Hawk wanted to hit something, preferably John McGinn, but needed to gather his wits if he was going to survive. Then, he heard a voice over his comlink that made him cringe.
“Mr. Hawk, I believe I’ve got something that belongs to you. Or should I say someone?” said a man.
“Who is this?”
“Oh, Mr. Hawk, you don’t know me, but you ran into my stepbrother once—and you killed him. Does the name Nasim Ghazi sound familiar?”
Hawk knew the name all too well, but he didn’t want to give the caller any more reason to hate him. “You’re going to have to help me out. I’m drawing a blank.”
“You disgust me,” Qureshi said. “You insult the memory of my brother, a man you needlessly killed.”
“I’m going to kill youl” Hawk said.
Qureshi broke into a hearty laugh. “You’re going to kill me? That just might be one of the funniest things I’ve heard in months. But I’m a fair man, so I’m willing to give you a fighting chance. You have ten minutes to find me. After ten minutes, I’m going to kill your little friend Alex. Or maybe I have other plans for her before I kill her. You’ll never know if you don’t arrive in time. I’ll be waiting—and watching.”
In the background, Hawk heard Alex yell.
“Don’t do it, Hawk. Just leave me. Get out of there and grab the weapon.”
Then a high-pitched shriek followed by another scream.
“Ten minutes,” Qureshi said before the com went silent.
CHAPTER 30
McGINN TUGGED ON THE CHAIN he wrapped around the handles to make sure the doors were secure. Satisfied with his work, he shoved an extra gun he’d lifted off the Al Hasib agents into the back of his pants, picked up the weapon and his gun, and headed toward the dock.
Once he exited the building, he raced down a set of stairs toward the port where he’d arranged to meet his contact. But he was nowhere to be found.
What the hell? Where is he?
While mildly annoyed, McGinn wasn’t concerned. He’d just locked Brady Hawk up in a kill box, though McGinn all but assured he’d never see the Firestorm assassin again after giving away Alex’s position. It was a plan he’d managed to execute flawlessly. All Qureshi had to do was finish off Hawk and Alex, which wouldn’t be difficult given their situations.
McGinn dialed a number on his cell phone, but the call went straight to voicemail.
Crouching behind a shipping container, McGinn could only wait and think. He actually thought Hawk was a good man, but McGinn was just following orders, like a good soldier does, even if he didn’t understand why or agree with the reason given. McGinn thought the order seemed harsh, particularly since Hawk had eliminated some of the CIA’s top threats globally in recent months. But McGinn operated in a black-and-white world: orders were orders. Who was he to challenge such a directive?
McGinn peered around the edge of the container toward the water. He saw what looked like a faint glimmer in the distance. The ship was heading straight toward the dock.
It was only a matter of minutes before he could vanish and never to set foot in Somalia again.
And it couldn’t happen quickly enough for McGinn’s liking.
CHAPTER 31
HAWK RUSHED TOWARD THE OTHER DOOR, rattling it with both hands. But it didn’t budge. He then grabbed the rope he’d repelled into the room on and tried to search for a place to secure it and climb up and out. In the operation planning, he suggested to McGinn that they should have an alternative way out in case things went sideways, but McGinn nixed the idea, claiming that it would also create a way for more assailants to access the room and potentially entrap them.
That dirty backstabbing bastard. This was a set up from the beginning.
Hawk blamed himself for not seeing it, then blamed Blunt for being too trusting with one of his old friends from Congress. But then Hawk stopped. He needed to expend his mental energy on figuring out a way to escape the room.
Once more, Hawk surveyed his surroundings. The room appeared to be a storage area without much in the way of storage. It was mostly open with the exception of a few shelving units with a scant number of supplies. The double doors at each end of the room were secured, and the only other portals were the skylights above. No windows to jump through.
For a moment, Hawk even contemplated putting a hole in the wall until he realized thick aluminum comprised all four sides. He looked over the supplies but couldn’t find anything of use. A few beakers, a microscope, some dyes, stacks of washcloths, petri dishes.
If I wanted to make some hippy tie-dye headbands, I’d be in heaven right now.
But he wasn’t. He was in a hell of McGinn’s making. McGinn hadn’t just met with Garaar—they plotted together.
Hawk noticed a blinking red light in the corner on the side of the security camera. There was another camera on the other side of the room as well. Without a clear way out, Hawk decided he wasn’t going to give Qureshi the pleasure of seeing him struggle. Hawk hung washcloths over the camera lenses and plotted his next move.
Hawk’s com link crackled to life with Qureshi on the other end.
“You might think you are clever by covering the cameras, but your little friend is going to die in five minutes if you don’t meet me in the lab,” Qureshi said. “I know you know where it’s at since I found the schematics of the building with your friend here. Five minutes. Not a second more.”
Hawk seethed. “I swear I’ll kill you when I find you.”
“All your empty threats won’t save your friend’s life. Better hurry.”
The line went silent. Hawk shook his head as he looked around the room.
