From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 407

Chapter 407: The Abdoned Dock (Part 2)

They had parked a little away from the abandoned docks as they didn’t want to be seen straight away, and have to deal with the situation up front. The SUV idled in a pocket of shadow created by the large storage buildings; engines breathed softly and the world felt wide and distant. Inside the car, jackets creased under tense shoulders and every quiet movement sounded larger than it should.

Still from where they were, once they turned behind one of the large storage buildings they could see all of the containers and the countless people that were in the area. The sight was like a frozen storm, rows of stacked metal, bodies moving in small lines, figures picked out against the rust and the sky.

"That’s more then what attacked us." Darno said.

His voice was small in the car but it carried. He wasn’t surprised; the feel of the place had suggested that this was more than a simple grab-and-rush. There was weight here, planning, preparation, presence.

"Right, and if they wanted to do a simple deal there would be no need to bring so many people. There is another purpose to this whole thing." Max added and then turned to Aron. "Can you check out how many people there are, and if there are any openings for us to head in.

"IF we know where Sheri is as well we’ll know where to go to get here."

Aron nodded and he didn’t waste any time as he ran ahead. He moved with a kind of quiet that always put Darno on edge, calm motion, deliberate positioning. Aron used cover everywhere he could be seen. He threaded the space between crates with a practised eye, treating the clutter as deliberate camouflage instead of obstacles. He found edges and seams and moved through them like a shadow.

He even quickly grabbed onto a crate ledge and then pulled himself up onto it. For someone watching from the car, it looked like a practiced sequence, an athlete’s flow: plant, pull, climb, vault. He then sprinted across and leapt, until he landed right where the abandoned dock area was and rolled on the floor. The roll muffled his arrival, the way trained fighters made noise a choice rather than an accident.

For those that were watching what Aron was performing it was nearly something they would watch out of a video game. The motion was clean, and from a distance his silhouette read as precision rather than panic.

"Who is that guy?" Darno asked. "I think he’s even more athletic then anyone from the Fortis Group, and he’s perfectly moving within their blind spots.

"Maybe it’s something some of us could do if we had information from drones and such, but is he doing it on instinct?"

The question hung in the air. Darno’s mind rotated the idea, searching for an answer in memories he had of training drills and corporate security footage. Aron’s movements didn’t just come from skill; they came from experience, practice worn like armor.

The question never really came up for Joe and Stephen, because to both of them, the answer was that Aron was just Max’s bodyguard. A bodyguard of the Stern family was expected to be strong right? But now they thought about it, this strong, and able to do so much?

They had seen other members of the Stern family’s guards and they did not act in the same way. Those guards had been solid, reliable. Aron moved differently, lighter, precise, and it changed how the scene felt.

There was only one person who smiled as they heard of this.

’They should expect nothing less from a member of the Black hand.’ The thought was private and small, a ghost of some older world where names carried weight.

The group waited a while, ten minutes in total had passed without them seeing Aron. Time stretched. The sun leaned toward the horizon and light softened the rust into gold.

"Should we head inside?" Joe asked. "Maybe he was captured or something." His voice was practical, not panicked. He sounded like someone used to plans going sideways.

"No chance." Wolf said, knowing full well that Aron was an S Rank in his mind. "If he was to get caught there would be a huge ruckass, one person wouldn’t be enough to ever take him down."

Everyone nodded in agreement the more they thought about it. Wolf’s certainty made the thought solid. It had the shape of something familiar: underestimating talent is easy; correcting that mistake is costly.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify