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“You’re fucking kidding me!” I splutter. “All of them?”
“All seven containers, including the one that hit our docks tonight,” Urie tells me.
“How come we’ve only found this out now?” I’m confused. Strategic is a joint business venture owned by my father and none other than Marco Moretti. I frown. Could Marco have something to do with this?
“The Strategic Systems have been malfunctioning for nearly two months now,” Urie informs me. “That’s the real reason your father and Marco are in New York.”
“Your sister’s there as well,” I have no idea why I said that.
“Yeah, she’s trying to trace the money trail for the son of a bitch that’s hacked into the Strategic system.” Urie’s words make me look at him in astonishment.
“Strategic’s systems have been hacked?”
“Yup.” Urie nods. “A few weeks before the first shipment landed on the Irish mob’s doorstep.”
“Why didn’t my father tell us about this?” My eyes narrow.
“Only he, Marco, and Hannah knew about it,” Urie says. “They wanted to keep it quiet to handle it themselves.”
“Look how well that’s working out.” I take a sip of vodka. “We had a shipment land on our doorstep.”
“Remember I told you when we first found it that my father said the Feds have gotten a tip-off?” Urie says, turning his glass on the desk.
“Yes.” I nod.
“Turns out there’d been no tip-off to the Feds.” Urie pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “Here’s my father’s phone records. He called and tipped the feds off, but only after we’d discovered it.”
“Fucking hell!” I hiss, taking the phone records. “Why would you even look into this?”
“That Fed on our payroll.” Urie’s eyes flash with anger and disbelief. “He told me that he’d not been alerted, and when he checked, the tip-off had only come after I’d called him.”
“Fuck, Urie!” I hiss. “You know what this means, right?” I’m going to have to inform my father, and Sergei won’t get off lightly for his actions.
“That’s just the thing,” Urie continues. “He was told to tip off the FBI by your father.”
“What?” I bellow so loud that I’m sure the windows shake. “Who told you this?”
“Hannah,” Urie answers. “And I think we both know my sister may be many things, but a liar isn’t one of them.”
“No, Hannah wouldn’t lie about that as she knows it would easily be verified.” I sit back, taking the ice pack off my now frozen, numb balls. “If it did come from my father, that means he knew the Feds hadn’t been alerted. But how?”
Urie pulls out his phone and scrolls to something. He hands the phone to me. “There’s your answer.”
I take it and frown at what I see on the screen. “This is a message to my father and Marco?”
Urie nods. “Sent early this…” He looks at his wristwatch. “Yesterday afternoon.”
I glance at the clock above the door. Fuck, is it almost three in the morning already?
You know what we want!
“Hannah told me that Strategic’s system was hacked, and the hackers have been holding it ransom,” Urie says, picking up the glass.
“How much are they asking?” I look at him questioningly.
“That’s just it.” Urie’s brow crumples. “They’re not asking for money, but Hannah has no idea what they want because Marco and your father are not saying anything.”
“If the hackers don’t get what they want?” I ask, but I think I already know the answer.
