Julian rolled his eyes at the pretentiousness of the organization. The ASF was far from being on the same caliber as the elite special operative organizations of some of the world’s greatest militaries.
Iregi Kamau, Chief Special Agent in Charge, sat at the table. A phone glued to his ear as he nodded absently, he scribbled on a notepad. Julian turned to see the door closing behind him. Once again, he’d be one on one with Reggie, and he didn’t expect the conversation to be amicable.
Play nice.
Focus on what was important—bringing Mena home safely. He couldn’t let the past interfere with his present goal.
Reggie ended his call, then rested the phone on the table. He focused on Julian, not bothering to hide his distrust. “What are you doing here? Where is Sunny?”
“I’m leading the field team assisting ASF on behalf of the Irungu Family,” Julian said, walking over to the table. He eased a chair from underneath, sliding it against the expensive carpet, then sat down.
“I’m not working with you. Tell Sunny to get down here now.” Reggie turned his back to Julian and begin to shuffle through file folders haphazardly strewn on one of the shelves.
Julian took a deep breath. “Timothy Irungu insisted that Sunny stay with him to oversee the Irungu Security Team while the kidnapping is being investigated. He placed me in charge of his field team.”
Reggie turned back to face Julian. “You should return to the Irungu mansion. I will keep Tim apprised of our efforts to rescue his daughter.”
“Why are we wasting time here?” Julian asked as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “We both know you’re stuck with me. The faster we can find Wangari and the other hostages and rescue them, the faster we can get the hell out of each other’s lives.”
Swiveling around in the chair, Reggie folded his arms across his chest and leaned back. “I’m surprised Tim picked you.”
Julian scoffed. “You know better than anybody that I’m the best at finding people others don’t want to be found. I found you when al-Harakat ambushed your team in Somalia, didn’t I?”
A steely coldness infected Reggie’s gaze as he stiffened in his chair. Julian hadn’t wanted to play that card, but he needed to level the playing field and force Reggie to work with him.
“What has the Irungu security team told you so far?” Reggie asked.
Julian recounted the results of the preliminary assessment. “Ultimately, the ransom request will indicate which is the more likely scenario. If the request is for money, the family is liquidating assets as we speak. Fifty million will be available in unmarked bills within the next hour. If the request is for something … different, we’ll have to assess the plan of action at that time. Is any of this different from what your team determined?”
Reggie shook his head. “We agree, but we don’t think the kidnapping is politically motivated. Taking extra hostages is the calling card of al-Harakat and other rebel groups in Kenya. More hostages mean more families to demand ransom money from.”
“Al-Harakat meticulously researches the people they intend to target. Neither of the other two targets has families that could pay what the jihadist group would demand for their release,” Julian countered. “What evidence did your team find at the location of the attack? I need to review all your reports.”
Reggie raised an eyebrow.
“Mr. Irungu expects me and the field team to participate in the investigation with the ASF. It’s up to you if you’re going to comply or not. But I doubt he’d be pleased to hear that cooperation was being withheld from the representative you agreed to allow to be part of the case,” Julian said.
Reggie inhaled sharply. “You are enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Julian leaned back in his chair. Under different circumstances, ruffling Reggie’s feathers would be fun for him, but not now. Not when Mena’s life hung in the balance. Any delay, any restriction on his ability to help or review evidence could hinder the rescue efforts.
Julian didn’t trust Reggie or his team to locate and rescue the hostages without help from the TIDES team. Since their creation over a decade ago, the ASF had made improvements, but they still weren’t an elite operative group. Prone to mistakes, they had an embarrassing failure rate.
“When lives are at stake, there’s nothing to enjoy. I’m here to help you find Wangari and the other hostages. I mean that,” Julian said, and he did. Mena’s safe return was directly related to Wangari’s rescue. He would do whatever it took to make that happen, even playing nice with Reggie Kamau.
Reggie opened a drawer at the end of the table and extracted a single folder. Sliding it across the table toward Julian, he said, “We’ve determined a loose timeline of events and potential suspects. I think you’ll find there may be holes in the Irungu security team’s assessment.”
Flipping through the folder, Julian skimmed the contents. Looking for anything to help him determine where Mena was being held, he stared at a note on the report.
Julian looked up at Reggie. “You think a member of the Irungu Family could have orchestrated all of this?”
“If Wangari Irungu is killed, the family’s fortune will be divided among dozens of siblings and cousins, any of whom also have incentive to get rid of the child no one expected the Irungu’s to have, given their age when she was born,” Reggie said.
Julian considered the information but thought it was less likely since Wangari’s parents were still alive. If their only child died, they could easily change their will and allow their fortune to be managed by a trust or donate it all to a not-for-profit organization. There would be no guarantee that anyone in the family would become the beneficiaries.
“What about the flower delivery? Any idea who sent them or who they were sent to?” Julian asked, noticing the scrutiny placed on the crushed coral peonies found on the floor of the Conservators Room within the report.
“Not yet, but the team is working on it. We did identify something curious about the peonies, which our lab technicians are analyzing. A strange scent, unlike what you’d expect from flowers,” Reggie explained.
