Page 49 of Her Fearless Warrior

“Leila, I have to. I’m worried that either Sam Phelps or Felix Ratcliff could be a plant. And I’ll be damned if I know which one it is, or who their boss is. You’re the only one I trust in this fucking mess.”

She noted that his hand actually trembled a little bit as he put down the small cup of coffee. She didn’t like this. She didn’t like this at all.

“Okay, what do you need?”

“There are four prisoners being held by the al-Assad regime. The US has tried all methods to get them released, and nothing has worked. Syria is calling them spies, but they’re not. They are just two reporters. One woman was just here to help displaced people, and the fourth is a fucking minister.”

“Okay.”

Elijah waved for the server to come over, and he lifted his cup. Soon his cup was full again. “The US won’t negotiate with terrorists, but a close second is we will not pay a ransom to a foreign country for prisoners. But that’s what we’re doing. I’ve got an old friend of mine who works high up in al-Assad’s government. He has the juice to release the prisoners.”

“Release or help them escape?” Leila asked as she took another small sip of the coffee. You’d think being half Turkish, she’d have a taste for the bitter coffee, but not so much.

“Release. I think my guy is going to give over half the diamonds to al-Assad and keep half for himself.”

“What diamonds?”

“The five million dollars’ worth of diamonds that a CIA agent assigned to Syria has. All I have to do is call and ask for them.”

Leila shook her head. It was a lot of information to take in. She liked Sam Phelps. He seemed like a good guy. Felix was an unknown quantity, but she really didn’t want Sam to end up being the fly in the ointment.

“I’m trusting you, Leila. If something goes wrong, I need you to remember these two names, and knowing your memory, that shouldn’t be a problem,” he laughed. “The man who has the diamonds works at the Jasmine Hotel. His name is Adnan El Din.” Leila nodded.

“Repeat it back to me, honey.” Leila managed by the skin of her teeth not to roll her eyes. “The CIA agent with the diamonds works at the Jasmine hotel and his name is Adnan El Din. Why does he have them and not you?” she asked.

“That’s the agency for you, always trying to make things more convoluted. They just didn’t want one person with all the information to also have all the assets. All I have to do is contact him, and he’ll produce them.”

“Okay, give me the next one.”

“This man is trickier. A lot of time he works out of al-Assad’s palace, here in Damascus. He’s very influential. He and I have known each other longer than you’ve been alive. Nobody knows who he is but me. And now you. His name is Shaker Jassim. The way to get ahold of him is encrypted email. You provide my name, a number, and times you can be reached, and he’ll call you.”

“He can really get the prisoners released?”

“Absolutely. He’s turned into quite an information broker here in Syria. If al-Assad ever found out about it, he and his family would be dead. Right now, Shaker is trying to build a big enough nest egg so he can get him and his extended family to America.”

“Okay, give me the email address.” Elijah spit it out and Leila memorized it.

“But you don’t think something will actually happen, do you?”

“I’m ninety percent sure that nothing will happen, but I’ve got an itch on the back of my neck. When that happens, I build contingency plans, on top of contingency plans.”

The car stopped moving and Leila realized she was actually in Washington DC and her father had just pulled up to her childhood home.

“You okay, Leila?” her mother asked as she looked into the backseat. “I know you loved Elijah.”

“I’m okay, Mom. I’m just thankful to be home.”

* * *

Linc strolled up to his lieutenant’s office. He would have gone in, but it was pretty crowded. Lark was inside, in all her pregnant glory. She looked to be about six months pregnant and Linc had never seen Kostya smile so big.

Gideon was standing right outside the door. “Do you need something?” he asked.

That was Gideon. He was always in tune to the men of Omega Sky.

“I was stopping by to see if I could get some leave.”

Gideon gave him a slow grin. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that you’re so pretty?”