by Lynda Filler
Sayyid’s’ engagement to Prince Xavi played perfectly into his personal plans.
He retired to his bathing area to prepare for this final journey. He would shave his beard and dress in Western clothes. He laughed at the man in the mirror whom few had seen, and many believed to be dead.
“Sabrina, my very precious jewel, I’m coming for you.”
30
London, England
“XAVI, IT’S TOO dangerous.”
“I understand, Grandmother. But you taught me to be strong and brave, and to fight for what I believe in; and this is Sabrina we’re talking about. You of all people know exactly what my past years have been like in the military.”
“Yes. I do.”
“So, you understand, that I and my team are more than capable.” He gripped his phone tighter.
“It’s not that, Xavi. First, it’s dangerous. But my instincts and Special Branch feel this is an act of terrorism. You are putting the Monarchy right into the backyard of ISIS! You could be giving them everything they could ever want if you were captured!”
Xavi could feel the panic and fear in the Queen’s voice.
“Ma’am. I’ve been in worse situations. Try to keep the news out of the press. Demand a blackout, so we don’t play into their propaganda, and we will get her back.”
The Queen looked at her son, Xavi’s father, who’d entered her office. She shook her head in complete exasperation. “I could order you.” She continued her conversation with Xavi on the phone.
Xavi waited. Those in the bulletproof Range Rover looked straight ahead. They realized they were listening to a privileged conversation.
The Queen sighed, then announced, “You will keep me updated as soon as you have an idea what is happening. Are you taking your SAS friends?”
“Yes, ma’am. And Raven’s team as well.”
“Be careful and God speed.” She disconnected the call.
“My military team will meet us at the terminal. What does Raven say?” The Prince assumed correctly that Luci would have related the details of the abduction and both would be on top of the mission.
“He has RB listening. Zach brought very interesting information from the Middle East. There’re several critical messages that they want to be sure are analyzed properly. The Raven Group is following the plane. The kidnappers have filed a flight plan for Doha, Hamid International Airport—and we will be there when it lands. I’m sure they didn’t think we’d be on them so quickly. Right now, Raven and RB are working on the permissions they need to tap into Doha, Qatar’s closed-circuit feeds. It seems Raven has done things for their government, so he’s got a special relationship with one of their princes.”
Luci clicked a few keys on her iPhone. Maggs glanced at the heavily-populated outlying districts of London.
“The good news is we flew in Luke’s latest prototype. It’s small and very fast. This will allow us to be at Hamad International ahead of their jet. We should be able to overtake their men easily and rescue Sabrina. So, stop worrying.”
Xavi nodded and rubbed his neck.
“I have a group of very capable SAS buddies arriving as we speak. We have weaponry, more than enough for anything we encounter.”
“We’re well armed as well, but we didn’t expect to need RPGs or that we’d come up against a situation like this. I’m sure Luke will have a better idea of what we will have access to in the next hour or so. In the meantime, try to relax.”
They pulled into the same terminal the women had left less than two hours earlier. The jet was fueled and ready for takeoff.
“Wow! I’d love to fly this plane!” The look of joy on Prince Xavi’s face was priceless. “Do you suppose the pilot would allow my participation?” Luci laughed for the first time all day. The severity of the moment was forgotten while Prince George Xavier took an extremely detailed and guided tour of the flight deck from David. Exclamations of incredulity and glee could be heard while the pilot bragged about the features of a prototype not yet in production and top-secret-classified for the U. S. Military and the Raven Group.
“I’m sure Raven won’t mind.” Luci loved Raven’s toys, and the mind that had created them. Who knew brains could be so sexy?
“Do you think Raven could get me one of these?”
Luci smiled while watching her security/driver remove weapons from their vehicle and load them in the cabin. Suddenly, Xavi turned with his weapon drawn, sensing immediate danger. Luci and Maggs followed with their guns.
“No!” The Prince yelled from the top stair of the plane. “It’s okay, it’s my team.”
Everyone relaxed, re-holstered their weapons, and moved to greet the additions to their group.
The SAS boys loaded their special gear aboard, took their seats, and the plane taxied out onto the runway.
31
Paris, France
RB, LUKE’S RIGHT-HAND tech genius, had set up in the den/armory of Luci’s home. It was not only a safe room but had state-of-the-art technology capabilities designed by RB. Even though Luke and his top strategist had trained together in Israel, RB always preferred to be the guy behind the scenes. The fact that he understood military discipline and maintained all his physical and mental skills, was a huge plus to over-seeing all the operations the Raven Group ran around the world.
“Zach knows Doha. He should be here in Paris soon. The SAS joined the Prince, Luci, and Maggs on the plane to Doha. We have tacit approval from the Sheik to operate in his country once I explained that Her Majesty, the Queen of England and Prince George Xavier would be most grateful for their permission. Especially in light of the recent accusations about aiding terrorism through their support of Al Jazeera.”
“Good.” Luke was stretched out on an oversized chair, watching Alice play with her dolly. A French children’s book was open on his lap.
“Um, boss. I didn’t know you spoke French.”
“Is that the best line you can come up with?”
RB grinned.
“I missed her, too. We need to spend more time with Luci and Alice.” RB leaned down and started to tickle Alice. Giggles, and stop! and little lady demands burst from her mouth. Two intense eyes stared up at both men.
“Why can’t we live with you, Luke? I mith you!” She struggled out of RB’s embrace, crawled up onto Luke’s chair, and pulled him down to wrap her arms around his neck.
In a flash, Luke’s past slammed into him. His eyes filled with pain; memories of his marriage so many years ago, the birth of their daughter, and deaths of both of them while diving in the Bahamas. His despondency had almost destroyed his motivation to live.
RB could see the past collide with the present in Luke’s mind. It was bound to happen whenever he was around Alice or Luci. RB remembered how Luke had disappeared from Caltech, where RB was a post-graduate student, and spent months hiking and living in the wilderness. He remembered a sad drunk call one night, from some bar in a remote town in Arizona, filled with angst and recriminations. After that, nothing for months. And then a package arrived containing only a plane ticket for the Pacific North West. Raven brought himself back and to the living with a renewed sense of purpose. Together, they had formed the Raven Group and they’d both found a life’s direction to fill the ache in their souls. Raven had never remarried and had stayed emotionally uninvolved—until Luci and Alice.
RB looked away from the longing he read in Luke’s eyes.
“Well, I’ll get back to a program I have running through NSA. I heard something yesterday that I think might be relevant.” He hesitated.
Luke didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled Alice closer into his arms. Luci’s daughter snuggled into his neck, her hair tickling his nose. She brought her dolly in for a cuddle, then nodded off to sleep.
32
THE BLACK HOOD was suffocating.
“Can you remove this, please?” She knew she wasn’t alone. Her captors were speaking in hushed tones. She could understand the odd word, but they kept their voices
low and spoke only in Arabic.
“I can’t breathe!” She gasped for air. She’d managed to push past the gag in her mouth. “I need the washroom right now.” Silence.
The jet reached its cruising altitude and one of the men came over to her. He grabbed her by the arm.
“You must be silent and not cause any trouble.”
“I need the bathroom. I’m not feeling well.” All of a sudden, the plane hit an air-pocket, lurched, and Sabrina doubled over. Her stomach heaved and whatever she’d eaten earlier spewed from her mouth.
The three men cursed in Arabic.
“What should we do?”
Finally, they decided to take her to the toilet in the back of the jet, let her take off her burqa and wash herself. They didn’t have to worry because they were out of England now. She’d already seen their faces when they’d taken her.
Ten minutes later, she returned to her seat. There was no need for cuffs or restraints of any kind. The window coverings were lowered, and she was secured with her seat belt. She carefully took in her surroundings, the journalist in her, writing her own ghastly story. Whomever was financing this had a lot of money. But the real question in her mind was, what do they want with me?
“Where are you taking me?” No one responded.
One of the men came over to her and offered her some crackers. “This will settle your stomach.” She started to question him, but he immediately shook his head and turned away. He came back with ginger ale. She gulped it down to get the taste out of her mouth. She needed food. She’d missed lunch. And breakfast was on the burqa.
She tried to sleep. There was no indication of where they were going. And no conversation amongst her captors. Was Rosy right? Had she finally gone too far with her reporting on ISIL? If they wanted to make a statement, they had no idea how big a statement this was going to be.
There was a commotion and an ensuing argument amongst the men. One was pointing to his iPhone and gesticulating wildly. He pointed to Sabrina and raged on in Arabic. She could barely keep up with her rarely used language of birth. One of the other men turned on the inflight TV. Her face lit up the screen. Then, the station switched to the Queen of England speaking and an announcement at the bottom. Prince George Xavier and Ms. Sabrina Sayyid engaged to be married.
The Middle Eastern men were well aware of Prince Xavi’s accomplishments in Afghanistan. He was known as a brave and fearless warrior. He would stop at nothing to get his woman returned. They had signed their death warrants by grabbing her—and they knew it.
The men looked back at her, then turned away. She could faintly hear one of them saying his prayers.
33
Paris, France
“LUKE.” RB TRIED to get Luke’s attention without waking Alice. Luke had wrapped his arms around Luci’s girl and at the same time, kept her precious dolly from falling to the floor.
“Yes. This better be important,” he whispered, smiling and glancing down at the child.
“I’ve got very bad news. Let’s put Alice in her bed. I need your attention.”
Five minutes later, the men convened in the safe room.
“I want you to listen to this recording.”
Luke listened as a man spit out threats in Arabic. It sounded like a broadcast of some kind.
“Yes, I don’t understand the language, but the message is venomous. Has this got anything to do with Prince Xavi and his fiancée?”
RB hesitated and then delivered his findings.
“Remember the situation in Singapore at the Marina Sands Hotel with Sying? We had a loose end, if you recall. Our intel told us to send someone to the islands last year to go diving for Arabic fish.”
“Yes. What are you trying to tell me?”
“They killed the wrong man.”
The pieces fell into place. Luke was suddenly wide awake.
“Luci needs to know that Tariq is still alive! We need to double-up on security here in Paris. He will come after her if he knows how to find her.”
“Actually, it’s worse than that.”
“What could be worse?”
“He’s behind the abduction of Sabrina Sayyid.”
34
Command Center, Special Branch, London England
“YES, THIS IS Dr. Norton. I am trying to reach Ms. Sabrina Sayyid. I’ve been getting the run-around, and this is very important.”
“I’m not sure I can help you. One moment, please.”
The doctor stared at the screen, her pulse pounding, and her nerves frayed.
The aide to the Director of Special Branch was conflicted. He called his boss.
“I have a doctor online looking for Ms. Sayyid. She says it’s very important.”
The Director took the call.
“Yes. Can I help you?”
“No. I’m the doctor who did tests on Ms. Sayyid earlier today, and I told her I would call with the results.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but she is not available.”
Dr. Norton hesitated.
“Who exactly am I speaking with?”
The head of terrorism for all of the United Kingdom hesitated before responding.
“I’m not sure that’s relevant, but I am the Director for counter-terrorism for the United Kingdom.”
“Then it’s true, what the office is saying?”
“Well, I have no idea what your office is talking about. Anything discussed in your office is covered under the Official Secrets Act. The staff we spoke with are sworn to secrecy.”
“I understand.” She was uncertain if she should continue but withholding information under the circumstances didn’t seem like the right thing to do.
“Sir, we have a situation.”
The Director listened.
“I don’t have to tell you that the information you have passed to me is highly classified?”
“Of course not, sir.”
The Director thanked the caller and broke the connection.
He turned toward the elevated war room screens. Prince Xavi had landed. His men had alerted the Qatar Airport and security arrangements were being made. There was no way the enemy would get away with kidnapping Ms. Sayyid.
He thought about what he would say to the Prince.
“Wait. What am I looking at?”
The other jet was on track for Qatar but seemed to be adjusting the flight path from what had been filed at Biggin Airport at takeoff.
“Where is the pilot going? Are there any other airports in the vicinity?”
No one answered. The screens zoomed in on Google earth to find another airport.
“Sir. They’re flying a STOL jet. They don’t need a big airport to land this plane. They could be going anywhere.”
“Find Prince Xavi! I need to speak with him right away. Transfer the call to my office!”
35
Hamad Airport, Qatar
“PRINCE XAVI, WE may have a new threat.” Luci’s pale face looked uncertain.
Raven’s plane had landed by a very private hangar reserved for discreet travel, away from the main gates at Hamad International Airport. They looked out the window across the bay at a nightscape that spoke of untold wealth. Rows of private jets lined the foreground while luxurious high-rise works of art constructed from billions of petro-dollars lined the shoreline.
“That’s an understatement. My future wife has been abducted, how much worse can it be?” Xavi shook off his frustration. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m upset and worried about Sabrina. We have no idea who took her or why.”
“That’s what we need to talk about.” Luci looked over at the SAS guys and back at Maggs. All ears were listening.
“How familiar are you with Tariq Hamid?”
“Very. He was the brutal ISIS leader operating out of Syria at one point. He disappeared a year ago. Presumed dead by intelligence agencies.”
“Yes. I’ve had some very dangerous dealings with him in the past. Tariq and I go way back. He abducted Ms. Jalisco and the Mexican gove
rnment hired us to get her back. He also orchestrated the kidnapping of my daughter Alice.”
Luci stopped to get control of her emotions. Everyone on the team remained silent.
“He attempted to steal fifty billion dollars from Mme Sying in China and was in business with the Triads in Hong Kong. But he also traffics in human beings.” Luci stopped. She had to be strong. The thoughts of Alice in the hands of Tariq clouded her thinking. “We were certain that he was eliminated in a diving operation.”
All eyes were on Luci. Maggs tried not to focus on the evil that Tariq had perpetrated.
“RB has been listening to communications with voice recognition software. We have a match. It seems Tariq is alive.” No one moved.
“And what was discussed on those transmissions?” Xavi was the first to speak.
“This is where it gets strange. There are conversations with a Sheik in Qatar about a business proposition. It sounds like it could be drugs. They’re using code words for Captagon, the Jihadi drug of choice.”
“You’re telling us that Tariq, a man known for his brutality and leadership of ISIS, is in the drug business? I suppose that’s not such a stretch. It’s certainly profitable. And with a Qatari Sheik?” The Prince listened while running different scenarios in his mind.
“It seems he wants to form a partnership. But as far as we know, Tariq has no real money. We took it all.” She paused. “We think he needs to borrow or come up with tens of millions of dollars, if he wants to join with the Sheik and expand his business.”