“Don’t get too comfortable with your freedom,” Black said.
Stone lunged at Black again but was restrained by the two guards. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’re making a mistake coming after me. When I do get out of here, you’ll find out what it’s really like to be targeted.”
Black nodded and glanced at the other two agents. “Did you hear that, gentlemen? Seems like Mr. Stone here has some more issues to work through before he’s turned loose.”
“Get inside,” one of the agents said as he nudged Stone toward the side door.
Black grabbed the rest of his six-pack and headed toward his car. Once inside, he took a deep breath and turned the key, igniting the engine. Black didn’t know how much longer he could go with his secret bottled up. Coping with the weight of what he was doing required that he talk to somebody about it, preferably someone who would understand.
He pulled out of the driveway and drove down the road for a few minutes before his cell rang with a call from Blunt.
“How’s the search for Fortner coming along?” Blunt asked.
“It’s coming along, but there’s something I need to get off my chest,” Black said.
“What is it?”
“I’m just now leaving the CIA safe house where Frank Stone is being held.”
“And? Did you get anything new out of him?”
“Frank Stone is lying.”
CHAPTER 9
Washington, D.C.
HAWK AND ALEX STOOD outside their car parked on the tarmac, awaiting the arrival of a special flight from Afghanistan, when Hawk’s phone rang. Blunt’s name materialized along with a picture Hawk had snapped of his boss with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. The image always made Hawk smile.
“Does he know you took that picture?” Alex asked.
“He posed for it,” Hawk said. “It was the night after we caught Karif Fazil, and Blunt was a little excited.”
“Excited for him is euphoric for the rest of us,” Alex said. “I wonder how he celebrated the Astros finally winning the World Series.”
“Probably a quick fist pump and a glass of scotch,” Hawk said before answering the phone.
“Are you still waiting on Jahedah’s flight to land?” Blunt asked.
“Yeah. She’s supposed to be here in about twenty minutes. Why? What’s up?”
Blunt cleared his throat. “I’ve got some good news for you.”
“Lay it on me,” Hawk said. “I could use some good news after that debacle in Garmsir.”
“Interpol just arrested Evana Bahar.”
"Seriously?" Hawk asked. "So soon? I thought Stone's intel was shaky at best, maybe even planted."
“Apparently not,” Blunt said. “She didn’t give the signal at the customs agent. They even ran her prints through the database.”
“Why would she be so brazen?” Hawk asked.
“It was a brilliant scheme,” Blunt said. “Apparently she wanted to change the way she traveled from country to country, which we believed in the past was through various private jets at smaller airports, which allowed her more flexibility to get in and out of places. But by using a body double, facial recognition systems will remove a person from the searchable images until the person exits the country. That allowed her to go in after Jahedah without getting flagged.”
“Something about this still seems fishy.”
Blunt sighed. “Hawk, stop trying to ruin my moment. I called you to commend you on a job well done.”
“Did you pump your fist and drink a glass of scotch?”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Hawk said. “Forget I asked that.”
“I still want you to be vigilant with Jahedah, just in case there’s something else at play here.”
“What? Like a third woman who was surgically altered to look like Evana?”
“You really are trying to spoil this victory, aren’t you?”
“It’s Al Fatihin,” Hawk said. “There’s never a moment where you can rest on your laurels and enjoy a win. They are always trying to make our lives chaotic and do a pretty good job of it. If we don’t stay alert, we’re going to see a lot of innocent people suffer. And I’m not about to let that happen.”
“Good,” Blunt said. “Just follow protocol. It shouldn’t be an issue, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“So, what are they going to do with Evana Bahar now?”
“There’s a long list of countries trying to extradite her for crimes against them. Turkey is one of the few places that hasn’t charged her with anything.”
“We probably won’t even get a piece of her,” Hawk said with a sigh.
“England trumps us when it comes to the statutes filed against her. We have to take our place behind them. Honestly, I’m not sure she’ll ever have to come here and answer for what she did.”
“I can’t believe she outsmarted herself,” Hawk said. “But she was bound to get caught one day. I only wish I’d been the one to do it.”
“Well, you helped make it happen,” Blunt said. “Now, you and Alex do something better than catching a terrorist—help an innocent girl who’s been maimed by a terrorist.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll call you later once everything is taken care of.”
Hawk hung up and turned to Alex. “We did it.”
“We?” she said, casting him a playful sideways glance.
“Well, Blunt said we made it happen after turning Jahedah last week. It’s not as fun as bringing her in myself, but it’s still a thrill to know that we were part of the operation that eventually led to her demise.”
“But Al Fatihin is still out there—and very active from all the chatter we’ve been hearing lately.”
“It’ll take a while for them to recover from this,” Hawk said. “At the very least it gives us a reprieve, not to mention a chance to do the kind of good that I haven’t done in a very long time.”
Alex’s phone buzzed with a text message, and she read the note on the screen before pocketing her cell.
“What is it?” Hawk asked.
“Jahedah’s plane is making its final approach. She’ll be on the ground any minute now.”
“Is your equipment ready for the DNA test?”
