CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Saturday, September 23RD
Sitting across from Sam on the terrace of the hotel, Lucky studied the garden with more concentration than the wild area required. She was feeling raw and vulnerable after the night of intimacy they had shared, and without a scrap of defense in place, she felt terribly uncomfortable.
When the waiter came by to refill their coffee cups, she turned her attention back to Sam and saw his satisfied, knowing grin. “Quit gloating.” His smile grew larger and she shook her head.
“I’m not gloating, in fact, I’m doing nothing more than basking in your beauty and counting my blessings. Despite the frown on your face, I know you’re happy and simply fighting it because it makes you feel exposed and weak.”
“The least you could do is not act so happy about it.”
He leaned forward and took her hand. “The sooner we deal with it, the sooner you accept what’s happening.” Locking eyes, he lifted an eyebrow. “For the first time since the building exploded, I’m living and not just surviving. It’s taken me a long time to accept the fact that I’m never going back to Delta or HRT and having you in my life has made that possible. The future we have in front of us is worth fighting for and if I have to do it for both of us, then I will.”
A tear slipped down her face and she looked back to the garden. Knowing he was in this thing one hundred and fifty percent made her both incredibly happy and nervous. He wasn’t a man who was going to accept anything less than all of her and she had no idea if she was capable. “Sammy…”
“Lucky, one life is all we get, and if it’s going to be enough then it would seem we shouldn’t be fools and live it as fully, bravely, and beautifully as we can.”
Turning back to him, she looked into his hopelessly beautiful green eyes and nodded. “I’ll try my very best, but I’m not sure how well I’ll do.”
“Just try, Lucky, and I’ll do the same.”
Before she could say anything else, the waiter approached with their breakfast. Sam Sat back and she did the same. They had both ordered waffles since, after all, they were in Belgium. Looking down at the beautiful plate, she felt her stomach growl and heard Sam speak to the waiter in French.
After he left, she asked, “What were you two talking about?”
“I asked for an order of scrambled eggs and sausages because this isn’t going to be enough.” He looked around and then bent his head forward. “I have this hot girlfriend who I have to keep satisfied and I need my fuel.”
“I hope you ordered enough for me as well because I have a naughty boyfriend who likes to do the dirtiest things to me and I can’t seem to refuse him, so I have to make sure to have enough energy too.”
“Lucky bastard,” he said as he sat up.
She watched him lift his glass of juice and drain it and she did the same. “What are you doing today?”
“Owen and I are meeting at the embassy in a couple of hours and we’re going to continue to review the files the agents have put together.”
She cut into her waffles and then took a bite and moaned. The crispy exterior hid a soft sweet dough that melted the moment it hit her tongue and, as she looked up, she saw Sam's eyes darken. Pointing her fork at his plate, she said, “Eat up because you don’t want to disappoint that girlfriend of yours.”
He let out a loud laugh and dug into his meal and she did the same. The sun warmed her shoulders and made the cool fall temperature a perfect counterpoint. Thinking about her day, she hoped she would have a chance to dig into the accounts that Grif had discovered belonged to Vazov.
After they were done eating, Sam moved over and sat next to her and they held hands as they drank their coffee. “Do you think Judit thinks we’ve abandoned her?”
“No, her tail was wagging when I left and I’m guessing your parents are giving her all kinds of attention.”
“You’re right, she hasn’t been with us long enough to know the difference.”
“I had a nice visit with your mom while she made me lunch and she told me a little about Shayla.”
A familiar stab of pain sunk into her heart at the mention of her college friend and she wished that Sam had not brought it up in this beautiful setting. “And how did she come up in conversation?”
Moving closer, he kissed her head. “I wanted to understand your why and, since you’re not all that forthcoming, I decided to see if your mom could help me out. I know this thing you have for taking Vazov down is rooted in more than just wanting to see a Russian mobster find his penance.”
“And what did my mother tell you?”
“She told me you lost a close friend in college who had gotten hooked on drugs and then fell into prostitution. I’m connecting the dots and think that’s why you can’t ignore what you know about Vazov’s operation.”
“You would be correct,” she replied quietly. “Shayla and I were roommates freshman year at Carnegie Mellon and she was as different from me as could be. She had dark red hair and reminded me of a fairy. She was fun and vibrant and flitted from one interest to another. Unfortunately, the one that caught her attention was a boy with a deadly habit. By the end of freshman year, she was partying more than she was attending class and had been put on academic probation. I, along with several other friends, implored her to drop the guy who was leading her deeper and deeper into addiction, and nothing got through.”
“What happened?”
“Shayla went home for the summer and her parents put her in rehab and she got cleaned up and came back to school for sophomore year. She was different, though, wary, darker, and depressed like a cloud was hanging overhead. As much as I hated seeing her that way, I thought it was better than her partying and ending up dead. Unfortunately, the boy who’d she fallen for reappeared and she couldn’t resist. It didn’t take long for her to take up her old habits and, regrettably, she added a new one, and that was heroin.”
“I know this has a tragic ending.”
“The very worst kind. Shayla dropped out of school, her parents cut her off, and she took to prostitution to support her habit. I tried to intervene and get her into rehab, but the man who was pimping her threatened to kill her if I didn’t stay away. Not knowing what to do, I made one last desperate call to her parents and, by the time they got to her, she was dead from an overdose.”
“What happened to the boy who led her down the path?”
“I’m not sure; he could be dead for all I know. He left school about the same time Shayla dropped out.” Lifting her glass of water, she drank down half of it and then stared at the bees buzzing next to the flowers. “When I was digging up all that intel last spring, I came across a bunch of pictures of women who were being trafficked and sold and the look in their eyes reminded me so much of Shayla. Except they didn’t go down the path willingly; they’d been promised a new life and, instead, were shot full of drugs until they were hooked and then sold into prostitution. I can’t pretend like I don’t know what’s happening and not try to do something about it.”
“I know, Lucky, and I admire the hell out you for not giving up. It makes me uncomfortable as shit to have you anywhere near these monsters, but I know telling you to stop isn’t going to work.”
“I can’t let go until I know I’ve done everything I can and, believe me, I know that taking down one man may not make much of a difference.”
“If I thought that, then I’d never go to work. My career is defined by taking one person down after another, and if I didn’t think it made a difference, then I wouldn’t be able to get up every day and try again.”
“So, you don’t think I’m some Don Quixote waving at windmills?”
“Oh, you’re waving at windmills, but fortunately, you have enough backup to make sure you hit a few.”
“Speaking of backup, I wonder why Grif hasn’t texted me yet this morning.”
“Did he go out last night after work?”
“Yes, he knows a bunch of people and they invited him out for dinner and drinks.” As she pulled her phone out of her purse, it vibrated, and she saw a text. “He’s coming down in thirty minutes.”
“Must’ve had a good time.”
“He usually does,” she replied.
“We didn’t talk about the progress that either of us had made, so we should do that before we part ways for the day.”
“Let’s go into the drawing room, and I’ll fill you in.”
“Lead the way, my love.”
She watched him stand and when she put her hand in his, a smug smile filled with satisfaction crossed his mouth. Deciding not to call him on it, she grabbed her bag and walked into the hotel, all the while thinking of his flippant use of the word love.
They were settled into one of the cozy couches in the drawing room and Lucky was fascinated with all the frames filled with butterflies because they were both beautiful and creepy. Pulling her tablet out of her bag, she turned it on and brought up the folders that Grif had sent her. “Vazov is a customer of the bank and Grif recognized him when he came in for a meeting with the owner.”
“And did Grif see his image from the dossier that you’ve compiled?”
“Yes, he’s known about my little obsession from the beginning, so when he heard an argument between Mr. Wouter and Vazov, he took note and sent me the text. It turns out the banker might not know what he got himself into because he asked Grif to flag all the transactions that flow through the accounts the shell companies have.”
“Holy shit, Lucky.”
“I know, the serendipitous nature of the discovery makes me believe that God is working in favor of good.”
“This kind of break could very well be the linchpin to the whole case.”
Sitting back, she lifted a strand of hair and started twisting it. “Don’t get too excited yet because I haven’t had a chance to do anything with the information. As far as Wouter is concerned, I’m there to expedite the completion of securing the network. Neither of us knows if he’s complicit, so we don’t want to do anything that will make him suspicious.”
“I want you to be extremely cautious and if you pick up a whiff of danger, you exfill immediately. I want this as badly as anyone, but I will not have you in danger.”
“I know, Sammy. Don’t you worry.”
“That’s impossible.”
“When I do have my chance, I’ll mimic what was done to my client. I’ll drop in a Trojan horse which is essentially malware with a payload. What that will allow me to access is anything from personal information like passwords, account information, or the IP address of any computer that accesses the account. I’m essentially opening a backdoor that will permit me to contact the controller and take over. Once I’m in, I can connect to any other devices that use the same network and roam around until I find what I want.”
“And where did the term Trojan horse come from?”
“It was derived from the Ancient Greek story of the deceptive wooden horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy. What I’m sending through the system will not be perceived as a threat, so no matter what kind of security they have installed, it won’t be detected.”
“Is that true of all Trojan code?”
“Not sure, but if Grif or I are writing the code, then it’s not.”
“I’m assuming that once you’ve deployed your horse, you can be anywhere in the world and access what you need.”
“Yes. The reason I came to Brussels is that Grif had already begun installing the security measures that we’re known for. For him to uninstall them and leave the network open would pose too great a risk for the bank. But sitting next to him and working on updates allows me to circumvent the measures put in place without disturbing anything.”
“You’re basically hacking yourself and then covering your tracks.”
Giving him a big smile, she nodded. “Exactly.”
Sam sat back and smoothed out his pants and then hooked his hands behind his head. “If this works, it will be fucking amazing.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Lucky. But I don’t want you to do anything once you send the Trojan horse. Let me get together with my counterparts at the legat and see what the best way is to approach this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want you to get yourself embroiled in an international scandal that will take forever to unravel.”
“Explain how this thing works because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He unhooked his hands and gave her a shrug. “Honey, half the time I don’t either. As the Director of Organized Crime in the Chicago FBI office, I’m responsible for what happens within the state of Illinois as it pertains to those groups. Well, we don’t live in a world where crime syndicates stay within the state lines, so we often work with other offices to produce a case that we can take to the Attorney General that will result in an indictment and then a trial. Take that concept and add the piece that says there’s no domestic group that isn’t connected to an international one. In virtually all major FBI investigations, a significant international nexus develops, and then we have to balance the FBI’s interest in addressing the international aspects of its investigation with the requirements that respect the host country's national sovereignty. Suddenly, it’s a hell of a party, and we’ve got a host country’s law enforcement working on the case, people from our legal attaché, and Interpol all wanting a chance to take the bad guy down.”
“How in the world does anything get accomplished with all those people working together?”
“It happens because believe it or not, our FBI people in-country work their asses off to make sure their liaisons are strong and international law is ruling every move. Don’t get me wrong, interagency cooperation doesn’t always work; sometimes it’s a goat fuck with everyone chasing their tails, but when it does work—it’s damn beautiful.”
“I will do my best to install the Trojans and if I’m successful, I’ll be happy to hand over the information to whoever can best use it to take him down. I don’t care how it happens, I just want to go to sleep at night knowing I did everything I could to stop the human trafficking.”
“I know, Lucky, and my team doesn’t need credit either. I want to see his downfall because I’m hoping it will topple Yolkin.”
Hearing her phone buzz, she checked it and saw that Grif was waiting for her in the lobby. “Time to go to work.”
“Me too.” He gave her a kiss and then led her out of the drawing room. “Think of someplace you want to go to dinner tonight.”
“Are we going to have a sexy date in Brussels?’
“Damn right, we are.”
She followed him out of the room and decided having her boyfriend in Brussels was more of a blessing than she could’ve imagined.