A Silent Reckoning: Sinner's Empire by Nikita Slater (world best books to read .TXT) 📕

Havel’s hand landed on the butt of his gun. “You don’t know the difference between speaking and hearing? He’s got ears.”

Jozef clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention. He’d learned long ago how to hit his palms together just right, so they made a thunderous, ear-splitting clap. It worked well when he needed to communicate and no one was looking at him.

He signed to Havel, his movements rapid, quit fucking with our contact. We need him and he’s not doing anything we haven’t seen before. In fact, it’s better when they underestimate me. Let’s get on with it. I don’t want to be late for the next meet.

Havel dragged his big knife from his belt and tapped it against his fingertips. “Okay boss man, you got it. Gut the fucker if he so much as breathes funny.” Havel was messing with their contact on purpose, his protective instincts toward Jozef kicking into gear. Jozef sighed but allowed it. He would talk to Havel later about not misinterpreting Jozef on purpose. They’d had the same conversation multiple times. It never seemed to stick.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Zeke was quick to say. “We should get moving before the next patrol hits this area.”

Jozef nodded. What do you want us to do?

They talked specifics for a few minutes and once Jozef was satisfied, he gave the signal for the rest of his team to make an appearance. Zeke blanched as he was rapidly overtaken by a dozen mercenaries carrying enough weaponry to wipe a small country off the planet.

They split the teams up, climbing into the backs of the vehicles, seven men per vehicle: two up front and five in the rear. Jozef changed Zeke’s original configuration to include one of Zeke’s men in the back with Jozef’s people and one of Jozef’s men up front with the driver. If Zeke’s men were split up, they would have a much more difficult time ambushing Jozef’s team.

Not that Jozef was particularly worried; his team was too good to be easily taken by ex-bush soldiers turned muscle-for-hire.

Jozef sat in the back of one of the jeeps with Zeke, Ali, Nikolay and Cooper. Halil sat up front with their driver. When Jozef saw Cooper climbing into his jeep, he’d nearly sent the American to the other jeep. The man was fucking chatty and he didn’t seem to have an off switch unless he was sleeping. But Jozef figured Havel was far more likely to shoot the man’s head off, so Jozef allowed him to stay.

The drive was arduous to the point that Jozef wished Radik had just allowed them to walk the distance. His team was trained for hard hiking and could cover around 60 kilometers in a day with their equipment. Their meeting place was 30 kilometers across the border, but Radik wanted Jozef and his men escorted in and out.

Jozef wasn’t sure if the man underestimated them or distrusted them, but he’d been forced to accept the escort if he wanted the job.

The road was bumpy and, in places, so overgrown that there didn’t seem to be a road. He knew they were crossing the border at an unpatrolled point, but that didn’t mean the military wouldn’t have troops checking.

Jozef glanced at Ali who was looking down at his travel laptop, open and balancing on his knees. Ali looked up and caught Jozef’s gaze. He already knew what Jozef wanted.

Ali shook his head. “No movement other than us within a ten-kilometer radius of the route. There’s a five-minute lag though.”

Jozef nodded his understanding. There was, of course, always a lag between the satellite transmission and the ground. Five minutes was a small window for troops to get in and ambush the trucks, but it was possible. Jozef preferred vigilance over faith.

Keep watching, he signed.

Ali refocused on the laptop, occasionally updating Jozef as they drove.

When they arrived at Radik’s meeting point, the men climbed out of the trucks and fanned out in a previously discussed configuration. They’d been warned not to engage if they ran into any of Radik’s people while in the bushes. Radik had agreed he would be accompanied by only three men, all visible, but Jozef didn’t trust the man. Jozef didn’t trust any man except Havel, which was why he was still alive.

A slight pang hit him as he thought of his uncle, but he quickly dismissed it. Perhaps he’d trusted Krystoff as a child, but his uncle had used Jozef and his team for years for his own purposes. And while Jozef had been a willing participant in the jobs, he hadn’t trusted his uncle to have their health and safety in mind. Jozef had compensated to cover for Krystoff’s blind spots. It was better that Jozef had split from the Kobas and took control of his team.

Jozef refocused on the job as they waited for Radik to arrive. Everything went according to plan. Jozef’s team arrived exactly fifteen minutes before Radik’s. Radik’s group arrived in a truck that looked like the ones Jozef’s team had taken across the border.

Jozef figured all of the men and trucks belonged to Radik, which put them firmly in Radik’s control. Or so the man would think. When Radik had talked about a team coming to pick up Jozef and his men to take them across the border, Jozef had suspected it was Radik’s way of putting more of his men in the field than the three Jozef had insisted on.

What Radik didn’t know is that Jozef’s team had been briefed on every possible scenario including this one. They were expecting an ambush, even though it was unlikely Radik would draw them all the way out there just to kill them. Not when the man had enough resources to blow up Jozef’s club and the building it was in, killing most of Jozef’s team in one move.

No, Jozef had done some checking on Radik and while the man was one of the deadliest