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It wasn’t an observation that demanded a response but Rapp waited anyway.
“The rumor is true,” Gadai said finally.
“Then let me ask you a question, Kabir. Do you think anything I’ve said to you tonight is a lie?”
“No.”
Rapp was in a virtually impossible situation even if Gadai started talking. They were scheduled to land only an hour before the start of Chutani’s state dinner and he had no idea how he was even going to -access the heavily guarded palace, let alone deal with Taj.
“I’ve spent most of my adult life in the Middle East, Kabir, so I know how people like you think. You sit in your fundamentalist echo chamber and talk about creating a thousand-year dynasty. About how God loves you best and how He’s going to help you turn the world into some half-assed caliphate. But you graduated near the top of your class with a degree in history, right? So you know that Pakistan has a hard time going a week without a coup. If Taj takes over, how long is it going to be before the military figures out a way to get rid of him? Hell, how long is it going to be before he pisses off our president so bad that he sends me over to deal with the situation? It’s a pipe dream, Kabir. The whole world will line up against you like they did against Hitler. And Pakistan’s not Nazi Germany. It’s a mess of kooks and semiliterate fanatics who’d just as soon shoot each other as shoot us.”
“You want me to betray Taj.”
Rapp shrugged. “It’s what he plans to do to you.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve been with him since I was a child. We’re from the same family.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe blood is thicker than water. But from what I heard, his last assistant ended up rotting on a trash heap.”
Kennedy had warned that the intel about Taj’s involvement in that death was little more than hearsay, but the flicker in Gadai’s mask suggested he’d heard the same story.
“Rickman’s files are the key to Taj’s power and you’ve seen them. You have the encryption key.”
“He knows I’m loyal to him. That I would die for him.”
“Correction: He’s pretty sure you’re loyal to him and probably no better than fifty-fifty on whether you’d die for him. Put yourself in his place, Kabir. Would you take that chance?”
Gadai didn’t respond.
“If you just let go of this world domination crap and take a clear-eyed look at your situation, you’ll see that Taj is going to kill you. You don’t owe him anything. He sent you to Russia with my team closing in. What do you want to bet that he would have taken a more cautious approach if it had been his neck on the line instead of yours? You’re sitting here because of him.”
“If I agree to cooperate, what becomes of me?”
Normally, it was the question Rapp would be waiting for—an indication that Gadai was willing to deal. In this case, though, it was a dangerous crossroad. Did he lie and risk that Gadai would pick up on it or tell the truth and risk Gadai not being able to handle it? In the end, he decided the latter path posed the least risk.
“There is no you, Kabir. Chutani’s going to want to get his hands on you something awful and we have no legal authority to keep you.”
“Tell him I’m dead.”
“He’s not stupid. He’s going to want a body.”
“So you’re offering me a bullet to the back of the head?”
“I’ll leave the method to you, but that’s the long and short of it. All I’m selling is the safety of your family.
”
“And I’m to believe that you can guarantee this?”
“If I save Chutani’s life, he’s going to owe me. I’ll call in that marker for your family. He won’t have a problem with that. Your wife isn’t the type to be involved in something like this and your kids are too young. He’s not going to cross me over some vague suspicions and a piece of pointless revenge.”
“Why would I trust you?”
Rapp slid the OxyContin across the table and this time the man accepted. “You’ve read everything the ISI has on me, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know what I’m capable of. But you also know that I’m a man of my word.”
