Chapter Thirty
Ty
The team benefited from the fact that the house where Fatima was allegedly held was neither owned nor fortified by Nadir.
If there were a security system, the feed would go to the owner, who would simply call the police.
The police station was a good distance away.
The other piece in their favor was that no one should know Nadir had rented this house.
That meant that if guards were holding Fatima, they wouldn’t be vigilant against external threats.
They’d be responsible for a single female elder.
If she escaped, there was no one to help her.
And the land was flat and open, so a pair of binoculars would find her before she got far.
That flat land was an Echo problem.
Especially because White wanted them to operate in daylight.
Jeopardy sent up a pocket drone, and they scouted their path in.
T-Rex tapped the image of the little building on the other side of the swimming pool. “Chances are that the house owners have hidden cameras to make sure no one's damaging their property. I’d put her back here. If the owner stopped by, they wouldn’t find her.”
“Agreed,” Ty said. “Rory and I can park here out of human line of sight and line ourselves up with this copse of trees and move in. Maybe there’s a back window or door.
Jeopardy, can you get close enough to see the left side?
” he waited for the image to clear. “That’s my second choice. That window there.”
“Meanwhile, Havoc, you come in from this angle. Nitro and I will come in from here,” he pointed at the screen. “Jeopardy, you hang back here at the SUV and provide overhead. And you’ll race in with a vehicle when you get the call.”
“Wilco.”
“Does everyone have Ketamine in their pockets?” T-Rex asked.
Everyone checked and affirmed.
“Guns for visual control only. Foreign land, foreign prisons. Use the syringes to knock out everyone who is not Fatima. Make sure you’re not wrestling around, and you don't get jabbed by mistake. Short window. Let’s roll out.”
Ty loaded Rory into one of the SUVs and parked at a distance that wouldn’t give anyone in the rental house an audio or visual heads-up.
He was depending on his years of trusting White’s intelligence and the skill and capability of Iniquus to trust that Fatima was even there.
Rory was limping, and Ty considered leaving him in the vehicle, but for many reasons, that was a poor choice. So Ty lifted Rory onto his shoulders in a practiced move and hiked them toward the trees. “Echo Two in position. Over.”
He waited for the go-ahead from T-Rex, then moved up to the back door. He set Rory down in the shadow of an overhang and knelt by the door to pick the rusty lock.
“Echo Two door breached. Holding.” He spoke through the bone mic, so no sound was audible in the area.
“Echo Actual, Two, do you have a visual of the precious cargo from your position?”
“Negative.”
“Echo Actual, On me. Three. Two. One. Actuate. Actuate. Actuate.”
Ty burst through the door to find what looked like a servant’s quarters. Ty recognized Fatima instantly from Kira’s pictures.
Dressed in a floor-length white cotton nightgown, Fatima startled from where she’d sprawled across the bed. Her ankle was shackled, the heavy chain long enough to give her access to the bathroom.
He gave the room a quick search and asked Rory to look for explosives. Rory’s nose went into the air, then he started his practiced circuit.
Ty pressed his comms button and moved his mouth so his voice was only heard over their channel, “Echo Two. I have secured the precious cargo.”
The terror on Fatima’s face was painful to see. “Fatima. Lula sent me.”
Fatima looked like she didn’t believe Ty, like she was ensnared in a trap.
Ty pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed the video of White.
“Fatima, I know you’re scared. I need you to know that Kira is with me.
” The image flicked to Kira, still looking doped and woozy on the hospital bed.
“She is safe. I’m watching her. The men who saved Kira are there to save you.
I want you to trust them, get on their plane, and fly to me.
Do everything they say as they say it. And soon, you will be safe, too. ”
Shouts were coming from the main house along with the sound of shattering glass.
Ty slid the burner phone back into his pocket. “Okay?” he raised his brows.
Fatima nodded and kicked her leg. And Ty got to work picking that lock.
Jeopardy drove in to pick up the team. They crowded into the SUV and drove to the other vehicles, then on to the plane in silence. Ty would find out what happened in the house once they got to their debrief.
Fatima had closed her eyes and had seemingly fallen asleep.
After a burst of adrenaline, that was a normal reaction.
She roused when they reached the plane.
Havoc, Nitro, and Jeopardy returned the vehicles while T-Rex and Ty pulled up a video call with White. They had to be careful to refer to White as 'Lula' when speaking in front of Fatima.
The pilots went into the terminal to get food for the team and wait for the signal that they were allowed back on the jet.
“Lula, my love,” Fatima said. “You are a blessing.”
“I’m so glad you’re safe. Kira is here with me, just in the other room. I don’t want to speak to you in front of her. As it is now, she knows nothing of what’s going on.”
“As I wish it,” Fatima said.
“We have little time. I have questions for you.”
“Yes, of course.” Fatima laced her fingers in her lap and leaned forward toward the camera.”
“Explain in your own words what was on the audio files that you hid in the wedding album.”
“It is complicated. My background is in computer science, but this is beyond what I learned in school. Nadir and his associates had begun to deploy botnet malware targeting routers. It made the computer a zombie. It would function as normal until the infection was triggered. Because the malware was decentralized—the ways normally used to stop viruses, which is to find the place they started and shut them down—well, that wouldn’t work.
If someone cleared the malware from their computer, it would simply reinfect because it lived in the router. ”
“Yes, alright. Keep going,” White said. “Who is their target?”
“The industry. Everyone who had anything to do with their businesses,” Fatima said.
“Was this implemented only in Qatar?” White asked.
“When I sent the recording to the United States—”
“To Kira,” Ty corrected.
“Yes,” Fatima looked at her lap where she knotted her fingers, “to Kira.” She took a deep breath and, after releasing it in a deep sigh, looked into the screen to answer White. “It was like a terrorist network with secret soldiers ready to act when their general picked up the phone.”
“Was it only in Qatar?” White repeated. “Or do you believe it extended to the neighboring countries?”
“You’re just thinking that because our region is in the news,” Fatima said.
“I’m thinking it because of geography and the business model of making a crisis and reaping the benefits that Nadir and William seemed to be so fond of,” White countered. “May William rot in hell,” she muttered.
“But this is true.” Fatima trembled from head to foot. “Nadir and William were among the global elite controlling three products that allow the modern world to function: oil, helium, and fertilizer. He who controls those three components has global leverage.”
“That’s what changed,” White said. “The geopolitical harvest was ripe. It was go time. And you decided to stop it, Fatima, by saying that you knew what was happening and you had proof.” White glared at Fatima.
“You said you had proof in a safe place, and that you would expose him if he acted, and Nadir landed on Kira.”
“That timeline doesn’t work,” T-Rex said. “This had to be in play before the region became a hot spot.”
“Fatima,” Ty said, “Kira told me that at the beginning of the month, the family was afraid that William and Nadir had drowned in a boating accident on the way from Singapore to William’s island.
And that it had taken over a day to find out that William and Nadir had flown to William’s compound in Tanzania. ”
Fatima rolled her lips to form a flat line and nodded her head.
“Yes, their business partner, Medved’ Zoric, was on that boat.
Medved’ had arranged with William to take his family on a retreat to the island.
And on the way, a speedboat collided with the ferry.
The entire family died together, a tragedy. ”
“That tragedy was the catalyst, right?” Ty asked.
“Yes, Medved’s team was the one to develop the infection. Medved’ had frenemies—this is the word in English?”
“I understand what you’re saying,” White said.
“With the frenemies were the Prokhorov family. The Prokhorov’s had their own scheme. With the Zorics gone, the Prokhorovs were moving into position. It was act or lose their opportunity,” Fatima said as she looked around.
“What do you need?” White asked.
“A glass of water, please.”
Ty stood, moved to the sink, and filled a glass.
“They were about to pull the trigger on their operation, and you stopped it,” White re-centered the conversation.
“I did,” Fatima whispered. “I acted abruptly without thought. Nadir wasn’t with me in Qatar, so for some reason, I suppose that made me feel safe.
Within minutes—minutes—men showed up in my room and told me to let the family know that Nadir requested I join him in Tanzania, and I was leaving immediately to bring him solace from the sudden and tragic deaths of his friends in Singapore.
I was held captive.” Fatima set her gaze on a blank wall, and her voice quivered.
“Nadir tortured me.” She sat still, her gaze fixed, then she blinked and focused on White.
“But I did not ever say Kira’s name. Nadir figured it out.
I guess he knows me better than I thought he did. ”