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“Got it.”

Ryker watched Leila. All she did was nod her head. “Makes sense to me.”

Ryker was rooming with Linc, so both of them went to their room and immediately bedded down and tried to get some shut-eye. Being able to go to sleep at the drop of a hat was one of the prerequisites to serving in the Special Forces because you never knew when you would get a chance to sleep again.

This was one of the few times his mind didn’t wander to Amy. Instead, he kept thinking about those two Turkish couples and what they had gone through in the autobody shop. He couldn’t imagine being a husband who had to watch his wife being tortured to death. He’d seen a lot of evil in his life, but that and taking the life of a child were the worst, and that was Kraken Elite. They had to be stopped.

Fuck that, they had to be obliterated.

Sleep!

Rest!

Ryker used a form of the relaxation technique that he knew most of his team used. He concentrated on relaxing his face—first his forehead, then his jaw, and even his tongue. He dropped his shoulders so that they sank into the bed, then he slowly inhaled and exhaled to relax his chest. He went down to his pelvis, ass, thighs, knees, and feet until even his toes were relaxed. He pictured the Pacific Ocean at sunset…

He didn’t open his eyes when he heard his phone alarm go off. He heard Linc moving, shutting off his phone.

Must be a group text.

“What is it?” Ryker asked.

“Time for a group huddle. Gideon’s got something.”

Ryker looked down at his watch. They now had twenty-six hours and eleven minutes before the Princeton boys would be killed. He and Linc picked up their gear and headed down the hall to the bigger suite that housed Kostya and Gideon. Mateo let them in.

Ryker left the door open and allowed Leila to walk in before him. Kostya was at the far end of the room against the window. Even though he had his leg propped up on the window sill with his hands loosely clasped in front of him, Ryker knew him well enough to know that he was actually rattled, which was unheard of.

“Here’s what we have,” Kostya started. “We don’t have the name of the crop, and there are too goddamn many farms in and around Mirzabey to go looking for them, we’d just be chasing our tails. However, Gideon has a lead on the brother. Ayaz Polat is an accountant who works in Batman, but he’s been on vacation for the last three weeks. Imagine that. Gideon, you have the floor.”

Gideon stood up from the desk where he had been sitting. “We need to get to this guy fast. I know the woman at the autobody shop said she didn’t say anything about him, but we can’t rule out the fact that Kraken won’t find him. He’s due back in the office tomorrow morning for a meeting with a client. He’s been vacationing with his wife and two kids in Patara. They’ll be flying into Batman at about the same time that the meeting with RTP Enerji starts. We’re going to need at least three people meeting them at the airport. Then we’re going to need to figure out a way for Jase to get us the information from Damla Akbas’s meeting minutes. We’re going to have to count on the CIA transmitter.”

“I can get it done,” Jase said.

“I checked out the bathroom yesterday,” Linc said. “If Jase gave you a brief from there, he should be okay.”

“It would be better if someone could distract the guard,” Jase said.

“You’re not going to need me with the Polat family, they’ll all speak English. Is there any way you could bring me to the RTP meetings?” Leila asked.

Jase looked at her consideringly. “Why?”

“I could distract the guard at the bathroom.”

“How?”

“Guards are easy. All I have to do is discuss the latest club in Batman, and he’ll talk to me. Trust me.”

Jase looked over at Kostya who shrugged his shoulders. “Is there a way that you can think of that you can get Leila to be part of the American delegation?” Kostya asked Jase.

“Dermott is the weak link, they all see it. If I say he needs even more help for something, everyone would believe it. The problem is, what would I say she would be bringing to the table?” Jase asked the room in general.

“What is it you’re meeting on?” Leila asked.

“Our CIA guy is posing as the Deputy Minister of Energy who is meeting with the CEO of RTP Enerji to discuss America doing business with them. I’m in this because I do know something about energy and petroleum. What do you think you could do?” Jase asked Leila.

She tilted her head to the side, her brown hair rippling down her shoulder. “Besides acting as a translator, my studies are archeology and geology. Maybe we could use the geology side and explain that America is still interested in coal production and wants to know what RTP is doing along those lines, not for export but rather to see if they have any new methods for extraction?”

“Hold on. Let me see if coal is part of their portfolio,” Gideon said.