Devon followed the lengthy funeral procession to the cemetery and the Anderson family plot.
I am not sure why Popovic chose not to make a hit at the cemetery. Just maybe he had a “Scintilla” of decency. For those who are not familiar with the term.
“Scintilla” is a Latin word that means “spark” and is used to describe a small amount or hint of something. In English, it’s used metaphorically to refer to a trace or hint of something that suggests its presence. For example, you might say, “There isn’t a scintilla of evidence” to emphasize that there is none at all.
However, once the burial was completed, all hell broke loose. As Devon started walking towards his car, he was spun around by a burst of AK-47 rounds. The impacts of the shells hitting his chest were like sludgehammer blows. He partially fell and lurched to the cover provided by one of the tombstones next to him. Chips from the tombstone continued to rain on him as the bullets continued to strike all around him. Then he heard the loud report of rapid fire shotgun, which could only mean the Varga was firing back. In his peripheral view, could see Varga racing across the cemetery grounds as he fired one round after another into the body of the would-be assassin. The AK-47 fire immediately came to a stop as the shredded body of the shooter crumpled to the ground. As Varga took cover behind a tombstone next to Devon, he reloaded his shotgun. When he was finished, he took off their second shotgun that was slung across his back and tossed it to Devon. As he did this, he smiled at Devon and said, “Is this real enough for you?”
Just as he spoke, AK-47 rounds started hitting the tombstones that they were hiding behind as three men dressed in black tactical gear and wearing balaclavas started running towards their concealed positions Devon and Varga secure in the fact that they were protected by their body armor, jumped up, and opened fire on the three killers. The fire from the Franchi Spas 15s was devastating. All three of the killers just collapsed as blood sprayed everywhere from their destroyed bodies. One of the killer’s heads was totally destroyed from one of the rounds that stuck him in the jaw. Another killer had his right arm virtually taken off by the 12 gauge rounds. In just a few moments the four man hit squad led by Daniel Tomasi Parek and Aleks Burreli and consisted of two more killers, Antonio Zhivkev Petkovoski and Robert Okolicary and who were personally responsible for killing seven of his family members were dead.
You may ask how Devon knew that these were the same as the killers? What is the chance that Popovic could have gathered more than one professionally trained and armed hit team and secreted these teams into the US in such short notice? It was just not possible, even for Popovic. Devon’s hunch was further corroborated when he and Varga stripped the guns and spare clips off the bodies of the dead killers and discovered polaroid photos of each of his dead relatives in one of the killers tactical vest pockets. They had obviously been taken as proof of their kills and were meant to be brought back to Popovic when the job was done. As if any more proof was needed, Devon found what was left of a small polaroid camera in one of the killer’s molle pouches, leaving no doubt in his mind.
Devon and Varga burdened by four AK-47s, two shotguns and several spare clips for the Aks, and all of the really nice knives that the four guys had on them clumsily made their way back to the SUV. As they left the cemetery, four cop cars with flashing lights sped by them on their way, a call for multiple 187s (police code for multiple homicides).
Devon had not expected to find the hit squad that killed his relatives so quickly. If it hadn’t been for Vargas foresight, Jennie would be a widow, and he would be buried besides his family members. As Varga drove towards the town of Falls Church, Devon decided that in order to further protect his Aunt Christine and Judy, they should stay at a different hotel. He knew he was being overly cautious. He just didn’t want to bring any more grief to his aunt. Obviously, he was the reason why her life was in shambles, and just maybe he was feeling incredibly guilty, and seeing her again would only make him feel even worse. So he texted Judy, informing her of his plans. She said that she understood and thanked him for his caution. He said that he would meet them in the morning at their hotel and take them back to the airport and drop off the rental car.
Devon and Varga stayed at the Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park Hotel. He hated sleeping in double beds, but it appeared that none of the hotels in Falls Church had rooms with two queen beds. Well, at least the room was clean. In the morning, they stopped by the Tandem Restaurant & Bar for Starbucks coffee and a quick breakfast before they checked out. On any other time, he would have partaken of the free ticket and picnic basket package deal to the Great Falls National Park, but alas, their stay was not for social reasons.
As they were finishing up their coffee and scrambled egg breakfasts, Devon’s cell phone rang. When he answered the phone, he was greeted by the tearful voice of Judy Miller. “Devon, your Aunt Christine is dead. When I woke up this morning and went over to her bed to wake her up and get her ready for the flight back home, her body was cold. She died in her sleep. I can only think that she died of a broken heart. At least her suffering was over.”
A very shocked Devon answered back, “I will be right over.” It was only a ten minute drive to his Aunt’s Hotel. When he arrived at their room he knocked on the door and met Judy, he quickly introduced Varga, saying that he was a friend of the family that he had met at the Funeral Home yesterday. After the introductions were over, he walked over to his Aunt lying in bed and kissed her on her forehead. Her skin was so cold to his touch. He looked over at Judy and said I guess we delayed this long enough, but we need to notify the front desk so that they can call the Police and possibly EMS.” Judy, having been briefed by Betsy, Christine’s friend on Devon’s situation, told him that he and Varga could wait in the other unused room that he had reserved as she took care of his Aunt’s business. After they had gone to Devon’s original room, Judy called the front desk and notified them of the death of her charge. The manager immediately came up to the room and did a cursory inspection, and then he went back to his office and immediately called the police.
The response time was quite slow as most of the police were still at the cemetery. Two hours later, they were finally able to respond to the call. When the deputy sheriff arrived, he was escorted by the manager. After a cursory examination of the room and listening to Aunt Christine’s private duty nurse Judy relate all of the facts, EMS was not called, but the coroner was called. When the coroner arrived, he inspected the body for any signs of foul play, then he checked the ambient temperature and took the temperature of the body. He did a quick calculation and stated that Christine had died between 2:00 and 3:00 AM in the morning. Due to her previous history and the incredible loss and trauma that she had recently experienced, no autopsy was ordered. The coroner contacted the local funeral home, which coincidentally enough was the one that Devon was using to pick up the body. Under normal circumstances, he would have taken the body back to the morgue, but thanks to the four bodies already at the morgue, there was no more room. Falls Church was a low crime area, and thusly did not have a very large facility to house dead bodies.
When the funeral home attendee, the coroner signed a body release form, saying that there was no further need of any investigation, and after the next of kin had been notified they were free to dispose of Mrs. Christine Anderson. After he signed the one page form, he left as the attendee wrapped the body and put in her a body bag. when the coroner left and before the attendee left with Aunt Christine, Devon came back into the room. The attendee immediately recognized him. Devon told him that there were no more family members left,just him, so that there would be no viewing or ceremony. He also told him that he would be leaving the country for an emergency and that they could immediately process his aunt and bury here on their family plot. He gave the attendee his private cell phone number and told him when he got back to the funeral home to have the mortician contact him for payment and any further instructions he may need. He apologized about the unusual circumstances and the abruptness of how the matter was being taken care of. But he assured him that his aunt was in a much better place, and delaying the burial would serve no purpose.
After his aunt’s body was removed. He helped Judy collect all of Aunt Christine’s belongings and her own personal items brought her to the airport, before she entered the airport he thanked her for her care and professionalism that she showed his aunt, and gave her a hug. Devon then handed her an envelope with a check in it. Here is payment in full for your services, and an additional token of my appreciation is included. If you ever need anything, anything at all, feel free to contact me at the cell phone number I have included in the envelope.
After she entered the airport, he dropped off the rental car. Varga was waiting for Devon when he exited the rental agency and picked him up. Varga looked as Devon and said, “What now?” Devon replied, “We collected Popovic and his syndicate in Germany. Therefore, knowing him like I do, he won’t be there. I think we have two options: first, the Czech Republic and the second Turkey. They are the two hotbeds in Europe for the sex trade. These two places will offer him the most protection and acceptance. We have a fifty-fifty chance of being right.”
Varga said, “There are two of us, so we can divide and conquer….” Before Varga could finish his sentence, Devon interrupted him, “No we stay together, the last time I came to came to Europe I had my Kurdish Mastif Jojo, and I barely made it out alive. At the cemetery if I had been alone…well, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. No, we stick together. Even with us working together, we are still outnumbered and outgunned.”
Vargo nodded his head in assent. Devon started,”When I was working on my criminal justice degree, I took some psychology courses, and what I took from them is that it is human nature to distance onself from danger and dangerous situations as far as possible. So, if my instructors weren’t full of crap, we are going to start in Turkey first. We will have to start hitting the brothels one by one. We at least thanks to your experiences know what he lokks for when he sets them up, so we will have a slight edge. We will try greasing the wheels first with money, and if that doesn’t work, we will resort to more forceful means of questioning. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. We only need to find one of his mid level employees. I don’t want to leave a blood trail, I only want this to end. So I am thinking that the top three or four people in the syndicate will do the trick, and of course, any bodyguards that may be hanging around. They always seem to have a small army surrounding themselves.”
Devon continued further, “As you well know Varga, it is much harder to get weapons in Europe than it is in the US, so we will get more ammunition for the guns we already have and we will get four Sig Sauer P320s plus silencers and four Sig Sauer P365s. Plus, all of the appropriate holsters for the guns, I will also be needing a new tactical vest, since mine has seen better days. Since I have better contacts than you do here in the States, I can get all of this stuff without the cooling off period and all of the hassel of filling out paperwork. I think a cool $50,000 USD should do the trick nicely. I know it is way too much, but total anonymity and expediency tend to cost a little extra. We will, of course, need a private plane to get not only us but all of our gear into Turkey. I think that the Gulfstream G650ER will do nicely. I just happen to know of a couple of them being owned by the DC Aviation Group. The jet will set me back about another $150,000 USD.”
Gulfstream G650ER
They took Varga’s rental SUV to the private airport and offloaded all of their gear into the plane. Once that tadk was done, Varga returned his vehicle to the rental agency. He then took an Uber back to the airport. Meanwhile, Devon took care of all the paperwork and paid the table in full.
Varga had been on quite a few private planes, but this one was in a class all by itself. He was actually looking forward to the flight. The truth be told he hadn’t got that much sleep in the last few days, so having a room with a bed in it was a godsend. He told Devon that as soon as the plane reached cruising altitude, he was going to crash in one of the rooms. Devon nodded in agreement and motioned to the room he was going to take.
The flight to Istanbul would take approximately 10 hours, which gave them ample time to rest up. When they arrived there, they should both feel refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. They didn’t want to waste any time because once Popovic discovered that his hit squad had been eliminated, he most likely would go underground.
“Zurafa Street is in one of Istanbul’s oldest and most notorious brothel areas, dating back to Ottoman times. However, over the years, the number of brothels has dwindled. Indeed, the brothels and the official tallies of the women working in them reveal only a small part of Turkey’s sex industry.
Under Turkish law, government-supervised brothels are legal, but otherwise, prostitution is not. The Turkish penal code assumes prostitutes are exclusively female, and that if they agree to work in a brothel, then they are legitimate. So the brothels are registered in a location the municipality approves, pay taxes and agree to the city’s health code for sex workers. Indeed, for years in the early 1990s, Matild Manukyan, a businesswoman who owned 32 brothels, was the top taxpayer in the country.
The brothels are a double-edged sword for their workers. They provide a relative safety net compared with independent sex workers. But once workers are registered as brothel employees, their chances of finding other employment are rather slim. The stigma is official and permanent. The workers have to pay a hefty portion of their income to the brothel management, as well.”
If Popovic had set up a brothel in Istanbul, it would be on this street. So that is the first place they were going after they brought their gear to the villa that Devon had rented. Devon was never one to do anything half-assed. He had money and he was afraid to spend it.
Devon had also rented a white utility van, one that would blend in on the streets of Turkey and would hold all of their gear. It would also provide a place for them to change in and out of their tactical gear if need be. This way, if they found Popovic, they could gear up right on the spot. The quicker they were able to get out of the country, the better.
Before they left their villa, they thought it would be better if they had a cover story. If they went there asking a lot of questions, people would just clam up. The best idea that came to mind was that they were trying to find a place to offload some girls that they were bringing into Turkey. This was a good idea, but where could they get some photos. Well, the best place they knew of to find young and pretty girls was to go onto Tik Tok. They could do screen prints and print them on a color printer. The looked up copy service locations in Turkey and that was Zeki Copy. They went there, and they were able to download the phots to a color digital printer via wifi. They had found 20 pretty girls that ranged from 18 to 25 and cropped them down to headshots. These were just teaser photos that they could show any interested parties. Of course, Devon and Varga had more revealing photos for only the most serious clients. At least that is what they would tell anyone showed interest.
Below are examples of two girls that they found on TikTok.
They finally were ready to go to Zufara Street.
Zürafa Street in Istanbul, Turkey
Zürafa Street brothels provides shelter for 125 women with 25 of them being transgender women. The number of working women in the district exceed 300 including security and cleaning staff.
The first place we hit was Club 2010. It was a bar specializing in selling girls and drinks. Judging by the girls working there, they could use an infusion of new blood. None of the girls were that pretty. This club did not seem to be classy enough to be run by Popovic. Varga and Devon none the less started their speil and showed some of their photos. The quality of the girls raised a few eyebrows. Before too long, they were both ushered upstairs to the main office. They were greeted by a large greesy looking man, “I am Ahmet, I am the manager of this club. Why do you come to my club?” Devon and Varga were then questioned extensively about the girls. The club manager asked to see more revealing photos of the girls. Devon said not until there was talk about money. The manager said he only managed the club. He did not make those kinds of decisions. The girls were rotated in and out every couple of months between several other clubs in Turkey to keep the girls fresh for the patrons. Other than that, he didn’t know much. He just did what he was told and collected the money.
Devon asked how he could meet Ahmet’s boss? Ahmet said, “He comes every couple of months with the new girls. He likes to keep his hands in the operation.” Devon asked when was he due to be back? Ahmet shrugged, “Who knows, it could be tomorrow or in a week. All I know is that he should be coming soon.”
Devon handed him a phony business card that they had made up at the printing shop along with their photos. It was simple. It had his name, phone number, and a silhouette of a nude girl on it. “Call me when he gets here. I am only 10 minutes away. I will make it worth his while. Besides, I have seen your girls and mine are a lot nicer.”
With that, Devon and Varga got up and walked out. The only reply they got from the manager was a grunt. They knew they had him hooked, whether or not his boss was Popovic or one of his underlings, only time would tell.
They continued hitting the brothels with little little to no luck. Finally, after just about exhausting the district, they got a bite at Club Diana. This guy whose name was Hakan was much more dialed in. He was able to give Devon and Varga more definitive information. He definitely was a higher level player than the previous Ahmet at Club 2010. He said that his boss, Dominic Alexander Nirberg, has several brothels in Turkey and that he comes by once a week to check up on them.
When quarried further, he said that Dominic would be at this location the two to three days. Devon gave him a card and asked to call him when he arrived.
Since this was the last brothel in the red light district, all they could do was wait. So they went back to their villa after they stopped and got a bite to eat.
The next day, they would spend most of their time stripping, cleaning, and oiling all of their guns. Things were starting to look up. They had two possibilities, and both were going to be in Istanbul by the end of the week.