Chapter Twenty-Six
Ty
“There are worse places to wait for a collection,” Havoc said, watching the twinkle of lights across the river.
“There are better,” Jeopardy countered. “Middle of the damn night, sitting on the water with this cold, wet air. White,” he called over to her, “you could have bought us some long johns.”
“Next time,” White chuckled.
T-Rex stepped away from the back of the van. “The brothers are starting to come around.”
“How do you handle that?” White asked.
“We have enough meds for a second dose,” T-Rex said. “We’ll do it if we have to, but we talked about the risks. I’d rather not.”
“We could figure out a make-do ball gag,” Nitro said.
“That’s your expertise, brother,” Jeopardy said. “I leave that to you.”
White’s phone rang with a distinct pinging.
Ty turned. “That’s not good,” he muttered under his breath.
White put her phone on airplane mode on missions. If it was pinging, someone was coming over an app that didn’t respect the do-not-disturb.
“White,” she said, holding the cell to her ear. There was a long pause as she listened. “T-Rex and Ty, come with me, please. The rest of you are in charge of the targets. We’re just out of earshot. If you need us, holler.”
Everything about White was taut. Ty didn’t ever remember her moving stiffly like that.
Rory, on the other hand, paced at Ty’s side, looking relaxed, which told Ty there was nothing of interest in the area that was catching his attention.
They reached a picnic table and sat.
White laid her phone in the middle of the table and tapped the speaker button.
“White. I’m in a park out of range of any ears.
I have a clear view of my environs. It is zero three fourteen hours locally.
You’re on speaker with Echo Actual T-Rex and Echo Two Ty.
I am speaking on a military, end-to-end encrypted app.
Gentleman,” White turned from T-Rex to Ty, “this is John Black, the Color Code Coordinating Supervisor.”
Ty moved to combat breathing as ice shot through his system.
“Black here. I’m in a hotel suite in Washington, D.C. You’re on speakerphone with Special Agent Steve Finley, FBI terror. Next, we have Iniquus Puzzler, Lynx, and Iniquus Strike Force Operator Gator.
T-Rex turned to Ty, and they locked eyes.
“There’s a situation that has unfolded here in D.C,” Black said.
Immediately, some of Ty’s stress fell away.
For whatever reason, he felt sure this call was about Kira.
After that moment on the stairs in her house when she said something was wrong, and the way she’d been with him in bed, he’d felt like he was making love to her for the last time. That Kira was saying good-bye.
And then there was the robbery. Wrapping that up was such a relief. He’d thought maybe Kira had done that precognition thing she did sometimes when she knew danger was over the hill.
But Black had said that this was about D.C., and Kira was at home in Durham.
Just as Ty was about to exhale, Black said. “Kira has been taken by two men at the behest of her Uncle Nadir.”
Both White and T-Rex reached out and put restraining hands on Ty.
It wasn’t necessary. He was glued in place with 100% focus. He needed to know every detail so he could go on the hunt.
“What time did this take place?” White asked.
“Eighteen hundred eastern standard.”
“Still daylight,” T-Rex said, “that’s brazen.”
“We have her phone so we were able to follow her because of her fitness tracker. Last location we had on her was the airport.”
“She’s not getting on a commercial flight,” T-Rex said. “It’s got to be a private jet.”
“Where is Nadir’s plane?” Ty asked.
“In flight over the Red Sea,” Black said.
“What about William Davidson’s plane?” White asked.
“It landed in Durham early this morning, and then immediately flew to D.C. The window of its arrival locally corresponds with events,” Lynx said.
Ty gripped the table. “What are we doing about that?”
“We’re talking to you,” Black said. “And we’re getting a plan together. The Davidson plane has already left our sovereign airspace and is heading toward Spain for refueling with a final destination to Tanzania.”
“I think it would be good to go over the events that led up to this situation,” White said. “I can’t fathom a reason why Kira was in D.C., why Nadir would scoop her up, or how your team got involved.”
“Lynx, why don’t you start laying the story out?” Black said in his hallmark bass voice.
Lynx had a calm way of unfolding stories. When Ty heard her speak, he always thought that every brain cell was assessing the situation, and it gave him some relief that she was there, finding the clue that everyone else would overlook.
Lynx walked through the ring that Lula brought as a gift from London, and how it held the warning of Nadir’s mood and intentions.
Ty watched White’s face closely, and she seemed distressed by what she was hearing. She didn’t know the ring had an emotional origin story or a secret compartment, he was certain.
Lynx went on to explain Kira’s decision to leave her house and the suspiciously timed bomb scare at the fort that turned Kira away.
“We’ve reviewed Fort Bragg security tapes with footage of Kira arriving and leaving.
From there, she went to a coffee shop and called Christen.
Christen told her to drive to Charlotte and fly to Washington, where Gator would meet her. ”
So far, Ty was on board with everything that had happened: Kira’s choice to get onto the secured fort and then reaching out for help. Christen was right to take her seriously and herd her toward support.
“This gets a little complicated. So we’re walking through step by step.
” She mentioned that William Davidson was medevacked to a hospital, but she didn’t say why.
“We know that William’s guests took a car to an airport where they caught a flight to meet him.
We believe that included Kira’s aunt and uncle, Fatima and Nadir. ”
Kira’s Aunt Fatima was the family matriarch. Surely, she’d try to intervene and help Kira, Ty reasoned.
“How did they find Kira in D.C.?” White asked.
“On the way to the hotel,” Lynx continued.
“Kira took a call over speaker phone, where she was talking to the police about a break-in at her house, getting in through a broken window. The police said someone shook the house looking for something. When Gator and I got back to Iniquus after settling Kira at her hotel, we hired a Durham security team to take photos of the interior damage, hoping that would give us clues as to what they were looking for. The police said there was a broken window, and the inside was trashed as if someone was looking for something, and they suggested that if Kira needed something secured, they could take it to their station.”
“What did the security team find when they got there?” White asked.
“At Kira’s house, they checked the doors, and they were locked.
There were no broken windows, and, looking through them, everything was neat as a pin.
The neighbors who were supposed to have called the police and given them Kira’s number were at their river house for the last couple of days, and the neighbor across the street is cat-sitting for them.
The security team checked with Durham PD, and Durham police didn’t respond to Kira’s address. ”
“So that call somehow was tracing her?” White asked. “But it would lead to your car, correct? She took the call from the police as you were heading for the hotel?”
“When Kira hung up with the police, we asked her to put her phone on airplane mode, and we gave her a burner phone. This becomes important because her original phone was overlooked in the kidnapping. After Kira was taken, we found her original phone, and we had our forensic team analyze it for clues. Apparently, while in the car, Kira opened a text message to connect with whom she thought was the police,” Lynx said.
“Iniquus found malware released into the phone.”
“High tech to get past airplane mode,” T-Rex said.
“People who own jets don’t have low tech,” Black said.
“But how did they get her out of the hotel?” White asked.
“That we have limited information about,” Lynx said. “However, Kira was able to trigger the emergency app on her original phone, so we have a full recording of what happened in the hotel room.”
“What kind of emergency app, White?” Ty asked.
“It sends a crisis signal to Langley. Everything is recorded, and the camera takes a video. We receive a precise GPS location.”
“There was no video because she hid the phone under a chair, but we have the audio,” Black said. “I’m playing it now.”
It was hard to listen to, but Ty was so proud of her bravery. He understood her decisions—the pull of her family had always been a centrifugal force in her life.
“When they left,” Lynx said, “the kidnappers took the burner phone along with her suitcase and backpack, so her computer is with her. They tossed the burner out the window on the highway.”
“Ty, is there anything on her computer that’s dangerous to Kira?” Gator asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ty looked over to White. “White pretty much read her the riot act about what Kira could put in writing. She rarely uses her computer. Had they found her cell phone, they’d have our text history. So it’s good that got overlooked.”
“So after listening to your recording,” White said, “the takeaway is that they don’t want Kira, they want information from Kira about an object. Do you know what that’s about?”
“Yes,” Lynx said. “Houston—Houston is Reaper Hamilton’s service dog, and Reaper keeps her happy by doing scent training.
Houston can smell hidden electronics. She alerted on the wedding album that is part of Kira’s work.
We took the album to Iniquus and prioritized it in our forensics lab.
They found a series of voice recordings hidden in the album’s padded cover.
Those recordings were downloaded and translated.
Black and Finley have decided to hand them over to the State Department in the morning. ”
“Nadir has people who will torture Kira if that’s what’s necessary to get what they want,” White said. “Does Kira know about the recordings?”
“No,” Lynx said.
White shifted around, letting her gaze sweep the Seine until she focused upriver. “We’ll need to intercept the plane in Spain when they’re refueling. Can you get us permission to act on Spanish soil?”
“Finley here. The FBI is already in communication with our Spanish counterparts. We’ve already indicated that the kidnapped woman is a CIA asset and that we have a team headed their way. That’s Echo.”
“Thank you,” Ty said through gritted teeth.
“How long do we have?” White asked.
“Finley here. Five and a half hours.”
“And Nadir’s plane is flying to where after it crosses the Red Sea?” Ty asked.
“Dodoma, Tanzania,” Lynx said. “We speculated that it was to move William Davidson back to Qatar once he stabilized, but that’s not going to be the case.
Christen called Gator just before we reached out to you.
William Davidson is dead. He experienced a brain embolism and was declared deceased soon after he reached the hospital. ”
“So maybe William’s plane gets Kira as far as Dodoma,” T-Rex said, “and Nadir plans to use his jet to fly Kira from Dodoma to Qatar. Once she’s there, she’s out of our reach.”
Ty’s fist came down on the table. “This stops in Spain.”
“Absolutely,” White said.
“Echo needs to have the lead in Spain,” T-Rex said.
“Finley here. Hey, man, I understand the sentiment, but we’re walking on eggshells right now. It’s not a good geopolitical environment for us to be a bull in a china shop. On Spanish soil, we have to ask and be humble. At least you’ll be there.”
“In our homeless clothes,” Ty muttered.
“What’s that? Black asked.
“They left Bragg in BDUs,” White said, “and I had clothes picked out to help them blend.”
“Like homeless people?” Black asked.
“Parisian homeless, so they had some style.” White quipped.
“You have your weapons?” Gator asked.
“On the Color Code jet,” White said. “France didn’t give permission to use weapons.”
“Finley and I are going to work the phones,” Black said. “I’ll leave you to Lynx and Gator. White?”
“Sir?”
“You sent off the packages you collected?”
“We’re just waiting for our mailmen. I think I see them heading up the waterway. You received my communications?”
“Excellent work. Let’s complete this mission before the focus shifts elsewhere.”
“Yes, sir,” White said as she stood. “Color Code jet is fueled and standing by for our exfil. We’ll reroute.”
Five and a half hours. That should be plenty of time, Ty reasoned.
When Delta Force was first a concept, the commanders were looking for places where they could build expertise and excel. At a time when hijackers were frequently in the news, Delta Force became the world's preeminent authority on confined-space tactics on planes.
If Kira were on a plane, Echo could get her off safely.
That is, if Spain would let them do their work.
“Hey Lynx, Gator,” Ty said gruffly, “I want to thank you for going above and beyond for Kira and me.”
“Brother,” Gator said. “That’s not above and beyond. We protect our own, and now that you’re part of the Iniquus family, so is Kira. You know how that works.”
Ty was missing something. “You’ve lost me.”
“I talked to General Elliot about Ty a couple of days ago. Ty may not know yet. It was just sent,” Lynx said softly off to the side.
“When was it signed?” Gator asked her.
“Thursday,” Lynx said, then her voice grew louder as she focused her words into the phone. “Ty, your Iniquus contracts should have been at your house Saturday.”
“Hell of a way to find out, brother,” Gator said. “But welcome to Team Delta.”
“That’s amazing news. But I can’t celebrate until I have Kira safe.