Page 83 of Her Fearless Warrior

“I like your source,” Leila grinned. “I see where you’re going with this.”

“I don’t.” Linc said.

“Neither do I,” said Jase.

“I forgot you worked as an analyst at the CIA.” Gideon smiled. “Solving puzzles was part of your job.”

Leila nodded. “But this is a lot of conjecture.”

“We’re definitely going to need to test our hypothesis. But it’s the only thing that sounds reasonable for why Vugar waited five months to make another go at you,” Gideon said.

She turned to Linc and Jase.

“Here is a possibility. It kind of makes sense, and I’ll have to go to Elijah’s friend in Syria, the source, to find out if it’s true or not.”

“Okay, but what is the possibility?” Linc asked.

“Suppose, besides promising to get people out of prison, this guy also knows how to put his hands on a nuke? It’s the only thing that makes sense, because Vugar went after Americans for this information. That’s big. That really puts a target on his back. Hell, Navy SEALs could get mad at him.” Leila smiled.

“There’s a flaw in your theory right from the start. This guy had to have contacted Vugar to tell him about the nuke, so Vugar doesn’t need to ask you for the contact info.” Linc sighed. He’d been hoping this would be the answer.

“Let me continue. This is where the right-hand man, the brother comes in. I’m thinking the Syrian went to the little brother. Little brother gets a buyer and takes some money. Vugar finds out and kills him.”

“Okay. That’s why Vugar doesn’t have the contact info and needs you. But sweetheart, here’s another fly in the ointment. Why wait for another five months to make a go at you?”

“I think the buyer shows up and is demanding his nuke. I’m thinking Vugar didn’t know his brother had basically sold a promise, and now Vugar is stuck holding the bag.”

Linc pinched his bottom lip. “You are taking a lot of leaps here.”

“You’re right, she is,” Kostya agreed. “Gideon, is this where you were headed?”

“Yep. Only I was thinking instead of little brother having sold the nuke, and Vugar has to cough it up. Because I don’t think any buyer would have waited that long. I’m thinking that somebody out there knew about the post on Vugar’s site, and is squeezing him to produce the nuke so he can buy it. Maybe someone bigger and badder than Vugar. Either way, he’s fucked.”

“We’ve got to find out if this guy has the nuke. Otherwise, this theory doesn’t hold water,” Kostya said. “What’s his name, and how do you get a hold of him?”

Leila looked over at Linc. He could see how conflicted she was, but he gave her a nod of reassurance.

“His name is Shaker Jassim. He works in al-Assad’s presidential palace. I have an encrypted email, where I can put in potential dates and times to meet. Then he’ll choose one and tell me where to meet on one of the times I had provided. Elijah must have told him to expect me, because he was worried about the op going south. I’m going to have to go in person.”

“You might not. Not if we can use you. I’ve got friends in the states who can break into almost any computer system. We should be able to at least find all mentions of Shaker Jassim and his friends, family and known associates. Once we have the data, it’ll be thrown into an AI translator, and we should be able to tell if he really has anyone who could get him information on a nuclear weapon.”

“God yes, do that,” Linc said. “Leila isn’t going over to Syria again.”

“If I need to go, I’ll go,” Leila stated as she turned on Linc. “I will finish what was started. Are we clear?”

“Fine. You’ll go with a bunch of friends of mine who’ll be taking some personal time off to visit Damascus with you.” Linc had found his happy, and she was named Leila, and he’d be damned if he would let anything happen to her.

22

“Leila and I are going for a walk,” Linc said as soon as he threw his and Leila’s plates into the dishwasher. None of the other three men looked surprised, only Leila did.

“Let me change shoes,” she said.

“You doing okay?” Jase asked as he moved to the kitchen and rinsed off his dinner plate as well.

“Nope. I don’t like it when international terrorists are focused on my woman.”

Jase put his hand on Linc’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll protect her, you know that.”