“We don’t want to rack up any casualties,” Dro addressed Ryan, wearing a wry grin, “which is why you and I are assigned to break whatever barriers we need to, and get the women to safety.”
“You make me sound like a loose cannon, but I’m cool.” Ryan tapped his ankle holster and hid a smile. “Now if my woman was still in the wind, you’d have to worry. Aziza is safe, so I’m mellow. The fact that these women are not, means someone is still going to catch these hands.”
Chuckles filled the interior of the vehicle.
“We’ll all be in a better frame of mind when this is over.” Dro said.
“We still have to find those girls,” Ryan reminded them. “I won’t be at rest until they’re all safe.”
Their current plan was that Nicco, the designated driver, would intercept the truck from the opposite direction, forcing the crew to stop. If that didn’t work, Daron had some wicked diamond-shaped metal canisters that opened into jagged teeth capable of shredding tires.
Under threat of being behind bars for the rest of his life—in a neighboring country, where the facilities were of a much poorer standard— the man they were still holding gave them details of when the women were due to be shipped out of Durabia. According to him, the seven females would cross the border into Nadaum the day after their capture. That was today.
Planning their strategy kept the team up for most of the night and in the early morning, exhaustion forced them to camp on the available beds and man-sized sofas around Daron’s suite within Khalil’s palatial home. After a few hours of shut-eye, they rose to finalize their plans.
The driver they were holding told them a convoy of trucks was scheduled to leave the meat packing plant at staggered times. The truck carrying the women was leaving at ten a.m., the last of four units in their morning delivery shift.
When Ryan asked how they’d know for certain which vehicle the women were stowed in, Daron had shared the extent of his and Calvin’s brilliance. Among his digital tools was a scanner that could perform something akin to an X-ray function from as far away as a quarter of a mile. Ryan was impressed and optimistic that they would complete the task assigned to them by Sheikh Kamran, whom he’d met last night. Their assignment from him was to rescue the women at any cost.
As the trucks rolled out, Daron focused on his phone. “Time to get rolling,” he said. “I’m scanning all the units in case there’s been a change of plan.”
Nicco faced forward and got them moving. They cruised along the asphalt, getting themselves into position. The truck was headed from the outskirts of Hanan along an isolated stretch of road that led into the desert. Their destination was ten miles away, just over the border in Nadaum. When the behemoth of a vehicle crept over the horizon, Nicco cruised along, timing the approach of the laden haulage unit.
The air inside the SUV was tense as they waited for him to be close enough to make his move. When he came within a hundred yards of the truck, Nicco spun the SUV into its path, then back to his side of the road, giving the impression that he was either drunk or ill.
The speed of the oncoming vehicle didn’t vary.
Nicco repeated his maneuver, while Ryan squinted hard at the oncoming vehicle. By this time, the cab of the eighteen wheeler was visible. The driver leaned over the steering wheel, staring through the windscreen, clearly concerned.
“I don’t have enough room to do that again without getting us all killed,” Nicco said in a matter-of-fact tone, despite the urgency of their situation. “We’ll need those wheel shredders.”
“Say no more.” Daron leaned out the window and with a backhanded swing, tossed a handful of the metallic items that burst open on contact with the asphalt.
The truck was now upon them with nowhere to go except over the shredders.
A mixture of curiosity and fright filled the eyes of the driver. The wheels made loud popping sounds as they rolled over the metal shards.
Daron directed another handful under the body of the container as it passed them. The muted explosions continued as Nicco slammed the brake and they all jumped out of the SUV.
Daron and Dro approached the doors with guns drawn.
“Get out with your hands up,” Dro yelled. “Both of you.”
For a moment there was no movement, then the door opened.
Dro stepped back as the driver stumbled out of his seat. The man on the passenger side jumped down and stuck his hands in the air.
“We have only meat,” the driver said, his gaze darting toward Bashir, Nicco, Ryan, and Angela, who surrounded them.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Dro said, with one hand outstretched. The 9mm Sig Sauer in his other hand didn’t waver. “Give me the keys to the back.”
“I cannot do that.” The short man sweated profusely under the blinding sunlight.
Daron herded the passenger closer to the driver, while Dro cocked his gun. “Either you let us into the truck or I give you a taste of what this baby can do. Trust me, you won’t like it.”
With shaking hands, the driver handed him the key ring. “Those will not help you. We do not have the keys or the combination. When we get to the destination, the people there open the freezer and remove the meat.”
The young man bobbed his head as if the frantic motions would save his life. In deeply accented English, he said, “We cannot get inside. It is the company policy.”
Daron and Dro exchanged a glance. “All these precautions for something as simple as food tells me there’s more here than can be seen with the naked eye,” Daron said with a smirk.
Nicco and Angela went into a huddle near the SUV. Daron joined them seconds later, leaving Bashir,
