Black shrugged. “I won’t disagree.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to refute the findings of this study.”
Black smiled and winked at her before diving into the water. He swam toward the bottom and watched several fish scoot out of his way before he resurfaced.
When he re-emerged, he found Shields wearing a pair of sunglasses. He pulled himself up and aboard then toweled off.
“Did Jana give those to you?” he asked.
Shields nodded. “Right before we left. She said they’d help me hone in on my target without looking suspicious. There’s also a directional mic in my hat.”
“Fancy,” Black said before putting his shirt back on. “See anything yet?”
“No activity to speak of, but it’s early.”
Black glanced skyward, the sun high overhead. A few hundred meters away, Zahid’s yacht ebbed and flowed with the tide. He grabbed a drink and then placed his back to his targets. Shields shook her head as she looked at him.
“What?” he asked, raising both hands in the air. “I don’t want to look suspicious.”
“Why don’t you come over here and make yourself less suspicious by rubbing sunblock on my back? We are supposed to be star-crossed lovers after all, aren’t we?”
“You’re going to milk this, aren’t you?” Black said as he walked over to her.
“I’d be a fool not to,” she said. “Now, just make sure you get full coverage. I don’t want any red splotches.”
Black growled then dumped a dollop of lotion into his hand and started rubbing it on her back.
“You can just go ahead and give me a massage when you’re done.”
Black leaned forward and looked at Shields. “Are you sure this isn’t making us look more suspicious?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I just saw a Zahid inspect a briefcase loaded with cash.”
“What’s being said?”
She put her index finger in the air. “Hold on.”
After a half minute, she related the conversation between Zahid and another man identified as Carl Bergstrom, a diamond broker operating out of South Africa. According to intelligence sources, the two men were meeting to discuss ways to launder money.
“How many men do you see on board?” Black asked.
“From what I can tell, I only see two or three at the most.”
“Think we can take him?”
She nodded. “I can take out the guards and Bergstrom if you can handle Zahid.”
“Consider it done.”
* * *
SHIELDS ATTACHED her natural-looking prosthetic legs before climbing onto the Jet Ski that had been secured to their yacht. She glanced up at Black.
“Wish me luck,” she said.
He blew her a kiss and waved. As she hummed toward Zahid’s yacht, she tugged down on the baseball cap she’d chosen to wear for the short trip over. She needed to shield her face and her body so that Zahid didn’t recognize her from their previous run-in. As she approached the ship, she slowed down.
“Hola, amigo,” she said, waving her hand at Zahid, who was lounging on the top deck. “Are you enjoying this beautiful weather?”
Zahid stood and waved back. “I most certainly am. Are you?”
“I’d be enjoying it more if my boyfriend could get his yacht to work,” she said, adding a Spanish lilt to her English. “Well, it’s not actually his yacht. He rented it to impress me, but he sent me over here to see if you might have a wrench. According to him, the engine won’t start because of some part, which I can’t even pronounce in English or Spanish.”
The last part of her comment piqued Zahid’s curiosity, as he ignored her question.
“Are you from Madrid? Barcelona?”
“Seville,” Shields said. “We can talk all about it once I get that wrench, if you have one.”
She looked toward the yacht and saw Black waving with both hands. Zahid smiled, returning the cordial gesture.
“Just one moment,” Zahid said. He turned toward one of his guards and instructed him to go get a wrench.
She glanced toward the ship and Black wasn’t anywhere to be seen on deck.
Come on, Black. Hurry up.
Her Jet Ski engine idled, churning the water beneath her. She scanned the water again and noticed Black speeding toward the shore some fifty meters south of her position. After a sigh of relief, she looked up when she heard footsteps again on the deck of Zahid’s yacht.
“Seems that one of my crew hands has found what you need,” Zahid said. “He’s going to lower it down with a rope.”
Shields went over the scenario one final time in her head: Two guards, Carl Bergstrom, ten seconds. She’d bragged about her shooting prowess to Black, even proving her claims true. But there was no margin for error here.
“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
Zahid smiled back. “Of course. Glad to be of service to such a beautiful woman.”
“Oh, you’re too kind,” Shields said.
When the rope reached her, she took it in her hand before giving a swift yank on it. The move caught the guard by surprise and he stumbled. With her right hand, Shields trained her weapon on the man and hit him twice center mass, sending him tumbling over the railing of the ship and splashing down into the water. The other guard was still reaching for his weapon when he took a shot to the head. Carl Bergstrom turned his back to her as he tried to escape, but she nailed him three times before he toppled face forward to the deck. Meanwhile, Zahid had vanished.
* * *
BLACK RESURFACED and waited for Zahid to appear on the starboard side of the boat. The plan was for Shields to eliminate the two guards and Bergstrom, flushing Zahid to the opposite side of the deck. However, when he arrived there, he would find Black waiting for him.
But Zahid had another contingency that Black and Shields hadn’t accounted for: Zahid had a Jet Ski of his own.
After hearing Shields fire her weapon and two bodies splash into the water, Black waited for Zahid to appear at the top of the railing. Instead, Black didn’t see him until he saw a Jet Ski tear out across the water after emerging from the stern of the yacht. Black pursued him, but realized he wasn’t going to be able to keep up with the watercraft. However, Zahid maneuvered into a cove, abandoning his Jet Ski on the shore and racing toward the village on foot.
Black was about a minute behind Zahid when he reached the same area. In order to look less conspicuous, Black shimmied out of his wetsuit before resuming his chase. When he reached the center of Gaios, the largest village on the island, a festival had tourists and townspeople alike milling around in the streets. Black found a vegetable crate to stand on and scanned the crowd for Zahid.
As Black was searching, he saw Zahid turn around, their gaze locking. Black jumped down and hustled after Zahid. The two men wove through the partygoers, disrupting an acoustic band and spilling the wares of artisans onto the stone ground. People shouted at them derisively as their chase continued to create a swirling chaos.
With Black closing in, Zahid found a young man on a moped and pulled out his gun, threatening him if he didn’t relinquish it. The man put up his hands as Zahid regained control of the threat by securing transportation. Not to be outdone, Black tossed a man two hundred-dollar bills in exchange for borrowing the man’s moped and promised to return it.
Black and Zahid sped along the cobblestone roads of Paxos, both of them struggling to gain much ground and create any separation. As they went up and down the hilly landscape of the small island, Black looked at the gas gauge and realized he was going to lose another shot at capturing Zahid if he didn’t act more quickly. So, he scanned the area to find a way to bring Zahid to a stop.
Tearing around a sharp bend, Black spotted an open gate to a farm and maneuvered his moped onto the property and up on the stone wall running parallel to the road. He fell farther behind, but saw an opportunity to move in front and fo
rce Zahid to stop.
Black stayed on the wall, which wound to the right with the street. As it did, Zahid had to slow down to make a sweeping curve to the right. Black pounced on the opportunity, staying straight at the curve and crashing the front of his vehicle onto the back tire of Zahid’s.
The sound of crunching and mangling metal reverberated off the walls in the tight space. Both mopeds fell on their sides as the drivers scrambled to their feet. Zahid’s weapon remained tucked into the back of his pants, while Black had lost his upon impact.
Overhead, a sheep looked down from his perch atop the wall, chewing grass. A nearby farmer stared at the scene, his brow furrowed.
Black assessed his options and decided he only had one. With full confidence, he dove in the direction of his weapon lying several meters away, but Zahid trained his gun on Black and issued a warning.
“One more move, and reaching for that gun will be the last thing you ever do,” Zahid said. “Now, Agent Black — yes, I know your real name — you’ll have to remind me where I was in my interrogation of you in Istanbul. I seem to have forgotten.”
Black stopped and slowly rose to his feet. “I think we were about to become friends.”
Zahid laughed and shook his head. “I admire your cunningness and wit, but that’s not even close to how I recall the situation that caused us to part ways, involuntarily on my part, of course.”
“I was about to offer you a deal that would save your life,” Black said.
“Well, now I’m about to do the same to you,” Zahid said before sucker punching Black and sending him back to the ground.
Chapter 27
Washington, D.C.
BLUNT BARGED INTO Alex Duncan’s office, an unlit cigar hanging out of his mouth. He settled into the chair across from her desk and propped his feet up on it. After crossing his arms across his chest, he took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly. When Alex didn’t even acknowledge him, he cleared his throat.
Alex looked up slowly from her monitor and peered over the top of her glasses. “If you don’t get your nasty feet off my desk, I will hurt you.”
Blunt chuckled and winked. “I was beginning to wonder if I was invisible.”
“I’m busy working,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Did you set up a tap on Ted Neil’s phone yet?” he asked.
She nodded, returning her gaze to the screen. “Nothing to report yet.”
“Nothing?” Blunt asked with a furrowed brow. “He hasn’t made any calls since I spoke with him?”
She sighed and glanced at her notepad to the right of her keyboard. “I consider two campaign finance calls, three borderline flirtatious calls with his administrative assistant, one takeout order, and a call to the dry cleaners to check on his favorite suit about as nothing as it gets in my world.”
Blunt cocked his head to one side. “So, he was flirting with his assistant, was he?”
“Meh. That might be a wrong characterization. More like making an ass out of himself and getting nowhere. By the way, have you seen Cara, his assistant? She’s way out of his league, filthy rich or not. And she’s a kindhearted human being on top of that.”
“Then why is she working for Ted Neil?”
Alex shrugged. “People got bills to pay.”
Blunt interlocked his fingers behind his head and looked at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips.
“You upset about something?” she asked.
“Upset? No. Frustrated? Yes. I thought we’d have something by now and I still haven’t heard from Black and Shields yet.”
“That’s what you’re really worried about, isn’t it? Hawk and I know who your favorite team is.”
“Well, don’t go bragging about it in front of Black and Shields,” Blunt said with a wink. “They both have fragile egos.”
Alex smiled and kept typing on her computer. “Fortunately, it’s not all bad news.”
Blunt sat up. “Really? What have you got?”
“I started doing a little digging into Darryl Oliver,” Alex said.
“Hadn’t the CIA already done that?” Blunt asked.
“They had, but when we were in Freeport, I went back to the police station with Kai Knowles, the deputy director of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Are you familiar with him?”
“I know the name from your report.”
“Well, what I didn’t put in my report was that Knowles forgot to give the CIA liaison a cell phone that they found on Oliver when they pulled his body out of the water.”
“How did that happen?”
Alex looked over the top of her glasses at Blunt. “Let’s just say the police station down there isn’t exactly the model in efficiency.”
“So, what’d you find?” Blunt asked.
“I found nothing on the phone itself because it was toast after being in the salt water for a long time, apparently in his back pocket, according to one of the officers who briefed me on it. When I got back, I figured out it was a burner phone, but was able to figure out the number for it.”
“And?”
“I got a list of the few calls Oliver made on it. And you’ll never guess who the last call was to before he departed for the cruise ship?”
“You’re right,” Blunt said. “I won’t because I hate these damn guessing games. Just spit it out already.”
“None other than your good buddy, U.S. Senator Ted Neil.”
Blunt stroked his chin. “Now that’s certainly interesting, isn’t it?”
Alex nodded. “I thought so, but what are you gonna do about it now?”
“I’m gonna bury that bastard.”
Chapter 28
Gaois, Greece
BLACK STARED UP at Zahid, whose hands held a gun steady. He wore a smug grin as he approached Black, who glanced in both directions of the road in search of a way to save himself. As Zahid drew closer, Black scrambled, crab-crawling backward until he bumped into the rock wall lining the road.
“I could just kill you now,” Zahid said. “It’d be nice and neat. I’d get you back to my boat and dump your body in the middle of the ocean to let the fish pick your bones.”
“I thought you were going to offer me a deal,” Black said. “That doesn’t sound like much of one to me.”
“You Americans are so impatient.”
“I don’t think impatience is so bad under the current circumstances.”
Zahid chuckled. “The fact that I’m even allowing you to breathe right now ought to make you grovel at my feet. But what do you do? You try to rush me along.”
“We are in the middle of a road,” Black said with a shrug.
“There are about twelve cars on this island. I’ll take my chances—and so will you, unless you’d rather me just shoot you right now.”
Black sighed. “What do you want?”
“I did my research, Agent Black, and I believe you’re worth more to me alive than dead.”
“You think I’m going to help you?”
“It makes no difference to me,” Zahid said. “It’s your life, not mine.”
Black smiled wryly. “I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself,” Zahid said.
He raised his weapon and prepared to fire.
“Wait,” Black said, raising his hands in the air. “Before you shoot, there’s something you should know.”
Zahid cocked his head to one side. “And what’s that?”
Black didn’t say a word. Instead, he watched as Shields fired a shot that hit Zahid in the arm, making him drop his gun. Black didn’t hesitate to rush toward Zahid, knocking him to the ground.
Black delivered a throat punch followed by two more hits that knocked out Zahid.
“Nice timing,” Black said. “I didn’t think you were ever going to get here.”
“Well, you left me without any transportation,” she said. “I had your tracking beacon, but it’s not easy to get someone to give you a lift around here.”
Shields looked back to
ward a bike some fifty meters down the road.
“Looks like you found something that worked,” Black said.
“It wasn’t easy pedaling a cruiser bike up these hills either.”
“Well, I appreciate the effort. It’s been duly noted.”
Shields sighed. “Let’s get this piece of garbage back to the boat before anyone else sees us. We have some things to discuss with him.”
* * *
BLACK SNAPPED his fingers in front of Zahid’s face as he regained consciousness. His hands were bound behind his back, his feet tied to the legs of the chair. Zahid blinked several times before moaning. When he finally realized that he was being held captive, he struggled against the ropes.
“You should’ve taken the shot,” Black said.
Zahid sneered and then spit at Black. “I will live to regret it.”
“If you live, you will regret it,” Black said, wagging his finger. “Your life is now contingent upon you helping us.”
“Why would I help you? Look what you’ve already done. You’ve killed two of my men and the chief financier of our organization. You might as well shoot me now.”
“I prefer that we work together,” Black said. “I have questions, you have answers. It seems like a win-win to me.”
“I won’t tell you anything.”
Black glanced over his shoulder at Shields, who got up and moved toward him carrying a laptop. “Now, I need to know who gave you the information regarding the cruise ship as well as who your target was.”
Zahid smiled. “If this is what’s keeping me alive, why would I tell you without some assurances?”
“That’s not how this is going to work,” Black said. “You’re going to tell me what I need to know or else we’ll resort to other means of pressure.”
“If you think I’m going to tell you something after you torture me, you’re dumber than you look,” Zahid said with a snarl.
Black gestured for Shields turn the laptop around.
“Is this supposed to scare me?” Zahid asked as he glanced at the screen.
“Take a closer look,” Black said. “See if you recognize anything here.”
Honorable Lies (A Titus Black Thriller Book 6) Page 14