Luke Street is not far from the Danube River. The taxi reached its destination half an hour later. Ferrari handed over a large bill, saying, "Keep the change," and then got out of the car amid the driver's repeated thanks.
The overcast sky couldn't hold back any longer and finally started to rain.
Raindrops dripped from the hem of Ferrari's black trench coat onto the wooden floor of Mihail Apartnt No. 172.
This was an old-style apartnt, probably a century old.
No elevator, no security system, just wooden stairs and wooden floors.
Ferrari slowly walked up the stairs.
The contact lived on the fifth floor.
The leather shoes made a dull sound on the wooden stairs.
The dim light cast Ferrari's shadow on the floor, forming a strange shape.
The corridor was very quiet.
So quiet it was unsettling.
On the fifth floor, there was only one doorplate, so there was no need to search.
Ferrari approached the door, just about to knock when his eyes fell on the lock and he imdiately took two steps back, drawing his Makarov pistol.
The door had been tampered with.
The lock was destroyed.
Signs of tampering were fresh, not the result of aging or wear.
He gripped the cocked Makarov with his right hand, and pushed the half-open door gently with his left.
A strong sll of blood mixed with gunpowder rushed out.
In the center of the living room, a fat middle-aged man lay face-up in a pool of blood, three bullet holes in his chest and forehead—typical marks of a Mozambique Drill.
It seed the killer was a seasoned professional.
Ferrari crouched down, sliding his finger across the neck of the body.
The body was still warm, indicating death occurred less than forty minutes ago.
"Damn it," he cursed under his breath.
The fat man on the ground was his contact, Mikhail.
Mikhail was his and Henry's only contact in Bucharest, a forr Major in the Romanian Intelligence, now lying dead on the floor.
His gaze swept across the room; the computer tower on the desk was open, and the hard drive was gone.
Ferrari quickly searched the body's pockets, finding a wallet and a phone—this wasn't a random break-in by a small-ti thief; the intruder was after life, not money.
It seed it was ti to make a run for it.
The contact was dead.
The situation was now crystal clear.
The gangsters who had been tailing him, now the dead Mikhail on the floor.
He had been marked.
From outside ca the sharp screech of tires skidding on the road.
Ferrari dashed to the window, lifting a corner of the blinds.
Three black rcedes SUVs parked downstairs in formation, with more than a dozen ard individuals in bulletproof vests and four-eye night vision goggles surrounding the building.
They weren't wearing uniforms, all in civilian clothes, but their gun stances betrayed a military background.
"Not police..."
Ferrari released the blinds, allowing the curtain to fall back over the glass.
The police wouldn't use a rcedes worth a hundred thousand euros, nor would they wear Special Forces-issued four-eye night vision goggles on a rainy night.
His fingers moved quickly over the phone keyboard, sending an encrypted ssage to Henry: [Exposed, it's a trap].
Urgent footsteps echoed from downstairs, in the silent night. A group of ard individuals charged up the stairs, the sound was as jarring as clanging a gong while under the covers.
Ferrari rushed into the restroom, snapped the SIM card and flushed it down the toilet, removed the battery and threw the phone into the microwave, then swiftly turned it on.
Thirty seconds at high power was enough to destroy all the chips.
The footsteps in the corridor grew closer.
Ferrari pushed open the bathroom window, the rain imdiately soaking his face.
A five-story height, jumping down directly would break his legs.
He leaned out to examine the building's structure, noting that the rooftop of the adjacent lower building was about three ters away, with a two-ter wide alley in between.
"God bless the quality of Romanian construction."
He muttered, stepping onto the window sill.
Just as the bedroom door was kicked open, Ferrari leaped into the rain.
Boom—
He landed safely on the rooftop of the opposite building.
But the imnse impact sent him tumbling out of control.
The pain from his right knee hitting the cent rooftop caused his vision to black out.
"When I get back, Song has to seriously train my physical fitness..."
Ferrari recalled those military drills he used to look down on.
Clearly, no matter how smart, one needed a strong body.
Angry shouts and the sound of guns being cocked ca from behind him.
Ferrari rolled behind an air conditioning unit, aiming the muzzle of his Makarov at the direction he had co from.
The first pursuer to poke his head out was shot in the shoulder, crying out before falling back.
Taking advantage of this gap, Ferrari dashed towards the rooftop fire escape.
The rusty tal steps groaned under his weight.
As he descended to the third floor, two gunn suddenly appeared at the alley entrance.
Bullets hit the fire escape, sparking, Ferrari rolled sideways and at the height of the second floor, jumped directly into a pile of garbage bags.
The stench of decomposing kitchen waste cushioned his fall, and sothing slimy stuck to his face, giving an intensely nauseating sensation.
He couldn't be bothered with such details, scrambling up and rushing into the depths of the alley, with the sound of radio chatter echoing behind him.
The alleys of Bucharest's Old Town were like a maze, Ferrari twisted and turned, after three street corners, he ducked into a public restroom.
He pulled out a brand-new, unused phone from his pocket, an easy-to-use phone ant for ergencies.
The simple phone, once turned on, imdiately received Henry's ssage—[Night Owl is silent, repeat, Night Owl is silent].
Ferrari's face changed drastically.
This was the highest-level warning, aning the entire intelligence network may have been compromised.
He quickly typed the final ssage: [Don't co to Eastern Europe, Catherine is bait], then smashed the spare phone underfoot, breaking it to pieces, and flushed them down the toilet.
Boom—
When the restroom door was violently kicked open, Ferrari was slamd by the door, stumbling forward and crashing into the cistern.
His head hit the thick ceramic tiles, imdiately seeing stars and leaving no ti to resist with his gun, four gun barrels simultaneously aid at the back of his head.
"Turn around, slowly."
The leading man behind him ordered in accented English.
As he turned, Ferrari noted similar barcode tattoos behind their ears—these weren't ordinary agents, but a secret task force for dirty work.
Roughly pressed against the wall, he was searched.
When the operatives discovered the satellite tracker in his ergency kit, the leader spoke into the radio: "Confird as the target."
Ferrari was shocked when he saw the tracker.
When had this coin-sized device been slipped into his ergency kit?
The airport?
It must have been the airport!
This proved he had long been under surveillance.
FCUK!
He cursed inwardly.
Smart all his life, fooled for a mont.
Henry had said before that Karinna's disappearance was too mysterious, telling him to wait while he contacted so old friends to find out what happened.
But Ferrari couldn't wait.
A girl falling into the hands of a human trafficker gang, even thinking about the consequences was terrifying.
Nothing was more important than his sister.
Ferrari smirked coldly: "You CIA guys have sunk so low as to kidnap soone's family to set traps? You and your masters are both filthy swine."
Pah—
A buttstock strike silenced him.
Blood flowed into his eyes from his forehead as Ferrari heard the leader say into the radio: "Sir, we've captured Ferrari. Yes, verified, it's Ferrari."
In a haze, Ferrari felt himself being dragged into a vehicle.
Soone injected him with sothing, cold liquid flowing through his veins into his heart.
In his last mont of lucidity, he thought of his sister Catherine, the scene from when he was ten, falling from a tree and passing out.
Catherine shaking his hand desperately, her big eyes filled with tears, shouting repeatedly: "Brother, don't sleep, don't sleep..."
In the vibrations of the car wheels over rough terrain, Ferrari fainted completely.
Darkness completely consud him.
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