Page 54 of Her Defiant Warrior

Jonas was their guy who was always able to ‘find a guy.’ This assignment had been no exception. Besides putting in an order for top-of-the-line weapons, Jonas had also asked if his contact had other Americans recently purchasing automatic rifles, sniper rifles and pistols. Unfortunately, his contact wasn’t willing to cough up any information that might lead them to the Kraken, but Jonas’s contact did mention that there had been a big black market purchase by Danmey Properties. Two weeks ago, the weapons dealer had been asked to deliver one hundred and fifty kilos of C-4 to International City, which is where Danmey’s labor camp was located. Jonas put in his order for the weapons their team would need and immediately came back and told the Omega Sky team about the big purchase of explosives.

Kostya had then tasked Gideon and Ryker McQueen to track down the C-4, which led them to the Danmey’s construction labor camp in International City. In the last four days, Ryker McQueen had become one of the bosses of the labor camps, and Gideon was posing as one of the day laborers.

“I’ve got the footage,” Gideon said, interrupting Jase’s ruminations. “Where do you want me to start this?” he asked Kostya.

“Skip the introductions and start at the part where the Director of the CIA was explaining to Captain Hale what he had discovered and what he wanted us to do.”

It took a moment, but soon the hotel’s large flat screen television was filled with Director Howard of the CIA and their captain, Josiah Hale. It wasn’t obvious to the casual observer how pissed the Director was, but if you were looking for it, you could tell he was furious.

“One of the members of my support team hired the Kraken Elite to take out the US Consular General and her top aids in Dubai,” the director began. “In order to divert suspicion of this hit, this little pissant paid the Kraken to also take out the British Embassy in Dubai as well. They were supposed to get this done within thirty days of being hired. Now we have nineteen days left, so it could happen today or nineteen days from now.” The director continued. “Normally I would just have the US Consulate and the British Embassy shut down, but there’s going to be members of the United Nations coming to Dubai this month and our consulate needs to remain open.”

“And the British Embassy?” Captain Hale asked.

“Same situation. They can’t postpone the UN visit. We have brought in Britain’s MI6. Both buildings have doubled their security. Our Marines and the UK Royal Marines have both been put on notice. We’re not sure how many men the Kraken have now. We know they have been actively recruiting since the death of Frank Sykes. It is my understanding that they are now recruiting internationally.”

“Who’s in charge now?” Ryker McQueen asked. Ryker was the man who had killed Frank Sykes, the previous leader of the Kraken.

“We know Ely Roberts is now the leader and Ephram Brady is now his lieutenant. According to the man we have in custody, all of his communication was through Ephram. Our sources are telling us that there is now another lieutenant out of Australia. That’s all we know at the moment.”

“So, you don’t know how many men on the Kraken team might be trying to take down the embassies?” Kostya asked.

“No. But I know our guy put out a fifteen-million-dollar contract. Half up front. That should have paid for a lot of personnel.”

“How did he get his hands on so much money?” the captain asked the director.

“That’s part of the reason he wants the US Consular General dead. She was close to finding out what he was doing. His scam was that he was hired by Dubai developers to find out what developers in Qatar were working on. Then the Dubai developers would hire their entire teams—architects, construction project managers, engineers—right out from under the Qatar government, putting Qatar months and sometimes years behind.”

“Are you talking hotels and shit?” Ryker asked.

The director nodded.

“Government?” Kostya asked. “I thought you said developers?”

“Almost every project developed in both Dubai and Qatar is totally or partially funded by their governments. There is a lot of competition to be a go-to travel destination in the Middle East.”

“So, why did you call us in?” Kostya asked.

“I need you to track down Kraken and put a stop to them.”

“Why?” Captain Hale asked. “Can’t your man just contact them and say the mission is off?”

“The Kraken have gone dark. My former employee has tried contacting them every which way he knows how, and they haven’t answered in the last thirty-eight hours. Trust me, he knows it’s in his best interest to get ahold of either Ely or Ephram. Because if they succeed in their mission, my former agent is going to get the death penalty. Our people and the Brits in Dubai are sure they’re protected, but they don’t know the Kraken, your team does. I want you to stop them before they go through with their plan.

“In the meantime, we have our assets in Dubai. They will also look for Kraken.” The director was looking directly at Kostya. “They will not approach them. They will provide any and all information that they find to your team, Lieutenant Barona.”

Captain Hale turned to look at the Omega Sky team. “Men, you have a half hour to board a plane to Dubai. You will not be able to go in armed.”

“We have an asset in Dubai who will be able to provide you with weapons,” the director assured Kostya.

The screen went blank for a moment, then once again Jase saw Kostya and his team on one square and Gideon on another.

“So, what’s bothering you, Kostya?” Gideon asked. “Besides the fact that the CIA asset never came through with the weapons?”

“We know better than to depend on anybody but ourselves,” Kostya said grimly. “What I’m wondering about is why would Ephram and the rest of his team go dark? Why wouldn’t he keep in contact with his client when he knows the guy is CIA? He should be using him for information.”

“One reason I can think of,” Jase said. “One, he’s worried that this guy is compromised.”

“There’s a second option,” Tanner Robb spoke up. “They could have taken another job, and they don’t care about missing out on the other seven and a half million.”