Chapter 13 - The Trap in ViennaTwo days later, our small family jet touched down at a private airfield outside Vienna, Austria.
Dominic hadn't brought an army of foot soldiers this time. He had brought three trusted loyalists from his inner circle—men who had survived the Cicero turf wars and were fiercely loyal to the Vale name. Our destination wasn't a safe house; it was an abandoned Cold War-era broadcast station nestled deep in the Austrian woods, owned by a shell company linked directly to Viktor Vance.
"Viktor thinks I'm still playing defense," Dominic told me as we reviewed blueprints on a battered steel table in the command trailer. "He thinks by threatening you and Noah, he can force me to hand over the decryption keys to the original Apex medical logs."
"And do you have the keys?" I asked, watching him load a custom-built rifle with calm, mechanical precision.
"No," Dominic said, looking up with a dark grin. "I have something better. I have Viktor’s chief financial officer, who was stupid enough to hide out in a Zurich hotel under his own mother’s maiden name."
Noah sat quietly in the corner of the trailer, drawing on his sketch pad. He looked up, his dark eyes meeting his father’s. "Are the bad men going away forever after tonight, Dad?"
Dominic walked over, crouched down, and placed a large, scarred hand on his son's shoulder. "Forever, buddy. I promise you, nobody is ever going to scare you again."
At midnight, the assault on the Vienna facility began.
There were no long negotiations, no federal warnings. Dominic’s men breached the perimeter gates with silent efficiency, neutralizing Viktor’s security detail before they even had time to raise their weapons.
I waited inside the armored command vehicle with Noah, listening to the muffled crack of suppressors echoing through the freezing forest.
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Within twenty minutes, the radio crackled to life.
"Boss, we have Viktor," a gruff voice reported over the comms. "He's alone in the master control room. And he brought company."
