Chasing the White Lion by James Hannibal (best free e book reader .TXT) 📗

other’s faces for a while, then ran yowling into the night, leaving me to unscramble the mess.”

“Can you reverse engineer the malware?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Do it. We may have a use for something like this in the future.”

“Sure, boss.” Eddie seemed to wait one more second for his attaboy, then gave up and went back to the keyboard. “For now, I’ve recovered and isolated the video portion, so we can skip the drama.”

He was wrong. The message was full of drama, all based in Boyd’s megalomania.

The white lion paced on the monitor amid a final laugh and an echoing Kill or be killed. “So, you want to be a hawk. Good. I approve. But even those who fly above the Jungle are not free of its law.” The echo returned. The law of the Jungle. Kill or be killed. “You have one month to earn your wings or I will rip them from their sockets and leave you in a pool of blood.”

“What does he mean, ‘earn your wings’?” Val asked during the pause that followed.

The white lion answered. “The hawk preys upon the smaller beasts. To earn your wings, you must eat a field mouse or jackrabbit. Remove your target from the Earth, consolidate operations, and improve the overall take for the syndicate. That is the circle of life.”

The law of the Jungle. Kill or be killed.

“If you fail to comply, I will remove you from the Earth. That is all.”

The lion walked off the screen, and a short list of field mouse and jackrabbit members came up, along with names and addresses.

Eddie had gone pale. “That is so not right.”

Finn looked just as stunned. “We’ve got to murder someone to reach the next level?”

“And if we don’t,” Talia said, “we’ll never get Boyd, and we’ll never save those missing children.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-

TWO

ADAMANTAS MARINA

MILOS CALDERA

MILOS, GREEK ISLES

ITSHAMED TALIATORECOGNIZE her own disappointment when Tyler didn’t put them all up in some luxury chateau overlooking the marina. He put them in the marina—in a houseboat.

She took a few minutes to clean up after the drive from the airport and emerged from the stateroom she would share with Darcy, wearing white shorts and a tank top. She found Tyler lounging on the boat’s rear deck with a frosty pink drink. He looked unnervingly calm, given the bomb Boyd had dropped on their plans.

She stood over him, making sure her shadow blocked out his sun. “What happened to your usual virgin piña colada?”

“Normally my favorite. But this is a local concoction, a virgin Santorini Sunrise.” He took a sip and smacked his lips. “You know. When in Rome.”

“We’re in Greece. And we’re in trouble.” Talia glanced around. “Where is everyone?” The lower deck, the living room complete with ethanol fireplace, and the kitchen and bar were all empty.

“Eddie’s in his room, working on a project. I sent Darcy and the other boys off to run some errands. And I assume Val is off pouting somewhere because the bathrooms on this boat don’t meet her standard.”

“Which is?”

“Not being on a boat.”

“Errands.” Talia sank into a deck lounger whose overstuffed cushion threatened to swallow her whole. “You’re pressing forward with the weapons heist?”

“We don’t have to scrap the whole plan. We just have to explore new alternatives.”

The cushion added an extra level of difficulty to the conversation. Talia wanted to sit sideways so she could frown at him if necessary, but she was struggling to keep her feet on the deck. “We’re not murdering one of Boyd’s field mice to move up the list.”

“Why not?” Val came down the steps from the upper deck in a black one-piece and sarong. “They’re all criminals.”

“Like you?”

“Cute. This is all part of Boyd’s game.”

“I don’t care about Boyd’s game.” Talia gave up searching for the deck with her toes and let her body fall back into the lounger, trying and failing to make the movement look natural. “We’re not playing by his rules.”

“Speaking of . . .” Val pointed at Tyler as she reached the bottom step. “You know I don’t do accommodations that store waste in a tank.”

“Why do you think I chose it?”

She scrunched her eyes at him.

Tyler smiled and sipped his drink.

Talia rolled her eyes. “We were talking about the merits of murder?”

“Relax.” Tyler set his drink down on the glass table between them and laid his head back. “I’m not planning to kill any of Boyd’s small woodland creatures.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“We’re hunting bigger game. Jafet himself.”

“Tyler—”

“He’s right.” Val sat on the edge of Tyler’s lounger. “Jafet is Boyd’s top earner. If we kill him, we’re guaranteed a seat at the Frenzy.”

“We’re not killing anybody.”

Tyler waved her off, gazing up at the sky as if the clouds held all the answers. “Table the murder part for later and carry the idea forward. What will it take to bring Jafet down?”

Murder didn’t seem like the sort of thing they should table for later, but Talia humored him. “You’d need a small army. From what Eddie told me, his place is well stocked with security.”

“Done.” Tyler rolled his head over, eyes perfectly serious. “We have a small army ready to go and close by. Think about it. We’ve used them before.”

It took her only a moment to catch his drift. “That . . . might work. Okay, but we can’t storm Club Styx SWAT style. Word would get back to Boyd, tipping our hand.”

“True. We need to subdue his people quietly.”

“And you’ll need to draw him out,” Val said. “Jafet doesn’t leave the safety of his office for just anyone.” The confidence in her tone told Talia that Val knew more about Jafet than the rest of them. Val had started her grifter career in the Mediterranean region. Maybe she had crossed paths with the man before.

Tyler agreed with her. “Not just anyone. I have a specific someone in mind. Don Marco.”

An image of the mafia-don-esque gentleman who had helped her and Tyler locate Valkyrie on their first mission appeared in Talia’s mind. “What does Don Marco have to