AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe you didn’t hear me, Mr.Kendal.”
The blast of three consecutive gunshots filled the room, plastic from the bullet-riddled monitor ricocheting off the hand-carved book cases to pepper the marble floor beneath his feet. Grant walked over to the desk and picked the bastard up from the floor, shoving him into the leather chair before he put a bullet in his left kneecap, the right one already blown to smithereens. “Call meLieutenant.”
Twenty-Three
This asshole may have thoughthe knew who he was dealing with, but he’d pissed off the wrong damn assassin. Not a single tremor was evident in Grant’s outstretched hand as he held the gun to the loser’s head. The calm, smug expression on his face had shifted a bit. If Grant was a betting man, he’d call odds that he’d pissed his sarong. It was actually refreshing to watch as shock gave way to understanding and reality finally set in, the first hint of alarm blooming in his eyes as he realized who he was dealing with.That’s right you piece of human garbage. You’re going to dietoday.
“Until I see her with my own eyes I’m under the impression that I hold the only important card in this game you’re playing. You got that? She dies, no drive. She doesn’t walk away under her own volition, no drive.” He took a slight step in the asshole’s direction, taking aim at his throat. “One shot and I sever your head from your spine. Make the call,Mr…?”
“Hinjal.”
“Mr. Hinjal.” Grant nodded and pulled the phone to the edge of the desk and punched the speaker button, the sound of a dial tone filling the room. “Make the call to Jauhar. Explain your new circumstances and arrange for transport or I kill you where you stand and find hermyself.”
He watched the dead man dial the number, under no misconception he was gambling with Thalia’s life. These bastards had her. If they hadn’t already killed her they would. The only way to win was to not play their game. He was playing his own game now. Hisrules.
After a series of beeps connected the call, a voice Grant recognized immediately resonated over the line with a curt greeting.DonLalia.
“Jauhar…please.” Hinjal’s pleading voice quaked, his eyes darting nervously between Grant and the phone. So Don Lalia was Jauhar’s new bitch.Grant masked his reaction to the revelation, careful not to reveal that he knew exactly who had answered the call. Considering what Thalia had told him, he wasn’t surprised to confirm his suspicions that they were workingtogether.
“Did you killhim?”
Grant pushed the muzzle of the gun deeper into Hinjal’s jugular and kicked his dangling lower leg with the toe of his boot. Hinjal swallowed back a scream, his bloody hands grasping the edge of the desk for purchase. “Jauhar! Ahh, dammit! Get Jauhar on the bloodyphone!”
A few moments passed, only the melodic sounds of Hinjal’s pain-filled breaths hissing through his clenched teeth filling the room before Jauhar’s voice came over the openline.
“Good evening, Lieutenant. I trust you have made yourself at home. How do you American’s say it? Mi casa, es sucasa?”
“That’s Spanish you dumbfuck.”
“You knew?” Hinjal growled into the phone. “You fucking knew who he was and you set meup!”
Jauhar chuckled. “You are not the only one cleaning up loose ends, Hinjal.” The connection grew eerily silent, his tone reflecting no such humor when he continued. “You have failed me for the last time, my friend. I have no further need of your services. Oh, and thank you, Lieutenant, for returning my property to me. You have been quite useful. I am very grateful for the opportunity to reacquaint myself withher.”
Grant lunged for the phone when he heard the click, Jauhar disconnecting the call.No!He pushed Hinjal from behind the desk, dumping the worthless pile of garbage onto the floor. He picked up the receiver and punched in Diver’s number, what seemed like a lifetime screaming by as he waited for a secure connection to go through. “Come on, come on,comeon! Pick the fuckup!”
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve got sixteen different kinds of hot shit piling up here. Fuck me six ways to Sundayif—”
“You’ve got fifteen seconds to run a trace on the last number called from this phone or you won’t have a dick to fuck with come Sunday.” Grant pulled drawer after drawer from the desk as he barked orders at Diver, dumping the contents of each one until he found the gun he knew Hinjal had been counting on using. “I want an eye in the sky and real time updates on that location sent to this number.” He walked over to Hinjal, pulling a cellphone from his front pocket and flipping it on to give Diver thenumber.
“I can’t get clearance for a UAV, boss. This is off the books,remember?”
“Isn’t everything we do off the damn books?”Shit!“Contact Deputy Director Keller and get him to authorize it. And make it happen yesterday,Diver!”
“We’ve got a lock on the girl, if that’s what this isabout.”
Grant’s spine stiffened, his fingers tightening around the receiver until the plastic cracked. “What? Where? Why the hell didn’t you say you hadher?”
“As I said. I’ve been waiting on you to check in.” Grant pulled the receiver from his ear and looked at it, his blood pressure rising to critical levels. He wished desperately that he could reach through the damn phone and squeeze the idiot’s throat until his eyes bled. “I’ve got it. The call was routed by a cellular tower thirteen miles southwest of your location near downtown Mumbai. Give me two more seconds and I’ll tap theGPS.”
“The girl, dammit! What’s her location and how the hell did you find her?” Grant pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to take a deepbreath.
“The redhead. The clothes she gave the girl had a tracking device sewn in. Director Keller is already on the ground in Navi. No visual confirmation, but his whole team is about to movein.”
Navi? That’s almost forty kilometers from Mumbai.Grant turned and stared at what was left of the video monitor, his mind racing to pick apart the details of what he’d seen. The bastard on the screen had removed her clothes. Shredded them. If he hadn’t killed her, Jauhar wouldn’t leave her there. So why the hell were heandDon Lalia forty kilometers away in Mumbai?What kind of game are you playing?Had Thalia been moved to a different location? Or had they already killedher?
His fingers tightened around the receiver again, his other hand scrubbing over the rough stubble on his jaw.Christ!With the help of his Washington partners, Jauhar had been calling his every goddamn move. Would he have anticipated the call trace and was trying to lead him away from her? Or had they found the tracker in Thalia’s clothes, moved out, and left Keller’s team to walk blindly into an ambush? He could feel the seconds bleeding away as he tried to figure it out. If Thalia was still alive, they were seconds he knew she didn’thave.
“Warn the team it could be a setup and get me that location in Mumbai.” Grant couldn’t take the chance that he was missing something and have Keller’s team pull out. If she was still in Navi, he wanted her out yesterday. He’d cover the Mumbai location on his own until they could make a visualconfirmation.
