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Ryker smiled at the odd verbiage but appreciated the sentiment. “Thank you,” he nodded to the valet. Then he pulled Jase’s arm around his shoulder and walked through the lobby up to the sixth floor where their rooms were. Jase continued to lean on him all the way to their room. He didn’t stand up straight until they were inside and the door was closed.

Four sets of eyes stared at the two of them. “What gives?” Kostya demanded to know. Ryker knew that Mateo and Jonas had already headed toward the corporate offices. Jase took center stage in the hotel suite, while Ryker leaned against the room door, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Is this our interpreter?” Jase asked Kostya as he nodded at the lanky brunette who was sitting in the corner of the room.

“Leila Cloud is living with her grandparents here in Batman and working as an interpreter while going to school,” Kostya said by way of introduction. He gave a brief pause in case she wanted to add anything, but she kept her mouth shut, so he continued. “Her father works for the FBI back in the states, so this isn’t the first time she’s worked with the military.”

Leila gave everybody in the room a chin lift, then crossed her legs and sat back further in her chair.

“Okay, Jase, tell us what you have,” Kostya ordered.

“Damla Akbas is the shit. You heard, I wasn’t allowed to take the briefing back with me, but embedded in the English translation of the briefing, she laid out, in pretty specific detail, who the kidnappers are and where they’re probably hiding, or at least where they are normally headquartered. She also gave us a rundown of all their associates. It was a goldmine of information.”

“Shit, and you couldn’t take it with you?” Gideon sounded like he’d just been told Santa Claus wasn’t real.

Kostya chuckled. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with, Gideon. I’ve seen Drakos’ test scores, and he even beats you out on the stuff that requires straight memorization.” Kostya walked away from the window where he had been leaning against the sill, and picked up a notepad from the desk, and handed it to Jase. “Do you need to write it down, or can you just throw it all up verbally?”

“It’d be easiest if I typed into Gideon’s tablet before I lost anything, then read it out to y’all. Ryker can fill you in on the rest, especially his takes on Dermott Carlisle and Damla Akbas.” Gideon, whose tablet was practically surgically attached to his flesh, put the device down on the desk for Jase to start inputting his notes.

“I’m worried that Carlisle could be a problem if left alone,” Ryker started. “But the CEO realizes that he doesn’t have a lot to offer without Jase. I think he’ll shut down the meeting after dinner tonight, and pick it up tomorrow morning when Jase is doing better.”

“So it’s just that he doesn’t know about petroleum?” Gideon asked.

“No, he’s trying to come off like he knows shit. He is asking questions that make him look more stupid. After Jase is done, I want to know if Carlisle will be stupid enough to ask questions about the embedded information Akbas-Bey inserted, thinking it is about RTP Enerji, instead of the kidnapping.”

“He is. He totally is that stupid,” Jase said without looking up from where he was typing.

“Fuck,” Kostya snarled.

“There is one silver lining,” Ryker said before Kostya could really work up a head of steam.

“What’s that?”

“When we left, Akbas-Bey was being a mousy secretary and getting everybody to move along to dinner. Then she made it a point to say that she would type up any necessary notes for Jase so he would have them for tomorrow. That tells me she’s going to provide us with even more information. But she was also guiding her boss toward ending the meeting early, and he was going for it. She might seem all timid, but my guess is, she rules that office.”

“Yay for our side.”

“I’m done,” Jase called out.

“Whatcha got?” Kostya asked.

Jase turned around to face Ryker, Kostya, Gideon, Landon, and Nolan.

“Should I wait for Linc?” Jase asked.

Kostya lowered his eyebrow, and Jase cleared his throat and began talking. “We’re not talking terrorists who have the three men, nor has it been sanctioned by the Turkish mafia, but according to Akbas-Bey’s information, it was perpetrated by members of the Turkish mafia who’ve gone off the rails. Apparently, we’re not the only ones looking for these kids. But if the Turkish mafia finds them first, they’ll kill the kids and the mafia members who weren’t sanctioned.”

Ryker looked around at the others. Everybody looked like they’d just entered an elevator where someone had farted. Even Leila was leaning forward in her chair. Yep, this was not good news.

“What else?” Kostya asked.

“She doesn’t have it confirmed, but the rumor is that the rogue mafia members are brothers of a mafia leader with the initials KP.”

“She put all that in the briefing? Straight up like that?” Ryker asked.

“No, she was a little more oblique, but her references were clear. You could tell that she has been speaking and writing English for at least a decade. For example, she said that ‘normal expected cells not an issue, instead rogue members from Turkish godfathers.’”

“Yep, that would definitely tell us it wasn’t terrorist cells, and that we were dealing with rogue members of the Turkish mafia, all right,” Kostya said. “What else? Also, are you figuring out who KP is, Gideon?”