Page 9 of Her Fearless Warrior

But she was a lot more, and that was something Elijah would be counting on.

Katherine Cole was the C.E.O. of a company that bio-engineered soybeans, as well as working with emerging, (read: desperate), countries to produce nutrient-rich, easy-to-grow beans. Felix Ratcliff was supposedly representing the US department of foreign and affairs and trade. Elijah hadn’t filled her in on Felix’s background, but she’d bet her bottom dollar he was CIA. Leila’s father was in the FBI. She’d been around enough agency men to sniff one out.

Annie Trent was Katherine’s secretary, which was a goddamn shame. Talk about bringing a lamb to slaughter. Then there was Sam Phelps. At least he had a stint in the Marines twenty years ago, but he lost his leg. Not that anyone would really notice, but he was Robert Landry’s number two, and could end up being a liability.

“Leila, get a move on. Felix, give me that rifle.” Landry went to wrest it out of Felix’s hands.

Not a good move.

Felix stood up. He wasn’t as big as Landry. As a matter of fact, he was on the skinny side. He was pale and balding, with glasses. He looked like an accountant. But he had his suit jacket off now, and his sleeves rolled up. Leila couldn’t help but notice Felix’s muscled forearms. Any woman would. Landry didn’t. At least not until Felix easily pulled back the AK-47, not releasing it to Landry.

“I said give it to me.”

“You ever shot one of these?” Felix asked in a mild voice.

“No, but I’ve shot plenty of hunting rifles. This can’t be much different. Now give it over. I’ll get Elijah back, and we’ll get the hell out of here and report this shit at the American Embassy.”

“Robert, America doesn’t have an embassy here in Syria,” Leila told him.

“What in the hell are you talking about? Of course, they do,” he blustered. “The United States has an embassy in all countries.”

Leila pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose.

“No, they don’t. We oppose the al-Assad regime, so we don’t support him by having an embassy. That’s why we’re here having this meeting undercover. You know that, you were briefed.”

“I knew we were doing this secretly. We’re here to help Syria get back on its feet by providing businesses and food. No one explained we didn’t have an embassy.”

“Robert, it was explained to us in our meetings back in D.C.,” Katherine spoke up. “Elijah and the Secretary of State told us that we needed to do this undercover and we would do this without the formal backing of the United States. You agreed to this, just like I did. We wanted to help.”

“No, I wanted to make money,” Landry protested. “This is the first opportunity my company has in getting a foothold in Eastern Europe. The E.U. doesn’t want to do business with me, but al-Assad will.”

Leila gave Katherine the side-eye. Katherine opened her mouth to explain the situation again. “Save your breath, Katherine,” Felix said with a grimace. “You’re never going to convince him.”

Katherine sighed. “You’re right.”

“Now give me the rifle.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Leila stated. “With Elijah gone, I’m in charge, and we sure as hell aren’t going to go confront those bastards. We have no idea how many we’re dealing with, now do we?”

“No,” Landry admitted.

“If you and I were to go down there half-cocked, then they could just as easily come up here and start killing whomever we leave behind. Are you willing to risk that?”

“Well, what else do you suggest, little Miss I’m-in-Charge?”

“I’m going to call in our situation to the Captain of the USS Fielding, who is currently doing maneuvers off the coast of Syria, and explain our situation.”

“And then what?”

“We position ourselves at the entrance to the stairs and the elevators with the weapons we have and attempt to take someone alive so we can question them,” Felix answered.

Leila reached under her blazer, then pulled out a state-of-the-art cell phone from the waistband of her slacks. “This phone is secure,” she said to the crowd.

Captain Evers answered on the first ring.

“Leila. What’s your problem?”

“Captain, we’re in an empty government building in downtown Damascus. Either ISIS or Al Qaeda have us. They took Elijah for questioning. We don’t know the total count of the terrorists. At this point, we can only be sure of three. We have some weapons and a plan to defend ourselves, but unknown if we can escape.”