“When are you coming back?”
Black sighed. “I already missed the morning plane out of here for Santiago, so it’ll be tomorrow that I’ll begin the journey home, unless you can send your plane.”
“Hawk and Alex have it. Just keep me updated if anything changes or someone in the village talks.”
“Roger that,” Black said before he hung up.
He slammed his fist into the bed and let out a scream. Black hated lying almost as much as he hated being coopted into helping the enemy.
And he had no choice but to do both.
CHAPTER 3
Tangier, Morocco
FRANK STONE DABBED his face with a towel before settling onto a small bench just outside the showers. When he finished, he was in the middle of pulling on a pair of boxers when he looked up and jumped.
“What’s wrong with you people?” Stone asked. “Can’t I get just a moment of peace and get dressed before you start interviewing me?”
Hawk shook his head. “I wish I could, but time is of the essence. And I swear you took an hour in there.”
“I could’ve stayed in longer. You have no idea what filthy is until you’ve been captured by those animals.”
“Unfortunately, I’m all too familiar with what that’s like.”
“What a minute,” Stone said, pointing his index finger at Hawk, “are you the guy who took out Karif Fazil?”
“Guilty as charged. And a lot of good that did. The newest iteration of Al Hasib has returned with a vengeance.”
“And some unlikely bedfellows.”
Hawk’s eyebrows shot upward. “This sounds interesting.”
“I’ll tell you all about it after I get dressed. Now, do you mind?”
Hawk sighed. “Five minutes. Your buddy Randy Wood from the CIA is here. He’s less patient than any of us.”
“Five minutes, I promise.”
* * *
HAWK SETTLED INTO his chair at the table and informed the rest of the people in attendance that Stone would be out momentarily. Joining Hawk for the interview was Wood, who was the deputy director of the CIA, along with Martina Bingham, the CIA’s station chief for the Middle East. Alex and Blunt were listening in via speakerphone on a secure line.
“Stone was teasing me with some information, so I’m hoping we get something good out of this,” Hawk said.
“Me too,” Martina said as she tucked her straight brown hair behind her ears.
Wood was slouched in his chair, chewing on a pen and finger combing his graying mop of a hairdo. “I wish he’d hurry up. We seriously need to get moving on this. Every minute we wait—”
“Randy,” Stone said as he entered the room. “I bet you couldn’t wait for me to get here.”
“I couldn’t, but not for the reasons you think. What were you thinking getting yourself in that situation with Al Fatihin? We warned you that such brazen behavior was going to expose you. Fortunately, we escaped your debacle without the loss of any assets.”
Stone settled into a seat directly across the table from Wood. “I also escaped with some amazing intel that should help us capture Evana Bahar and put an end to this terrorist organization once and for all.”
“Frank, are you okay?” Martina asked. “You don’t have to do this right now if you need some more time.”
Wood shot a glance at Martina. “Are you crazy? We absolutely need him to share this information with us right now.”
“Sorry for trying to be—I don’t know—a human,” she said.
Hawk leaned forward in his chair and eyed Stone. “Why don’t you proceed?”
“I’m fine, Martina, and I hope Brooke and the children are too,” Stone began.
She nodded. “Everyone’s good and looking forward to seeing you when you get back on U.S. soil.”
“Which is never going to happen if we continue at this pace,” Wood said, slamming his pen on the table. “Evana Bahar may very well rule the world by the time we find out this big secret that you have.”
Stone sighed. “Fine. I’ll tell you what I know.”
“That’d be refreshing,” said Wood, scooting up in his chair before sliding a notebook in front of Stone.
“So, there’s a lot to unpack from my time both infiltrating the organization as well as my time in captivity,” Stone said. “But I’ll skip to the most important part first: Evana Bahar is heading to Istanbul tomorrow to meet with Russian arms dealer, Andrei Orlovsky.”
Wood cocked his head to one side and furrowed his brow. “How do you know this?”
“Because I heard them talking about it two days ago,” Stone said.
“You heardthem? Who talks about plans in front of a prisoner?” Wood asked, eyeing Stone carefully.
“Just in case you’ve forgotten, I was being detained in a hideout located in a mine,” Stone said. “And if you know anything about mines, it’s that they are very well ventilated. I assure you I could hear everything as if I were sitting in the same room with them.”
“And you’re sure you heard them discussing these plans?” Martina asked.
“Yes.”
“And was this a regular occurrence?” Wood asked.
“Whenever Evana Bahar was there, I regularly heard them discussing plans for different operations, though I could only recall a few of them. I heard her talking about going to Cuba once. Did that happen?”
Hawk nodded. “She tried to take out the president. But we stopped her.”
“Yet she got away,” Wood said. “Otherwise, we might not be having this conversation.”
“Well, you can save the commentary,” Hawk said. “However, if that’s the kind of things Stone was hearing then it’s difficult to doubt the veracity of his claim.”
“I’ve been following her long before she was a running Al Fatihin,” Martina said. “The agency was watching her when she was in London with her nonprofit and she fought in a few skirmishes in Kandahar under another alias. She’s very ambitious, and she probably feels like she’s waited long enough to make a statement.”
Wood nodded in agreement and looked at Hawk. “Based on some of the wiretaps we’ve heard, she wants you dead more than anything. She’s still smarting about you killing her cousin.”
“She’ll be next if she keeps this up.
