That was another story.
“So anyway, to make a long story short, the bad guys looking for my dad came in, and when they tried to grab me, Syn literally kills them all.”
With a pencil, if the stories were true.
“But I’ll tell you the rest if you stick around,” she said glancing at her out the corner of her eye. “You mercenaries just come and go as you please, but never call to say hi in between. It’s so boring when I’m not hacking some shit for you guys. Anyway, what are we looking for?”
“A man—Andrei Kanekov. I need you to find me anything you can on him—or a warehouse that was at the address I sent you.
“Right, already looked that up—the warehouse burned down or something. Nothing worth mentioning there.”
Winter’s fingers flew over the keyboard, the heavy silver rings glinting, but as she worked, her black painted lips turned down at the corners.
“What’s wrong?” Luna asked, sitting beside her to see the screen, but her eyes nearly crossed as she tried to make out what she was reading.
“Nothing, it’s just … weird. Who is this guy, anyway? Somebody important?”
“Maybe.”
But Luna wasn’t sure, though she figured he had to be since she’d been tasked with finding him.
“Someone set up a mainframe directory that—meaning someone set up a system to track anytime that name is searched,” she further explained when Luna looked confused.
Winter was no longer laughing as she worked, concentrating solely on her work.
“Another mercenary?” Luna asked.
“No, this level of sophistication, has to be one of my people. I’ll try to track,” she said to herself, too engrossed in what she was doing to remember Luna was sitting beside her.
“I’m trying to find Andrei,” Luna said after a moment, thinking narrowing it down to a location might speed things up.
“Right, right, right. I can do that—who the fuck is this guy?” Winter said with a little more animation, her fingers flying faster if that were possible. “He’s trying to track me. Who’s Andrei again?”
“I don’t know, but you give me an address, I’ll find out who.”
Winter whispered unintelligible words as she worked, part on the man worming his way into her system, and part on finding Andrei.
“I can only buy you a little time,” Winter said as she scanned data. “His protocols ensure that whatever I find gets downloaded to his device. I can crash his system remotely, but he’ll be back up in no time. If you want to find this Andrei guy, I suggest you run or somebody else is going to get to him first.”
“Give me whatever you have.”
Winter waved her hand at the screen as though that could make it work faster. Luna was beginning to think whoever Andrei was, he had some rather powerful friends.
Someone was going through a lot of trouble to keep the man hidden, and even if this weren’t her assignment, she would have still been curious.
“Sometimes I even surprise myself!” Winter exclaimed with a little cheer, fishing out her phone from her pocket. “I’m sending you an address now—thank me later. I’ll try to keep the other guy away for as long as I can.”
“I owe you one,” Luna said as she got to her feet.
Winter shrugged, grinning brightly. “Of course you do.”
Truthfully, Luna was expecting a Russian spy, or something equally as grand considering how much trouble she had gone through just to find the man—someone that was worth going through so much trouble to keep anyone from finding them.
But she was starting to doubt her theory as she rode into a shady part of the city where crumbling buildings littered the streets, and she stuck out as people watched her ride by.
Finding a relatively decent spot to park—where she was still within a block of where she was going, and far enough away that her bike was almost hidden—Luna dismounted, tucking her helmet under her arm as she glanced down the street as she crossed.
With Winter’s warning in mind, she cased her surroundings, checking for anyone that seemed like they didn’t belong. But as far as she could tell, no one stuck out.
Hurrying up two flights of stairs, then down a darkened hallway, she found the apartment. She knocked once, twice, then a third time, waiting and listening for any movement on the other side of the door.
When no one came, she checked to make sure the hallway was clear before dropping to a knee and fishing the lock picks out of her pocket—she had Fang to thank for this particular skill.
She was almost to the last tumbler when the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked sounded right behind her, freezing her to the spot.
“Move, and you’re dead.”
The Russian accent made sense considering the man’s name, but there was something about his voice that seemed … familiar.
“Who do you work for?”
Luna almost smiled—if he wanted to talk, he wasn’t going to kill her. Not yet, anyway. “Depends on the day. Currently? Belladonna.”