Reborn

by Lynda Filler

  Luci pocketed her phone and turned to Maggs.

  “We’ve got a problem.”

  “Yes, I was on with RB. He’s all over this. Now he’s tracing back the traffic he’s been monitoring. He’s using satellites to triangulate signals and then zero in on locations. They can’t have taken her far. They only grabbed her in the last forty-five minutes. We should go right to the site.”

  “No. Raven said they’re expecting us at the palace.”

  25

  ROSY ANSWERED HER cell, expecting Sabrina.

  “Rosy, this is Xavi.” She could hear a tremor in his voice.

  “What’s going on? Tell me? What’s happened?”

  “Look, there’s nothing you can do, but we need your help.”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “Have you heard anything from Sabrina in the last hour?”

  “Yes. We spoke while she was in the elevator at the doctor’s office.”

  “Listen, Rosy, she’s been taken.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Kidnapped.”

  “Oh my God! But she had security with her!”

  “Yes. Look, I need you to come to Special Branch and talk to the agents on the case.”

  “Yes, of course. But how can I help?”

  “You may remember something she said, a clue to help us figure out who would have taken her and why. I will speak directly to your superior.”

  “No, it’s better that you don’t. I’m sure you will want to keep this quiet as long as you can?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “Right now, no one is aware of your engagement to Sabrina. I will tell him I’m not feeling well.”

  “Rosy, thank you. They will be expecting you at this address.”

  Rosy looked at her phone and the address coming through on her message.

  “Show your ID. I have your photo. I want you here, in case Sabrina tries to reach you.”

  She didn’t have to lie to her boss, she was about to pass out from fear for Sabrina.

  26

  “YES, THE PACKAGE is secure.” The man was very careful. No matter what part of the world he was in, communications could be hacked. He may be a brutal leader of a violent group, but he wasn’t uneducated in matters of security.

  “We will meet at the location I gave you. I must attend the meeting first and then I will check in with you. Send me a photo.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  “Just take a photo with your phone and send it to me. Now!”

  The man in the grey Brooks Brothers suit, wearing an Oxford corn yellow striped tie, removed his sunglasses and turned to his partners. He motioned for them to take the hood off the woman and hold her, so he could get a shot of her face with his iPhone. There was no need to worry about being identified. She wouldn’t live long enough to give a description of her captors.

  She glared at him, attempted to spit out her mouth gag, while cursing gibberish directly at the camera.

  He nodded to the men to cover her up again and inject her with something stronger this time to put her to sleep. Then, he forwarded the photo to his boss.

  “Well done. And exactly as I expected, she needs to be disciplined. We will meet up later tonight, probably before midnight. You should be here in six hours. I will give your pilot instructions when you get closer. And by then, I will tell you exactly where we will meet.”

  “Yes.”

  “Allah Akbar!”

  The connection was broken.

  Sabrina felt tears of frustration slowly leaking from her eyes. The hood had been replaced after they’d taken her photo. She sat in total darkness. How could she have been so careless with her life? Xavi will be going crazy. Her parents will be so afraid for her. She had to remain strong for her family.

  27

  Buckingham Palace, London England

  THE QUEEN MET with Special Branch and representatives of the office that assesses the threats of terrorism.

  “Your Majesty, we have to assume this is a terrorist attack. Somehow, there must have been a leak as to the relationship and its level of intensity between the Prince and Ms. Sayyid. She is definitely a weak link to the royal family and we take total responsibility for her abduction.”

  The Queen remained silent. The prince was fuming, but his military bearing and the fact that he’d chosen his uniform to attend the announcement of his engagement said exactly how aware he was of the threats to the England, and London in particular.

  “The five levels of terrorist threat to the nation imply that we assumed another attack, but it’s kind was unknown to us. The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre assessed our situation as severe, level four, but not critical. That means an attack was highly likely but not expected imminently.” He chose to bow slightly, awaiting comments from Her Majesty and her son.

  “An attack of this nature had to have been carefully planned. She must have been watched. How come no one noticed? This is not only a disgrace to the office but an affront to the nation and a disaster for Prince George Xavier.”

  The Queen stood.

  “The agents watching Ms. Sayyid have been removed, and are under lock and key until we can assess their involvement, I assume?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Now, tell me in detail what exactly you are doing to get Ms. Sayyid back safely.”

  A female agent requested permission to enter the meeting room.

  The director was annoyed but excused himself to speak quietly into his cell phone. His hand went to his mouth and his face turned white. He dismissed the agent and turned back to the Queen.

  “I’m afraid the situation has turned critical.”

  Xavi’s heart beat increased. “What have you found out?

  “The anti-terrorist hotline received a call from a male in the vicinity of the medical building. He says he was walking by the entrance to the garage when a black Range Rover exited quickly, barely missing him. He got out of the way and turned back to see three middle eastern men in sunglasses who looked like security. And a fourth person, face covered, seemed to be passed out in the backseat. He watched the vehicle turn left. He tried to get an image of the vehicle, but the license plate was obscured with what appeared to be mud.”

  Xavi walked over to the agent. “We will look at what you’ve uncovered in the war room.”

  “Yes, Sir. Right away.”

  “Grandmother, I will be working with Special Branch. I’ve been thinking about what we should do. I want you to make the announcement at two o’clock as planned. It will heighten interest in Sabrina. Her photo will be all over the networks and the tabloids. Everyone will be searching for her and the press will be willing to pay for information to get a photo of her. We will set up a fake press line and offer rewards for sightings. So, if anyone has seen anything unusual, if she is being hidden in London, we will be the first to know.”

  “You’re right, Xavi. I will move forward as planned, only you and Sabrina will not be in the background. I will ask that your privacy is respected, and further announcements will be made at a later date. We will remain strong and stalwart in the face of this threat and we will prevail.”

  28

  London England, A secure location.

  “I WAS LOOKING forward to meeting Ms. Sayyid. I’ve been going over her reports on ISIL. She’s a force against evil. Dangerous to their cause. She seems to have no fear of reprisals. I guess she felt safe in London.” Luci looked at Maggs as they drove over the famed London Bridge, where six months ago terrorists had driven their van into tourists, killing several and then beginning seven minutes of terror where they had cut partygoers down with swords. She stroked her own weapon never far from her person and cursed the crazies of this world.

  “You remember the attack, of course?”

  “Yes.” Maggs sighed, yet Luci could feel her excitement, her taut tension for what was unfolding in this moment.

  “That was the night they met, Sabrina and the Prince.”


  “Luci, how do you know that?”

  “Zach told me. He and Xavi are friends.”

  Luci answered an incoming call.

  “Ma’am, Special Branch and the Prince have requested you go to this location instead.”

  Their driver detoured from their intended destination and drove another fifteen minutes around London until they turned into an underground garage. They were immediately surrounded by British Special Forces pointing HK G36K’s in their direction.

  They nodded to Luci and Maggs, having been fully briefed on their importance to the Royal Family. They didn’t go through the usual checks, instead the eyes and ears of the SAS were focused beyond their truck towards any danger that might be following them.

  Luci and Maggs exited their vehicle and once past the first set of sentries, they found themselves in a room where a voice requested that all weaponry on their person be placed on a table.

  Both women complied. They expected nothing less. A robotic voice requested Luci remove the ceramic knife from her boot and the clip in her hair. She smiled and complied.

  “Were you testing them?” Maggs whispered. “You could have been killed.”

  “Well, maybe. But if they’re this good, how’d they let Sabrina be taken?”

  They followed a voice command to enter through a door that slid open in front of them. The war room for Britain’s War against Terrorism stretched out before them.

  All eyes were focused on CCTV cameras.

  Prince Xavi came forward to greet them.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly. Raven says you’re the best he’s ever worked with.” If you looked closely, you could see fear in his intense blue eyes. “We’re going to need your expertise.”

  Xavi was taller than he appeared in his pictures. He exuded boyish charm and yet, the steel in his voice left the impression of a highly disciplined commander.

  “Come, I’ll show you what we have so far.”

  Luci and Maggs glanced around the fortified war room. Screens covered all the walls. One showed a satellite feed coming in from multiple locations around the world, another showed an armed conflict with a joint US/British raid in what looked to be Africa.

  “This is what we know. Sabrina was at her doctor’s office. She’s been feeling out of sorts. I think it’s all the excitement and concerns we both have about taking our relationship public. She’s not yet comfortable with the security that I insist accompany her—that’s one of the reasons we requested your help. Once we’re married, we can use the military and all the nation’s resources. While we’re engaged, we have chosen to request female operatives outside the family firm who could possibly blend in as girlfriends.” He stopped and looked at Luci and Maggs head-to-toe and smiled, more than likely, the first smile since he’d heard the bad news.

  “We didn’t want her to feel so intimidated. Your arrival appears to have been a couple of hours too late—our fault, not yours.” Prince Xavi turned from the women and motioned them to follow. A harried war veteran, tie undone, hair unkempt, stood beside a rather curvy young woman who stared intensely at her cell phone as if waiting for it to ring.

  “This is Rosy, Sabrina’s best friend. They talked about forty-five minutes before she was taken.” Eyes turned toward a rather plain English rose, who looked like she was about to cry.

  “I kept telling her, if she continued speaking out against ISIL she was going to get into trouble. But who could have imagined she’d be kidnapped?!!” Rosy tried to be strong and cursed herself for not taking the time off work and being with Sabrina at her doctor appointment. Xavi put his arm around Rosy and whispered reassurances in her ear. He turned to Luci and Maggs.

  “Special Branch will bring you up to speed on what we have so far.” They moved away from Rosy.

  “Firsthand sighting of a black Range Rover exiting the garage. We have no CCTV from the immediate area—the equipment was tampered with—but we’re mining all cams on the surrounding streets and should have something shortly.”

  A large screen cleared and the face of the Queen of England standing with her husband and her son, the immediate heir to the throne, appeared.

  “I have the honor of sharing some joyous news today. It is with great pleasure that we announce the engagement of Prince George Xavier to Ms. Sabrina Sayyid. Both my husband and I are very happy to welcome Ms. Sayyid into our family. The Prince and his fiancée will make their own announcement later. We ask you to please give them the privacy that a young couple in love require. We look forward to a televised wedding in the near future. Congratulations to the Prince and Ms. Sabrina Sayyid and we wish them the very best for many years to come.” The queen smiled, and the cameras returned to the talking heads and the live cameras mounted outside Buckingham Palace.

  Everyone in the Special Branch communications center clapped and smiled. The Prince bowed slightly and thanked the team.

  “Now find my future wife!”

  A few minutes later, someone from the group yelled out: “Coming up on screen four. We’ve got them!”

  The action on the busy London thoroughfare tracked the Range Rover as it made its way through London Centre. Then, it eased into traffic going southeast of downtown. They continued on Brixton Station Road.

  “How old is this feed?”

  “Over an hour, sir. We didn’t know what we were looking for, but you can see the muddied license plate and three men with something or someone blocked from view in the backseat.”

  The director picked up his phone, located his street team and gave them coordinates.

  “Head toward the airport. That street feeds into the direction of Biggin.”

  They watched the car and hit the highway from various points in the future to capture the Range Rover in real time.

  “Here it is again, sir!”

  On the far side of the war room, a young analyst was covering the entry of the automobile into private hangers at Biggin Airport.

  “How old is that feed? Get the men there immediately!”

  “Fifty minutes, sir.”

  The team switched to cameras located at the private airport. Another agent called the airfield to put a hold on all aircraft leaving the field.

  There was nothing else they could do but wait.

  His phone vibrated.

  “Sir, we’re in to all the security cameras at the airport. We are accessing the last hour. Around the forty-minute mark, we have a private jet with Qatar markings leaving the tarmac

  “Check this out.” A security analyst put a one-minute video on the screen.

  Xavi stood before a clip of three men in black suits wearing sunglasses. They assisted a woman in a burqa, who appeared incapacitated, up the steps of a private plane. He watched in horror as the plane taxied out on the field and took off.

  “Oh, no!” Luci turned to Maggs.

  The national security cameras pulled up a close up of the plane taking off.

  “Wait a minute.” Luci interrupted. “Maggs, look! That’s the plane we saw when we landed an hour ago. That’s the private jet with Qatar markings.”

  There was complete silence amongst the forty or so people in the War room. They were mesmerized by the still image of a woman covered in a black burqa, being supported by two people and loaded into the private jet. A third man kept his hand on his now evident holster, ready to fight any possible threat to their freedom.

  “Get a satellite image of that plane. I want it followed and I must know where it lands.”

  The Prince closed his eyes. Then, abruptly turned to Luci and Maggs.

  “Are you as good as I’ve been told?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Let’s go. By the time we reach the airport, we will have our route. I have a feeling this has something to do with the economic forum in Qatar.”

  29

  THE MIDDLE EASTERN man watched the announcement on satellite TV, his blood pressure rising with each word. An unofficial photo of Prince Xavi and Ms. Sayyid dominated the oversize
screen.

  “She undermines my work! Then she flaunts herself in public like a whore. She has no sense of morality. She’s a disgusting example for Muslim women worldwide. And now she’s engaged to the infidel!” He strung a litany of Arabic curses that had his bodyguards looking at the ground.

  “Is my transport ready?”

  “Yes, sir. It will take us part of the way there, and then the jet will be fueled and waiting for you in an abandoned airstrip near Mosul.”

  The tall man stroked his beard and wiped sweat from his brow. He motioned for his men to leave him alone. Ever since the barrage of air attacks by coalition forces, he’d been located in Baaj, a difficult to reach and sparsely populated area. He was close to Syria and it would be easy for him to flee if any sign of an invasion occurred. He had chosen this low-profile site because it was far from the organization’s centers of power. He would be expected to be leading ISIS from Mosul or Raqqa. The Americans had abandoned this small camp when they’d found they couldn’t build trust with the local population. Money, artillery, drugs, and fear kept the locals on the side of the ISIS leader; and his network of spies kept him safe—for the moment.

  Nothing is forever.

  He let his men believe he wanted to make an example of Sabrina Sayyid. Beheading her would send a strong message to the world that no one was safe. But with her engagement, he now had bigger ideas.

  He was an educated man. He read and listened to what was going on all over the world. His men were ignorant. While he’d been in hiding, after losing a fortune due to the ineptness of business partners in China, the organization had lost substantial territory and people. The caliphate was in danger of losing its state all together in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Nigeria. He’d called on ISIS sympathizers to launch attacks in their home countries to instill fear of a perceived far-reaching presence that was not really there. Now, their focus was on acts of terrorism against not only government officials but noncombatants as well. The press was comparing them to Al Queda. No one would be safe as long as ISIL was still a vital threat.