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The phone went dead.
11
Ryker and Kostya went back to the other room and the first thing that Ryker noticed was that Leila was not sitting in the chair in the corner, she was actually standing in front of the window where Kostya had been standing before.
“I have some information,” she said abruptly.
“Let’s hear it,” Gideon said.
“When I was talking to Yara—that was the name of the tortured woman at the autobody shop—she told me what she had told those other bastards.”
Ryker felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise.
“What did she tell you?” Kostya asked.
“The owners of the autobody shop are Mehmet and Hamza Polat. They’ve been missing for the last week, which wasn’t abnormal. Usually, that meant that they were either buying or selling a shipment of weapons. But this was the first time that they had asked for her sister’s help. She was supposed to be doing some babysitting, cooking, and cleaning, but she was worried because for the last two days she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her sister.”
“These Kraken people didn’t believe her. They wanted to know where the brother’s hideout was, and when the last time she’d heard from them. All she could tell them was about her sister, and that they usually did their arms deals on a farm outside of Mirzabey. They especially wanted to know what kind of crop, but she didn’t have any idea. They’d hoped that her husband, who had been forced to watch, would have known, but he didn’t either. When she couldn’t tell them anything more that’s when the torture began. When neither of them could tell them anything more, that’s when they shot her husband and stabbed her.
“It wasn’t until they left that it occurred to her that maybe another one of the Polat brothers might know something, and his name was Ayaz. Normally they had nothing to do with him, and he stayed out of all of the illegal operations of their family. But he might know the crop from the farm that they used.”
“That’s brilliant work, Leila,” Gideon enthused. “How do you spell Ayaz?”
Leila told him.
“Okay, I’ll start working on tracking him down,” Gideon said. “In the meantime, let’s press our friends in the CIA and see what kind of information they have on arms deals going on in Turkey, and specifically if any of the deals are going down on a farm.”
“That’s a task for Commander Clark,” Kostya chimed in. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Where is our CIA guy? Don’t tell me he’s still meeting with the energy company,” Ryker asked the room in general.
“He came back about forty-five minutes after you guys left. Gideon made him go to his room,” Jase damn near snickered.
“How did he behave without Jase?” Ryker asked Mateo and Jonas.
“He floundered,” Jonas said. “The executives were not impressed. After dinner, the CEO asked Mateo to call the hotel to check up on Jase. When Mateo reported back that Jase would be able to return in the morning, they decided to call an end to the meeting.”
Ryker turned to Gideon. “So then you sent the actor to his room for being a poor performer?”
“Something like that,” Gideon admitted. “That idiot gets on my last nerve.”
“Everybody to their respective rooms for a little bit of rest. As soon as we get any information on Ayaz Polat or the farm in Mirzabey, I’ll call for you.”
“Are you sending us out tonight, since all we did was guard duty today?” Jonas asked.
“Yep.” Kostya nodded.
“And—” Jase started.
“Don’t even think about Drakos. You’re our petroleum expert, no fun field stuff for you this go-around.”
“Dammit, I should have kept my mouth shut,” he whined.
Ryker knew he was full of shit. Jase knew how important his role was. He just liked to occasionally bitch and complain.
“I’ll head back to my grandparents’ place,” Leila said. “You can call me and I’ll be back here in less than twenty minutes,” she assured everybody.
“I’ve already booked you a room here, Ms. Cloud,” Gideon smiled at her. “Nolan, why don’t you drive her over to her grandparent’s house so she can pack a bag, and then both of you can get back here and get some rest before we take off again.”
