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“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.”

“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…