Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Leeza eyed their guide, Jacob, who was sitting on the other side of their campsite, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closed. She hoped he was sleeping but she’d seen him go from indolent to man-of-action in seconds.
“He’s going to try to kill us,” she said in a low voice.
Shaun gasped, her eyes widening.
“Probably,” said Ayaan, chewing on a piece of chicken jerky.
“How do you know?” Shaun asked in a high-pitched voice, her horrified gaze going to the man in question.
Leeza watched Ayaan sigh, rubbing her forehead as though to ease a headache. She’d been hypervigilant since they arrived in Bangui, in the Central African Republic, as though it was her personal mission to keep them all safe while they searched for their missing siblings.
After landing in Bangui, they’d taken a prop plane to a village in the Northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
From there, they hired Jacob to take them to wherever they were now.
Not lost exactly, but definitely not anywhere Leeza could easily extract herself from.
She was taking a leap of faith with Ayaan.
“It’s inevitable,” Ayaan answered Shaun’s question in a low voice. “We’re easy targets for any predator looking for some cash. Three women travelling alone through dangerous terrain. We could easily disappear and no one would ever know.”
“What do we do?” Shaun asked in a trembling voice. “Should we leave when he goes to bed?”
Leeza burst out laughing, quickly stifling the sound when Jacob snorted and shifted in his sleep. “If we leave, we’ll be dead even faster than in our guide’s fantasies.”
“We don’t know the region,” Ayaan agreed in a low voice. “We need him to get us close enough to my brother’s territory for me to lead us the rest of the way.”
“What if he tries to kill us before then?” Shaun asked.
Leeza shook her head. “He won’t. We’re going to lull him into thinking he has more time with us than he does. We’re going to look helpless, flirt a little, keep him confident and off kilter. He’ll sort us in his head, decide which one he’s going to keep.”
“No!” gasped Shaun, horrified. “Why? That sounds like a terrible idea.”
Ayaan grimaced. “If you don’t like that part of the plan, then you won’t like the rest.”
“What’s the rest?” Shaun squeaked.
Leeza answered, “We need you to flirt with him, keep his focus off the two of us.”
Shaun’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
Leeza cut her off before she could voice her denial.
“You’re a civilian doctor; you talk like a doctor, you act like a doctor.
You can convince him you’re harmless out here in the jungle far better than either of us.
Ayaan moves like she was born to whatever terrain she finds herself in.
And I can’t open my mouth without pissing off the men around me. I have no idea how to flirt.”
“And I do?”
Leeza and Ayaan laughed.
“Not on purpose,” Ayaan assured Shaun when she looked offended, “but you are very beautiful and you have this way of looking at men that makes them melt.”
“Even Havel has a soft spot for you, and he doesn’t have a soft spot for anyone,” Leeza chimed in.
“You’re telling me your husband has a soft spot for me?” Shaun asked skeptically. “That’s absurd.”
Leeza accepted a piece of chicken jerky from Ayaan.
“It’s not. You have those big eyes with thick eyelashes.
You’re smarter than all of us combined, except for Saskia.
” Her voice faltered as she thought about her missing sister.
“But you also have this helplessness about you that attracts the warrior in these men. If Jozef hadn’t claimed you when he did, I’m sure it would’ve been someone else in the organization. ”
Shaun’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
Leeza pitied her. She was a professional woman who worked at the top of her field. She was well respected and used to being in control of herself and her surroundings. She hated being reminded that she’d been kidnapped by the mafia.
Shaun’s gaping mouth closed firmly, her lips pressing into an unimpressed line. Finally, her gaze swung to Jacob, who was now snoring. “Even if that’s true, what am I supposed to do about him?”
“Not much,” Leeza assured her. “Just be yourself. He’s already starting to think about you that way.”
“How do you know?” Shaun looked like she wanted to vomit at the idea now that she knew what kind of person their guide was.
“His eyes linger on you more than us,” Ayaan piped in. “He places himself either right behind you or next to you. He offered to carry your bag this morning.”
“I’m going to be sick.”
Leeza gave Shaun’s shoulder a quick squeeze.
“You’re going to remember that you are as much mafia as the rest of us.
You’re the one who pulled strings and got us into the Central African Republic so quickly.
Now you’re going to buck up and take this hit for the team.
Make this guy think he’s got the upper hand with the three of us, then when we’re done with him, we’ll relieve you of your burden. ”
Ayaan laughed, taking a gulp from her water bottle.
“I don’t even want to know what that means,” Shaun muttered.
“You know what it means,” Ayaan said. “That’s why you’re going to do it. There’s an end in sight.”
“Just… don’t let him suffer, okay?”
Leeza suppressed a grin. A few years ago, Shaun would’ve been disgusted and horrified at the idea that they would kill someone. Now she was reluctantly on board with it as long as they didn’t let the victim suffer. She truly was a mafia wife now.
“Imagine if Jozef got hold of him,” Ayaan pointed out.
A collective shudder went through them as they imagined Jozef’s wrath, made so much worse if he found out the guide had developed a crush on his wife.
They went to bed after their discussion, though none of them slept much. Leeza wasn’t afraid of their guide, but she was alert and watchful. He would strike eventually; they just needed to manipulate him into waiting for the right moment.
It came four days later, after they’d made their way upriver by boat and then on foot through dense rainforest, stopping in several villages along the way to mine for information.
They didn’t know exactly where to find Radik, so they were forced to do some backtracking using the information gleaned by locals.
They had stopped once again to reorient themselves. Ayaan was standing on a ridge above the others, talking on a satellite phone and looking around. She pointed at a mountain while she talked and Leeza thought she was discussing the terrain with someone who had the ability to fly a satellite over.
Jacob was watching Ayaan suspiciously. “Who’s she talking to?”
“Why do you need to know?” countered Leeza.
His hand went to the semi-automatic slung across his chest. “You could be leading me into an ambush.”
Idiot, Leeza thought, rolling her eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be guiding us? Why would we lead you into an ambush?”
He eyed her with disgust and Leeza’s fingers twitched with the desire to take him down and cut his throat. The two had hated each other from the start. He despised Leeza’s lack of fear or respect for his leadership and Leeza hated men who chose to wield power over the helpless.
“I think you lied to me about why you wanted to come out here,” snapped Jacob, his finger finding the trigger on his gun. “You’re tricking me.”
Leeza dropped her backpack, pretending to stretch so as not to alarm him.
She suspected this was the moment they’d been waiting for and she very much hoped whoever was on the other end of the phone with Ayaan would be able to take them the rest of the way to Radik because they were about to become guideless.
“Don’t be stupid,” Leeza taunted. “We told you, we’re out here looking for Ayaan’s brother and my sister.
Why would we lie?” She inched her hand up her back, sliding it under her shirt, gripping the hunting knife she kept sheathed there.
Nodding towards a stream, she said to Shaun, “Why don’t you go fill up our water bottles. ”
Jacob pointed his gun at Shaun. “You’re not going anywhere until we sort this out.”
“Why… why are you doing this?” Shaun stammered, putting her hands up. “We hired you to help us find our friends. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Speak for yourself, Leeza thought, balancing on the balls of her feet.
“Women don’t come out here alone unless they’re up to something,” Jacob sneered. He swung his gun back and forth. “Why would your friends be all the way out here? It’s dangerous, only warlords and outlaws live out here.”
“That’s exactly who we’re looking for,” Ayaan said, coming up behind Jacob. “Didn’t we tell you who my brother is? He’s well known in this region. Perhaps you’ve heard of General Radik.”
The colour drained from his face. He swung around to face Ayaan, taking his gun off Leeza who reacted with the swiftness of a leopard, leaping on his back, her knife slicing his throat in one smooth motion.
“Argggghh!” he gurgled, flailing with Leeza still on his back.
Ayaan dove to the side, taking Shaun down to the ground and covering her as Jacob’s finger tightened on the trigger of his gun, spraying the area with bullets before his body hit the ground.
As he lay bleeding out, Leeza crawled out from under him, yanking his weapon from his body and throwing it aside.
“Everyone okay?” Leeza eyed Shaun and Ayaan who were picking themselves up off the ground.
“I’m good,” Ayaan assured her.
“Oh god!” Shaun stumbled a few steps before bending over, hands on her knees, and vomiting. Leeza reached for her, but Shaun waved her away. “I’m fine.” She swiped an arm across her mouth, then kneeled next to Jacob’s body and checked for a pulse. She looked up, shaking her head grimly.
Leeza stifled the urge to laugh. If Shaun had found a pulse, Ayaan and Leeza would have had to then stop that pulse from continuing. It was a pain in the ass travelling with a doctor who insisted on ethics and principles and shit like that.
“Please tell me whoever you were talking to can get us the rest of the way,” Leeza said to Ayaan, wiping her blade on Jacob’s shirt while Shaun gave her a disgusted look.
“I think so. He’s working on redirecting a satellite. He’ll call once he has a potential for us.”
“A potential what?” asked Shaun, her hands shaking as she gathered their water bottles.
“A potential target. My brother surrounds himself with mercenary personnel who require barracks. Those kinds of buildings aren’t common in this area, so he’d have them specially built.
He would also have excellent security measures, including a wall, guards, scouts, drones.
A satellite view will give us the best opportunity of spotting the infrastructure in and around Radik’s compound. ”
Shaun nodded her understanding and headed to the stream Leeza had tried to send her to earlier.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Ayaan asked. “She seems pretty shaken up.”
Leeza waved a dismissive hand. “She’ll be fine.” Whether it was true or not, because Shaun had no choice. She couldn’t collapse on them because a little blood was spilled.
“Still, I think we should move our camp away so she doesn’t have to look at the body.”
Leeza agreed, not saying that she felt the same. As much as she didn’t mind spilling the blood of bad men, she didn’t particularly enjoy dealing with bodies.
Shaun seemed grateful when they joined her at the stream, telling her they intended to stay there until the call came.
As they were eating a lunch of rehydrated curry and rice, the satellite phone rang.
Ayaan listened and nodded, saying, “Thanks, Coop. Send me the images and I’ll look them over.
” She was silent for a minute, then said in an impatient tone, “Of course this is a legitimate op. Jozef doesn’t want it going through usual channels.
Look, I gotta go. I’ll let you know if I need anything else. ”
Leeza gaped at her as she hung up the phone.
“You asked a Guard Dog employee for help? Are you insane? You may as well draw a map for our husbands.” She thought about Havel’s reaction when he found out his wife had left their home and flown to the Central African Republic without telling him. “I’m a dead woman.”
“Me too, but I knew that before we came here.” Shaun stared at Ayaan for a moment before adding, “I think I know what you’re up to.
You believe the guys are going to eventually trace Saskia’s whereabouts and you think if we get there first, we can mitigate the potential war.
It doesn’t matter if you ask Cooper to help us and he takes that information to Jozef because we’ll still arrive first since we’re closer. ”
Ayaan nodded. “I’ve worked with Jozef and Havel long enough to know they’ll find my brother eventually. This way we have a fighting chance of stopping the massacre.”
“I think the massacre is going to be on our side when they find us,” Leeza grimly interjected.
Shaun glanced guiltily in the direction of Jacob’s body. “My husband is going to kill both of you for murdering that guy in front of me.”
Leeza and Ayaan exchanged glances.
“Probably shouldn’t mention that part,” Leeza said.
Ayaan agreed. “They don’t need to know all the details.” She looked at her phone. “Good news.” She beamed at them. “I think I know where my brother’s compound is and it’s not far. We can be there by the end of the day.”
The three women packed their things and headed in the direction of the compound, discussing how to breach it along the way.