Page 35 of Warlord’s Empire

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply until she was calm enough to see the apartment dispassionately. When she raised her eyelids, she noted that there was a plant in desperate need of water, which Leeza remedied as she scanned the rest of area.

There was a TV, a sofa, a small kitchen table with two chairs. A spiral wind chime hung down from a window, casting rainbows of light across the kitchen counters.

Leeza went through the kitchen cupboards and drawers, finding nothing more interesting than a user manual for the stove. There wasn’t much more to discover in Saskia’s living room. It was surprisingly sparse for Saskia, but then she’d grown up these past few years. She wasn’t into dolls and stuffed animals anymore. Her style was becoming elegant, which was reflected in a few tasteful paintings and a modern bookshelf filled with books on history, languages, and travel.

Leeza moved to the bedroom, smiling at the pink and white patchwork quilt spread across the bed. Their mother had given it to Saskia when she was young, which meant Saskia hadn’t left her childhood entirely behind.

On one wall, there were framed photos of Leeza, Havel and their children, which warmed her. There were a few of Jozef and Shaun as well. But it was the single picture on the other side of the room, separate from the others, that stood out starkly to Leeza. A pang struck her as she looked closer. It was their parents, Dasha and Krystoff. In it, they looked happy, though much younger than they’d been when they died. It was probably taken before Saskia was even born.

A small dresser turned up socks, underwear, night clothes and a few knit sweaters.

Leeza turned to the closet next, opening it to find a row of dresses, blouses and trousers neatly hung up. There were rows of shoes on a rack on the floor. A box in the corner of the shelf above the hanging clothes caught Leeza’s eye and she reached for it.

She grunted at the weight of it and quickly deposited it on the bed. She expected to find schoolbooks or something similar, but when she opened the lid, she discovered a random assortment of knickknacks. Reaching in, Leeza pulled out a large hardback book. Sitting on the bed, she checked the title before opening it. Welcome to the Congo,

The book was beautifully illustrated and Leeza found herself eagerly turning pages, running her fingers over bright pictures of rainforests, wild animals, flowers, rivers, and mountains. Why did Saskia have the book? Did she want to travel to the Congo? And why wasn’t it on her living room bookshelf with the other travel books?

Flipping to the back, Leeza found a message scrawled across the page in black sharpie.

Soon, my love. Yours, Radik.

Leeza’s heart sank into the pit of her stomach. Radik was the man who’d taken Saskia. He was also Ayaan’s powerful warlord of a brother. At the Guard Dog office, there was a very thick file on the brutal mercenary outlining all of his offences against humanity. Why had he been corresponding with Saskia? Giving her gifts and calling her his love? Why hadn’t Saskia said anything?

Leeza went through the box carefully, laying out each item on the bed. They looked like gifts someone might purchase for a loved one. There was a silk scarf printed in black, red and yellow horizontal stripes with a logo on it. Leeza googled it and discovered it was the Ugandan flag.

There was a delicate teapot wrapped in paper with four small glass cups with gold lettering on them in a language Leeza couldn’t read. The teapot was beautiful and most likely very expensive.

Each gift seemed to have meaning and the ones Leeza could figure out had connections to several different countries in Africa. It was a puzzle that somehow tied to Radik.

Could he be in love with Saskia? Is that what the gifts were about?

Leeza counted. In total there were twelve items, though she supposed there could be more that weren’t in the box.

She decided to take them with her. She felt guilty invading her sister’s privacy and taking something that clearly had meaning to her, but it was the first lead Leeza had.

The gifts had been stored with loving care, so Leeza carefully replaced each item back in the box.

Was it possible that Saskia was also in love with Radik? Did they love each other? No, that was a leap too far. They didn’t know each other. Saskia was frequently shadowed by Koba guards. Though Jozef had backed off his surveillance of Saskia in the past year, he still knew who she interacted with daily, and Radik was definitely not a regular caller.

There was one person Leeza desperately needed to talk to and she was in charge of security on the Koba estate while the rest of the Guard Dog teams were hunting for Saskia in South Africa.

Holding the box under her arm, Leeza locked up the apartment and drove back to the estate where Shaun met her at the front door.

“I might have something,” Shaun said quickly, leading Leeza into the sitting room.

“Me too,” Leeza said. “Where’s Ayaan?”

Shaun gave her a blank look, then said, “I think she’s on the gun range. Should I call her in?”

“Definitely.”

While they were waiting for Ayaan, Shaun filled Leeza in on her visit to Prime Minister Makovsky’s office. “Branislav appeared forthcoming with information without actually saying much. He acted appropriately horrified by the death of his executive assistant without being much help. He’s in touch with her family, saying and doing all the right things, but something’s off.”

“What gives you that impression?” Leeza asked.

Shaun frowned and wandered to the window, looking out at the rose garden. After a long pause, she sighed and shrugged. “It’s a vibe I suppose, though I hate saying that. I should have more concrete evidence before making an accusation.”

Leeza bit back a laugh, not surprised Shaun wouldn’t want to accuse anyone of anything without proof. “I’ll take a vibe if that’s all you’ve got. It’s more than we had before.”