Ricardo (The Santiago Brothers Book Three) (22 page)

“The blindfold was rarely removed when I was in Abdul’s custody.”

He slipped a hand to her knee and squeezed. “Whatever you can do is all we ask.”

Mel suppressed the shudder that rocketed up her leg from his contact, a finger sliding down the sensitive center part of her knee. She nearly swiped his hand away, but was too enraptured by his touch to discontinue it. She nodded. “Okay, I’ll do what I can.”

“I found her!” Ben yelled from his corner. His fingers furiously swept the keys of his laptop computer. The picture of a strikingly beautiful African woman in a headscarf flashed onto the main screen. “Qamar Sadiq. She recently used one of her aliases — Kaafi Mahdi — to purchase a commercial truck from a well-known local dealership.”

“Did she pay cash?” Daniels asked.

“No. But she presented a UK driver’s license under her alias, and it was flagged by a man we’ve developed inside,” Ben replied.

“Good work. Now we know what type of vehicle will possibly be used. It might be painted to match local trucks on the street. Alert security to any vehicle idling around the complex.”

“Is she the one that’s going to use my creds?” Mel asked, her eyes fixed on the screen.

“That’s the most likely scenario,” Daniels answered. “She may try to gain entry by pretending to be you and give the story about your abduction. All security personnel have been alerted that you’re already inside the embassy and to detain anyone attempting to use a government agency ID.”

Mel tilted her head to one side. “She kinda looks like me. What if security thinks I was transported off the compound and now I’m returning?”

Daniels shook his head at the scenario. “They were implicitly instructed to detain
anyone
regardless of government affiliation. With the embassy on lockdown, if you were to leave, you wouldn’t be coming back. Ric, how many hours did you say Abdul had a head start on us?”

Ric rubbed his beard in contemplation. “If they commandeered Hassan’s private jet, you’re looking at at least a twelve-hour head start. And most of his men have been in place for the last week.”

“Look at this!” Ben called the room to attention. He switched to a camera feed that gave an angle of the north side of the embassy. “We have an idle yellow truck on the opposite side of the street.”

“Could be a final dry run,” Ric said.

“Or it could be the real deal,” Ross countered.

Mel’s gaze shifted between the two men. The animosity was obvious, at least on Ross’s part. She leaned in close to Ric. “Did you break his nose?”

Ric sported a cocky half-grin. “He was getting on my nerves.” When her eyes widened, he continued. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

She was sure it’d be a good story; Ross was the type of person one would want to punch in the face.

“We’ve got security on the line. They said they’ve detained a US Marshal Melody Lewis,” a female analyst spoke.

Nobody in the command center moved. Then everyone darted in all directions. Ric and Melody were on their feet and headed toward the door. “Santiago, find out what she knows,” Daniels ordered from behind them. “And somebody get me eyes on the driver of that truck.”

“Already on it, boss,” Ben replied. “I think I can pull the feed from the northeast camera and that should do it.”

Mel sprinted to keep up with Ric’s pace. He tore through a staircase door and leapt down the flights, taking several stairs at a time. “Where are they holding her?” Ric said into his cell. “No, don’t give her anything. Has she been searched? Nothing? No weapons or… Search her again. No, don’t question her. I’m on my way.”

“She’s gotta know that we know she’s lying about who she is.”

“Maybe. That’s what I got to find out. If she keeps up the act, we’ll bring you in to trip her up.”

“If she’s not the bomber then she’s definitely a diversion.”

“A costly one if she doesn’t mind being captured by our government.”

They reached the lower level where the central security office was located. Mel stopped Ric from entering with a hand on his arm. “What if she doesn’t plan to be captured?”

Ric eyed her curiously. “You think this is a martyr mission? Why then did she even need to set foot inside the embassy? She could’ve just blown herself up right outside.”

A member of the security team stepped into the hallway. The tall, black man removed his service cap and with a shake of his head said, “You’ll never guess this twist.”

“What?” Mel and Ric said in unison.

“She’s defecting.”

****

Ric walked inside the small room fitted with a gray metal table and a couple of matching chairs, as well as a computer desk, which was manned by a security guard. Qamar Sadiq sat quietly with her long legs crossed at the knees, and her lips slightly pursed in an arrogant way. Her gaze drifted down Ric’s long frame. The look of approval grew in her eyes the longer she kept them on him. Her resemblance to Mel was striking, yet she failed to ignite the slightest attraction in him.

They didn’t have much time to stop the attack, so Ric got right to the point. Knuckles on the table, he leaned over it. “I want to know every detail of this attack. Start with the time first.” He spoke in Arabic.

“I want asylum.”

“Yeah, I heard. Before we can even discuss that, I need the positions of each of the men in this operation. It’s happening today, isn’t it? What time? How long do we have?”

Qamar sealed her lips, her stare growing more and more irritated. “You’re not listening to me. I want asylum.”

“Give us the information we want and we’ll talk about asylum. If you don’t, you’ll blow up with the rest of us.”

A smirk curved the sharp lines of her high cheekbones. “You don’t know anything.”

“And you know everything, is that it?”

“I know what the plans are, so yes, I do know everything. You want to know what I know? You promise me asylum in Germany.”

“Why? Why do you want asylum? Haven’t you sworn to do jihad against the United States? What, are you suddenly bored with your mission?”

She chuckled at his sarcasm. “If you’ve seen what I’ve seen, then you know it’s never boring.”

She’s prepared to do this dance all day, and we don’t have the time.
Ric hated not being in control of an interrogation. Well, this really wasn’t his ideal style of interrogating, but she held all the cards and it was her game or nothing. “Why Germany?”

Her eyes softened and her gaze drifted past him. “The man I love is there,” she whispered.

Ric blinked.
Love?
“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

Qamar blasted a sigh. “We were separated before a group of armed men came into my village. I was told if I didn’t train to jihad, that my family would be killed.”

“So you trained and started committing attacks.”

“This was supposed to be my first. But my family was killed anyway. The only person in the world I have left is my Hans.”

I don’t believe it.
Qamar was known to have traveled extensively throughout Europe and only recently returned to Somalia before the Italian authorities could detain her. At any time she could’ve sought asylum in a European country. “I need proof.”

“A man named Abdul kidnapped an American citizen. A woman, who looks a little like me.”

“Which explains your use of her credentials.”

“I know where this man is. Do you want him?”

A loaded question.
More than anything.
Daniels would want Abdul alive; he’d be a valuable source of information given his ties to one of Saudi’s wealthiest businessmen. How many terrorist factions did Sheik Hassan knowingly or unwittingly bankroll due to Abdul’s intimate knowledge of the man’s finances? Cutting off the funding for these groups would be a substantial advancement in shutting down their operations.

But if Ric had his way, Abdul would never see the inside of a CIA black site. He’d die wherever he was standing when they met again. Nothing would be able to pry Ric’s hands from around the man’s throat as he choked the life from him.
For Hakeem
, he thought. His mouth watered at the chance for vengeance.

Vengeance is the Lord’s.

His mother’s words rang loudly in his head. When he was a teenager, in a fit of anger, he had asked his mother what she did to get back at his dad for the abuse. When she said “nothing,” he was stupefied even though he knew it was the truth. He had meant to hurt her by his question, but only he felt the pain. When he was a boy, he had to stand there and take it, but she was a grown woman. Didn’t she have any desire to fight at all? His father was able to escape…to run away to wherever he went, never to face the consequences of his actions. Never to look into the eyes of his son and tell him he was wrong. Justice — no matter the method — was a concept Ric craved. He would forever bear the scar on the side of his neck, but Hakeem would never see another sunrise, or pop an oversized date into his mouth.
Vengeance is the Lord’s? Yeah, well sometimes God is just a little too slow.

A knock at the door snapped Ric out of his thoughts. Qamar stared at him strangely and he wondered how long he had been silent. “Yes, I want to know where Abdul is.”

“That’s what I’m here to tell you,” Ross said from behind.

Ric closed his eyes. The urge to hit the man coursed rapidly through his veins.
Now, it’s just the sound of his voice that’s setting me off.
He’d have to handle his temper if he was going to get through the day without adding a stack of human resources complaints to his service file.

Qamar’s face fell at Ross’s declaration.
Well, at least I know she understands English,
Ric mused as he turned to face his colleague. One of her leverages was just stripped from her. She only had a couple of cards left to play and if Ben was worth his salt as an analyst, he’d spot the suspected terrorists on video before they had a chance to strike.

Ric followed Ross out of the room to speak away from Qamar. Mel, who had been waiting with a group of security, walked up to the two of them, her face showing concern. “Did she say anything?”

“Yeah, she’s in love,” Ric said dryly.

“What?”

“What’s the latest on Abdul, Ross?”

Ross cleared his throat. “Well, it’s more Sheik Hassan. He’s phoned the embassy. Says he has information on Abdul, but only wants to speak to you, Ric.”

Mel’s head snapped in Ric’s direction. “Ric, don’t. It’s a diversion.”

Ric looked at her in confusion. “A diversion?”

“Yes.” She angled herself toward him, and spoke with urgency. “You said it yourself: you’re unsure of where his loyalties lie.”

“He let me go. If he didn’t, I wouldn’t have found you. You’d be
dead
, rotting in the middle of the desert.”

She closed her eyes at the word “dead” but soon reopened them, showing every bit of determination he heard in her voice. “You
can’t
trust him. He could be working for Abdul. For all we know, he’s financing this attack.”

She was too smart. “He didn’t know Abdul was going to abduct you.”

She nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. I’ll buy that Abdul saw me, and decided that since he was already bringing Qamar on board, that maybe sneaking her into the embassy was another angle but regardless of that, he never explained, to your satisfaction if you recall, what he knew about this attack.”

She threw his argument against Hassan back in his face and it frustrated him to have to defend his weak position. Everything she said was correct; Hassan didn’t necessarily have to be privy to the specific details of the attack, nor would he be aware of any off-the-cuff deviations made by Abdul. He only had to bankroll the operation. By Hassan’s estimate, his hands were clean, unless it could be proved that he was somehow directly linked to the planning of the operation.

“So this sheik guy could’ve only financed it,” Ross spoke up.

“Leaving him no need to explain anything if he doesn’t exactly know any details about Abdul’s plans,” Mel added.

“You’re right. I know you’re right.” Ric sighed and drew a hand down the side of his face.

“What did Qamar say?” Mel asked.

“She’s defecting. Apparently, the man she loves is in Germany and she decided not to participate in the exploding part of the attack today in an effort to procure asylum.”

“That’s…crazy,” Mel whispered. “Has she said anything else about the attack?”

Ric shook his head. “She wants the asylum first.”

“You’re not going to give it to her, are you?”

“It’s not up to me. I definitely won’t recommend it.”

Ross let out a loud sigh. Mel and Ric looked his way. He placed his hands on his hips. “What are you going to do about the sheik, Ric?”

“See what you can get out of him. I think we need to take the fight to Abdul. If our cameras and eyes on the ground can identify anyone, let’s take them out now. Since Qamar is here, we have to assume she’s phase one of the attack and the next ones will soon follow.”

“Probably more quickly since hers didn’t exactly work out,” Mel said.

Ric pointed to a couple of the security guards posted at the door of the room. “She doesn’t go anywhere. Don’t let her out of your sight.” He turned on his heels and marched out with Ross and Mel close behind.

“What about her immunity?” Ross asked. “She could have information.”

“Whatever she has, it’s considered obsolete since the game plan has changed. Abdul is probably working on a contingency plan right now.”

In less than a minute, all three of them had sprinted up the stairs and back into the operation room.

“Immunity? She’s got to be joking,” Daniels said. “Did she say anything else?”

Ric shook his head.

“Okay, well, if she was the diversion or even the main event, that still means we’ve got possible shooters or vehicles still in play. Ross, I need you out of that suit and working the rooftops we don’t have a camera angle on. Remember, rockets are in play. Ric, I want you on the street. You’ve seen these guys, and you’ll be able to spot anything suspicious. We’ve already got a few men out there and their comms are on channel two.”