Feeling completely alone despite the guards in the room, Sean sank down on the sofa and forced himself to wait. His grandfather was dead, and he, Sean Grimaldi, was now King of Akkadia. It was surreal, but he suddenly had far too great an appreciation for Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
Uneasy lies the head which wears the crown.
24
Bash could barely restrain himself from screaming at Mansur, but he held his tongue until the heavy, soundproof door of Mansur’s office closed behind them.
“Just what the fuck are you playing at, Mansur?” He snarled, staring at the other man in cold fury. “This is not what we agreed to!I’mSean’s guard, not those incompetent fools who allowed Faisal to get shot!”
Mansur stood stone-faced, letting Bash’s rage wash over him without touching him. “YouwereCrown Prince Mishaan’s guard,” he replied. “I couldn’t allow you to remain asKingMishaan’s guard without raising more questions than we want to answer right now. If it makes you feel better, I am acting on Nick’s plan. You may have had hopes that my father would live and Mishaan could return home after King Faisal recovered, but Nick and I made plans in case the worst were to happen. The Royal Guard have been the only force guarding the King of Akkadia for nearly a thousand years. It would cause an outcry if that tradition were to change. You can’t even be an additional guard without someone looking more closely at your relationship with Mishaan!”
Mansur’s use of the words “my father” reminded Bash Mansur had just lost not only his king but also the man who had given him life. He felt a swell of regret, not just for Mansur, but because he, Bash, would never know what it was like to evenhavea father.
“I’m sorry,” he said, a trifle more curtly than he probably should have. He raked his fingers through his hair. “Not about being angry, but about Faisal. You’re right, I probably had pinned too many hopes on his continued survival. This isn’t a position Sean would ever have wanted to be in, you know. He’d hand the crown to you in a heartbeat if he could.”
“I know,” Mansur said. “Let’s not be at odds, all right? Sean’s safety is my number one priority, not just as head of intelligence, but because he is my nephew and my rightful king. So we must work together now more than ever. I, too, had hoped my father would live longer and give us the time we needed to find the traitor. Faisal died sooner than even my worst fears.”
“All right,” Bash agreed. He had to admit it was mostly his own paranoia making him distrust everyone, even Mansur, but he couldn’t go it alone any longer, not in the face of the changing situation. “So, what is this plan? Nick always does go in big for contingencies.”
“Please, sit,” Mansur replied, motioning to the chairs in front of his desk. He moved to take his own seat. “Nick believes that as long as you will allow to me handle Mishaan’s security, you will have the freedom you need to stop Carapov’s plans.”
“So he wants me out in the wild?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Mansur brought up something on his computer, then turned the screen to face Bash. The graphic was the Akkadian Royal Family Tree. “As you know, there are only so many options for whom the Russians can try to put on the throne. Majid is the eldest, but Hamid is actually first in line, because his mother is senior to Majid’s mother. There are also half a dozen younger boys who are still children among my sisters. Technically, even Jamil, Hamid’s father, stands in the line of succession, since he’s descended from my grandfather’s elder sister, and Sheik Khaleel is also a cousin. The thing about the Akkadian succession, however, is that the king picks his successor from among the eligible male descendants. So Grandfather picked Mishaan because Sayyid, Sayyid’s sons, and Fahd are all dead. I had hoped we would have a hint of who the traitor is before Mishaan would be forced to name a crown prince, but the Fortress analysts are still going over the additional data I sent yesterday. At the moment, however, anyone Sean chooses mightbethe person we’re looking for or their unwilling puppet. The Russian involvement has expanded the potential pool of traitors, since it’s possible the person being groomed to take the throne might be unaware of the plot.”
“So anyone Sean picks will either want him dead or winds up with a target on their back too.” Bash growled in annoyance. “If I know anything about Sean, he won’t want to do that, and he will absolutely refuse to put a child in danger, so all the younger boys are out of the question. How long can he delay? Or does it default after a time?”
“He can delay for four days at the start, since there will be the funeral and three days of mourning.” Mansur folded his hands on the desk as he spoke. “At some point, his council will push him to name a successor, but I think he can reasonably delay another week or two by claiming he needs to evaluate the candidates, especially since he hasn’t yet even met some of them. Of course, the council will want an adult named, but he would be within his rights to choose one of my teenage nephews.”
Bash frowned. “So I have about a week to find Carapov, kill him, and wreck his plans to overthrow the government.”
“That sums it up,” Mansur acknowledged. “Can you do it?”
“I have to, right?” Bash shook his head. “But you and those uniformed goons had better keep Sean safe in the meantime. Do you hear me? Or else the Akkadian government is going to be a lot smaller and not because of any fucking Russian.”
Things had just gotten a great deal more dangerous, yet Bash couldn’t help but feel a surge of adrenaline. He was going to take the fight to the enemy, not wait to react to whatever happened. He just had to hope that Mansur held up his end of the bargain and kept Sean safe — not just for Sean’s sake, but for his own.
25
“He’ll be all right, Sebastian.”
Bash looked up from his inspection of his equipment and regarded his employer. Nick had met him at the Turkish border at the same place and even using the same airplane in which he and Sean had left Akkadia the first time. It had only been a few months, but Bash felt as though it were a lifetime ago.
“He’d better be,” Bash growled, before forcing himself to take a deep breath. Snapping and snarling at Nick wouldn’t change anything or make it any easier to get through this mission.
Leaving Sean had been one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. It didn’t help they hadn’t been allowed a moment alone, and he’d had to make do with formalities and wishes for “much success.” They’d shaken hands, and Sean’s look of desperation had almost ripped Bash apart. If there hadn’t been so much riding on carrying out their plans, he would’ve been tempted to whisk Sean away and damn the consequences. What did the fate of a country matter when Sean’s life was on the line?
But he’d kept control of himself, releasing Sean’s hand and walking away. He’d driven himself to this rendezvous at Mansur’s direction, changing vehicles twice along the way. The goal was to make everyone think he’d left the country. Carapov may not have been keeping close tabs on the “Interpol” agent, but Moscow undoubtedly was. He’d met up with Nick to pick up the equipment he needed, and then he would head back to Nineveh. His Akkadian was spotty, but Bash spoke excellent Russian. He hoped to track down Carapov and any accomplices, then neutralize them as quickly as possible. Then he’d force Carapov to give up the name of the traitor, whatever it took.
“Mansur knows what is at stake,” Nick assured him. “At the time Faisal was shot, he had no reason to suspect outside interference. Now that he knows the level of threat, he’s prepared.”
“Easier to say than to believe,” Bash replied. He knelt to open one of the cases Anton had unloaded onto the tarmac, revealing Bash’s favorite sniper rifle, a custom Barrett M82. The gun could take out an airplane if needed, but he wanted it because the fifty cal ammo could reach a target behind walls. If he was going up against Carapov by himself, he damn sure wanted to take him out, no matter what.
He felt Nick’s hand on his shoulder, and when he glanced up, he could read Nick’s sympathy in his eyes. “If you want, I can have your entire team here in two hours. They can work with you or watch the Palace.”
“You know what that would do,” Bash replied. He closed the case, then rose to his feet. “The minute Carapov or his handlers suspected anything, they’d either go to ground where we’d never find them, or they’d try something desperate that we might not see coming. Either way, the danger to Sean and Akkadia is still there, and we’ll have lost what little we know. No, this is a job for a lone agent. And I’m the best you have.”
“You are,” Nick admitted, but he seemed somehow pensive, an emotion Bash didn’t think he’d ever seen Nick display before.
