“Calm down,” she said. “We’ll find him.”
“I hate being a step behind Fazil.”
“I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”
“Well, he’s got the upper hand right now.”
“And look where that’s gotten him.”
Hawk shook his head. “He’s still alive, isn’t he?”
“He’s getting desperate. And when you feel that way, you try to force the issue and make mistakes that end up costing you dearly. Fazil ought to know that from experience.”
“But a brazen kidnapping like this on American soil demonstrates that he’s reached a point where he feels like he has nothing to lose. And that scares the hell out of me.”
“This is it for Fazil,” Alex said. “And I think he knows it. This is his last-ditch attempt at doing anything. If he fails this time . . .”
She let her words hang, though Hawk wasn’t in agreement with Alex’s conclusion. He wasn’t convinced Fazil had reached the point where he would resign himself to failure if he didn’t succeed on his next mission. Fazil was getting more desperate, but he still acted in a calculated manner. Kidnapping Colton was bold, but Hawk sensed there was purpose to it.
“My fear isn’t that this is his last hurrah and that he’s going for broke,” Hawk said. “It’s that he’s going to put us in the kind of situation we can’t win.”
“That’s the nature of the game, especially for someone who doesn’t share your values. It’s why we’re in this whole battle in the first place.”
“I know you’re right, but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.”
Hawk entered the security checkpoint at Dallas Executive Airport and quickly parked before racing toward the Colton Industries hangar with Alex. The guard at the door sighed and shook his head slightly the moment he made eye contact with Hawk.
“They’re gone,” the man said.
“You let him take the plane?” Hawk asked before his mouth fell agape.
“I didn’t have any choice. Mr. Colton made the request, though he didn’t look like he made it willingly. But I doubt he had a choice.”
“Did the terrorist have a gun?” Alex asked.
“I couldn’t see one, but he held Mr. Colton tight against him. I don’t know what else he could’ve been trying to conceal.”
“And they probably didn’t file a flight plan, did they?” Hawk asked.
The man looked down at his desk and picked up a piece of paper before sliding it across the countertop to Hawk.
“Actually, they did file one.”
Hawk looked at the final destination. “Port St. Lucia,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m not buying that for a second.”
“You and me both,” the man said. “But if you want to know more about what’s going on, I’d suggest you speak with Mr. Colton’s wife, Gayle. I saw him call her before he left.”
“Have the cops been by here yet?” Alex asked.
“Not yet, but they’re on their way. They know something happened, but nobody at headquarters is telling them much of anything. I’ve been instructed to tell them it’s all a big misunderstanding. But you guys aren’t cops.”
Hawk grinned. “Is Gayle in town?”
“She just got back two days ago from a trip somewhere in the Caribbean, and she hasn’t been here since,” the guard said. “And trust me, she doesn’t set foot in airports. Just the mention of a commercial airport will result in her beginning a rant about how they are just a giant petri dish.”
Hawk drummed on the counter before shaking the guard’s hand.
“Thank you for your assistance. You’ve been most helpful.”
“Sorry I couldn’t tell you more, but you know everything I do now.”
Alex nodded toward the door. “Let’s get moving.”
Once they got back to their car, Hawk fired up the engine and entered Colton’s address into the GPS app on his phone.
“So do you have a hunch about anything yet?” Alex asked.
“I wish I had a better idea of what Fazil is thinking right now.”
“You have many talents, Hawk, but unfortunately mind reading isn’t one of them.”
“I knew you were gonna say that before the words came out of your mouth,” Hawk said.
“Are you trying to suggest that you can read minds?”
Hawk shook his head. “No, just that you’re predictable in that way. You never miss a chance to needle me.”
“Predictability, that’s it,” Alex said, getting excited. “That’s the key to figuring out what Fazil is going to do next.”
“A kidnapping of this nature is about as unpredictable as it gets for Fazil.”
“No, it isn’t,” Alex said as she snapped. “Think about it. Whenever he makes a move like this, he’s doing it for leverage or to gain a better position to unleash an attack on the U.S.”
“So, which one is it?”
Alex sank in her seat and stared blankly out the window. “That I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader.”
“Exactly—and neither am I, which we’re both finding out is most unfortunate.”
Twenty minutes later, they pulled up to the gate of Thomas Colton’s expansive estate. Sequestered among four other homes in a ritzy enclave that spanned nearly a hundred acres, it served as a respite from the seemingly endless wave of suburban neighborhoods with houses packed tightly next to each other.
“Guess everything really is bigger in Texas,” Alex quipped.
“If you’ve got enough money,” Hawk said.
He pressed the call button and waited. Moments later, Gayle’s face appeared on the screen.
“Yes? May I help you?” she asked.
“Miss Gayle, it’s me, Brady Hawk,” he answered. “Can me and one of my associates have a few minutes of your time? It’s about Thomas.”
Even as the words came out of his mouth, they felt strange. No matter how ready he was to move on from the news that Thomas Colton wasn’t his father, Hawk still felt awkward calling the man anything other than Dad.
She dabbed at the corner of her eyes. “Okay, I guess I can speak with you for a few minutes.”
The screen went black, and then the gates swung open.
“Did you two get along before?” Alex asked.
“Remember, I was supposedly the bastard child, so I wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms, especially when
