Page 54

For just a moment Ryker thought he saw a glimmer of intelligence, then it went away. He opened up the second bottle of water and poured it on him.

“English,” Ryker yelled. “Your nephew needs you.”

“Adem? Deniz?”

“I don’t know which nephew. Your brother Ayaz’s son. Ayaz is dead. Men have kidnapped your nephew and are bringing him here now. Wake up.”

Kaan struggled to get up. “Ayaz? Dead?”

“That’s what I said. They killed your brother Ayaz. They’re bringing your nephew here, and they’re going to want information on Mehmet and Hamza. If you don’t give them the information they want, they’ll kill the boy.”

Kaan pushed at Ryker, then fell off the table onto his hands and knees. “Where are they? Who are these people?”

“They’re American mercenaries who don’t give a shit who they torture or kill. They only care about finding those American prisoners and bringing them home. They’ve killed your brother, his wife, and the other boy. You have a chance to save this nephew if you can get your head straight and do what we say.”

“Who are you?” Kaan demanded to know, as Kostya walked up beside Ryker.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ryker answered. “As soon as we help you get your nephew, you are going to help us get the American prisoner, are we clear?”

Kaan didn’t answer. His head started to droop.

“Fuck me.”

“Let’s get him in the chair,” Kostya said. “You’ve done everything you can.”

“The Kraken aren’t going to believe that he’s here all by himself, unarmed, no guards.”

“You’re right,” Kostya grinned. That’s when Ryker noticed the garments hanging over Kostya’s arm.

“Aw, shit, is it dress-up time?”

“It is. This mission, everybody gets to be an actor.”

“They’re coming in. You’ve got two sprinter vans and one truck,” Linc reported.

“Are all of the kids out of the school?” Landon asked.

“Yes,” Linc answered.

“Can you see into any of the vehicles?” Kostya asked.

“The truck is a flatbed with a cover, so I just see the one driver up front. The sprinter vans have tinted windows, but from what I can see through the windshields, it looks like each of them has a driver and a passenger. I’d say they have enough room to be carrying fourteen people, easy.”

“Got it,” Kostya commented. “Anything else?”

“They’re coming in real slow. It’s like they’re waiting to be shot at or something.” There was a long pause. “Wait a minute. The sprinter vans have stopped and the truck is moving forward. Yep, it’s about fifty yards away from the gate. Five men are getting out of the back and they’re running around all sides of the compound wall. I only got good looks at two of them, and one looks like a pic that Gideon sent us, but not Sykes or the lieutenants.”

“Why in the hell are they checking out the perimeter, since the damn gates are open wide?” Landon wanted to know.

“I sure as hell wouldn’t trust that if I were them,” Nolan said. “That would give me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Okay, now we’re going to bring Kaan out,” Kostya said.

The diminutive dominatrix was tied up and gagged upstairs, so she would be out of the way and hopefully come out of this unscathed. Based on where Linc was, he could only see into the top floor of the house, but when the gates to the compound were open, he had a clear view of most of the courtyard, so that’s where Kostya wanted to keep all the activity.

Landon and Nolan were wearing white, billowy thobes and keffiyehs that Kostya had found, Ryker got the third thobe, but there wasn’t a headdress to go with it. Kostya and Ryker carried the chair that Kaan was sitting in to the rear of the fountain. This way he could talk, but the fountain should disguise the fact that he was still drugged up. Kostya was going to stay in the house, close to the patio door entrance where he could easily see what was happening but not be spotted.

“I can’t see where all of the Kraken team went,” Linc said. “I can see the one up the tree, I can also see the ones on the east and west walls, but the two others disappeared from my line of site.”