PRIMAL Inception by Jack Silkstone Read Free Book Online

always lucrative.” Ice tipped his head in the direction of the men in the corner. “Those guys friends of yours?”
    Barishna shrugged. “A little bit of extra security. Lots of criminals around these days.”
    “Yes, there are. Can I get you a coffee?”
    “That would be good, thank you.”
    He waved the woman over and ordered another two.
    “So what did you want to know about? Zahir?”
    “That transparent?”
    Barishna nodded. “If it was anything else, you would have asked me over the phone.”
    “You’re the only Gray Wolf I trust.”
    “That’s because we are brothers.”
    “Brothers indeed.”
    “So what is it you want to know?”
    “Everything. I want to know what Zahir’s up to. Where he gets his money. Who he associates with.”
    “That’s going to take a while. I’m not close to him anymore. He and that snake Kreshnik dropped me as soon as the Gray Wolves were disbanded. You know they called me the cripple, the fucking cripple. Well, look how far their cripple has come.”
    Ice interrupted the whining. “Zahir’s running for office.”
    Barishna’s screwed up his weaselly features. “Yes, I had heard that.”
    “I need to stop him.”
    “You could always just kill him.”
    Ice gave a cold stare. “I would prefer a legitimate approach. I’m not about to start a blood feud with that family.”
    They stopped talking as the coffee was delivered.
    Barishna continued, “You’re right. His family is very influential.”
    “Yes, I heard they own a hotel on the outskirts of Brabonic.”
    Barishna laughed. “He owns a lot more than that little hotel.”
    “So you do know something.”
    “Everybody knows Zahir is wealthy, and powerful.”
    “And linked to the Albanian mafia.”
    Barishna shrugged. “Who isn’t?”
    “If he was involved in serious crime that would be enough to have him removed from the ballot.”
    “Serious crime?”
    “Sex trafficking, organ harvesting, drug smuggling.”
    Barishna sipped from his coffee. “All of the above.”
    Ice slid an envelope of cash across the table. “I need details. Get me names and places.”
    “I’ll see what I can do.”
    He got up and headed for the door. “Call me when you have something.” As he walked back to the Land Cruiser he checked his watch. Vance’s flight was due to arrive in an hour.
     

CHAPTER 6
     
    At the head of the long dining room table, Zahir relaxed in his chair as Kreshnik took a seat to his right. Half a dozen other men were seated with them, all dressed similarly in gold chains, heavy signet rings, and black jackets. The table was laid with a smorgasbord of traditional dishes: spit-roast lamb, burek vegetable pies, baked beans, and trays of prosciutto, bread, and cheeses. Bottles of boza, a fermented malt drink, occupied the few gaps on the table.
    The men waited as Zahir selected the choicest cuts of lamb. Once he was done, they filled their plates and started eating.
    “How many Serbs did we send to the yellow house this week?” he asked as he shoveled food into his mouth. He referred to the facility in Albania they were using as a surgery to harvest organs from living subjects.
    Kreshnik replied as he chewed. “Not many. Fucking KFOR have tightened the borders. We lost five girls at the Morine crossing when they searched one of our trucks.”
    “Remind me, why are we sending girls to the yellow house when KFOR and the UN pay good money to screw them here? Why don’t we just send the men?”
    “Some of the bitches have family searching for them. We only move those ones.”
    “We need to find a better way.” Zahir squinted as he contemplated the problem.
    “Boss, what if we freeze them? We can hide them in the food trucks,” one of the men suggested.
    He sneered, “They’re not sides of beef, you idiot. They need to be alive or they're no good.”
    Kreshnik stabbed the lamb with a knife. “How about we harvest them here. Then we only need to ship the organs on ice.”
    “Can we get people with