When Devon and Varga got back to their rental house, they hosed of all of the quarrels with the garden hose in the backyard. After they had washed away all that forensic evidence, they went back inside and stripped and showered in silence. When they were done washing all the blood and gore from them, they threw their uniforms in the washing machine and went to bed. Neither of them set an alarm clock. They just slept until they could sleep no more.
Devon and Varga woke up in the early afternoon. Varga took the clothes out of the washing machine and hung them out to dry on the clothes lines in the backyard. While he was doing this, Devon went out to get some food for them to eat.
He picked up a couple of medium pepperoni pizzas and an ice-cold 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola at Domino’s Pizza Munchen: Obersendling. He didn’t know why, but he was suddenly craving pizza. Maybe because it had been years since he had one, who knows. Especially when you consider what he had been forced to do in his life, you could never tell about these things.
Varga never a picky eater, especially if it was hot and there was plenty of it, scarfed down his pizza in nothing flat. Devon, while hungry himself, was not able to finish his pizza. Before he knew it, Varga was eyeballing his pizza as well. So Devon just pushed his pizza box over to him and said, “Have at it, big guy.” When Devon’s pizza box was also empty, Varga leaned back with a satisfied look on his face and patted his full belly.
The Czech Republic was approximately 520 km from Munich, so they opted to just relax the rest of the day and start the following day for the Czech Republic.
The rental house had a small collection of multilingual DVDs, so Devon and Varga decided to binge and watch a few movies. They were somewhat dated, but they still proved to be entertaining.
The first movie was a tongue and cheek action movie based on a Clive Cussler novel of the same title, starring Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, and Steve Zahn.
The second one was a Bruce Willis movie entitled Hostage. I am sure you can get the jist of if the by the title. Suffice it to say Willis saves the day in true Willis fashion.
Like I said, it was fun to watch, but both were typical Hollywood movies and, as a result, were far-fetched.
Devon and Varga decided to make an early night of it so they could hit the road before the Munich traffic got bad. The drive would take around 6 hours. Like their previous cross country jaunt to cut down on fatigue, they would take turns driving. Before Varga went to bed, he brought in their uniforms from the clothes line. He checked them over carefully for ant blemishes or trace of blood. They were both spotless. When they were finally done, they would dismantle all of the guns and the cross bows and burn their uniforms. Everything would be dumped and spread all over a landfill before they back to their respective cities.
Frankly, Varga had not given it much thought of what he would do with his life when this was over. He had kind of grown fond of Devon. In another life, he could see them being good friends. However, he had the feet that it would not be possible under the present circumstances. He felt that Devon would be reminded of all the bad things that had happened in his life every time he was around Varga. Even though he was too polite to say so. That left Varga with little to look forward to. He had no money and useless resume that only revolved around a life of crime or killing. Upon further reflection, he could become a mercenary. At least it would put food on his table and a roof over his head. Al he knew was that it would be over soon. Finally, Varga fell asleep.
In the morning, Devon and Varga decided to get a bite to eat when they were on the road, so they loaded up all their gear, clothing, and overnight supplies. When everything was loaded into their van, they did a thorough check to make sure nothing incriminating was left behind. As per the rental agreement, they left the keys on the kitchen table and locked the front door.
After they had put some distance behind them, Devon and Varga stopped at a Mom and Pops dinette, which specialized in breakfasts and lunches. The food was cheap and plentiful, and it was also hot, so there were no complaints from Varga. Devon, on the other hand, was somewhat underwhelmed.
They drove another couple of hours before they stopped and filled up with gas. By their GPS, they had about two more hours of driving. Devon and Varga made one more food related stop before they entered the Czech Republic. Varga’s stomach was growling, so loud that it was distracting Devon as he drove. The man was a human vacuum cleaner. This time, not only did they stop for a bite to eat, but Devon picked up several bags of chips and other junk food items for Varga.
They finally arrived in Prague around 7 pm. it was too late to rent a house, so they just picked a hotel located on the outskirts of the city. They left most of their gear in the van, with a blanket covering everything to make their expensive weapons less visible from prying eyes. The next day, they would contact a realtor and rent a house. Once they had a home base, they would start with the reconnaissance phase of their final operation.
Aleksey Viktorovich Bilyuchenko’s house
Luxurious penthouse with terrace, rented by Devon and Varga.
The next day, Varga and Devon checked out of their hotel room and got a bite to eat at a family owned restaurant. Since it was still early and the real estate broker’s office didn’t open up for another couple of hours, they decided to drive by Aleksey Viktorovich Bilyuchenko’s house to do a cursory inspection of his security and the general layout. This first look see was just a drive-by. As they drove by the house, they noticed that there were a lot of trees and other natural coverage present around the property. There were also two guards standing in the front of the house. Devon was sure that this was just a drop in the bucket. If he took his security as serious Popovic, he would have close to 10 security guards on his property. They would have to do a walk by, maybe with a dog, to get a closer look. Varga said that they would have to do at least one night security check just like they did for Popovic.
After they wrapped up their initial run by Alesksey’s house, Devon contacted the real estate broker. He told the agent what he was looking for in a rental house. The broker said that he had the perfect place. Devon said that time was of the essence and asked if they could meet this morning? The broker said that his morning was open, so he texted him the address of the rental house. He finished the call by setting up an appointment for 11:00 AM, which was just 1 1/2 hours from now..
When the broker showed Devon the house, he immediately said it was perfect. Within 30 minutes, all of the paperwork was signed, and Devon had the keys to the rental house. Even though he would only need the rental at the most a week, he rented the house for one month to allay any idle speculation. Devon was happy because this house had two bedrooms because Varga’s snoring had made it difficult for him to get a good nights sleep in their previous rental house. After they finalized the paperwork, Devon and Varga went to a local grocery store to get some snacks and frozen dinners so they wouldn’t have to eat out as much.
Varga thought it best to keep a lower profile this time. They already had a high body count, and you could never tell whether or not Europol or Interpol (a brief description on these two agencies can be found in the appendices) would become interested in the murders in Istanbul or Munich. It would be difficult to connect the murders from the two cities. In Istanbul, the rounds fired by the AK-47s were 7.62mm. This in itself proved nothing besides the fact that the killings were done by either professionals or some militia unit. The Killings in Munich were done by either knives or crossbows (would be hard to determine since there were no quarrels left at the site). The only commonality was the ferociousness and the professionalism of the two hits. This is not real evidence. It is only circumstantial at best. Varga and Devon really did’t care whether or not they connected the killings from Munich to Prague because they would both quickly disappear after they finished with Aleksey.
With all the traveling that Devon had done and the move that he and Jennie had made to Italy, one thing that had been missing in his life and that was a dog. He mainly kept it to himself, but when he admitted it, he found that he really missed JoJo. Since a dog would help their cover, he decided to foster a dog. So he contacted “Projekt HOPE” for a dog.
Devon immediately found a likely dog in Sikulka, a one year old mixed breed dog. Who knows, he might even decide to keep him after the dust settled. He had a feeling that Jennie would like him. She was, after all, a dog lover. It was one of the things that attracted her to him. Devon and Varga went over to the shelter and filled out the appropriate paperwork for the foster agreement. When Sikulka was brought out to Devon, the attraction between the two was immediate. Even Varga took an immediate liking to him. He was just a friendly dog. To facilitate the foster process, they were given several cans of dog food and food and water dish along with a leash and collar. The dog was also chipped, which did not make Varga very happy. Devon and Varga had no choice. They needed the cover of a dog, so there wasn’t any alternative. Besides, it was the law.
Devon could see the light at the end of the tunnel, so he parked their van on one of the side streets about a block away from Aleksey’s house and took out Sikulka and put on his leash and started walking his new dog. Varga was walking by his side with his cellphone being held at his side. As they walked by Aleksey’s house, Varga started snapping photos. To give him more time to take photos, Devon bent over and scratched Sikulka’s head and back. This gave Varga a few extra seconds to concentrate on his shots. After they walked a couple of blocks, they circled back and took a different street to their van. They didn’t want to attract attention by walking past the house a second time. Now, all they had to do is pick a night to do some further reconnoitering. The night visit would be the definitive determinant for their plan of attack. They would be able to see how the house was lighted, whether or not the guards wore night vision goggles (most likely not) and how many of them there would be stationed around the house and what their routine was.
When Devon and Varga got back to their rental house, they fed and watered Sikulka. Devon then looked at his moon app on his phone. When they took out Popovic on the New Moon, tonight was the waxing crescent or 4% illumination. If they did not strike quickly, they would have to wait for another whole moon cycle because the sky would just be too bright. So Devon and Varga decided that they had better make their night run this evening. The following night would be the go-ahead night, unless something came up. The illumination would be 9%, so there would still be a fairly dark night sky for concealment.
After midnight came by and basically the sidewalks Aleksey’s neighborhood were rolled up, so Devon and Varga donned their black garb and stuffed their balaclava’s in their pants pockets. They brought their night vision goggles with them as well. Devon and Varga parked their van at a local gas station about half a mile away from Aleksey’s house. They walked casually down the street. When they reached the woods around Aleksey’s house, they donned their balaclavas and put on their night vision goggles. As with Popovic’s house, they had to take off their night goggles because the security lights placed around the house were just too bright. They hunkered down behind a couple of trees and simply watched what happened with the security. Aleksey’s security turned out to be less. there was a total of six guards surrounding the house. Each one was positioned under one of the security lights. Four of the guards were in view of each other, basically in twos. So their tactic of firing both crossbows at the same time would eliminate these over lapping guard positions. As they suspected none of the guards wore night vision goggles, there simply was no need. There was no way of knowing what the security was like inside of the house, so they decided to call it a night.
When Devon and Varga got back to their rental home, they went to bed to get some much deserved sleep. Sikulka’s scratching at Devon’s door woke him up. Devon stumbled out with Sikulka on his leash to do his duty. After he was done with his morning potty break, he wolfed down the bowl of dog food that Devon put out for him. Varga woke up by Sikulka’s antics, made coffee, and took out the danishes and croissants that they had bought the day before.
With the exception of walking Sikulka and going out for a nice dinner at one of the more upscale restaurants in Prague, after all you never knew with these operations, they had the rest of the day to paln out their last mission. Because each operation could be your last one, it wasn’t a bad idea to make your possible meal a memorable one. In their kind of lives, you had to take the good with the bad.
Varga, always thinking about his stomach, made the reservations early in the afternoon, Devon was out walking Sikulka. He knew by now where Devon’s tastes lie with food, so he chose a good restaurant with a really cool ambiance, Tavern U Krale Brabantskeho.
Varga also knew that Devon was a bit of a history buff, thanks to Grandpa Gordon, so he thought he would get a kick out of the medieval theme of the restaurant.
Because the Tavern U Krále Brabantského has such an amazing history, I have included it below. I know, but I just couldn’t help myself.
With a single step across the threshold of the pub, you are transported from the 21st century to the Middle Ages.
Myths and legends about our tavern
From 1375, when the tavern was first opened, kings and smugglers used to come here. It is said that Czech kings used secret passages from the castle to get into the tavern and get drunk to forget their problems about Czech lands. Magister Kelly and Arcimboldo, Jaroslav Hašek and Karel Čapek, Mozart and Ondřej Soukup all used to drink here.
It is said that genius W.A. Mozart wanted to compose „Velkou Ranní” during his last visit in Prague. However from unknown reasons he ended up with „Malá Noční“.
At the end of the 18th century, the owner of our tavern was some “regimentstambor” called Krügler – famous showman. He could whistle and use a wooden spoon like he was playing the drums. Or he was just telling stories to his guests.
In the front of the room he had a picture of Czech king Václav IV., with a beer in his hand. When Jaroslav Hašek was listening to the stories, he said: “… it’s not possible for such a man to work under the king’s picture.“ And he grabbed the picture and kicked it in half. The incident was followed up by slaps, punches and blood.
History of the tavern contains other bloody events. One night the innkeeper tried to steal a small amount of coins from the sleeping landlord. One thing led to another and the innkeeper has accidentally killed this „poor guy” and sent him into the cannals. However, as hen children were playing outside, their ball fell into the cannals and as they tried to pull it out, they found the body of the man. The murderer was arrested and sentenced to life in prison and the tavern was closed for a few days. For the first and last time in its history…
That’s why it is said, that “brabantský král” is the oldest, almost nonstop opened tavern.
I told you, the place was pretty cool, and Varga made a great choice.
When Devon got back from walking Sikulka, he sat down with Varga to plan out their hit on Aleksey. You may have recalled in a previous chapter that I mentioned silencers. If you recall I stated that they simply were not that effective in noise control, however, because Aleksey’s house was in a more built up area, there was a risk that gunfire might be heard by his neighbors. So, in this case, the use of them would help to mitigate the sound of them being fired. Devon and Varga, therefore, decided to put the silencers on their Sig P320s. The Sigs were, however, only brought for weapons of last resourse, as in Munich, they would be relying on the crossbows and knives for close quarter combat. The four bodyguards that were in visual range of each other would be eliminated by both of them firing their quarrels simultaneously. Varga suggested that they bring a glass cutter and lock picks just in case the doors were locked tis time. Devon thought this was a great idea. It never hurt to be prepared. The rest of their plan just involved unimportant minutiae, so I won’t bore you with those details.
Because it was going to be a late night, they decided to get a few hours of sleep before they went out for dinner. when they woke up, Devon walked Sikulka one more time for good measure. They didn’t want to find any messes when they got back to their rental house.
The restaurant that Varga chose, besides having really good food, had a medieval show, which included:
The menu was also quite varied as well as you can see below.
Devon and Varga had a very enjoyable night. The show was simple but fun, and the food proved to be very tasty even for a foodie like Devon. It was with a heavy heart that left this unique restaurant. When they walked out the front door, Devon profusely complimented Varga on his excellent choice of venu. Varga just beemed with happiness from Devon’s compliments. As they got back into their van and looked at all of the gear bags loaded stacked in the back of the van, reality came flooding back to them, and they quickly put their game faces back on. The drive back to the rental house was quiet and subdued, with neither of them feeling like talking. When they arrived back, they donned all their black tactical gear, with the exception of their vests. They would put them on at the last minute. It was still a little early, so they checked their crossbows to make sure everything was still working smoothly. They also gave inspected each quarrel to make sure they were still true, especially since they were going to be reusing them. One of them was slightly off true, so they put it aside, it would be destroyed with all the rest of the gear after the night was over.
Even though they purchased the crossbows in Munich Devon and Varga decided to remove the quarrels from the dead bodyguards when they were finished killing Aleksey. There was no point in making the work of the police any easier.
Devon and Varga decided that they had waited long enough. The chance of anyone still being up, of course, with the exception of the bodyguards, was minimal. They loaded the crossbows in the van and quietly drove off towards Aleksey’s house. During their previous nights reconnoitering, Varga had discovered a break in the trees near the Aleksey house where they could pull in and remain concealed from the road. That had bee n the only sore point when they first inspected the house. They hated the fact that they would have to walk even on a deserted street with all of their gear. If anyone happened to be out at that time, it would have been immediately obvious of what their intentions were. This hiding spot for the van virtually eliminated the chance of their presence being noticed. Once the van was concealed as best as possible, they finished gearing up. Since the woods were not that extensive and already familiar to them, they opted for a forego wearing their night vision goggles. They would, however, use them in the house once they had dispatched the guards on the outside.
The six guards were taken out with no mishap. Devon and Varga dragged each one of the guards into places of concealment. When they approached the house, it became apparent that the doors were, in fact, securely locked. It was a good thing that Varga had suggested bringing the glass cutter and lock picking gear. Unfortunately, the doors had deadbolts, and despite what they show on TV and in the movies, picking a lock, especially a deadbolt one, is very difficult. It certainly was beyond the skill set of either Devon or Varga.
Even though the house was set back from the street, they opted to use one of the back windows of the house. They finally found that it was big enough to enter into. To make it easier to enter the window, Varga took off his body armor and left it on the outside of the window along with his crossbow. For some reason, he opted not to put it back on after he opened the back door for Devon. This shortcut taken by Varga surprised Devon. However, Devon chose not to question him on it. This lapse in judgment would prove to be fatal for Varga. Maybe it was Karma, only God knows. Unlike with Popovic, Aleksey had not opted on any security for the inside of his house. He relied solely on the guards outside for protection. His house was somewhat smaller than Popovic’s house, so it did not take that much time to find the master suite on the second floor. Like before, they looked in every room upstairs to make sure there would be no surprises. The rooms were all empty. This was not surprising since he had no children. His wife was barren according to a botched abortion when she was a teenage girl. In a surprising moment of humanity, Aleksey had still decided to mary his childhood sweetheart. Maybe this was out of guilt since the child that was aborted was his.
When they reached the door to the master suite, they both paused to take in the moment. This was it. No more killing. Like before, Varga would subdue the spouse, and Devon would take care of the bad guy. As Devon moved steathily over to the sleeping form of Aleksey, his wife Ahmet in one smooth motion pulled out a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm pistol from behind her pillow and fired nearly point blank four rounds into the wide-eyed Varga killing him instantly.
Devon had no choice now, so he immediately pulled out his two Silenced Sigs and virtually simultaneously taped two rounds in Ahmet’s chest and two more into a stupified Alesksey. He then quickly checked to make sure that Varga was dead. From the beginning, neither of them wore any kind of ID on them when they were on a job, so he was not worried about that. The shots fired by Devon were muffled by the silencer, so Devon was confident that they had not been heard by Alesksey’s neighbors, but the shots of Ahmet’s Handgun was another matter all together. Now, speed was of the utmost importance. No longer was there any thought of taking the quarrels out of the dead guards. All he had time to do was to take one of the pillow cases off the bed and put all of Varga’s guns in it, he also put in the pillow case his night goggles and all of his tactical knives. This took about 30 seconds, even though it seemed like a whole lot longer. After doing this, he raced downstairs and grabbed Varga’s crossbow and body armor. He wanted to leave as little behind as possible.
As Devon drove away in his van, he kept on pounding the steering wheel and saying damn damn over and over again. Finally, Devon calmed down as his training began to kick in. He first had to get rid of all of the evidence. So he drove to a place that he had heard about. Pragovka is an abandoned Praga car factory located on the outskirts of Prague. This place would offer him plenty of places to conceal him while he broke down all of their weapons. It was still early, so there was nobody stirring around yet.
Devon had planned on throwing the dismantled weapons in either the Vltava river, or the Certovo Jezero lake, which was the largest and deepest lake in the Czech Republic and was located in the Bohemian Forest, but it was just too far of a drive at a 170 km. So he opted to spread and bury all the parts in the trash heaps that abounded in and around the deserted car factory. It would be next to impossible to make heads or tails of all the disparate parts that were spread in the several sites, not to mention he had wiped all the parts off, so there was no fingerprints on any of the dismantled weapons. It was still dark, so he kept his night goggles so that he could see what he was doing. He would just toss them in the Vltava river on his way back to the rental house. He was also sure that he was going to come back to an accident. It had taken a lot longer to break down the weapons than expected, especially since he was by himself.
When he arrived back to his house, he went quickly to the house expecting the worst on to find a wimpering and very happy Sikulka waiting at the front door with his leash in his mouth. Right then and there, Devon knew that he was going to keep him. This dog was truly amazing. After he walked him and spent some time making up to him. When Sikulka finally forgave him , he took off his boots and crashed on the couch, He was just too exhausted to take the rest of his clothes off. Several hours later, he woke up, took Sikulka out again, fed him, took a shower, and crashed in his bed. When he finally woke up in the afternoon, he grabbed a bite to eat from what was left of their food stash. He then had the unenviable task of finishing up the disposal of any other identifying items. He took all of his tactical clothing, the body armor vests had been cut up and disposed of at the abandoned car factory, so all that was left were his black outfit that he had worn the previous night. He took all of this clothing along with all of Varga’s IDs, their planning map, which he had ripped into small pieces and brought them to the back yard, where there was a firepit. He poured lighter fluid that was in the garage all over the items he had placed in the pit and set it on fire. Her kept on stirring the ashes to make sure everything was destroyed. He scoured the house for anything else that he might have missed. When he was finally sure that he had missed nothing, he gave the same treatment to his van. This didn’t take very long because everything had been left in duffel bags.
By the time he had finished his housekeeping chores, it was too late to contact his real estate broker. When he woke up in the morning, he contacted the shelter and told them that he wanted to adopt Sikulka. They were overjoyed with the news. He asked them what he needed to do to take him out of the country. They told him that all he needed was his proof of shots and his chip information, which they would be more than happy to provide for him if he stopped by. When he arrived they told him that he would need a cage to transport him in and they also gave him a small bottle of doggy Xanax to help calm him down for the flight home to Rome, Italy.
Even though Devon and Varga had driven further than the distance he had to travel to get back to his Jennie, he simply did not have the heart to drive that far without his wingman. He hated to admit it to himself, but he had really become attached to Varga. Even with his snoring and his always being hungry. He just did not know where he put it all. There hadn’t been an ounce of fat on him. After he finished taking care of Sikulka’s business, he made his travel arrangements. The final thing he needed to do and that was to contact his real estate broker. As before, all he had to do since he was paid in full was to leave his keys on the kitchen counter. This agent was a little on the greedy side because she did not offer him a refund. That was ok with Devon. He just wanted to get out of the house. Every place he looked reminded him of Varga.
When he arrived at the Vaclav Havel Prague Airport (PRG) with Sikulka, he dropped off his rental van and took a sky taxi to the terminal, where his caged and happily sleeping dog was checked in. He had no other check-in luggage, just a small carry-on. He had disposed of everything else to keep the flight as simple as possible.
The flight time from Prague to Rome was just shy of two hours. The closer he got to being with Jennie, the more anxious he became. Before he boarded the plane, he called his boss Gianluca and told him that he was on his way back to Rome, His boss was overjoyed with the news. When Devon told him what time his planned arrived, he said that he would have a driver there to pick him up. Devon told him that it would. He also told Devon that he would tell Jennie as well.
He should have know who would be picking him up, of course it was Thomas Jenner who was waiting to drive him back to the Vatican, what he wasn’t expecting was to see Jennie at the airport. When she saw Devon, she squeaked and ran up to him and smothered him with kisses. Suddenly, as if by magic, the weight of the world was lifted off of his shoulders. Because now he knew that everything he had endured was worth it because all that was important to him was in his arms. It was when she finally stopped kissing him that she noticed Sikulka in his cage. She screamed all over again. She asked Devon what his name was. When she heard what his name was, she said, “Hell no, his name is Spot.” Devon shrugged sheepishly and said, “OK dear, whatever you wish.”
Jenner carried the cage and put it in the back seat with Jennie. Devon sat in the front seat alongside Jenner.
The ride back to the Vatican was uneventful and quiet as Jennie was preoccupied with their new family member. She had immediately opened the cage and was playing with “Spot.” Devon just sat in the front, just grinning. Jenner was taciturn as always and said nothing as he drove the newly reunited family back to their apartment.