Shadow Tyrants

FORTY-FOUR

Juan chose three in the morning for their infiltration of the Colossus 5. It would be the time when the guards were at their most relaxed and vulnerable.

He was already halfway between the surface of the water and the ship’s deck. The angled bow was the part of the Colossus 5 that was most deeply in the shadows, but it also made the climb more difficult. One at a time, Juan methodically pressed the magnetic grips against the steel hull, their rubber coating preventing any noise as they adhered to the metal.

He looked down and could barely make out Raven and MacD below him. They were climbing effortlessly, their black and gray night camouflage gear making them difficult to see in the darkness. Even if someone looked over the railing, it was unlikely they’d be spotted.

“Status?” Juan whispered into his comm unit as he approached the top of the hull.

“Almost in position,” Eddie replied. “Two minutes.”

“Roger that.”

The plan was simple, but the execution would be risky. To get below deck and plant the bacteria Juan had in his pocket, he, Raven, and MacD would need something to distract the guards away from their position. An explosion or gunfire would make them realize they were under attack and just put them on full alert. They needed something more subtle but still attention-getting.

So Eddie and Linc were going to cut the power to the dockyard. The only problem was the backup generator located inside the security area next to Colossus 5. First, they had to plant a small charge that would short out the feed coming in from the Cyprus power grid. Then, once they disabled the generator, they would blow the charge, and the entire dock would go black.

The confusion would provide the cover and time Juan and his team needed to get into the hold and inject the bacteria that Julia had prepared. The video from the Colossus 3 gave them an idea of how the ship was laid out. If everything went well, they’d be back out and into the water without anyone knowing they’d even been aboard.

Raven and MacD reached the top next to him and held their position. There was no sound from the deck above.

“We’re ready,” he said.

“We see the generator,” Eddie answered. “One minute.”

Asad Torkan knew the best time to plant his bombs was at three in the morning, when the security guards would be at their most relaxed and vulnerable.

At first, he tried Carlton’s mountain villa, but he couldn’t find the cars that the media mogul would be transporting on his plane in the morning. The Bugatti had already been moved, and the Cadillac was nowhere to be seen.

Attaching the explosives at the airport in the morning, when the cars were being loaded, was impossible. They’d be watched too closely.

Then he’d had a hunch that Carlton was actually staying on the Colossus 5 and would want his cars close by. Sure enough, he spotted the trailer and knew it was the perfect opportunity to do his work.

He had two small devices packed with C-4. Each of them was equipped with a pressure sensor. As soon as the plane was pressurized for flight, the timers on the bombs would be activated. He thought twenty minutes was plenty of time for the Airbus A380 to reach cruising altitude. When the bombs went off and tore a hole in the fuselage, it would cause an explosive decompression, and the plane would be ripped apart in midair.

Unlocking the trailer had been easy for Torkan, and he’d already tucked the first bomb under the chassis of the Cadillac near the gas tank. The Bugatti proved more difficult because of its low clearance and the tight confines of the trailer, but he was able to get the explosive device in place and activated.

He switched his light off and paused at the trailer’s rear door to listen for any patrolling guards. There was nothing but the sound of a ship being loaded on a quay a quarter mile away. Still, he was prepared to fight his way out, this time with a Glock pistol equipped with a suppressor.

He pushed the door up slowly. The area around him was clear. He climbed out and relocked the door.

That’s when he noticed movement to his right by the shed holding the dock’s backup generator.

Two men were stealthily approaching the building. Both of them were in night camouflage and carrying suppressed pistols like he was.

One was a huge black man and the other was a wiry Asian. Torkan blinked in surprise when he recognized who they were.

It was the two men who had passed him and Mallik in the stairwell during the attack in Mumbai.

Why they were here, Torkan couldn’t guess, but he didn’t want to stick around to find out. He didn’t have time, however, to duck out of sight before the black man saw him. For a millisecond, they stared at each other in disbelief.

Then they both started shooting.