AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A quick return to Pakistan would be the most obvious course of action, but he had been serving Taj for too long to think that was a viable option. If he arrived without the Rickman files, it would be the beginning of his own destruction. Not immediately, of course. Taj was too subtle for that. But within the year, he would find himself accused of treason or assassinated by one of the Taliban loyal to Taj.
If Accorso didn’t appear in the next twenty minutes, it seemed almost certain that she had contacted the Italian authorities. Gadai would have no choice but to run. He would never be able to return to his country. He would never see his sons again. His life would become nothing more than an endless procession of days consumed with trying to stay ahead of Taj’s assassins.
His Bluetooth earpiece buzzed and he pressed the button to pick up the call.
“Go ahead.”
“She’s entered the lobby.”
“Any sign of the police?”
“None.”
Gadai let out a relieved breath and walked across the room to the door. There was no denying that as great as the risks were, the rewards were equally great: a position second only to Taj at the helm of the modern era’s first Muslim superpower. He would have a hand in spreading Islam across the globe in a way that had never before been imagined. All while the Americans cowered.
Gadai peered through the peephole, looking across the hallway at room 200. It would be over soon, he reassured himself. Taj had once again been right. While terrifying and unpredictable, he was a great man favored by God.
“She’s exiting the stairway,” the voice said over his earpiece. “Twenty seconds. No other activity.”
Accorso appeared a few moments later with an envelope under her arm. He watched her from behind as she knocked timidly on the door of the empty room.
“Still clear?” he asked.
His men were monitoring the parking lot, the lobby, and all points of entry to the second floor.
“Yes, sir.”
Gadai opened the door. “Isabella.”
She spun, fear and surprise playing out across her face.
“Come in,” he said, keeping his words purposely vague. If she was wearing a wire, the police would assume he was in room 200 instead of being across the hall.
The woman did as she was told and he closed the door behind her.
“Have you brought me what I asked for?”
She gave a short nod and held out the envelope.
Gadai sat at a desk that he’d moved away from the draped window and tore open the flap. He inserted the thumb drive he found into his laptop and began perusing the accompanying single page of paper while it loaded.
The written instructions were somewhat more complex than he’d expected. Files were individually designated and various scenarios were laid out, each with a different release schedule.
“You’re following the second scenario?” Gadai asked.
Accorso nodded, perspiration beginning to form on her upper lip. “We were informed that Akhtar Durrani died by an authenticated email. When we didn’t hear from the client, we released file D-six on the third of the month.”
He nodded noncommittally. It would have contained the information on the Russian mole in Istanbul. The next file to be released, designated R-12, was scheduled for Thursday. What revelations did it contain? The identity of a highly placed informant? A list of bribes to foreign officials? Evidence of wrongdoing by the CIA’s administration? It was impossible not to speculate.
“And by ‘released’ you mean you simply sent it to the email address in the instructions.”
“Yes.”
“Have you looked at the files?”
“They’re encrypted.”
“Do you know who the client is?”
