“She wants his help to find some agents on the yacht of some arms dealer. I don’t know what the fuck is going on in her mind!” Trish said. She saw Tina lift her cell phone. “Wait! No one can say anything about this on their phone, text, or email. The General’s office is monitoring our phones, and there’s a double agent in his communications department who’s feeding information on Ben to the Russians. That’s how they knew where to send assassins after Ben. We can only speak face to face about this.”
Tina looked at Trish in shock.
“Evelyn has a way to reach the General without going through the communication channels. The General will mobilize resources to find Ben and bring him home.”
The group shared looks. Being powerless to help was not a good feeling.
-=-
“We must expose double agent. I know how we do this.” Liliya said firmly, her tension showing in her voice.
Evelyn looked at her, and Liliya explained. “Once you contact the General, tell him we are setting a trap. Get him to monitor all outbound communication from the comm center. Also, tell him to monitor all comm center personnel. Call him on your cell when he is ready and tell him I went missing last night during the attack. You found a note in my house explaining I was going to Moscow to kill Sergey Zhdankov before he gets his hands on Tatiana. The double agent will need to report this immediately.”
Evelyn nodded, and Ed looked at them both with wide eyes. Liliya smiled at him. “This is spy stuff.”
“Yeah! I’ve never seen it in real life!” Ed replied.
Evelyn addressed the big man. “May I use your cell to make a call, Ed? Ben trusted you would be unmonitored, so we’ll trust that.”
“Sure!” Ed said with a nod.
“I’m calling a number I know is not part of the General’s communications network. My direct command’s personal cell.” Evelyn dialed a number, and it rang three times.
“Kendricks.”
“Captain, it’s Sergeant Killcade.”
“Evelyn! What can I do for you?”
“I’ll have a new piece of armor to hand off to you from Ben shortly, but first, we have a problem. The General’s comms are compromised by a double agent. We need you to get him to join you off property to help us set up a trap for the mole. Then we need to get the General to activate any and all resources closest to El Jadida, Morocco. The CIA has kidnapped Ben, and he’s about to be taken onboard an arms dealer’s yacht. If that happens, we may lose him.”
“SHIT! Sorry! Right, what number can I reach you at? I assume you aren’t calling me from your cell,” Kendricks said.
“Ed, what’s your cell number?” Evelyn asked as she pointed the phone at Ed.
He said the digits into the phone, and Evelyn put it back to his ear.
“Got the number. Who’s Ed?” Kendricks asked.
“A good friend of Ben’s. We gotta do this fast. I don’t know how long Ben has before he’s on that ship,” Evelyn said urgently.
“On it. Wait for my call.” The line went dead.
“Let’s go back to my office so I can access my terminal if we need to do any research,” Evelyn suggested. Ed nodded.
“How long can you stay with us, Ed? Your cell phone is our lifeline to the people who can help Ben,” Liliya said.
Ed looked at her in surprise. “I-I should send Grace a text to tell her I won’t be home for supper. Is it okay for me to tell her what I’m doing?”
“Maybe don’t mention Ben until we have removed the spy,” Liliya suggested with a smile, and he nodded. He texted a minimal message as they hustled over to Evelyn’s
They had a spy to catch.
-=-
Ben settled the bill as Steph preened under the waiter’s lecherous gaze. She’d changed into a new dress which was even more revealing than the last. Equally tight, the material was semi-translucent in critical areas.
They left the restaurant and walked out of the building to get some fresh air, casually strolling along the path next to an enormous fountain.
“When are we expected to go back into the casino?” Ben asked.
“We won’t go there until I get word that Sadik is on his way. Then we’ll walk the floor as I explain how the games work to you. I need you to be seen and generate a buzz, so feel free to pose for pictures and sign autographs.”
“I don’t do autographs,” he sighed.
“Whatever!” she snapped.
He looked at her and saw that out here, away from the crowds, she was letting her real emotions surface. Maybe he’d get some answers. “What can you tell me about this Sadik guy?”
She glanced up at him, gave him an evaluating look, and sighed.
“Kan Sadik. Forty-five years old. Turkish citizen though he’s not welcome there anymore. Only child. Parents killed by police during a raid at his uncle’s farm during the man’s wedding. The bride and her parents were killed as well.”
“Shit!” Ben muttered, and Russo nodded before continuing.
“He was raised by his uncle, who was a smuggler and fence for stolen goods. He raised the boy to take over his business, and Kaan was a prodigy. Murdered his first man at the age of sixteen, but he served no time for it. His career picked up from there, and he branched into areas even his uncle feared to tread. He built an empire on the blood of thousands with his arms deals and other related crimes. There’s a good chance he’s a sociopath. He commissioned the custom mega yacht with some form of stealth tech and disappeared from the radar of all law authorities, but he continues to work from it.”
She fell silent, and Ben watched emotions play across her face. Someone important to Russo was on that ship. Her eyes were aimed at the ground now.
“Can you tell me about the missing agents?” Ben asked.
Russo’s face snapped up, and she gave him a hard look. He looked back at her.
“You want my help to determine if they are on the ship. Who are we looking for? How many people?” Ben asked.
She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes closed for a moment. He thought she might refuse to answer, but she finally did.
“Three agents. Harold Gibson. American. Age thirty-one. Experienced field operative with a tech background. Harper Lane. American. Age twenty-nine. Field operative for ten years specializing in deep cover. Phan Thi Nguyêt.” Russo paused. “Moon. She told me that’s what her name means. Vietnamese national. Age twenty-six and worked in the field for two. She’s a natural.”
Ben picked up that Russo was most concerned about the latter. Perhaps involved in a personal relationship with her. That could get messy. “How long have they been on the ship?”
“A month.” Her expression indicated her worry.
Ben thought about that as they walked. “So… the people he invites on his ship. They have to stay for a month?”
“No, they can come back with the supply ship as it remains with the main yacht for a day or two as it transfers its cargo to Sadik’s ship. The team was supposed to come back with it, but they weren’t there when it got back to port,” Russo explained.
“So, we need to ensure we’re on that supply ship before it finishes resupplying him.”
“Right,” she said firmly but offered nothing in the way of assurances that it could be done. She didn’t look at him when she said it either. The knot in his stomach tightened.
“What are the odds that your team is still alive?” he asked bluntly, and she stopped to scowl at him, so he continued. “Realistically. You said this man’s a murderer and a sociopath. If he learned who they were, what’s to stop him from dumping them at sea? Sorry for the harsh words, but you’re asking me to risk my life here.”
“These supplies he’s picking up aren’t just for him. Kaan’s mega yacht is a floating party. He hosts celebrities, the idle rich, and people he admires. We interviewed one and got a full report on how relaxed he felt after his stay. These people love the chance to kick back in absolute luxury away from the eyes of the public and media. Some visit for a day, but others stay for a month or two, reveling in total decadence in isolation like some kind of detox spa. The staterooms are luxury suites. The food is top-notch, the drinks are plentiful, and the party girls and boys are young and beautiful. Everyone wears these gauzy white pants, shirts, or swimwear if they desire. He doesn’t allow any of his guests to witness his business dealings, but when he isn’t working, he mingles with his guests and enjoys himself.
“Harper’s cover was that of an heiress escaping a bad marriage. She might still be playing that role. She’s a beautiful blonde and an expert at manipulating men. She’s the least of my worries. Nguyêt is gorgeous and went undercover as a party-girl Harold picked up in his travels. Like I said, she’s a natural. Harold’s cover as the son of a US tech firm CEO was never meant for long scrutiny. If his cover fails, he could jeopardize Nguyêt.”
Ben held her eyes with his trying to see if her confidence was just more wishful thinking.
“Right now, you are a perfect fit for someone who might want to stay on his yacht for an escape from the media. If he invites you, you can tell him you wouldn’t mind checking it out,” Stephanie insisted.
They finished up their walk by entering the building once more. They wandered through the halls and entered the casino. Ben frowned at the din of the slot machines.
“It’s hard to hear yourself think in here!” he growled.
“This isn’t where we want to be anyway. Let’s walk over to where we can find the card games,” Steph said with her big smile back on her face.
Ben began to catch the attention of some of the patrons. He did his best to remain calm and patiently allowed the excited guests to get their photos standing with him.
Between these bursts of noise, Steph gave Ben a refresher on the games the seated people were playing. He recalled some of the rules she mentioned, but it had been so long that he began to doubt he could pull this off.
“Ben Shepherd!”
He turned to look at the man who called out his name and felt Russo’s hand tighten on his arm as she also turned to see him. That was his first clue.
Kaan Sadik was wearing a silver suit jacket, an open-collared white dress shirt with thick gold chains on display against his chest, tight red leather pants, and white alligator boots. He made it look like a uniform of sorts. The man was muscular and vital and wore his shoulder-length black hair brushed back. The only signs of his age were the silver patches at his temples and in his closely trimmed beard.