Rise of the Order by Trevor Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

know his location.
    â—
    After passing the two cars alongside the road, the woman had slowed her Audi on the other side of a rise and waited. She had no idea what these two were up to, having followed the Audi with the American she had identified the night before outside the Donau Bar.
    She drove back over the hill slowly just in time to see the Audi turn around toward Vienna and the other car, the VW Gulf, heading in her direction. She had to make a quick choice. The Audi or the Gulf? Stick with the Audi, she thought. She already knew about the man in the Gulf. She accelerated after the Audi ahead of her.

6
    Bratislava, Slovak Republic
    Miko Krupjak drove his black Skoda Fabia RS along a cobbled side street in an undesirable enclave along the Danube River. Early darkness cast long shadows behind the nearly abandoned buildings as Miko turned up an alley and pulled over alongside a dumpster. He had dropped his Brother Grago at the Vienna hauptbahnhof that morning, and Miko guessed his train had long ago reached Prague, where he would set up the next strike against The New Order’s enemies. But now he needed to talk with his Brother from Bratislava. They had spoken on the phone briefly an hour ago, and Miko was not happy with what he had heard—setting up this meeting immediately.
    There.
    A man walked toward the car down the alley and stopped some thirty meters away to light a cigarette.
    Miko flicked on his parking lights for a second.
    The man lifted his chin, took in a deep drag on his cigarette, and came to the passenger door, opened it and started to get in.
    â€œPut that cigarette out,” Miko said.
    The man looked at his cigarette, which was barely touched, and then flung it into the dumpster before sitting down.
    Glaring at his Brother in the Order, Miko shook his head. “What happened to your face, Jiri?”
    Jiri Sikora let out a deep breath. His right eye was bruised, swollen, and black and blue. “That’s what I tried to tell you on the phone,” he said. “Someone came to the apartment this afternoon. Asked a lot of questions about the priests.”
    â€œA cop?” Miko asked.
    â€œYeah, Miko. Must have been.”
    Staring at the graffiti on the old brick walls, Miko said, “Look at that disrespect, Jiri. People who do things like that should be shot.”
    â€œWe have,” Jiri laughed. “Maybe we should kill a few anarchists.”
    Miko shook his head. Even though Miko and Jiri had played hockey together in their youth as equals, both of them knew their place in The New Order—Miko one step higher. “We don’t kill anarchists, Jiri. They’re harmless and disorganized.”
    â€œRight. Organized chaos. How would that work?”
    Miko laughed, but his disposition changed with the explosion and fireball rising up from the dumpster. “Damn it, Jiri.”
    Putting the car in gear, Miko spun the tires, pulling away from the burning dumpster.
    â€œI’m sorry, Miko. Someone must have thrown something flammable in there.”
    â€œLike a cigarette?” Miko came to the end of the alley and pulled out onto a street that would bring them out of the city along the train tracks. Then he slowed to the speed limit.
    â€œNow,” Miko said, “continue with your little story. A man comes to your apartment and beats the shit out of you. For what?”
    Sikora shifted nervously in his chair. “It was a woman.”
    Miko laughed out loud. “You let a woman kick the shit out of you?” He shook his head. “Wait until our old hockey friends hear about this.”
    â€œShe was beautiful,” Sikora said, his eyes becoming brighter with the thought of her. “Who would have thought she was that strong, that quick? She grabbed my balls and wouldn’t let go. I’m still trying to recover.” He shifted in the car seat.
    Miko couldn’t stop laughing. Finally he caught his breath and said, “Okay,