Page 47 of Broken By the Bratva

As the cars pulled out, Vadik placed his hand on my knee. Leaning closer, he squeezed tenderly as he spoke. “Are you okay?”

Smiling softly at him, I nodded as I replied. “I’m good, just thinking about the mission. It’s high stakes.”

Alexandr shot me a warning look as if I had said something wrong. I knew he wasn’t pleased but there was no other way.

Vadik sighed deeply before speaking again. “Don’t worry, we will get it done. You are the best. But should things not work out, we will try again.” Taking my hand, he placed a tender kiss on my fingers. I slightly felt more at ease knowing he would protect me with his life.

“I know and having you by my side is all I need,” I whispered back.

Pulling into the huge parking area across from the building that held the information, my stomach turned. Openingand closing my mouth, I couldn’t get rid of the strange metal taste in my mouth.

Pavel, Makari, Vadik. and I moved into the shadow of the trees. The building wasn’t very big as it only had files, documents, and information mostly stored on a huge computer. The staff was limited to two or three within and some guards on the outside.

The surrounding buildings appeared abandoned. I wondered why. Heading across the road, my stomach turned again. My breakfast suddenly pushed up threatening to come out. Stopping, I took a deep breath. My nerves were shot and my body felt shaky. We had to get in and out. This had to be over.

Nearing one of the front entrances, we saw only two guards. According to the blueprints, this entrance was the only one that led to the stairway. We had to access the building here. I had to get to the server room on the second floor. The bottom one held nothing of value.

“I’ve got this. Just be ready to take them out,” I whispered to Vadik. Stepping out of the tree line I moved toward the guards. I pretended to stumble over my feet and fall to the ground before them.

One of the guards instantly came down beside me. “Miss, are you alright?” he questioned sounding truly worried.

I shook my head lightly as I stuttered. “No, man after me.” Lifting my arm, I pointed to the trees. Makari stepped out of the shadows revealing himself.

“Halt!” the guards yelled as they raised their guns and walked towards him. Makari took a step back but didn’t retreat. As the two men reached him, Vadik and Pavel hit them over the head. The sunk to the ground almost simultaneously. If not for our situation, it would have been funny.

We could concentrate on the building once the guards were disarmed and restrained. I opened the door slowly after picking the lock. Vadik stepped in first. After scanning the area, he waved for us to follow.

The place looked more like a warehouse than an office building. The bottom floor was one large open space. There were crates, barrels, and boxes standing around everywhere. On our right were large containers and to the left a door leading to the stairs.

I bent down to pick the lock as a foot came flying past my head. Looking up Makari stood grinning. “These doors we can handle. There’s no need for lock picking,” he said with a lopsided grin.

He kind of reminded me of a cute puppy and I couldn’t help but smile. Vadik helped me up speaking softly. “There’s no time for games, we have to move.”

Heading up stairs, we had to deal with about six more men. We were surprised to find the room where the servers should be empty. It was a dummy room. “What now?” I asked feeling a bit tense.

“Never mind, we will find it,” Vadik said as he started back down.

Makari was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “Is it done?” he asked as we reached him.

“No, it’s a dummy set-up,” Vadik responded shaking his head.

“I saw a cellar door just around the side here. You think it could be down?” Makari asked raising his hands.

“Yes, Maybe,” Vadik added rubbing his chin in thought.

Following Makari, we entered the cellar. The stairwell was dark and seemed to run for miles. As we finally reached the bottom, I was out of breath. Before us lay what had to be the room we were looking for.

There was a square glass cage in the middle, The glass was thick and surely bullet-proof. In the corners, I noticed the dampeners which blocked any signals from getting in. “This is it,” I said studying the door.

Turning, I scanned the room of a panel, I would have to hack the system to get inside. The room had a lot of cameras as well, I was astounded that they hadn’t put in motion sensors. It would have been my first move. I found the panel half hidden beneath the stairs. Once I had it open, I had to take a step back.

I was shocked to find all the wiring was grey. They went to some decent lengths to try and prevent anyone from entering. Smiling, I stepped forward. I was slightly impressed by their cunningness. But it wouldn’t keep me out.

Tracing each wire to their output points, I looked for one I could be sure would lead to the box door. The men moved in and out as they watched for any movement or people. I almost screamed with joy as I found the one I was looking for. Connecting my device, I listened. I loved the clicking sound doors made once hacked.

Entering, I felt the pressure in the room. It was cooled and pressurized to keep the mainframes from heating. Plugging my device into the server, I laughed with relief. There was no virus to corrupt my device which was going to make this much easier than I had anticipated.

I went to work. Once all the vital files were copied, downloaded, and sent to the outside system, I would send in myown little virus. Scanning through the data, I noticed a hidden file. This had to be what we were seeking.

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