“He wants to sink a salvage ship by using the rocket launchers!”
Okay, so hehadheard him correctly. “For the love of—” He could feel his blood pressure rise so quickly that his face flushed hot. Nassar was a wonderful asset. Always quick to follow a lead, ever ready to forward the cause. But he was also a crazy sonofabitch. Fanatical to the point of psychosis. “No!He doesn’t need to draw any unneeded attention to himself. Tell him to let the ship pass.” And in case that wasn’t clear enough, he added, “Tell him to stand the fuck down!”
Ahmed relayed his words, then his eyes rounded as he listened to Nassar’s reply.
Banu’s stomach tightened into an uneasy fist. “What?” he demanded. “What is he saying?”
“He says he thinks they are CIA!”
“Why the hell would he think that?” Banu yelled, getting the distinct feeling that Nassar’s psychosis had slipped over the line into full-on paranoia.No, no, no! He’ll ruin everything!
“He says the CIA knows everything, has eyes everywhere! He is determined to sink the ship!”
“Give me the phone,” Banu growled, yanking the device from Ahmed’s hand. “And cut the engines!” he yelled to one of the men Ahmed had brought with them.
Ahmed repeated his command, and the fishing boat’s outboards choked off. For a couple of moments, their forward momentum carried them across the tops of the waves. Banu waited. Only when the boat finally glided to a stop, bobbing gently with the tide, did he lift the phone to his ear. Breathing deeply of the salty air and trying to ignore the overpowering aroma of marine fuel, he was careful to keep his tone modulated when he spoke.
“Nassar, I know you think the CIA knows everything. But the movies lie. This is a big world and the Central Intelligence Agency can’t have eyes everywhere at all times. And I would know, right? I’ve been working for them for a very long time.”
It took a brief moment to hear Nassar’s reply, since the phones they were using routed their signals through fifteen different satellites to avoid detection and to thwart anyone from possibly trying to triangulate their position. Yeah, Banu knew all the tricks.
“They coming,” Nassar hissed, then raised his voice until his tone bordered on berserk. In response, the hairs along the back of Banu’s neck lifted. “The ship coming!”
“It’s fine,” he soothed. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
“No,” Nassar insisted. “CIA know chemicals missing. They try trick us! They try—”
“Shut up and listen!” Banu yelled into the phone. Trying to calm the idiot wasn’t working. So now he’d move on to tough love. “They arenotthe CIA! Yes”—he glanced down at his watch—“you’re right. The Company probably knows the chemicals are missing by now. But with the security system malfunctioning in the warehouse, they won’t have the first clue where to start looking.”
“But—”
Banu continued speaking as if Nassar hadn’t tried to interrupt. “It will take them hours, maybe days, to connect the dots to you and your men. And it will take longer than that for them to figure out you left Cuba by boat. But even if somehow theyhavealready figured out it was you and that you left by boat, they’ll be looking for that wreck of a boat you bought, not a big, shiny yacht.”
Andthathad been a stroke of luck he hadn’t counted on. When Nassar called a bit ago to say he’d hijacked the passing vessel, Banu began to suspect this mission—despite the one little hiccup of the sinking trawler— was indeed blessed by Allah. Too many pieces of the puzzle were falling into place for it not to be. Of course, the four people aboard the yacht would have to be killed once they weren’t needed as possible hostages, but that was a minor inconvenience best left for later. For now, he just had to make sure Nassar didn’t do anything stupid.
“Do you hear me, Nassar?” he asked. “Do you understand?” It was a rhetorical question. Even though Nassar’s spoken English was atrocious, the man comprehended every word of the language.
Banu waited a beat for the signal to bounce around the globe and back. Finally, “Yes, Banu. I understand.”
“Good.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Now, hold steady until we get there. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. Good,” Nassar said, and before Banu could add anything more, the signal went dead.Ah, well.He blew out a breath, soothing himself with the knowledge that Nassar had sounded far less hysterical there at the end.
“All is as it should be?” Ahmed asked.
“I think so.” He silently added,Ihopeso.
“Nassar is a passionate man. And sometimes he is too quick to act. But he knows how important this is. He will not disappoint you, brother.”
This time Banu spoke the words aloud. “I hope so.” Then he waved a hand at the man behind the wheel. “Okay, let’s go.”
The command didn’t need a translation. As the motorboat’s engines came to life with a coughing sputter, Banu turned his mind away from the disturbing thoughts of Nassar and the possibility the man might indeed fuck everything up to more pleasant things. Things like the blow he’d deliver to the U.S. and its overfed, overconfident, overly entitled populace. Things like the scores of people who, after exposure to the cyclosarin, would foam at the mouth and scratch at their throats and eyes until they drew blood. Things like the news stories that would echo around the world.
He smiled with the knowledge that, as the mastermind of the whole thing, his name would go down in the annals of time, remembered by most, discussed by many, and revered by some. He would be like Timothy McVeigh or Osama bin Laden! The man to strike at the heart of an empire!
His dick twitched to life, swelling at the thought of what was to come. He had to covertly hook his heel over his knee and drop his hands into his lap. He sure as shit didn’t want to give these guys the wrong idea…
Chapter Nine
