CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nadim ended the call with Adnan, and his molars ground together. The man’s impudence created a powerful urge to throw the phone across the room. Instead, he focused on remaining calm and set it down gently on his desk. His father once said that outbursts of emotion were a sign of internal weakness, and Nadim had taken it to heart.
He reached for the decanter and poured the remaining bourbon into his glass.
Soon, his father’s demand to avenge his brother’s murder would be fulfilled, and Nadim would finally, after many long years, be able to cast off the yoke of that burden and move on with his life.
Happy in the knowledge that it would all be ending soon, he swallowed a healthy amount of liquor and watched the long hand on the clock click to the ten. His gaze dropped to the laptop screen and the blinking cursor.
Eleven fifty and still no response from Maya Corbett .
“Do you think I was not serious, Ms. Corbett?” Was she playing a game with him by delaying her response until the last moment?
He finished off the bourbon and leaned forward to set the glass next to the empty decanter, and the room was suddenly plunged into blackness.
The glow of the laptop screen was the only light until a set of emergency lights mounted high up in one corner of the ceiling clicked on. Their dim light only touched a small portion of the large room.
The doors of his office burst open, and he bolted up from his chair.
Commander Rahim Kassab and two guards rushed across the room—flashlights in hand—and circled behind his desk.
“What the hell is going on, Commander?” Nadim looked from one man to the other.
“We are not sure, Your Majesty.” Rahim’s voice held zero emotion. “Please, you must come with us to the safe room.”
As the head of the Royal Guard, Kassab was personally responsible for the king’s safety. Just as he had been when Nadim’s father was alive.
“I am not going anywhere until I know what the hell is going on!” Nadim grabbed his cell phone and dialed Adnan’s number. With each ring, his impatience grew. Six rings later, Bashar’s voicemail answered, and Nadim hung up. “Where the hell is Adnan?”
“We do not know, Your Majesty.” Rahim’s monotone responses were beginning to grate on Nadim’s nerves. “We have had no success reaching him or the guards placed at the door to the girl’s room.”
“Son of a bitch.” The king shoved past Rahim, surprising the man and knocking him back against the bookshelf behind his desk.
He ran into the hall and headed straight to the elevators.
The guards’ footsteps thundered behind him.
“Your Majesty,” Rahim shouted. “You must wait for us to escort you.”
Nadim pressed the elevator button repeatedly before remembering they automatically shut down in the event of a power failure.
“Dammit!” His breaths were heavy. He pounded the butt of his fist against the elevator doors and turned, ready to bolt to the stairs, and came face-to-face with the commander.
“Sir, we must get you to the safe room immediately until we have assessed the situation.” His hardened tone meant he would not be dissuaded from his duties. “The queen and your children are being escorted there now.”
If he truly believed Nadim’s life was in jeopardy, the head of the Royal Guard had the authority to override the king’s orders and remove him to a safe place .
“Fine, I will go.” The guards flanked him, and Rahim led them away from the elevator. “I want Adnan Bashar found and brought to me immediately.”
Rahim unclipped a radio from his waistband and gave the appropriate orders.
They crossed the enormous rotunda inside the front doors. The guards protected him as they zigzagged around embassy personnel and household staff running about like chickens with their heads cut off, completely unaware their sovereign had just walked right past them.
Nadim was rarely in this part of the embassy, but he recognized the servants’ stairwell when they passed it. He had only been to the safe room once before, right after it was built—when he and his wife were given a tour of the seven-hundred-fifty-square-foot space.
Constructed of two-foot-thick concrete, it was located at the rear of the main embassy building, past the service elevator and servants’ stairwell. It had its own power source in the form of a large generator, self-contained air filtration system, communication equipment, and enough food, water, and other supplies necessary to survive for several weeks.
By the time they arrived at the safe room, his wife, Queen Aisha, and their three children were already inside, and the generator had powered on the lights. His ten-month-old daughter, Aaliyah, slept in her nanny’s arms, thumb in her mouth, unbothered by all of the tumult. Faruq, his ten-year-old son and the future King of Qadira, sat in a chair, his long bangs hanging in his face as he hunched over his handheld video game. His five-year-old daughter, Amira, ran to Nadim, wrapped her arms around his legs, and looked up at him with worried eyes.
“Papa, my baby is scared.” She held her dolly up for him to see.
What his little girl really meant was that she , herself, was scared. But lately, his sweet, empathetic daughter had taken to communicating her fears and concerns through her baby doll. A child specialist assured them their daughter was going through a very typical phase of childhood and would be fine.
He squatted down in front of her.
“You can tell your baby that everything is fine and that there is nothing to be afraid of.” He tapped the tip of her nose and stood.
Nadim would never admit it to another living soul, but Amira was his favorite of his three children. He loved all of them, but she held a special place in his heart. Perhaps it was because they’d almost lost her to childhood leukemia and she had proven to be a worthy adversary for the awful disease.
Nadim appreciated Amira’s fighting spirit.
“You see, baby,” she said to her doll, “Papa said everything is fine, and I believe him because he always tells the truth.” She snuggled the doll close and smiled up at him. “Right, Papa?”
“That’s right, precious.” A twinge of guilt pulsed through his gut, but he quickly disregarded it.
The child would be shielded from ever knowing what nefarious deeds her father had committed in the past and would likely commit in the future.
“Commander.” The radio squawked in Rahim’s hand.
“Excuse me.” He stepped away and raised the radio to his mouth. “What is it?”
A staticky voice came through the small speaker. “We have an update on Mr. Bashar and the guards.”
The commander lowered the volume, held the radio to his ear, and turned so his back was to the room. He nodded, muttered something too low to hear, then clipped the radio back to his belt.
Nadim walked over to where he stood near the far corner. “What is it?”
Rahim cast a brief glance in Aisha’s direction.
“Do not worry about the queen.” She was preparing to read a book to Amira and her doll. “She is busy with the children.”
Aisha knew nothing about the Corbett situation. Not that the woman had murdered Zahir, not about the promise he’d made to his father, nor that Nadim had kidnapped the Corbett girl .
The less the queen knew, the better things would be for everyone, especially him.
“We have located Mr. Bashar.” His commander kept his voice low. “He was found unconscious in the girl’s room. The guards were also unconscious.” He looked over at the queen once more, then back at Nadim. “And the girl is gone, sir.”
“What do you mean she’s—”
At his outburst, Aisha and Amira looked over at him. Even Faruq paused his game to see what his father was upset about.
Nadim lowered his voice to a whisper. “What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“She is nowhere on the third floor, but I have my men searching for her. She can’t have gotten far.” Rahim seemed confident she would be found.
Nadim was not so sure.
The blasted radio squawked again, and someone said the power had been restored.
“I will be there shortly,” Rahim said.
“Did they just say the power is back on?” Aisha joined them, a child’s book in one hand, a small blanket in the other.
“Yes, my love.” Nadim forced a smile. “You and the children can return to our quarters. I’ve got some business to attend to. ”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you up to, Nadim?”
The commander cleared his throat. “Excuse me. I must do a walk-through of the compound.”
“Yes, of course.” Nadim nodded and gave him a pointed look. “Keep me updated.”
She watched Rahim leave, then crossed her arms and turned her sharp attention back to Nadim. “Well?”
“It is overseas business, nothing for you to worry about, my lamb.” He curved his hand over her shoulder. “Please, just take the children back to their rooms, and I will be done soon.”
He wasn’t sure she bought his act, but she’d been around long enough not to press further.
“Come, children.” She turned and gathered them up. “It is way past your bedtimes.”
Faruq whined that he was too old for a bedtime.
Amira dashed over to her father, and he caught her when she leaped into his arms.
“Will you come give me a kiss good night, Papa?” She played with the knot of his tie. “My baby doll will not be able to sleep until you do.”
“I absolutely will.” He kissed her nose and set her on her feet. “Now be a good girl and go with mama.”
“G’night.” She gave him a little wave and skipped over to Aisha .
His wife took her hand, the nanny carried the baby, and they all left the safe room.
He walked over to the doorway and watched them disappear around the corner. As soon as they were gone, he dashed up to the third floor and into the room where they’d been holding the girl.
Rahim was examining the lock on the door, and Adnan was sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, head in his hands.
“What the hell happened?” Nadim stood over him.
“I was on my way here when the lights went out.” He dragged his fingers through his hair and sat up. “I ran into that table out there, knocked it over, and dropped my phone. I have no idea where it ended up.” He dug his fingertips into his temples. “Flowers and shit went everywhere, and I had to use the wall just to find my way to this room.” He massaged the front of his neck. “Saleem and Usman were not at the door when I arrived. So I … I unlocked it and … I stepped into the room.” His brows crunched together as he thought back over what happened. “And I was … someone grabbed me from behind.”
“Where the hell were the guards?” Nadim shouted.
“We found them unconscious at the end of the hall, Your Majesty,” Rahim said. “We assume they were put down with tranquilizer darts. ”
“Tranquilizer darts?” Nadim shared a look with Rahim. “Did you say there was someone in this room when you arrived here?”
“There must have been.” Adnan stood, his legs wobbled, and he gripped the headboard to keep from falling. “But the door was locked. I am certain of it.”
“There are marks to indicate someone may have picked the lock.” Rahim pointed at the doorknob.
“Can you describe this person?” The commander moved toward the bed. “The one who grabbed you?”
“He was behind me, and I could not see him. But he was large, very large—big enough to easily lift me off the ground.” He stretched his neck side to side. “When I opened my eyes, one of your men was leaning over me, shining a flashlight in my face.”
While Nadim had been sitting in his office waiting to hear from Maya Corbett, someone had infiltrated his embassy and taken the girl right out from under his nose.