Chapter Twenty-Three

Jax

J CP Corporation, Upper West Side, Manhattan...

The quiet of Jax's office was shattered as the door flew open with a resounding bang. Rex, Jax's IT guru cousin, burst into the room like a tornado. His hulking frame filled the doorway. His eyes were wild with excitement, in stark contrast to his normally calm demeanor.

"I got a message!" Rex bellowed so loudly, his voice echoed off the walls.

Jax, who had been engrossed in studying the CCTV footage from around Ciska's home with Max, jerked upright so violently, his chair skidded backward. His heart hammered in his chest as hope surged through him.

"Jesus Christ, Rex," he growled as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "A little warning next time before you demolish my door, would you?"

Max turned to face their cousin. "What are you doing in New York?" Max's brow furrowed. "I thought you had a big deal you're signing this week."

"I do,"— Rex waved off the question, his focus laser sharp—"but I have full confidence in my team to handle it. This was too important, which is why I flew out here the moment I deciphered the message."

"Who sent you a message?" Max prodded urgently.

Jax's eyes widened as a spark of hope ignited in his chest. "Deciphered?" he said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Ciska? It's her, isn't it?"

"Of course, it's her, dumb ass," Rex replied, his tone softening slightly at the raw emotion in Jax's voice. "Why else would I be here?"

Max, ever the voice of reason, stepped in. "No bickering, please. Just spill it, Rex. What did the message say?"

The atmosphere in the room shifted instantly. Jax felt as if all the air had been sucked out, replaced by a potent mixture of hope and dread. He rose from his chair with his legs unsteady, but he was unable to contain his urgency.

"Do you know where it came from?" he pressed. His concern for Ciska's location overshadowed everything else.

Rex held up a hand, signaling for patience. "First things first." He pulled out his laptop, and his fingers flew over the keys as he logged on. "I've been scouring the dark web since Ciska was abducted. We know the Sandolens want her to design some kind of software program, and since she kicked off her career as one of the best hackers, I had a feeling she'd find a way to make contact without them noticing."

Jax nodded, but his mind was already racing ahead. The past few days had been a nightmare of worry and frustration. The memory of Max's grim face as he reported finding Ciska's apartment door broken and her phone abandoned still haunted him. Now, finally, they had a lead, and his patience was wearing thin.

"What does the message say?" he demanded again. This time, his voice was taut with tension.

Rex's brow furrowed in concentration. "You wouldn't believe the encryption on this thing," he muttered. His eyes lit up with admiration. "That woman is brilliant. She used a string of algorithms attached to whatever she was designing that reacted to my coding when I logged onto the dark web. How, I have no idea, but I am definitely going to find out when she's back!"

"Get on with it, Rex," Jax snapped. He was struggling to contain his irritation. The praise for Ciska's skills, while deserved, only served to heighten his anxiety about her safety.

Rex nodded, clearly sensing Jax's growing agitation. "The message came in two parts. One I managed to decrypt. The other is a much larger folder, which I believe only she has access to."

Max's eyes narrowed. "It must be the program she designed in the past... the reason why she was in prison."

Jax's expression turned thunderous at the mention of Ciska's imprisonment. His fists curled at his sides. Max placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Easy, Jax," he said softly. "It's better to understand every aspect of the message than just homing in on one factor."

Rex continued, but his voice became serious. "The unlocking of the encryption took me most of the night. If not for the discussion she and I had that one night at Club Decadent Skies, I might still be battling with it. Luckily, I remembered something she said about her way of coding and managed to open the folder." He paused, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, she says she's fine, although locked up in a room with a workstation in one of the Sandolens warehouses somewhere in Chicago."

"Thank God, she's alive," Jax said as relief washed over him, and he could breathe easier for the first time since her disappearance. However, the relief was quickly tempered by a surge of anger and frustration. "She's still in danger, though, as long as she's in the clutches of those bastards." His knuckles turned white with tension.

Rex rubbed a hand over his head, bald since he lost a bet against Dexter. He liked the look so much, it became his permanent trademark.

"She said to tell you to go to Lombardo with what you spoke about. That once the program is live, there'll be a war, and the authorities will be coming for the Five Families."

Max's expression furrowed in concentration. "So, Carlisi is after state control of the mafia," he mused. "The man must be senile. His group is less than half the size of any of the Five Families."

Jax nodded grimly. "From what Ciska told me, the aim is to get rid of the current Chicago group that sits on the Cosa Nostra so the Sandolens take their place. Once inside, each of the families will be exposed and linked to a Federal criminal activity that will end with them in jail. The scope of it is staggering— full-on cyber-attacks, the Five Families, the very fabric of organized crime at war could rip our country completely off balance."

Rex's eyes widened as the implications sank in. "Through a software program?" He shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around it. "How? The only way to... fuck me. Cyber-attacks against the FBI, isn't it?"

"Not only the FBI," Jax confirmed in a voice trumping heavily through the room. "Every single legal and Federal institution will be targeted, including the White House. Different attacks will point to a different mafia group. Irrefutable cyber proof will be found, and they will be prosecuted successfully."

"Do we really want to stop that? I mean, if it means our streets are cleaned out from the terrors of the mafia, why not let this run its course?"

"I have no problem doing that," Jax said darkly, "but not as long as Ciska is somewhere locked away, forced to do their bidding."

"Then, how are we going to stop them?" Rex said thoughtfully. As usual Jax knew his mind was already racing with options. "These modern mafia lords have the best IT systems and hackers working for them. Hacking into their systems is next to impossible."

"Yet you've been able to do it before," Jax pointed out.

Rex shrugged, but the pride of his skill colored his voice. "Yeah, well, I'm not your run-of-the-mill IT guy."

"Neither is Ciska," Jax added. "Which is why Carlisi brought her back to finish the job."

One thought pounded in Jax's head like a drumbeat.

"We need to get to her before the shit hits the fan. Nothing is more important. Not the Sandolens, not the Five Families, not even the looming threat of Federal intervention," he said forcefully as he looked at Max. "We have to find her and bring her home."

"And we will, but storming to Chicago, guns blazing, would be reckless and get Ciska killed. The stakes are much higher than we ever imagined, Jax. It's not just the mafia wars that could result from whatever Carlisi is planning, but the entire fate of our country is at stake."

"I know you're right. But she... fuck, Max. I love her. She's my future, and I can't lose her now. Not before we even begin our lives together."

"You're not going to lose her. We need to think. There has to be a way..."

Jax forced himself to calm down. For as long as the bastard needed her skills, she was safe from physical harm, but of more concern was the psychological pressure Carlisi was putting on Ciska.

"Fact of the matter is that once she's finished with the program and it's activated, Carlisi won't simply let her go. Unless he has another purpose for her, she would become a liability."

"Yeah, same thought I had," Rex interjected.

"This is fucked up." Jax looked at Max and Rex. "There's no way we can stand up against even a group as small as the Sandolens. It's like attempting to navigate a treacherous storm in a dingy without getting crushed."

"Why don't we just approach the FBI?" Rex asked. "Surely, they have the Sandolens Group in their vizier?"

"Of course, they do, but that's just the problem. Their aim would be to eliminate the threat. Weighing Ciska's life against crushing the entire group... where do you think their loyalty lies?"

"Also true," Max said. "I can approach the colonel to assist us in a private covert mission."

"Unless we know where she is, it'll be useless." Jax scratched his head. "Fuck! Of course. Ciska said it in her message, and I even mentioned this to her before. Lombardo. We are going to Lombardo."

"You want to ask a mafia lord to help you get her back?"

"He's never going to stop hounding me to become an associate, Max, and then he'll be gunning for you. Iceman's visit last week is proof of that. No, we're going to make him an offer he can't refuse. We give him the Sandolens, save his precious Capo di Tutti Capo position of the Cosa Nostra and the Five Families, in exchange for leaving us alone, and help find and bring Ciska back."

"There's a fucking bucketful of holes in that plan, Jax, and all of them could backfire," Max said darkly.

"I know, but do you have another suggestion?"

"Indeed not." Max scratched his beard. "So, how do we contact Lombardo?"

"The one way that would prove to him that he's not safe, no matter how deep he has buried himself from the authorities." Jax looked at Rex. "You're going to hack into their system and send him a message."

"Well, I like challenges." Rex cracked his fingers. "Let's get this ball rolling."