the burly men beside the platform who had a chainsaw in his hand. It was time for the main show.
“Oh my God. 'No'," Liam groaned as the man approached. "Please, no.” His pleas got drained out as he started the machine. “No!!!”
I managed to step back just in time before the chainsaw connected with the bastard's limp dick hanging between his legs on the floor and I watched the faces of everyone as the blood went flying everywhere.
Good. Fear. Even though it was just the slightest bit.
Once we were done dispensing jungle justice in front of everyone, Kael and I headed up to the ground-floor warehouse where some of our men stood guard at different corners of the space in the disguise of normal warehouse workers.
I nodded at one, Jones, who stood in front of the ‘manager's office’ where Jules sat carrying out her investigation. “Sir…” she stood with a slight bow when we walked in.
“Okay, I'm all ears. Kael said you found something.”
“Yes sir. The paper trail connecting the Mk group to the warehouse in Palermo.” She moved the laptop on the desk slightly to face me and pointed to a long list of money trails.
Hmm… I folded my arms.
“I also found a person.” She turned the laptop back to herself to tap away on some buttons and she turned it back to me to show me the camera footage that was now displaying on the screen.
“Who is this?”
“A member of the MK organisation. Rafael Malone.” She clicked a button that brought up his profile. “I found him while going through the camera footage around the area and noticed that he started coming to the warehouse about two months ago, right around the time when the newsletter was sent.”
I skimmed through his profile.
28\. Italian. Bachelor's degree in computer science from Università di San Pietro.
Hmmm… fascinating but not so surprising. It was quite obvious that he was a direct relative to Derek Malone.
"What should we do, sir?” Kael asked after a moment of silence and I pondered that question.
I guess I'll just have to take the risk. I took out my phone and dialled Alex’s number. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” I heard her voice purr across the line after just one ring.
“I have a job for you.”
“Oh. So soon.” I could practically hear the excitement in her voice.
“Yes. Meet me at my place.”
“Okay.”
I cut the call. “Have Adrian on standby too, just in case.” I directed at Kael.
"Okay, sir.”