Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
The windowless room in the safe house had Asher wanting to put his fists through the brick-lined walls. Daylight had been killed between the time change and their flight to Berlin. They were running out of time.
She could already be gone.
“Five groups are trying to claim credit for the attack,” Knox said, and Asher pivoted to face him. “Al-Nusra has gone through a lot of leadership and name changes in the last six years. They’re in the middle of rebranding—again—but they’re not on the suspect list.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Asher murmured. “The group is a bunch of damn shapeshifters. Changing with the times to maintain relevancy.” Asher crossed his arms, trying to destroy some of the tension burning in his biceps. “But how can it not be them?”
“Are they pro-ISIS, or . . .?” Liam looked up from his laptop and over at Asher.
“Against. For now, at least,” Asher grumbled. “Enemies, regardless. But if they aren’t seeking credit for the hit, it could be because they’re waiting for something. A second attack, maybe.”
Before anyone could say more, Luke’s phone buzzed. “It’s Owen.” He placed him on speaker.
“Egon Becker,” Owen announced straight away. “He’s our assassin. He used to be part of an Austrian militant group, but then parted ways to work as a freelance killer. He’s done a lot of work for nearly every major terrorist organization, and he’s known for covering up his kills with explosions.”
“Did we catch him on any cameras in Berlin?” Asher asked as Knox displayed the next image onto the screen on the wall.
“Well, we know he’s in Germany. We pulled an image of him from a traffic camera about ten kilometers away from the Austrian border. He was in a red BMW X4 at the time. Must’ve ditched it for the SUV.”
“Good work,” Luke responded.
“I discovered something else while you guys were flying,” Owen said a beat later. “Yasser Hadeed had one other sister. Fatima. She saw a cancer specialist at a hospital in Paris two months ago, and Ara visited her while she was there.”
“Any contact before that?” Luke asked.
“Not sure yet. But someone had to have gotten word to her Fatima was in Paris. That or Ara has been keeping an eye on her remaining family back in Syria.”
“Where’s the aunt now?” Asher followed up.
“Last known location was Aleppo,” Owen answered.
“What else do we know about Fatima?” Luke surveyed his team. A mix of anger and fear in his gaze. “I assume she wasn’t connected to her brother’s terrorist activities, or the military would’ve taken her out, too.”
Asher thought back to the op. “She had two sons. Nothing connected any of them to al-Nusra.”
“Her husband?” Luke cocked a brow.
Asher rummaged through his memories from the mission. “He died under the Assad regime as well.”
“Okay. Let’s put some guys on this,” Luke instructed. “Someone must’ve followed Ara back to Berlin, and then put the hit out on her.”
“We’re working under the assumption someone killed Ara because of her betrayal to her uncle, are we not?” Owen asked.
Luke looked around at the team. “Yeah, but there has to be more to it than that. Why now?”
“Is it a coincidence the aunt was sick?” Liam scratched at his blond stubble.
Asher’s brow rose. “Probably not.”
“We still haven’t determined why Egon took Jessica,” Owen pointed out.
The overwhelming urge to hit something again tore through him, but he kept his arms locked in front of his chest to resist the impulse.
“He may turn her over to whoever hired him.” Knox’s words were like a blow of reality to the skull.
“We need to narrow down locations. Where would Egon have taken her?” Asher went over to the screen on the wall. He touched the upper right quadrant and expanded it to study the map of Berlin.
Liam sat at the desk and dragged a laptop in front of him.
“See what we’re missing.” Luke directed the order toward Liam. “Check both Ara’s and Jessica’s emails.”
“She has a separate account for her alias. It’s the one she uses to connect with the girls,” Asher reminded them.
“You want me to go through your sister’s emails?” Liam asked, his voice dropping lower.
“If it means saving her? Hell, yes.”
“I’ll be in touch once I get more,” Owen said.
“Since we’re not officially working this case I can’t ask Rutherford for the operational files from Aleppo, so I’ve got Echo Team trying to scrounge up what they can find without raising any red flags.
” He was quiet for a moment, and then he added, “We’ll get her back. ”
Once the call ended, Asher rubbed his bearded chin, thoughts buzzing through his mind. Possible locations where she could be held. “If he expected Jessica to be with Ara last night, that meant he’d already arranged to have a place to bring her to.”
“He couldn’t have gone too far without catching the attention of the police.” Liam observed the map on the screen now.
“Maybe on the outskirts of town, but not too far from the city,” Asher suggested. “And I’m sure he has another vehicle ready.”
An angry red crawled up Luke’s throat and into his cheeks.
“Probably took her to someplace abandoned.” Asher zoomed in on the plaza where Jessica had been abducted, and focused on the back roads Egon could’ve taken to go undetected. “He won’t stay wherever he’s at for long, though, because he’ll know the Germans will be canvassing the city.”
Jessica had always claimed to be great at finding people, but now she needed them to find her, and Asher was one of the best trackers—he’d sure as hell not let her down.
“Can I see the keyboard a second?” he asked Liam. “There’s a delay on these satellite cams, but maybe . . .” He let his voice trail off as he began working, checking overhead views of various properties.
Twenty minutes later, his heart trekked up into his throat at the sight of a black SUV next to a second dark vehicle parked near a hospital, nearly obscured by trees and the overgrowth of the area. “Here.”
The team surrounded him to view the screen. “This is it. No traffic cameras within a five-kilometer radius, and it’s been abandoned since World War Two.”
“The Germans may have figured this out,” Liam said from behind him.
“We would’ve heard about it.” Asher faced the group. “We need to roll out now. She could already be gone.”
Luke averted his eyes from the screen and regarded Asher. “You heard him.” He nodded. “Gear up. Let’s go get our girl.”
“We’re too late.” Asher’s chest rose and fell as he gripped his rifle as steadily as possible, staring at the remains of the black Beamer in the midst of the char. Flames licked the sky, wrapping the frame of the SUV like a warm embrace of death. “And the second SUV is gone.”
“She could still be inside,” Luke said.
If she was . . . she was dead. But no one, especially not Asher, wanted to voice those words aloud.
“Let’s move in,” Luke commanded as they bypassed the burning car and headed toward the side entrance of the hospital.
“Stay behind me. There could be trip wires.” Asher sidestepped Luke without giving him a chance to protest. “We can’t lose you both.”
Don’t be inside. He wanted her back—but alive. He wanted her fucking alive.
His booted feet moved slowly into the hospital.
Death clung to the walls.
A reminder of the atrocities that had once taken place at the site.
His stomach roiled, but he kept moving, kept on the lookout.
Room after room.
Empty.
No wires that he could see. No hidden explosives.
Lead filled his chest when he stumbled upon a hospital room a few minutes later. Two portable heaters and nearly a dozen empty jugs of water scattered all over the floor.
He touched a metal rolling table piled with saturated rags. Still damp.
He winced at the sight of blood on the floor. Fresh blood.
“Waterboarding,” he said under his breath, his body growing tenser by the minute. “He was torturing her.”
“He didn’t want her to freeze. A plus, I guess.” Liam tipped his chin toward the heaters.
“We missed her, but not by much.” Luke looked over at Asher, a blank look in his eyes.
They hadn’t passed any vehicles on the bare roads on their way in, though, which meant Egon had too much of a head start for them to go barreling back outside to comb through foreign territory.
Asher stowed his weapon. He moved to the far side of the room and pressed his hands to the wall alongside a boarded-up window. He bowed his head and reeled his hand back, unable to stop himself.
His gloved fist slammed into the concrete wall.
“Asher.” Knox’s voice met his ears. “We have to go. Owen just called. The German Feds are on their way. We can’t be found here.”
He hadn’t even heard the call. His mind had been turned to rubble. Nothing in. Nothing out.
“Come on, man.” It was Luke this time, attempting to talk Asher off the proverbial ledge.
He was losing his damn mind.
He was officially showing all of his cards now, and he couldn’t give a damn. All he wanted was Jessica back—to hell with everything else.
“We’ll get her.” Luke rested a hand on his shoulder, but he lost his hold once Asher swiveled to face him.
His jaw locked tight as he swept his gaze to Luke’s eyes. “He’s passing her off to whoever hired him.”
Liam and Knox approached them, still holding their rifles.
“Maybe they’ll try taking her to Syria,” Knox proposed.
Luke looked back at him from over his shoulder. “No. Too risky.” He found Asher’s eyes again. “He wouldn’t attempt to smuggle her into the Czech Republic or Poland, either.”
“They’re going to keep her in Berlin,” Asher whispered, and his heart raced harder now.
“Another attack,” Luke added to Asher’s line of thought.
The blood rushed from Asher’s face. “We need to get back to the city.” He moved past the men, retracing the steps he’d already cleared on the way in.
“You have an idea where she’s being held?” Liam asked once they were inside their rental.
Asher strapped into the passenger seat alongside Luke, who sat behind the wheel.
“Kreuzberg. If Egon handed Jessica over to someone from the al-Nusra Front—or whatever the hell they call themselves now—they’ll be in Kreuzberg.
It’s one of the most multicultural places in the city.
A lot of refugees live there. They could easily blend in. ”
“Get Owen back on the phone,” Luke instructed. “I need to know if Echo Team found anything on these bastards. I need to know who the hell had the most to gain from killing Ara. Right the fuck now.”