Chapter 3 - Mobilizing the Syndicate
The armory located beneath my downtown headquarters was a symphony of metallic clicks, racking slides, and heavy Kevlar being strapped over broad shoulders. I did not intend to go to Ricardo Vasquez’s estate alone, despite his demands. You do not negotiate with a man who steals your life; you eradicate him.
I strapped a tactical vest over my black dress shirt and loaded my weapons with a terrifying, mechanical precision. My mind was entirely clear, stripped of the emotional paralyzation that had gripped me at the warehouse. This was the world I understood. This was the violent calculus of the syndicate.
"Vasquez's compound is heavily fortified," my tactical lead, Marco, briefed the room, pointing to a sprawling blueprint projected onto the wall. "He has thirty men patrolling the perimeter, automated gates, and reinforced glass on the upper floors. He expects you to walk through the front door and surrender."
"We do not knock," I stated coldly, sliding a combat knife into its sheath. "We breach the western wall with C4. We disable their communications array before we cross the property line. I want overlapping sniper fire on the upper balconies. No warnings. No survivors. Every man wearing Vasquez's colors dies tonight."
May you like
The men in the room nodded, their faces grim and set. They had mourned Elena alongside me eight years ago. They had watched their boss turn into a hollow, ruthless machine. Now, they understood that the machine had a purpose again.
I walked out to the convoy of armored black SUVs waiting in the subterranean garage. The air was thick with exhaust and impending violence. I climbed into the lead vehicle, pulling the door shut with a heavy thud. For eight years, I had built my empire as a monument to a dead woman. Tonight, I was going to use that empire to bring her back from the grave.
