At exactly twenty minutes later, I show up at the tent the general directed me too. The military has plenty of bases of operation all over the entire planet, but sometimes, they prefer to have mobile bases where there isn’t a major hub around.
The general glances over at me. She murmurs to the officer she’s talking to. Then, the officer salutes her and marches out without even looking at me.
“Sophia,” the general says. “I appreciate your coming here.”
“What can I do for you?”
“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I have a job for you.”
“What do you need?”
“How does ten grand sound?”
“That sounds lovely, but I never accept a job without knowing the particulars first.”
The general grins and shakes a finger at me. “You’re a smart one. I appreciate that. Very well, I’ll get right to it. The son of a former country’s leader is trying to make some noise and opposition to the Global Countries of Earth.”
I frown. “Can you be a little more specific?”
“There is one country that is starting to make some noise and wants to break away.”
I blink a few times. “That would cause a huge mess.”
“That’s an understatement. We can’t allow this to happen. We need this to be controlled and now. If one country secedes, others will as well, and we won’t have Global Countries of Earth anymore. We’ll go back to the thousands of countries and all of the fighting over land and issues and wars that we had before the Grots came.”
“They don’t accept Madelaine Downing as their leader, huh?”
“No.”
“What exactly do you want from me?” I ask.
“The issue would be much easier if we could make the former leader’s son happy.”
“Why can’t we just have him sit down with—”
"Because that would be too easy." The general scowls. "Nothing is ever easy or simple. In fact, the former leader's son is anything but happy. His own son has been kidnapped. Now, they recovered the son, thankfully, but the kidnapper is at larger, and he was last seen here. Not right here, but within the state."
“That’s where I come in.”
“Yes. The son has a handsome reward for the one who captures the kidnapper, dead or alive.” The general eyes me. “I was hoping that in place of the reward money, you would ask him to have a meeting with Madelaine Downing.”
I lift my eyebrows.
“You get the meeting set up, and we will reward you with that ten grand.”
“Fifteen.” I lift my chin.
“Sophia—”
“You’re talking about Saudi Arabia. I know the son. I know the circumstances of this case. You can be as vague as you want, but it’s my business to know these things. He’s offering twelve thousand.”
“Fine. We’ll match the twelve thousand.”
“No. I have to negotiate to get the meeting. That means it’s a double job. Be happy I’m not asking for twenty or even twenty-four to double the original price.”
The general closes her eyes and then nods. “Deal.”
We shake hands, and I leave the tent a minute later with a tablet that contains every scrap of information the military has on one Ali Khan.
A man with dubious ties to a few dark organizations, Ali Khan makes the wannabe mobster Garcia Sagen look like a saint. Ali has been involved with a great number of crimes throughout a decade-long span, and he's not someone you want to cross. He's made a lot of enemies, like I have, but he doesn't seem to have many allies. His kidnapping the son of Saad Ahmad was clearly a desperate move. He needs funds, but for what exactly, I don't know. I'm not sure I need to know, but it never hurts to know as much about a target as possible. After all, I want to be able to anticipate their next moves so that I'm not taken by surprise. When people are cornered, they tend to lash back. It's good to know if they keep daggers on them, guns, that kind of thing, but even more so than that, you want to know what they want.
Motivation. I know what I want, and I know what I’m willing to do. I need to know the same for them.
The more reading I do, the more the story comes into place. Ali Khan is actually a bit like Saad Ahmad. They both want out from under the thumb of the Global Countries of Earth, but it seems to me that Ali Khan just wants everyone to be free so that there can be complete anarchy, whereas Saad Ahmad wants to bring Saudi Arabia back. He wants his country, his power, his authority.
What I don’t understand is that he already does have power and authority. Madelaine Downing is the leader, yes, but she’s not the only one to have any say in the entire world. She has designated many to be her officers, and they’re employed throughout the world. Saad Ahmad is one of those officers.
But, as is often the case, those in power want more and more power. A little bit is never enough.
Let’s see. Ali Khan is known for using bombs. Awesome. He doesn’t tend to use guns. No, he prefers rifles, although generally speaking, he tends to go everywhere with guards who do the shooting for him.
The coward. Talk a big talk but don’t walk the walk. Well, maybe after I’m done with him, he won’t be walking at all.
I grit my teeth. To study the file, I returned to my place, and I have to say that the small house seems even smaller than normal. I have a bit of claustrophobia, and I step out onto my front porch. The tightness in my chest doesn’t go away, and I know it’s because of earlier,
